Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue #24.4 August/September 2021 i Australian Country

By their own reckoning, if Tamara Simoneau and her husband, Marc, had simply stayed in the one place, they could afford to be driving Lamborghinis. Instead, they’ve lived a peripatetic life, dividing their time between Marc’s home country of Canada and Tamara’s state of origin, Queensland. These days, the family lives in Sydney, where Tamara is an executive producer for Channel 10 and Marc works as an IT consultant. But no matter how far they roam, they always return to their beautiful bolthole in the lush hills of Buderim on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland. Tamara grew up between Brisbane and Caloundra, the second of four children of school-teacher parents. Her mother’s family came from the land in central Queensland, so she counts herself lucky to have balanced her urban upbringing…

Working in clay, you expect to get a bit dirty, but Goondiwindi sculptor Angus Wilson admits his latest project is a complete mudbath. Angus is working on a series of monumental heads that are rising out of the paddock behind his studio on Nungwai, where he lives with his wife, Sandie, on the outskirts of the southern Queensland town. (To read more about their home and lives see the previous story, which starts on page 64.) Most of the Wilsons’ broad-acre farming activities are located on the other side of the Macintyre River in NSW, though Angus says, these days, the bulk of the hands-on farm work is taken care of by his son, Callum, and a manager. And this frees him up to devote time to his considerable outside…

MASPORT BOWDEN A powerful little legged burner, the Bowden Mini wood heater can heat up to 160 square meters of space. Despite its compact nature, it has a full glass display to ensure the largest-possible view of the flames. Engineered for clean and efficient heating, this radiant beauty is an impressive 60 per cent cleaner burning than the Australian standard requires, while also being eight per cent more efficient. It’s made in Australia and available exclusively from Bunnings Warehouse. masportheating.com.au MASPORT BOWDEN The Bowden Wood Stacker wood heater ticks off warmth, style and convenience. Its space-saving wood-storage base eliminates the need for a log basket, while its large viewing window allows you to sit back and enjoy your fire. Suitable for large homes (warming up to 200 square metres), it…

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It’s almost impossible to imagine today, but when Alex and Helen Hay moved to Olive Grove in 2008, the garden consisted of just two trees, a large bay and a giant ash. These days, visitors to the property near Bordertown in South Australia’s south-east arrive to a verdant two-acre (almost a hectare) expanse with sweeping lawns, loads of deciduous trees providing shade in summer and striking colour in autumn, a huge kitchen garden, an apple and pear orchard, bordered, of course by an olive grove where rows of gnarly olive trees have lined the landscape for 150 years. Olive Grove and neighbouring Olive Bank have been in Alex’s family since the 1870s. Helen and Alex both grew up locally, although they didn’t meet until Alex came home from boarding school…

Hobart is a city of heirlooms. Georgian buildings stand cheek by jowl on town squares with luminaries on stone plinths gazing thoughtfully out to sea. High up, on the slopes of the inner-city suburb of Glebe, there’s a Victorian mansion with a meticulous parterre garden that isn’t easily overlooked. Corinda had always caught Julian Roberts’ attention but he had not the slightest clue that he was walking among the ghosts of his own family when he strode across the cobblestone courtyard six years ago. He was unknowingly about to reclaim his ancestral home. “I phoned Mum after seeing Corinda that day and said that I’d fallen for it,” he recalls. “‘Oh well’, she said, ‘it is only your family home!’” The plan to bring Corinda back into family hands after…

Jonas Woolford plunges his hand into the gelatinous mass and pulls out a handful of the featureless meat, throwing it deftly into the hot pan along with a couple of ice cubes. “The ice cubes will create the steam we need and I just put the shell over the top like this,” he says, placing the clean abalone shell on to the now sizzling meat. “Anyone can do this at home, it’s very simple. All you need is 20 or 30 seconds ... and voila.” Jonas passes me a generous chunk of the steamed greenlip abalone meat on a skewer and I pop the morsel into my mouth, releasing a burst of unfamiliar flavours. All at once, it’s nutty and buttery, a little bit chewy with a hint of smoke…

AUGUST 22-28 (NSW) CLASSIC OUTBACK TRIAL More than 50 dedicated rally crews will set off from Parkes on Sunday, August 22, for a 2300-kilometre motor adventure, called the Classic Outback Trial. Special events including an official welcome dinner will take place in Parkes during the days prior to the start. Trial participants will travel from Parkes through to Orange and Bathurst and surrounding small townships in an itinerary that combines great dirt-driving skills, country hospitality and lots of challenges along the way. classicoutbacktrial.com.au SEPTEMBER 11-12 & 18-19 (NSW) DAFFODILS AT RYDAL Thousands of daffodils have been planted in the parks and gardens of the historic NSW village of Rydal, which is named after the English home of poet laureate William Wordsworth, author of Daffodils. The annual festival runs across two…

If only the nanas of Newcastle could see her now. As a young apprentice chef, Bree Dittrich gravitated to the dessert station because she liked the opportunity to indulge her artsy side. While she earned her apron stripes in acclaimed Hunter restaurants including The Beltree and Amanda’s on the Edge, in her spare time, she expanded her skill set by taking cake-decorating classes with a creative cohort of older women. Under their tutelage, Bree learned the differences between royal icing, ganache and buttercream and when to use fondant rather than gum paste. These days, Bree lives with her husband, Mat, and their children, Van, aged seven, and Billy, four, on acreage in the lush green hills behind Tweed Heads. She runs The Cake That Ate Paris, her bespoke wedding and…

From her earliest memories, Sandie Wilson was a relentless creative. She doodled in the margins of her school books, sketched on any available scrap of blank paper and loved nothing better than cutting up curtains from her mother’s ragbag to make her own clothes. She studied art and home economics at boarding school in Rockhampton in central Queensland and went on to become a nurse where she kept herself busy in her off-duty hours by sewing for friends. When she met Angus Wilson, a young Goondiwindi farmer, and they married 11 months later, she even made her own wedding dress. As the Wilsons welcomed their four children into the world, Sandie channelled her considerable energies into keeping them active with creative pursuits, often in the outdoors in the lush garden…

JUST COUNTRY This brilliantly sparkling clear-stone bangle, $149.95, made by Montana Silversmiths creates a delicate accent for your wrist. A line of small, round, clear stones is set in a bright silver-toned frame and a delicate hinge allows the bangle bracelet to easily fit over your wrist. justcountry.com.au STUDIO AUSTRALIA Studio Australia has been proudly producing Australian-made ceramic art in the Riverina district of NSW since 1990. This set of three hand-painted, gloss-glazed lorikeets for the wall, $173, will add a touch of humour to your room setting. studioaustralia.net COOMBER BROS JEWELLERS Based in Roma, Queensland, Coomber Bros Jewellers design, create and ship custom-made pieces all over Australia. This gorgeous engagement ring features a pink Argyle diamond surrounded by a double halo of diamonds set in platinum. coomberbros.com.au GLENVIEW PRODUCTS…