Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 8 i Australian Country Homes

As Steph Burbury describes a day in the garden at Bowsden, her home in Tasmania’s Southern Midlands, it’s more like an archaeological dig than an encounter with Mother Nature. “You never know what’s going to turn up,” she says. “In the 30 years I’ve been living here we’ve uncovered everything from fragments of old china and pipes to 19th-century coins.” Steph came to Bowsden, which has been in the Burbury family since 1928, when she married her husband, Charles. They have raised their three adult sons on the historic property near Jericho in the Oatlands district, and continue a sheep-farming tradition that was established in 1822, when Dr John Maule Hudspeth arrived in Van Dieman’s Land and took up a grant of 600 acres (243 hectares) on the Jordan River.…

As a little girl growing up on acreage at Lilydale in Victoria’s Yarra Valley, Ellie Collins loved nothing more than having the space and freedom to roam and play in the bush. Her other great joy in life came from crafternoons with her mum. “I made anything and everything,” she recalls. “I loved making bunting from natural fabrics and every pot plant in the house was wrapped in hessian or bark or whatever I found in the great outdoors. I collected timber to make wooden picture frames and planter boxes. I was always busy with a project, either finding the materials to make it or actually involved in the process.” She took the concept to a whole new level by creating an online business based on artisanal accessories inspired by…

Local lore around the twin towns of Echuca-Moama on the Murray River has it that you can trace the fluctuating fortunes of Australia’s rural industry through the buildings on Perricoota station. There’s the imposing double storey, nine-bedroom brick homestead, built in the 1860s as the HQ for pastoralist James Maiden, who had established a 120,000-acre [48,562-hectare] sheep and cattle grazing property on the NSW side of the Murray in 1843. The sprawling shearing shed, although no longer part of the station holding, also dates from this time, when the economy was booming thanks to the gold rushes and the wool industry and wages for working men reached world-record levels. Perricoota was sold in 1865 to wool brokers Kirk, Row and Goldsborough, founding fathers of what would become agents Goldsborough Mort,…

Vanessa Bell is pondering the pink hue of her home. It’s Cameo Pink — not the kind of colour any home could pull off, but it lends her 150-years-plus Gothic cottage, Toronto, a sort of storybook quality, reminiscent of a gingerbread house trimmed with frilly vanilla frosting. The forest green accents tie in neatly with prettily manicured lawns and fragrant garden beds and two conifer pines at the entrance that have intertwined to form a natural archway leading to the front door. It’s all very romantic, the kind of home you’d walk past slowly to sneak peeks through the old windows for glimpses of what life might be like inside. Its distinctive pink is always what first catches the eye. “When my friend first saw the house, she asked me…

There’s a special place, high in the hills of the South Burnett’s Bunya Mountains, where Mother Nature’s timber soldiers stand tall in a guard of honour for anyone who winds up the driveway, and a chorus of colourful locals are ever ready with a warm welcome. Its name is Godshill, and at this altitude, it might just be as close to heaven on earth as you can get. “It’s actually one of those places that’s difficult to appreciate until you go up there,” says Wes Austin, whose uncle and aunt built it in 1995. “You meander along the driveway, and it’s very private and you’re wrapped in this bunya pine forest. The wildlife is amazing, we can be on any one of the decks and be swarmed by king parrots,…

By most reckonings, Ashley and Jo Wiese’s youngsters have the best of two worlds. Week days during term time Ruby, Grace and Louis attend school in Perth with all the accompanying opportunities of the city classroom and extra-curricular activities. Come school holidays and long weekends, however, they head 230 kilometres south-east to Yarranabee, their family farm at Highbury, near Narrogin in the WA Wheatbelt. There they get to roam free and wide, ride bikes, swim in rivers and dams and learn to drive, not to mention gain a better understanding than many adults of where their food and fibre comes from. In doing so they are continuing a tradition that began when Ashley’s great-grandparents moved to the Arthur River district in 1901. “My mother’s family, the Warrens, were the first…

If the clutter at home is getting on top of you, spare a thought for Woolmers Estate, near Longford in north-eastern Tasmania. For six generations, the owners of this World Heritage-listed estate, the Archer family, never threw anything out. From baby clothes and buttons to magazines, match boxes and even a snake-bite kit, the possessions accrued by the family from 1817 to 1994 were preserved in the homestead creating a remarkable pastiche of Australian colonial life. In 1813, Thomas Archer I became the first of his family to settle in Van Diemans Land, as the colony was then known. He’d set off for Sydney from England in 1811 and in 1813 was appointed to the role of deputy commissariat of the stores at Port Dalrymple, now George Town, on the…

Chance has been kind to Paul and Bonnie Atlan. It brought them together in the first place after Bonnie set off for Paris as a young American model in search of success in the City of Lights. She found it, and also added a dashing Parisian to her portfolio. “I was on the metro heading home from a modelling job,” Bonnie recalls. “Suddenly the train came to a halt and all the passengers frantically exited the underground seeking transport on buses or from passing cars. It was a strike, and I was left not knowing how I would get home to my little studio apartment. Buses were jammed, and too scared to ask for a ride, I stood helplessly until I spotted a red motorcycle that had stopped with a…

Call her trendy, but with a passion for collecting and hunting for antiques in her spare time, South Australian Linda Sobol was in style decades before the vintage trend became popular. Along with her master craftsman husband, Wallie, the duo complements each other well, with Linda’s eye for intricate treasures and Wallie’s talent at creating stunning old-fashioned pieces for their Colonel Light Gardens home. “Wallie and I have been together forever,” Linda says. “We met when I was just 17 and now I’m 53, so you do the maths. We were introduced through my sister and a friend at the beach.” Born and bred in Adelaide, Linda and Wallie spent much of their lives in the Barossa Valley region before they bought their first house. It was a contemporary establishment…

By her own reckoning, Rosemary Howe is on her third incarnation. Born and raised in the farming service centre of Cummins on South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula her family moved to Adelaide to better the children’s educational opportunities. “I went into hairdressing straight out of school and worked at that for 20 years,” she explains. “During that time I also lived and worked in England where I met my former husband and had two sons. Then I returned to Australia and moved into interior design, which I have practised for the past 25 years. But now I am in transition again.” More recently, Rosemary reinvented herself into yet another creative and people-based career as the proprietor of a B&B and cafe in the historic gateway village to the Clare Valley. “I…

A Total Concept Landscape Architects & Swimming Pool Designers managed the transformation of this site on Sydney’s Middle Harbour by integrating a quadrant pool, cabana and garden into the existing Angophorastudded bushland. Numerous challenges, including a subterranean creek that required a piped diversion and an adjacent water easement, were negotiated on the rugged site for an outcome that is as pleasing to experience as it is to look at. atotalconcept.com.au Lounging about Relax in style and create the entertaining area you desire with these beautifully crafted outdoor settings. Our Deckchair slings are strong and beautiful, made from heavy-duty, water-repellent canvas. Paired with tropical hardwood frames, they are perfect for relaxing outdoors. Mix and match designs with the option to buy the slings separately and change the look of your chair…