Meet Jen

So this is me…

I figured it was time I introduced myself. I really don’t like the camera, so you won’t often see photos of me - and I definitely don’t envisage myself ever doing videos!

I’m Jen. I’m 54, a wife and mum to three awesome sons aged 17, 20 and 23. Originally from London, my husband Kent and I moved to Melbourne at the end of 2002 with our then six-month-old baby.

Beelbi Botanicals really came into existence by accident - born from a huge life shift about six years ago when the world flipped upside down and I disappeared down the rabbit hole of natural health.

At that time I was on a plethora of medications - antidepressants, immunosuppressants, steroids for an autoimmune condition, blood pressure tablets, migraine drugs… around ten tablets a day. And it had been that way for years.

On the outside, life looked “perfect.” We had a thriving family business in Victoria, our dream home that I had designed and project-managed the build of, a caravan by the lake… all the things. But deep in my gut I had an absolute knowing that our family would be tested in ways we’d never experienced - and I knew I would give up every single thing to keep them safe.

That realisation hit hard: I had outsourced mine and my family’s health for decades. I had allowed fear to dictate what was “good” for us. I had never questioned it.

Within three months, I had taken myself off all medications and was immersed in learning — herbs, flowers, tinctures, balms — all the things nature provides to help us heal and thrive.

At the end of 2021, the day before my 50th birthday, we left Victoria after 19 years and moved to our little slice of paradise in Beelbi Creek — 41 acres to begin a new chapter of self-sufficiency. Space for my horses, dogs, chickens… and eventually cows, sheep and pigs.

It wasn’t easy.

As much as Victoria had been hard in those final 18 months, I grieved the home and life we’d built. I felt cheated. Angry. Like faceless bureaucrats had forced our hand.

Physically I was the healthiest I’d ever been - but emotionally I was drowning in loss.

Friends and family couldn’t understand why we’d “flipped” our lives when we had all the things… but really, they were just that - things. Health and wellbeing, physical and emotional, mattered more.

I struggled at first. The land felt hard. I couldn’t grow what I once could. I hated the house. I hated the mozzies!

But every day I walked down the property with the dogs to the stunning Beelbi Creek. I listened to the wind in the trees, the bees on the flowers, the birds, the frogs… I felt the grass under my bare feet.

And slowly, an inner peace I’d never known before crept in.

I knew we were exactly where we were meant to be.

Hating the little house actually did me a favour — it pushed me outside. I built a medicinal herb garden, enrolled in courses, and began making tinctures and herbal remedies… using my hubby and boys as very reluctant test subjects!

A series of events unfolded that eventually became Beelbi Botanicals.

Calendula was one of the first herbs I fell in love with - learning how powerful it was in balms and tinctures, especially for soothing the endless mozzie bites we were covered in. I shared it with family and friends, who wanted more… and more.

From there I discovered other herbs and “weeds” - each with healing gifts I could harness.

Kent gently nudged me into more study. I never intended to build a business - I simply wanted the knowledge to care for my family without pharmaceuticals being the first port of call.

Now, a couple of years on from sharing my handmade creations with the wider world, life looks very different.

I wander across to my little cabin - nestled between three dams and surrounded by trees - my apothecary where I create my balms and tinctures.