The landscape around Helen O’Keefe’s Sutherland croft spans ancient woodlands, glassy lochs, rolling hills, wetlands, moors and vast areas of grasslands. Beneath her feet grow rare wildflowers like yellow saxifrage, in the sky overhead soar golden and sea eagles. Majestic Suilven looms over Elphin where she farms her five hectares, cares for her sheep and chickens, and tends to her market garden crops. Covered with a layer of snow in winter, or blooming with wildflowers in spring, it could scarcely be less like Western Australia’s sun-baked Kalgoorlie desert, scared by one of the continent’s largest open-cut gold mines, pancake flat and where, until a few years ago was her home.