Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue #22.6 December 2019 i Australian Country

Leah Stirton cheerfully admits she had never been west of the Brisbane suburb of Indooroopilly when she applied for a teaching position in Charleville. Freshly returned from London and nursing a broken heart, she wanted to move as far away as possible and had no idea that the southwestern Queensland town, population 3000-odd, was more than 600 kilometres from Brisbane and lacked most of the amenities she took for granted in her very urban previous life. Leah grew up in the northern Queensland coastal town of Ayr and, fresh out of school, moved to Brisbane for university studies to become an English and drama teacher. “I was always interested in decorating and event coordinating,” she recalls. “I was never the one to spend weekends in bed. When I was at…

With her strong media background, Helen Swinton says she thought she was way too pragmatic to be swayed by a photograph. But there she was, standing on a hilltop on the western side of the NSW Blue Mountains, looking at views of the Kanimbla Valley, when she spotted a real-estate billboard for a property for sale. “It was for a 30-year-old cedar weatherboard kit home,” she recalls. “Nothing remarkable about that except there was also an enormous shed on the three-acre [1.2-hectare] block. Handy, but a practical feature wasn’t the deal breaker. I know it’s ridiculous to be swayed by a picture, but in the poster the house was surrounded by this massive double rainbow. My immediate reaction was, ‘We could live here’.” Which is how Helen and her husband,…

dave Roberts-Thomson confesses that he only knows four words of Dutch, so visitors to his family’s tulip farm hoping for a Dutch D&M will be sorely disappointed. Dave and his sister, Meredith, represent the fourth generation of their family to work at their spectacularly located farm at Table Cape near Wynyard in Tasmania’s north-west. Their great-grandfather came to Australia in 1910 following a stint in the British army in India. “He met someone on the ship on the way out who told him about the great farming land in Tasmania,” Dave says. “I think he spent a day in Melbourne before heading south. Like most people in the area, he farmed livestock and potatoes, and my grandfather followed suit. But when my father, Paul, was at uni in Hobart studying…

Grampians National Park, parkweb.vic.gov.au/explore/parks/ grampians-national-park; visitgrampians.com.au Seppelt Cellar Door, seppelt.com.au Best’s Great Western, bestswines.com Pierrepoint Wines, pierrepointwines.com.au Mount Langi Ghiran, langi.com.au Barangaroo Boutique Wines, barangaroowines.com.au Grampians Estate, grampiansestate.com.au Norton Estate Wines, nortonestate.com.au Hamilton Gallery, hamiltongallery.org Horsham Regional Art Gallery, horshamtownhall.com.au/ horsham-regional-art-gallery Silo Art Trail, siloarttrail.com Sir Reginald Ansett Transport Museum, ansettmuseum.com.au…

INNER SPACE FURNITURE Admire this this beautifully crafted red spiral Dancer teapot with trivet, $65, as you enjoy a relaxing pot of tea with loved ones. leuramall.com INNER SPACE FURNITURE This 1200ml teapot, $65, from Inner Space Furniture has a black dotted finish and will make a statement in any kitchen. leuramall.com COOMBER BROS An aquamarine and diamond white-gold ring can be handcrafted to your design by the talented designers at Coomber Bros. coomberbros.com.au AKUBRA The Coolabah Akubra hat, $230, is similar in shape to the Coober Pedy, with a tapered crown and dipped brim, but with slightly smaller proportions and a genuine crocodile leather band. It’s made from 100 per cent rabbit fur felt. akubra.com.au AKUBRA The Bronco western hat, $220, features a tall, centre-creased western crown and a…

ilfradale means in a valley between rugged and rolling hills, which makes sense because the Quinn family farm is located between the upper Mount Lofty and lower Flinders Ranges. “Our children are the fifth generation to live in the home we live in now,” Jodie Quinn says, “We think it’s just lovely and we’re very fortunate to have been lucky enough to keep it all going.” “Our son, Will, is the third William Henry Quinn to live in the Ilfradale homestead,” husband John adds. “The kids are the highlight of our lives and what they’re doing makes us burst with pride.” The children, Eliza, 13, Will, 11, Belle, nine, and Lucy, six, all attend Burra Community School and, as Jodie says, enjoy a free-range childhood on their roughly 2500-acre (1000-hectare)…

They say the more things change, the more they stay the same. That’s certainly the case for Coomber Bros Jewellers in the south-western Queensland town of Roma. As the home-grown jeweller in the town’s main street celebrates its centenary this year, owners Carol and Gary Schefe say the essence of the business success has barely changed: quality, service and a good measure of confidentiality remain as important today as they ever were. While the Schefes are not sure who the first jeweller in Roma was, they know that in 1910, jeweller S.G. Priest had a business in town, and by 1914, it was taken over by W. Fraser Edmiston. Stan and Ron Coomber, the sons of Edward Coomber, a renowned jeweller of Petrie Bight in Brisbane, had learnt the trade…

It takes 152 bottles of sparkling wine to fill a bathtub. I haven’t actually tested this assertion, but it’s a piece of information I picked up on a highly informative tour of the drives, as the underground cellars at the Seppelt winery in Great Western are known. Local lore has it that opera diva Dame Nellie Melba expressed the desire to take a Champagne bath during her visit in 1909 and the then-proprietor, Hans Irvine, who clearly knew a thing or two about publicity, was only too happy to oblige. The story goes that Dame Nellie dipped a toe in the tub and declared it way too cold for bathing, so Hans promptly had the sparkling wine (as it’s now known in an appellation contrôlée world) rebottled and sold under…

Thanks for being in touch. We welcome your feedback. We appreciate your thoughts and in each issue, one correspondent wins a prize. Simply email Kirsty at kmckenzie@umco. com.au or write to us at Australian Country, Locked Bag 154, North Ryde NSW 1670. We reserve the right to edit lengthy letters before publication. Our favourite correspondent next issue will win a beautiful Bohemian beach towel from our friends at Tesalate. Due to their fabulous fabric, the towels are lightweight, super absorbent and best of all, sand-free. Just send us your thoughts on the magazine and its stories to be in the running to win this wonderful prize.…

NOW–DECEMBER 13 (QUEENSLAND) PETALS, POTS AND PERSONALITIES An exhibition of diverse media artists from remote parts of Queensland converges on the Roma on Bungil Gallery in Roma under the umbrella title of Petals, Pots and Personalities. See works by Sandra Allen, Anne Cameron, Mary Cochrane, Sandra Macdonald, John Russell, Helen Peart, Meridy Scott, Wally Peart and Donna Wason. For more information, email petalpots2019@gmail.com. DECEMBER 28, 2019–JANUARY 3, 2020 (TASMANIA) THE TASTE OF TASMANIA Designed to coincide with the conclusion of the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race, The Taste of Tasmania is an annual showcase of the state’s finest food and wine. The festival hub is the large Princes Wharf No.1 Shed at the southern end of Hobart’s docks, where stalls from Tasmanian restaurants and producers sell fresh seafood, berries, cheese,…

Parker Street Project, royalmail.com.au/ parker-street-project Wickens, royalmail.com.au/wickens-at-royal-mail-hotel baa 3400, baa3400.com.au Cafe Chickpea. facebook.com/Cafe-Chickpea Rupanyup Living, rupanyupliving.com.au The Bunyip Hotel Cavendish, bunyiphotelcavendish.com Jack + Jude, jackandjude.com.au Tosca Browns, facebook.com/Tosca-Browns Roxburgh House, theroxburgh.com.au Salingers, salingers.com.au Spirit of Punjab, spiritofpunjabrestaurant.com Harvest Halls Gap, harvesthg.com.au…

Birdsville Races Photography Salty Dingo From sequined gold blazers and clown costumes to fascinators, flannelette and budgie smugglers, the annual Birdsville Races offered some truly unforgettable trackside fashion moments. A bucket-list cultural event as much as a historic race meet, the 137th Birdsville Races attracted more than 8000 travellers from all corners of Australia for a jam-packed 13-race program, as well as unique outback entertainment and activities. The carnival’s headline race – the Birdsville Cup – was taken out by apprentice jockey Clayton Gallagher on French Hussler, with the event featuring a record five female jockeys in competition across the two days of racing. For Barcaldine trainer Todd Austin, it was his second Birdsville Cup and he has cemented his place in the history books after attending more than 30…

We again embrace the wonderful diversity of the Australian countryside with stories from the coast to the outback. We start in Victoria, where we visit Lee and Daryl Elliott in their charmingly restored cottage in Horsham. Then we head to East Gippsland where interior designer Katie Riddell and her husband, Hamish, and daughter Sophie have created a pint-sized weekender in a spectacular hilltop location and George Manis and Robert Buchan have restored a house and garden in the bustling village of Korumburra. In south-west Queensland, we visit Roma and artist Sandra Allen at her home and studio on the family farm, and meet Doug Beattie, who is slowly restoring the grand old dame of a Queenslander that is Winnathoola. Further north we detour from Springsure to Kolane station, where Angela…