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05/08/2025
Shiane Lea with her on-farm flour mill, imported from Austria
Considering the abundance of grain grown across Western Australia, farm fresh flour is a relatively new frontier in the food provenance story.
Yet for young, entrepreneurial Grass Patch couple, Shiane and Matt Lea, this niche industry is providing exciting business diversification – and home-made pizzas that don’t come any fresher.
Strength through diversification
The Leas are value adding grain grown on the family sheep and cropping operation near Esperance thanks to the development of a purpose-built on-farm milling room and a mill imported from Austria.
Last year they launched Sieda Milling, supplying genuine fresh flour – produced, harvested, milled and packaged entirely on the family farm, “Shalimah”, which the couple run alongside Shiane's parents, Michael and Trudi.
While the majority of grain grown each season is still sold traditionally, the Leas retained 40 tonnes of Calibre last harvest for milling, and hope to increase this volume as the fledgling business grows.
Shiane and Matt Lea
“Currently we supply wholegrain and sifted flour to local bakeries such as Esperance’s Bread Local, and to Lucky Bay Brewery for its pizza bases, although we’re starting to break into the Perth market, which is exciting and the feedback has been incredible.”
“Fresh flour has quite a nutty taste, it’s a flavour that’s really absorbed into baking and you can taste the difference – once you’ve experienced it, it’s very hard to go back to white flour.”
This season the family has included a soft wheat variety into its cropping program for an all-purpose flour offering, and Shiane has ambitions for gluten-free flour which would further leverage their lupin crop, although the logistics of getting lupins de-hulled for milling remains a challenge.
A recipe for success thanks to Rabo Farm Manager’s Program
It was Rabobank’s Farm Manager’s Program (FMP) in 2023 that piqued Shiane’s appetite for farm fresh flour, and she admits that prior to the program the couple had been content to continue the third generation family farm’s status quo.
“We were about to embark on a partnership in the farm with my parents, and thought the FMP would provide us with some useful business management tools – we’ve had friends highly recommend the program so knew it would be valuable, but we went in with no expectations.”
What they left with was an abundance of inspiration, knowledge and networks – as well as a comprehensive and exciting business plan Shiane wasted no time writing on the flight home.
“We felt so energised, and we couldn’t wait to explore the possibilities for our business,” she reflects. “Our light bulb moment came during the program listening to an earlier FMP participant who had diversified his farm business with a whiskey distillery, which got us brainstorming.
“A flour mill had never even crossed my mind, but the more we investigated it during the FMP and gained feedback, we realised it was an exciting fit for our business.”
Shiane with Rabobank’s Todd Charteris at her FMP Graduation
“The FMP provided us with some very useful practical business tools, yet the opportunity to immerse yourself in a network of like-minded and entrepreneurial farmers is invaluable, we wouldn’t be where we are without the FMP.”
Motivated to continually improve and upskill, Shiane also attended the 2023 Young Farmers Forum, and found the opportunity equally worthwhile.
“There was such a great range of attendees – from older farmers presenting their learnings, to farmers our age all looking for ways to strengthen their business,” she says.
“You learn so much when you get outside your bubble, meet new people and gain perspectives you may never have otherwise considered.”
Building a business for the future
With two young children, Flynn, nine and Alyna, five, Shiane and Matt are hoping this diversification can help strengthen the business for the future, helping support profitability as well as future succession planning.
Matt and Shiane with children Flynn and Alyna
“Mum and dad have been fully supportive, and this is a direction for the business that has real potential for our children.”
And it’s already paying dividends in the kitchen, with Shiane – a keen baker – utilising her nutritious, fresh flour in recipes with her children, and sharing their creations on social media.
“Our favourite is definitely home-made pizza bases, it’s become a tradition in our house, and the cinnamon scrolls are on high rotation also!”
“It’s hard to get your hands on fresh flour, so the fact we can cook with the kids using ingredients we’ve grown directly here on farm makes us all really proud, and we’re excited to share this with the rest of Australia.”
Rabobank supporting creative business ideas
With the development of their new venture a “team effort”, Shiane is also grateful to their Rabobank rural manager, Tom Campbell, out of the Esperance branch, and his support of their “out of the box thinking”.
“We have a terrific relationship with Tom, and he’s genuinely as excited for the future and direction of the business as we are.”
With the Leas previous long-term manager retiring in 2021, Shiane admits the family had some nerves taking on a new manager – yet these were immediately allayed upon meeting Tom.
“It was very obvious Tom had done so much homework before he even stepped onto our farm, he knew everything about our business, and our family, we didn’t have to start from scratch which made the transition so easy.”
The Lea family’s flour mill on-farm
The family is now looking to work with a spray-free rye seed producer in Cascade for an organic offering, and Shiane will continue climbing the steep learning curve of marketing their niche product.
“I had a fairly significant upskilling in milling and food permits, eased thanks to many hours of research and some very handy advice, yet the marketing has been more of a challenge, and something I’m still getting my head around.”
Yet with a quarter tonne of Sieda Milling flour sold monthly to customers across WA, and now the Eastern States, the appeal of farm fresh flour is growing.
“Consumers are becoming more curious as to where their food comes from, and we’re really excited to be providing the market with a product that is grown and processed here on a family farm right in the heart of the South East Coast of Western Australia.”
Sieda Milling flour can be purchased online with Australia-wide delivery, or from the Esperance Growers Market.