Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 12 i Australian Country Homes

After a collective six decades working as flight attendants, it’s little wonder Keith Pellatt and Randy Edwards regard their downtime as precious and guard every opportunity for solitude jealously. Now that they’re moving towards giving up living out of suitcases, apart from holidays, of course, the couple has settled in the northern NSW village of Tyalgum. They’ve built their dream home on the outskirts of town in the lush green valley of the Oxley River, overlooked by the towering presence of the volcanic plug of Mount Warning and the Border Ranges. Randy took the plunge in 2008 and gave up his career with American Airlines. For 32 years, he’d lived between Chicago and Sydney while Keith occupied a parallel universe working for Qantas for the past 28 years. At the…

The scent of flowers dances on the breeze. New life is everywhere, from the ducklings in the local pond to the buds poking their heads out of your garden bed, desperate to see the sun. Yes, spring is in the air — and at this time of rebirth and fresh life, it’s tempting to freshen up our homes, too. Here are our top-10 ways to do so — without blowing your budget. Paint A coat of paint can truly give your home a new lease on life. This can be as simple as refreshing your walls with a shade of white, or you can use this opportunity to add a pop of colour to a room. If you’re opting for a darker neutral shade, keep it feeling bright and fresh…

Ric Glenn has been up since 4am preparing for Australian Country Homes’ visit. Not, as it turns out, ensuring that the reverse stripes of the immaculately mown lawns of the gardens on the 93-acre (38-hectare) Cadogan Estate are in order. Nor that the beds bustling with early spring tulips, daffodils and bluebells are weed-free. Nor even that the latest load of horse manure, fresh from the Buckingham Palace stables, has been appropriately spread. In fact, he has been up since sparrows baking bread, made with a starter that owes its existence to wild yeast captured in the kitchen at his Croydon home. When Ric has visitors, he always serves fresh bread and it turns out we are no exception. The foundations of the Cadogan Estate of the Royal Borough of…

Every metre of the towering bunya pines that stand stoic at the edge of this beautiful property has seen a story. Saplings might tell of the flurry of activity back in 1888 as a four-bedroom cottage rose from the red soil. Young trees reaching skyward in an avenue of fellow pines might recall the ones that didn’t survive the decades of frost and thaw. Those that have matured as the thick-trunked guardians of this old street have silently stood witness to it all — the countless families come and gone, and the home that has grown and changed along the way. The trees were planted by Bunya Park’s original owner, prominent local timber-milling pioneer Duncan Munro, who built the house as a second home for his family of 12 in…

For most of the year, Jim and Rachael McFadyen’s home is the most peaceful place on earth. Perched on top of a cliff on World Heritage-listed Lord Howe Island, their low-slung bungalow looks out to an endless vista of the Pacific Ocean. Apart from approaching showers and the occasional storm, there’s nothing between them and the next landfall, some 11,000 kilometres away in Chile, South America. But for four months of the year, this peace is shattered as a colony of sooty terns takes up residence and the family’s front yard becomes a nursery for the thousands of birds that nest there. Jim and Rachael’s children, Hayley, Zoe and Max, are well versed in the habits of their noisy visitors, one of 14 species of seabirds that nest on Lord…

When it comes to real estate, there are many ways to evaluate a property. Commercial real estate is judged by exposure, position and vibe — the industrial cousins to suitability and space. But when it comes to homes, architecture and interior and landscape design are what matters. Tick all these boxes and you have a property that hits the mark. Lesley Robertson’s house, located in Mudgee, New South Wales, is such a place, built on three-quarters of an acre not far from the hustle and bustle of the township. Designed by Sydney-based Richard Mann from BHI Architects, it’s perched on a gently sloping block on the banks of the Cudgegong River. “I had been widowed since 2001 and had been running Thistle Hill vineyard and winery on my own for…

Greg and Kerry Schneider were living in Sydney’s inner city, both with busy physiotherapy practices. She wanted to move to the northern beaches. He fancied a move closer to his tennis club in the eastern suburbs. The attendant focus on the property pages threw in the wildcard when Kerry spotted an ad for a farm at Braidwood in the NSW southern tablelands. “So we went to have a look, with no more serious intent than it was a good excuse for a weekend in the country,” Kerry recalls. “But the moment I saw the Mona homestead, it was sold. My grandfather used to live in a fabulous old house that had been built by the explorer William Cox, and Mona just brought up a well of childhood memories.” The rest…