Our property, Xanadu Llamas, is situated in the Central Highlands of Victoria, near the historic city of Ballarat. Many people have asked us how we came upon the name “Xanadu” for our farm and I assure them that although we may like Olivia Newton-John’s music, it has nothing to do with her song of the same name.

Xanadu was the name of a walled city used as a lamasery during the reign of the Chinese Manchu emperors giving sanctuary to more than three thousand lamas of the dalai variety. When I first read about llamas of the double “l” variety I was spellbound by the ancient Quechua legend on our Home page.

Our actual introduction to llamas began several years ago and our love and enthusiasm for these animals has continued unabated. After attempting to raise calves on our property, we decided these were not for us. As they grew the cattle became increasingly difficult to handle and we were not impressed with the damage done to our fences and land. Added to this was the fact neither Geoff nor I have the constitutions to raise animals for slaughter, so we realised cattle were not the livestock we were looking for.

We investigated several alternatives and finally settled on alpacas. They were environmentally friendly, lovely to look at, didn’t have to go off to market and I could handle them on my own. What could be better?

But here was an animal that was elegant, produced fibre, could go walking with us and seemed genuinely happy in the company of humans. I could hardly wait for Geoff to come home from work to fill him in on my discovery. Geoff knows from experience when I have my mind set on something I am very hard to put off and this was not just a mind set, it was a heart set, so the search for llamas began in earnest. Fortunately, on meeting llamas for the first time Geoff was equally smitten and we purchased our first two boys.

My enthusiasm for these creatures must have been obvious, or perhaps it was my gullible nature, as during our visit to Gary Grealy’s farm, he asked me if I would consider nominating for Secretary of the Llama Association. Of course I explained to him this would be impossible. We had only owned llamas for five minutes – how could I possibly become Secretary? Gary was not to be deterred and before I knew it I had been nominated by two members and had signed the nomination form.

Talk about being thrown in at the deep end!

Two and a half years later I still have the job, with Geoff now becoming involved as Treasurer. Although there seems to be an endless amount of work involved, being Secretary has allowed me to meet many wonderful llama people, some from interstate and overseas who have been very pleasant and welcome guests in our home.

I also enjoy chatting to enquirers who often ring up for information and end up talking for half an hour or more about the benefits and pleasures of owning llamas. As everyone who owns llamas knows they are like the proverbial potato chip and it is impossible to stop at one or two.

Shortly after the purchase of the boys came our first two girls and little by little our herd of llamas has grown to number twenty and although we no longer have our female alpaca, we have kept the wethers.

Our latest purchase and future llama herdsire is one of the only two male offspring by Nottingham and is growing into something very special.

Part of the enjoyment of owning llamas is the never-ending quest to learn more about them. We have taken part in as many veterinary and training seminars as we could and have found all methods interesting and enjoyable.

We were very disappointed to have missed the Llama Association’s veterinary neo-natal clinics - they would have been very helpful as two of our three first llama births were assisted. It is amazing how much you can learn from books and articles and just what you can accomplish when you really have to as Geoff and I were able to deliver both cria before our Vet arrived.

What a great sense of achievement it is to help to bring that precious little life into the world and watch it take its first steps. Despite the nerves and trauma at the time, it is something I will never tire of.

Training llamas is something else we both thoroughly enjoy. Regardless of the odd llama “stubborn” streak we’re all aware of, they’re really terrific animals to work with. We feel it’s important to remain open-minded to the many different training methods and take from them the things that work for you.

After reading about Jim Logan’s success with Elliot the problem llama, we decided we had to see his video, so we sent to the US for a copy. After we’d purchased the video, paid for postage and transfer to Australian format, as they were only available for US systems at that stage, it had cost a small fortune, but was worth every cent.

We’ve been hooked ever since and decided to make this method more readily available to Australasian llama owners by becoming Jim & Amy’s agents for the “Click & Reward” program.