GROUNDED Live - 2025: David Pollock & Will Bignell - Farm Succession from Two Angles

In this episode of GROUNDED Live, we share another unedited session recorded at GROUNDED Festival 2025, on farm in Bridgetown, Western Australia.

When we think about farms, we often picture family operations passed carefully from one generation to the next — knowledge, land and stories carried forward over decades. It’s a powerful idea. But it also raises one of the most complex and emotionally charged questions in agriculture: succession.

In this session, we bring together two farmers from very different landscapes and life circumstances to explore what succession actually looks like in practice.

David Pollock farms some of the toughest country in Australia, in the rangelands north-east of Geraldton in Western Australia. Will Bignell runs a mixed cropping and grazing operation in Tasmania’s Central Highlands — a very different environment, with a very different set of pressures and possibilities.

Together, they talk honestly about succession from multiple angles:

•  What does it look like when you have children?
• What happens when you don’t?
• How do values, viability, land health and family dynamics intersect?
• And how do you plan for the future when there’s no single “right” pathway?

It’s a grounded, practical and deeply human conversation about continuity, change and responsibility — one that will resonate with anyone thinking about the long-term future of their farm.

Settle in and enjoy this session with Will Bignell and David Pollock on GROUNDED Live.

GROUNDED Festival is a cross between a food festival, a farming conference and a field day. It combines science and technology with ancient wisdom, provides a respectful place for lively discussion, an audience as interesting as the speakers and an excellent menu of local food, drinks and music, all on a beautiful, regeneratively-managed farm.

GROUNDED is also Australia's only annual, roaming food and farming festival, held in a different farm location every year, so each festival is a unique, unmissable event celebrating local expertise and culture with an inspiring line up of speakers.

In 2026, with the support of the local Upper Barwon and Central Otway Landcare Networks, following successful festivals in Tasmania and Western Australia, GROUNDED FESTIVAL will be held at leading regenerative farm, Yan Yan Gurt West, in the Victorian Otway Ranges, two hours from Melbourne in an area renowned for regenerative agroforestry, tourism, local hospitality and great food and wine.

Tickets are on sale now - head to the GROUNDED website for information on speakers, the location, and to secure your spot today.