Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue#21.3 May 2018 i Australian Country

A western NSW farmer who can talk furniture designer Mark Tuckey as confidently, and passionately, as agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere, Moree’s Andrew Ball is fascinatingly contrary. Pinterest, his go-to for inspiration, reveals expertly curated folders on architecture and design, seamlessly co-existing with pins on rugby and cars. His large farmer’s hands swipe, and the fact that he even has a Pinterest account speaks volumes. “My mother had a beautiful eye for design and style,” he reflects. “It’s quite amazing, you never forget those things that were ingrained into your childhood.” Nestled in a leafy local street, Andrew and his wife, Barbara, have restored one of the town’s most stately properties, the type passers-by crane their necks at in anticipation of a glimpse beyond the perfectly manicured hedges and topiaries.…

It’s an established fact that people who honeymoon on Lord Howe Island invariably return to celebrate their important wedding anniversaries there. Generations of families spend their Christmas holidays at the same resorts every year and they bring their families and friends to witness their significant-decade birthdays as well. That’s because Lord Howe, an 11-kilometre-long dot in the South Pacific 660km east of Port Macquarie, is the kind of destination you want to share only with your closest family and friends. It’s a precious patch of paradise that you want to keep to yourself to ensure that it’s preserved forever. Flying into this World Heritage-listed island just shy of two hours by air from both Sydney and Brisbane, the first land you might sight is Balls Pyramid, a 550-metre spearhead of…

Spoil Mum with a beautifully presented gift box from Rustic Hyde that includes a set of daily affirmation cards. rustichyde.com.au Create something completely unique for Mum with a bespoke piece of cattle-brand jewellery from Coomber Bros Jewellers. Add some extra pizazz with the precious gem of your choice. coomber bros.com.au Give Mum something pretty in pink from Jsala Soy Candles. Hand-poured in Yarrambat, Victoria, these candles come in traditional as well as contemporary scents. jsalasoycandles.com.au This Bento set from R L Foote Design Studio is made from imperial-coloured porcelain and was inspired by the traditional Japanese bento box but given a contemporary twist. rlfootedesign.com With 50 different colours and patterns, you’re sure to find Mum’s favourite combination with Smitten Merino’s beautiful lightweight soft merino scarves. smittenmerino.com The North Wind Blows’…

Melissa and Andrew Kidd were roughly 16,000 kilometres apart when something life-changing popped into their respective inboxes. “Melissa and I emailed the same land to each other,” Andrew explains. “She’d returned to Australia a few months before me, while I finished an assignment in Frankfurt. While apart, we’d share property ideas. I was excited to see it as soon as I got off the plane.” An unbelievable coincidence or a sign from somewhere beyond, no matter how you look at it, it seemed it was meant to be. “We loved the area and had lived around here in our teenage years,” Melissa says. “So we couldn’t believe it when this block of land came up for sale.” It seemed to tick all their boxes — rural, close to the beaches…

Mudgee’s reputation for fine wine was uppermost in Patrick Brennan’s mind when the opportunity to move to town to run the Comfort Inn Aden Mudgee motel presented itself. While the lure of ready access to labels such as Poet’s Corner, Wild Oats and Huntington Estate may have been what brought Patrick and his wife, Sonya, to town just over a year ago, he says closer inspection has revealed many more reasons for wanting to stay there. “I have been amazed by the way the community works together,” the veteran of more than 30 years in the hospitality industry adds. “Mudgee really is an object lesson in how the resources sector can gel with tourism. The town offers benchmark food and wine experiences, fantastic festivals, every conceivable outdoor activity and one…

It’s the barns that give it away. The first, a towering gambrel-roofed machinery shed complete with an Amish star in white, symbolising purity, the power of the moon and allowing energy to flow. Which is appropriate, given that this is also the storage room for the solar gel batteries and inverters that allow Ele and Bruce Fraser to live off the grid. The second is a towering double-storeyed structure with a workshop downstairs and an apartment above, where they lived for a year while they built their “main” house. This cluster of imposing buildings that greets visitors as they drive onto the property announces to the world that you can take the girl out of America, but you can’t take America out of the girl. In fact that was precisely…

Barbecues, beach trips and bush walks; Australia’s national psyche is born in the outdoors. It is only right, then, that our homes and gardens cater to this. A mild climate means we can make good use of our outdoor space throughout most of the year, but what about those winter days when an extra jumper just won’t cut it? Enter one of the most gratifying and vital features in home design: heaters. Here we speak to the design experts that are changing the game in both indoor and outdoor heating. STEP INSIDE ... No matter what we tell ourselves, there will be some — albeit brief — times where we’ll need to retire indoors. For those rare rainy days, we’ve uncovered the best products and advice in indoor heating. Turn…

MAY 5-27 (NSW) TRANSITIONS AT EVERGLADES The culmination of two years’ work at Everglades Historic House & Gardens at Leura in the Blue Mountains, Transitionsis an exhibition and accompanying book chronicling the cycle through the seasons. Photographer Tracy Ponich has documented the changes that take place in the gardens each year with spectacular success. The event is part of the Australian Heritage Festival and is also a regional venue for Sydney’s Head On Festival for 2018. As well as Tracy’s photographs, the exhibition includes historic photos and documents including diary excerpts from Paul Sorensen, who created the garden in the 1930s. nationaltrust.org.au/ahf_event/transitions-everglades-historic-house-gardens MAY 12-13 (NSW) BATHURST HERITAGE TRADES TRAIL The Heritage Trades Trail provides a cultural and educational journey around five significant heritage sites in Bathurst, Australia’s oldest inland European…

 When it comes to nurture versus nature, Paula Jenkins is adamant: her career as an artist is due to equal measures of both. If she hadn’t grown up in the country, and been lucky enough to spend seven formative years living on the historic Camden Park property founded by the pioneering Macarthur family, she would never have had the freedom to ride horses, explore her talents and express her deep love of the land by sketching trees, landscapes and historic buildings. Then the nurture side kicks in by attending the proactively arts-focused Frensham School, where she studied three-unit art and honed her skills with brushes and paint. Plus there’s an important childhood friendship with flamenco dancer Deya Giner, niece of the celebrated artist Piers Dudley-Bateman, who became a mentor to…

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…

 Anna Vogt isn’t afraid of a challenge. It’s a bonus for brides who seek out the talented floral stylist for her signature old-world-meets-bohemian bouquets and, as anyone on the land knows, it’s an essential trait for farming life. “When I started to be interested in floral design, I wanted to grow all the varieties and colours that are good for designing and also wholesaling to wedding florists,” she says. “My aim is to grow everything I could possibly ever want to work with, and never have to buy anything extra.” She knows it’s ambitious but, with up to 150 different flower species and dozens of varieties of each currently growing on the farm she shares with her partner, Geoff Page, they’re well on their way. “An added challenge is the…

 A week may be a long time in politics but it felt like a nanosecond for a group of year 10 drama students from Loreto Normanhurst in Sydney. During a recent artist-in-residence program, the students worked with Bell Shakespeare’s arts educator Chris Tomkinson to study, explore and, at the conclusion of five action-packed days, perform an abridged version of Macbeth. “Drama inherently encourages risk taking. Without the constraints of an assessment, the girls are able to throw themselves into the process and performance with passion, energy and a willingness to try new things. What they achieve in such a short time is remarkable.” Loreto Normanhurst is a Catholic independent day and boarding school for girls from years five to 12. Established in 1897 primarily as a boarding school for girls…

DOIN’ IT FOR DOLLY More than 6000 people converged on the Queensland central highlands town of Springsure, population 1100, to attend the Doin’ it for Dolly rodeo. Organised by locals Shannon Bleakley and her partner, Dan Roberts, the event was a response to the tragic suicide of 14-year-old Amy (Dolly) Everett in January this year. Supported by a team of more than 200 volunteers, the event program included all the thrills and spills of a regular rodeo, overlaid with the very serious message of working to prevent bullying in our schools and online. Speakers included 13-year-old Dakota Lee Shaw, a Miss Teen Diamond Australia entrant, who explained that one in four students aged between seven and 14 experiences bullying and 64 per cent of girls are cyber bullied at some…