BackTrack founder Bernie Shakeshaft said a new farm with a bull and about 100 head of cattle is going to be a place troubled children can go back to, forever.
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"You and I can probably go back home during Christmas time," Mr Shakeshaft said. "These kids don't have that."
The farm, located about 35 kilometres east of Armidale, has a three-bedroom house and sits on an escarpment of 242 hectares bordering the Oxley Rivers National Park. It was gifted to them from local Bill Fittler and Sydney-based Rob Keldoulis.
Mr Shakeshaft said he intends to build 10 single rooms, which would also give disadvantaged youth the opportunity to learn stock handling skills on the land.
"For the last seven or eight years, we have been training and teaching kids fencing, [how to use] chainsaws and chemical spraying and all sorts of stuff on other people's properties," Mr Shakeshaft said.
"And now we have our own to do it on."
Mr Shakeshaft said BackTrack is in conversations with stakeholders around the New England region to help establish similar programs.
In 2022, a BackTrack hub opened in Tenterfield.
"In Australia, where the best alternative we can come up with is to build more juvenile detention facilities," Mr Shakeshaft said.
"We've had over 1000 kids through, with nearly 90 per cent of them ending up in jobs, they're not going to jail, they're not ending up on Centrelink. They're breaking the cycles."
The farm adds to BackTrack's shed on the edge of Armidale, where skills such as welding and woodwork are taught.
They have a property that sleeps six, and four tiny houses located about 12 kilometres from the city.
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