About Us
We are Dain & Ali Mcleavey
12 years married with two beautiful children aged 10 and 4. We are Native Avenue, a fresh cut native flower farm and supply company.
What began our start to floriculture was the purchase of our 10 acre property back in 2018. We dreamed of living off grid, with lots of space for our kids to grow. It was a plot of dirt. Not a tree or plant in sight. Total blank canvas to start from.
Our farm is based in Aldinga, SA about 40 minutes drive from the city centre, comfortably situated between the stunning beach of Port Willunga and renowned wine district of McLaren Vale.
We started by building a shed and rain water tank while planning a little 3 bed home that we could set up completely self sustainable. So much research went into setting ourselves up in an eco conscious lifestyle and wanted the land use to reflect this as well.
We were introduced to the idea of Fresh Cut Flowers casually through friends at a party while talking about the land we had just bought and from there we enter the world of learning just what the flower industry took to run.
The work began to convert our 10acres of dust into a lush Native Flower Plantation. As well as understand where we fit into the market for SA florists to buy direct from the farm. We have almost 7 acres of our property planted only with Australian Foliages and varieties that we know grows well in our soil. Which is still a working process as it takes years for plants to establish and let you know if it's going to thrive in our area - or not.
Over the years, our business has grown significantly across multiple plantations not only in our Fleurieu Peninsula but stretching all the way from Normanville and through to Mt Pleasant. Building a network of farms that we have access to cut from over a full 12 months of the year where we cut a lot of our Proteas, Banksia's and filler flowers such as Leucadendrons and Geraldton Wax. Some farms are planted with solely one item such as Blue gum and others have a mix of old and new plantations of Australian and South African species of flowers.
SA has such diverse climate ranges and this really plays a great part in keeping the flow of flowers constant and local.
One property will flower first and as the weather moves across the state, so does the flowering times of different varieties of blooms.
Where to find us
We are so lucky to work with many wonderful Florists that SA has to offer. Some just occasionally and others that we work with on a weekly basis. Using our stock in their arrangements and sharing the education behind why it is great to use local, farm fresh produce.
It's always important to us that we connect with our flower friends and we are always keen to stay for a chat and laugh. We strive to stay consistent with what we supply and have an open line of communication where we can constantly learn how to improve to meet the demand of the flower market.
What we recognised quickly, there was the strength of working with other growers as calibrators and less as 'competitors' as a way to create community and strengthen the industry highlighting South Australian flowers.
There has been a massive evolution for us in these few short years of business and as we develop a better understanding of what we are capable of supplying to our customers, we have been able to refine our processes so that our week flows to also fit into our hectic young family life!
The support of our local community here in Aldinga has been humbling. We are so grateful to live in such an area that has welcomed us and our venture and embraced the agriculture aspects of what we do and in return, we love to supply them with local, farm fresh flowers direct from our flower cart at the front of our property.
Our families have been the biggest pillars of strength for us to be able to pursue such a unique career change and embrace this as a lifestyle. It's an absolute pleasure to be able to work with a lot of our family members everyday and we are forever thankful for the loyal and supportive team that helps us run things here.