Twelve months ago Wayo boy Sonny Willett shot to fame when word got out about his reindeer poo.
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At the time his family's small property near Goulburn known as Windrush was bone dry and his parents were travelling 1800 kilometres each week to pick up wasted food to help keep their remaining 30 cows and 70 sheep alive.
People around the world were left praising Sonny when they learnt the money from his reindeer poo sales was going straight to helping his parents pay their bills.
"This time 12 months ago it was like, 'What are we going to get the kids for Christmas? How are we going to pay our bills?' just like everyone in the same situation," Sonny's mum Tania said.
"We had got rid of most of the bigger cows and just kept the calves. I had raised 24 calves last year, it was really bad.
"We had some cows here and we sent them off just to get a feel (of the market) and we were getting 60c/kg."
In September 2019 he created Sonny's Reindeer Barn Facebook page and began selling his own candy range with a twist.
Sultanas and sprinkles became the popular reindeer poo, fairy floss was repackaged as Santa's beard and rabbit mix was labelled reindeer feed.
The response was overwhelming; hundreds of orders in a few weeks and customers from as far as Singapore.
Sonny had one simple ingredient when it came to his products.
"Love," he said.
The 12-year-old's business rise was officially recognised when he was named a finalist in the 2020 Canberra Local Business Awards in the new business category.
While he wasn't named a winner during the dinner on December 16, Tania couldn't has been more proud of her son.
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"It started around about September last year when we were in drought and he wanted new Nike (shoes)," she said.
"We just couldn't do it so I said, 'Maybe get a job?', to which he said, 'I'm not old enough for a job'."
Tania had previously sold her award winning jams at local markets and Sonny had also offered his reindeer poo at Christmas markets.
After a visit to their local lolly distributor, the product range grew and this Christmas they expanded into personalised candy-filled baubles.
"He has got a subscription option in there and one lady in Victoria orders religiously every month," Tania said.
"If there is something people want and we don't have we can go down to our lolly distributor and get it."
Having been a receiver of so much generosity, Tania and Sonny decided to "pay it forward" and donated almost $2000 to community groups and organisations like Farm Aid and a rural fire service.
While their property is still in need of rain, it's a vast improvement on where it was last year.
After holding off from joining, this year they had four new calves and about 30 lambs born; a signal of hope.
"It will take a long time for any farmer that has been through drought to get back to where they were," Tania said.
"There are still bills that need to be paid...but at we are least on top of things now.
"If it hadn't been for Sonny's business we would still be majorly behind."
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
