After putting their "beautiful" merino ewes on a truck, Allie Hill's husband sat her down to ask for ideas on how they could diversify.
"We were in a pretty awful drought in 2019," she said.
"I was on maternity leave, we had a six-month-old baby … we had no crops, we had no pasture, we'd fed for too long and couldn't afford to keep feeding."
Her love for growing roses was the first thing that came to mind, but the fragility of the flowers, distance from markets and freight issues meant that was out of the question.
"So I said, 'What about Geraldton wax'?" she said.
She figured the hearty Western Australian native, which loves sand, would grow perfectly in a plot at the back of their house.
It is now an "oasis" on their mixed farming property at Nindigully, in south-west Queensland, with 200 plants.
"We started with 100 plants first in 2019 and then they were a success, so in 2020, we doubled that to 200," she said.
"He [Allie's husband Nico] was like you need a business plan, you need to be able to show me the profits you're going to make and that was a little bit difficult."
Now her bunches of Geraldton wax sell out in less than an hour at their local supplier.
Kasey Lockwood of Handmade St George said people wait to get their hands on Ms Hill's flowers.
"Usually, there's a little bit of a stampede on a Saturday morning … I think people keep an eye for when Allie's car pulls up," she said.
"It's such a treat on a Saturday morning to go downtown, get a coffee, pick up market bunch of flowers.
"It's not something that you've been able to do in St George before so I think it's been embraced by the community because of that."
Ms Hill said she tried to keep flower prices "reasonable" so the local community could afford to enjoy the flowers.
"All we're missing is fresh sourdough and we'd be right," she said.
"I think what really pushed that flower market was COVID because during COVID nobody could see anyone so they all decided to start sending flowers to loved ones."
'Never-ending' hard work
It all looks very pretty on Instagram, but Ms Hill said there was always plenty of dirt under her fingernails.
"That's the side of farming that people don't see and don't understand … how much hard work goes in behind the scenes," she said.
She said the wax had to be picked, processed, the green leaf stripped, put into stem lengths, arranged, stored in the cool room, wrapped and taken into town.
"So it is a lot of behind the scenes and then there's a lot of watering, fertilising, mulching, weeding, it's never-ending," she said.
Ms Hill said it had made the family's already-busy life — with farming, young children and her work as a teacher — even busier.
"My mother-in-law helps out as much as she can with either processing the flowers or having the children," she said.
"It's lots and lots of early mornings before my children wake up, or the children just play around me, they're just used to it.
"I lose the odd flower with them and their snips, that's just life."
Local outlet for creatives
Handmade St George, a not-for-profit community group, was started to provide a platform for local artisans.
The bricks-and-mortar store, run by volunteers, has just celebrated 10 years.
"It's been amazing to watch Allie grow that [flower] business from the ground up from nothing to what it is today," Ms Lockwood said.
She said the Handmade St George store had been invaluable to other locals looking to sell their wares as well.
"We discovered that there were quite a few people selling their handmade goods online but we didn't know about it locally," she said.
"I think visitors to town love taking home a little piece of St George and supporting us that way."
Thinking about the next drought
With another potentially dry season around the corner, Ms Hill said the venture had turned out to be more of a hobby.
"It's not a huge money maker, we would not be able to survive off the wax alone," she said.
She has tried to expand, but other areas of family's property are not suitable and the plants are harder to grow than many people imagine.
"They die at the drop of a hat," Ms Hill said.
"They need really sandy soil and they need raised beds, they need water, and they just failed on the areas we did try on our farm.
"We really do rely on our crops and our sheep … for our main income here — and teaching, I'll never give up teaching."
With at least half of Australia's flowers imported, Ms Hill encouraged people to support local flowers.
"It is just so nice to know if you're buying an Australian-grown product," she said.