Immunity Farm … ‘what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger’

A Tasmanian family has kicked off a possible world first, a farmstay designed to boost the immune system.
“First thing we noticed as newbie farmers here in southern Taz was how poo starts piling up once you have a few animals,” said Immunity Farm director Ivan Ulsa.
“Horse poo, sheep poo, chicken poo, dog poo, cat poo, wallaby poo, possum poo – it’s everywhere.
“And we thought – how can we commercialise this?”
Ivan and his wife Flora believe that people living in sterile city conditions need an immune boost.
“One or two days staying here and they will be exposed to so many pathogens, we’ve got everything from toxoplasmosis to guardia,” he said.
Starting the business had not been without challenges.
“It has not been easy, my wife keeps cleaning up all the time, but I am working around this, and my kids are helping,” Ivan said.
“I am also having run-ins with the Health Department, who don’t see the strength in our business plan.”
Immunity Farm would advertise soon on RareBnB, and also planned to operate an “immunity vehicle” on ride-sharing app Goober.
“Our vehicle tends to pick up a lot of stuff from around the farm so it is like a mobile immune booster,” he said.
Ivan said people didn’t have to worry about dying after a stay at the farm.
“It’s highly unlikely, although visitors will obviously have to sign a waiver,” he said.
“We have been here seven years and used to get the runs occasionally, maybe after a possum pooed in the water tank, or the cat walked on our pizza trays, but that’s all part of the process, now we have cast-iron guts,” he said.
“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”
The new business will also include tours.
“We will be taking people on ‘Life and Death’ tours into our paddocks and along rural roads to inspect carcasses that have been feasted upon by devils, quolls and hawks,” he said.
“It sounds a bit morbid, but it’s just nature, people want to experience that closeness to nature, and it will fit in with the overall weirdness of Dark Mofo and MONA, neither of which we are associated with, but we acknowledge their popularity.”
(If you suspect this story is tongue-in-cheek, you’d be right. Sorta.).
On a more serious note, you can visit a real Tasmanian poo museum.