Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 27.2 i Australian Country

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

editor’s letter

As this issue goes to press, we’re looking back on a summer of extremes — heavy rains and flooding, bushfires and extended dry periods. While our thoughts are with all those in the regions whose lives and livelihoods have been affected by those events, we are also mindful of the the first responders — the fireys, the SES, police officers and paramedics — and the vital role they play helping people affected by natural disasters. We thank them for their efforts. I’d also like to offer thanks to the volunteers who unstintingly give up their time and muscle power to help mop up after such events. Organisations such as Aussie Helpers, Blaze Aid and Rural Aid Australia are quick to respond when farming communities need them most. Recent reports suggest…

editor’s letter

return to roots

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

return to roots

MY PLACE IN THE COUNTRY “Franelle first visited the winery as a guest and ended up buying the hills ide property in 2005. When Janelle Marsden graduated from high school in Wangaratta and high-tailed it to Melbourne to study architecture, she never imagined she’d end up returning to north-east Victoria to live. However, that’s precisely how the cards fell and she’s very happily spent the past 22 years living and working in the region. “I’ve always loved a new project,” she says. “Plus, I like the fact that the path in life is not always straight.” While a series of health scares in her extended family may have brought her home to be closer to them, it’s led to an extraordinary career, which includes owning a winery and a pub,…

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

creative central

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE While most people would have found home schooling three teenagers enough of a challenge during the COVID lockdowns, journalist and author Siobhan O’Brien felt the need to stretch herself just a little bit further. First, she and her husband, accomplished -wine writer, chef and accommodation manager Greg Duncan Powell, took up online yoga in one of the empty guest cottages he was managing at Bawley Point on the NSW South Coast. Then Siobhan decided it was time to learn to sing, so found a teacher and embarked on a year’s lessons via Zoom. In 2021, she celebrated her newfound skills by forming blues and roots band Minnie and The Moonrakers and reinventing herself as the lead singer, with Greg on guitar along with a drummer and double…

creative central

a pleasing prospect

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

a pleasing prospect

A ppearances can be deceptive, so you’d never know from the lush oasis Gayle and Dennis Scott have built around their home that they’ve literally carved it out of a rocky paddock. “The site was bare except for a few box trees,” Dennis says as he surveys the sprawling garden that includes parkland expanses, shaded beds, a vegie garden, iris pond, tennis court, loads of rock features, a small vineyard and a large dam with a viewing platform for enjoying rare moments of downtime. “We needed a crowbar and a pick to plant every tree. But, gradually, we’ve built up the soil and now there’s 18 inches [45cm] of it in most parts.” Gayle and Dennis knew each other as children growing up in the Gippsland region. Dennis studied teaching,…

action station

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

action station

PHOTO ESSAY Twenty-year-old Josie Golledge grew up in Australia’s “horse capital” — Scone in the New South Wales Upper Hunter. For the past three years, she has been living and working as a station hand on cattle stations in outback Queensland and the Northern Territory. This year, she’s working on Walhollow station, which covers almost 10,000 square kilometres north of Tennant Creek in the Barkly region of the Northern Territory. Josie has a passion for photographing livestock and horses as well as people at work or competing. She loves working in the stock camp, and her ambition is to work her way up to the position of head stockman. Her other passion is for horses and one day she hopes to start her own horse training and breeding business.…

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

stockists & contacts

AM-Boss Access Ladders 11-13 Maida Ave, North Sunshine Vic 3020 ph: (03) 9310 8788 e: amboss@ambossaccessladder.com.au w: ambossaccessladder.com.au Baimbridge Antiques 64 Thompson St, Hamilton Vic 3280 ph: (03) 5572 2516 e: info@baimbridge.com.au w: baimbridge.com.au Cotswold InOut Furniture 29/69 O’Riordan St, Alexandria NSW 2015 ph: (02) 9906 3686 e: sales@cotswoldfurniture.com.au w: cotswoldfurniture.com.au David Roche Foundation e: info@rochefoundation.com.au w: rochefoundation.org.au Emu Wire Industries 2/25 Encore Ave, Somerton Vic 3062 ph: (03) 9308 5599 e: sales@emuwire.com.au w: emuwire.com.au Glenview Products 3 Edenholme St, West Pymble NSW 2073 ph: 0411 732 950 e: sales@glenviewproducts.com.au w: glenviewproducts.com.au Great Ocean Road Regional Tourism e: info@gort.com.au w: greatoceanroadtourism.org.au Harkaway Homes 57 National Ave, Pakenham Vic 3810 ph: (03) 5943 2388 w: harkawayhomes.com.au Howard Products 33 Griffin Ave, Tamworth NSW 2340 ph: 1800 672 646 w: howardproducts.com.au Just…

stockists & contacts

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

helping out on this issue…

ANABEL DEAN JOURNALIST Anabel is an award-winning travel journalist who began her career as a Fleet Street news reporter in London. She has worked as a feature writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, arts editor for The Bulletin and lifestyle editor for Medical Observer magazine. She contributes to national and international publications, sharing adventures of people, places, art, nature and food from around the world. KEN BRASS PHOTOGRAPHER Ken has been busy again this issue travelling from Alice Springs in the Red Centre to northern Tasmania, with detours to Victoria’s north-east in between. A journalist in a previous life, Ken brings a storyteller’s perspective to his work and relishes the opportunity use these skills on every shoot. australiancountry.com.au facebook.com/AustralianCountry @australiancountrymag zinio.com pinterest.com/auscountrymag…

helping out on this issue…

come from away

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

come from away

AT HOME IN THE OUTBACK When Canadian nurse Deanna Bitar and three friends arrived in Australia, it was meant to be for a working holiday. Fifty years down the track, Deanna is still here, married to her husband, Samih, for almost as many years and with no intention of ever leaving Alice Springs for longer than a holiday. Deanna grew up in Corner Brook, a service centre of the west coast of the island of Newfoundland. She did her nursing training in St Johns, the capital city of the province of Newfoundland and Labrador and, shortly after graduating, headed off to explore the world starting in New Zealand and Australia. “We all got jobs at Woden Valley Hospital [now Canberra Hospital] in the ACT,” Deanna says. “It was a big…

coming up roses

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

coming up roses

As a child growing up on farm in northern Tasmania, restaurteur Hayley Self was notorious for stealing her mother’s Chanel perfume bottles and disappearing into the paddocks to pick herbs and wildflowers in endless attempts to create her own potions and fragrances. Hayley has lived many lives since then, but she’s recently returned to her roots as she’s launched the first exclusively Tasmanian perfume, Marie no 27, under the label The Modern Siren. “I grew up in a very female-forward family,” she explains. “I have four sisters and one brother and my mother, Julie, worked long hours as a pâtissier, so we were raised to believe we could achieve anything if we set our minds to it and worked hard. Our father, Clive, was a horticulturalist and he’s of British…

coasting along

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

coasting along

ESCAPE ROUTES Stand close to almost any cliff on the Great Ocean Road, and you appreciate the perils of the shipwreck coast, serrated as a knife along the rim of the wild Southern Ocean. More than 700 hulks lie in the fathomless depths of this graveyard beneath the sea. On a windswept bluff near Port Campbell, two headstones are tucked under heathland in a tiny cemetery marking the calamitous loss of the ill-fated Loch Ard in the pre-dawn hours of June 1, 1878. Far below, sea thunders over sunken reefs and foamy waves surge onto the beach curled like a fingernail at the bottom of a steep-sided canyon. This is the shapeshifting inlet of Loch Ard Gorge. It’s named after the clipper that hit a rocky island while sailing through…

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

store strolling

HOWARD PRODUCTS Discover Howard Products Australia’s Restorer Kit, ideal for antique, midcentury and modern finishes. It’s available in various timber tones and conveniently packaged in a storage tin. Visit the website for details. RRP$58.35. howardproducts.com.au COTSWOLD INOUT FURNITURE The Avoca planter is a beautiful and practical way to add privacy and style to your outdoors. It features small teak slats that are perfect for dividing spaces and creating a unique look. Priced at $1765, the lightweight yet sturdy construction makes it perfect for all weather conditions. cotswoldfurniture.com.au THOMAS COOK The Georgia crossbody bag features a top zip closure, back pocket with zip opening, shoulder strap, adjustable and removable long strap, as well as internal zip and slip pockets. This fully lined leather bag retails for $219.95 thomascook.com.au BAIMBRIDGE Located in…

store strolling

diary notes

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

diary notes

APRIL 5-6 (QLD) Way Out West Festival Pack your swag and waltz up the Matilda Highway to Winton, for this wonderful celebration of bulls, bands and bikes after dark. As well as a great musical line-up, this year’s event will present motocross legends showcasing their fast and furious skills. The Professional Bull Riders will also be out in force, so don’t miss a packed weekend. wintonswayoutwestfest.com.au MAY 4-5 (NSW) Robertson potato festival Pick up those peelers, dust off your potato mashers and start saving those hessian sacks, the Robertson Potato Festival is on again in the NSW potato farming heartland of the Southern Highlands. The weekend will include musical acts, gardening, food and cooking stages and competitions allowing visitors of all ages to compete in peeling, mash eating and sack-race…

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

moving right along

ON THE RIGHT TRACK AT HOME IN THE COUNTRY As the ancient proverb goes, “fortune favours the brave”. It was a maxim Wangaratta furniture store owners Taylor and Casey McPhail embraced when their business was struggling at the beginning of 2020 as the first COVID lockdowns shut the country down. Victoria endured particularly harsh lockdowns, but the brothers saw opportunity in the adversity, with people forced to stay at home turning to home improvements as a diversion. At the start of the pandemic, Taylor and his wife, Tayla, and Casey and his wife, Kacey — yes, strange but true — had both mortgaged their homes to keep their business going. But then the McPhails made radical changes to their marketing strategies and, remarkably, the risks paid off. “No one knew what…

moving right along

kitchen collaboration

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

kitchen collaboration

BUSINESS IN THE COUNTRY Delivering home-cooked meals to time-poor people has never been just business to Gippsland entrepreneur Kirstie Van Den Dolder. Having tragically lost her daughter, Makenzi, at the age of 20, only five months before opening K Lee’s Kitchen, her business and resulting collaboration with her local general store has been a saviour. “I was sitting here watching her funeral every day and it was no good for me,” Kirstie, recalls, “I knew I couldn’t go back to hairdressing. A girlfriend approached me and said, ‘Why don’t you cook for time-poor people? It’s something that gets you out of the house, seeing people, but you don’t have to see them for long.’ I’ve always loved feeding people. That’s what I enjoyed. I had the kids’ friends around and…

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

chocolate celebration

Pastry chef Kirsten Tibballs’ name is synonymous with chocolate. As the director of The Savour School, both online and in Melbourne, she teaches her art to students from all over the world. She has her own TV show and is a regular on MasterChef Australia. She says her love of chocolate and cooking dates back to her early teenage years when she would take orders for up to a dozen birthday cakes every weekend. She also candidly admits this was a by-product of an eating disorder. Fortunately, by the age of 15, she had developed a healthier relationship with food and began an apprenticeship as a pâtissier. Thirty-live years down the track, her unbridled enthusiasm for her craft — and chocolate — still shines through in everything she does and…

chocolate celebration

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

off the shelf

BEST WISHES Richard Glover, ABC Books, $34.99 Veteran broadcaster, journalist and author Richard Glover has assembled a wish list for making the world a better, less annoying place. As with his columns in newspapers The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and The Washington Post, he writes about mundane niggles and big issues with his characteristic witty, optimistic and empathetic style. From more equitable funding for public education and making politicians answer the question they were asked to ending “the debate” over climate change and banning perfume, Richard attempts to set the world to rights with a year’s worth of improvements, one day at a time. EPIC ADVENTURES ACROSS AOTEAROA Ray Salisbury, Exisle Publishing, $49.99 Author and photographer Ray Salisbury has a lifelong love of New Zealand’s backcountry and in this…

off the shelf

Australian Country|Issue 27.2

mailbag

LAST ISSUE GENERATED LOTS OF FEEDBACK FROM OUR READERS. FESTIVAL FAMILY As a lover of your magazine, I know that you seek to celebrate all aspects of Australian country life. Where I live — in Tamworth — we have just enjoyed yet another music festival. I have penned a poem about the experience. It’s from the perspective of having musicians as guests in our home during the festival. Members of the much-loved band The Bushwackers, have been staying with us for 27 years. Many families take the opportunity to host visitors and to take a holiday while their house is occupied. We used to do that when our children were young but we soon realised we were missing out by leaving. There is joy in developing new friendships with people…

mailbag