Less than 40 kilometres from Melbourne's CBD, Animal Land Children's Farm has been offering an authentic farm experience in a convenient location since 1985.
It's a handy day trip, and proving a popular overnight or even week-long destination, with international guests making up to 80 per cent of their accommodation clients.
"The biggest thing that we take for granted that they seem to love, is just looking up and the sky, and seeing stars. Especially guests from Singapore, because they don't have that opportunity, and so [ they like] coming here and seeing stars and walking outside, in the open space."
Animal Land also stands to benefit from the Victorian Government's Small Business Regulation Review - aimed at cutting red tape for tourism-related businesses, but it hasn't always been a thriving enterprise.
Laurie Pincini moved to the farm with his parents as a 16-year-old. 25 years ago, he and wife Joanne, gave up secure jobs to take over the business, full time.
Animal Land offers an authentic farm experience. Source: SBS
“When we decided to open up the farms to the general public, we were charging two dollars a person back then, and by the time I'd cleaned the farm, set up the farm and we'd have two people turn up - I would have worked for eight hours, four dollars. That went on for probably two months, three months."
Then, along came a large group of visitors.
They went away and told their friends, who told their friends, and suddenly, the phones were ringing and the bookings were coming.
In the days before the internet, word-of-mouth was Animal Land's saviour.
"We have guests from all around the world now, and that's the biggest thing, with the internet - and I still can't get me head around it," Laurie says.
"It's Facebook, and TripAdvisor and all these reviews that you get everywhere. You put a post up, and it just goes crazy."
Laurie with his wife and co-owner Joanne. Source: SBS
Their five newly renovated guest rooms start from about $220 per night, and range in size, with the biggest able to accommodate 20 people.
They also have a bus business, which took off after an unconventional idea to buy a double-decker from the UK 21 years ago.
"Feel the fear and do it anyway - when we bought that double-decker, that was $650,000 worth of investment, on a hope, that it might work, but it's been one of the best pay-offs.”
They now organise bus trips and tours to popular locations including the snow and the Northern Territory.
All three arms feed into each other, making Animal Land a well-rounded option for clients.
But just as things were looking up, a set of challenges seriously tested the family's resolve.
Four years ago - after they'd just purchased the neighbouring property following a period of steady growth - they lost a 250 thousand dollar contract with nearby schools, because of a drop in student numbers.
During an earlier period, a government body declared it was "unsafe" for kindergarten children to go on excursions, and the Pincinis had 50 cancellations in one week.
School excursions and incursions are an important part of the Animal Land business. Source: SBS
"That's when we started doing mobile farms. So instead of doing excursions to us, we did incursions to the kindergartens. So you gotta think on your feet and adapt very quickly, and it was around the same time then, that we started doing birthday parties."
They've never looked back, but Laurie's not done with innovating just yet.
Going forward, he wants to expand the business to include caravans as well, and appeal to more local holiday-makers.
Laurie attributes his business success to pearls of wisdom from his father.
Dad always said to me, he said, 'Loz, it's not about the colour of the seat, it's about the number of bums you put on the seat.’ For years, it didn't sort of make sense, and then I just thought, you know what, he's right, if I've got 50 people on the bus, it's paying more than 30 people on the bus.
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