At the turn of the 20th century, a 3,000km fence was built across the Australian continent to prevent the spread of invasive rabbits into cropland in Western Australia. Decades later, scientists and farmers began to notice an unusual phenomenon: the weather was completely different on either side of the fence.

It is this story that begins the book Freya Mulvey co-wrote with her soil scientist father Phil Mulvey: Ground Breaking: Soil Security and Climate Change (2021). It tells of how, by degrading soils, modern agriculture has contributed to heat waves, dust and fire across the planet. It also shares the solutions: managing land use, sequestering carbon in soil, reducing bare ground and championing policy and law reform.

In 2024 Freya travelled to the UK, China, India and US as a Churchill Fellow, researching best practice in soil and landscape regulation to implement into Australia’s legal and policy frameworks. From this research, she realised that the biggest barrier to protecting soils is the lack of understanding and awareness of the critical role they play to the functioning of our planet.

So she got in touch with Jess - a documentary podcast producer with a background in environmental & climate storytelling - to create SOIL, and bring the stories of the life underground to a broad audience.