Matt Dunbabin says it is all about lining up his ducks. Only thing is, he's not a duck farmer.
Mr Dunbabin is a finalist in the 2015 Australian Farmer of the Year Diversification award, to be announced in Sydney this evening.
A fifth generation farmer from the 6,000 hectare property Bangor, on Tasmania's Forestier Peninsula, Mr Dunbabin and wife Vanessa produce wine, wool, a range of crops, along with beef and sheep.
More recently they have ventured into hospitality with their Bangor wine and oyster shed.
The metaphorical ducks Mr Dunbabin said are the properties natural assets.
Bangor's eastern boundary, a massive coastline, faces New Zealand.
The western edge of the property meets the waters of both Blackman Bay and Norfolk Bay, separated by a narrow isthmus at Dunalley.
The property also boasts a range of forests, conservation areas, native pasture, cropping land, water a small vineyard, an emerging local food culture and critically, frontage to the Tasman highway which connects tourists to Tasmania's most visited tourist site, the Port Arthur Historic Site.
"Farmers are an inventive lot," Mr Dunbabin said.
"I think you have to be to stay in the game, you've got to be good at what you do and always looking for an opportunity to improve the way you do things.
"It's the resource that we've got here being next to the highway, you've got a good climate for growing grapes, access to good advice, other people growing vines nearby, the passing tourist traffic, a secure water source.
"All the things we needed, the ducks were lined up.
"And a lot of producers look for where their ducks are lined up and go for it."
Mr Dunbabin said it was always their intention to sell their wine at a Bangor cellar door.
While they used to sell grape juice wholesale, it was not as economically viable, given the region's cooler climate and lower yields.
The wine and oyster shed was a natural fit with neighbours, friends, and oyster farmers Tom and Alice Gray.
"The products that we offer here, we anticipated and it's turned out to be the case, that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts," he said.
"So by being able to draw together two families, with two complementary products, really adds weight to what we can offer.
"As well as the practical side of stepping out from farming, where most jobs can wait until tomorrow, or a lot can... here it's pretty full on.
"Hospitality takes a lot of work and a lot of time so being able to share that load is important as well."
The region made national headlines in December 2013 when one of Tasmania's worst ever bushfires swept through, wiping out many homes, shacks, and farmsteads including the Dunalley school; isolating locals and visitors on the peninsula for days.
The fire swept across parts of Bangor, singeing the edge of the vineyard and destroying the shearing shed that was to have been the cellar door.
"It was obviously a big day, and a big few weeks," said Mr Dunbabin.
"It's been a big couple of years since then.
"It's also probably accelerated a bit as well, brought it into a fairly sharp focus in the rebuilding efforts around the community.
"It was great to be able to get stuck straight into building something which most of the community can see... just over the water.
"Being able to get a new business going when so many businesses were lost in Dunalley was something that we were acutely aware of.
"That was important to us, we employ 12 or 13 people here, all local people.
"Being able to offer jobs as well, yes, it's shaped the way that we've done it."
