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Inside
-----------8 Editor’s letter 10 Marketplace 12 Hampton hideaway Jen Ballard has created a provincial French ambience in the historic stone cottage she converted as a weekend getaway at Hampton, just west of the Blue Mountains in central NSW 22 The art of life Art, food and flowers collide in a joyous celebration of the finer things in life at Burnside, in the central Victorian highlands 32 Monochrome magic A serial renovator finds her nest in the stunning Northern Rivers of NSW, reviving an architecturally designed home with her bold signature style and bucketloads of black paint 42 A small-town showpiece With equal measures of good luck, hard work and design flair, the Yorks enjoy an enviable lifestyle in the tiny central Queensland town of Rolleston 50 A busy bee Kristine Franklin says anybody can do what she has done to transform her outer-Melbourne home into a design showcase. But not everyone has her ability to turn trash into treasure 58 Art with heart Artist and graphic designer Martine Vanderspuy channels her many talents towards fundraising to help find a cure for a rare genetic disorder 68 Down in the woods Furniture polish practically runs in the veins of Victorian stylist Cathy Court. At her home in the Dandenongs, she celebrates her family’s long tradition as master wood carvers in the UK 76 Bangalow beauty A clever architect turned voice-over artist waves her magic wand over a century-old home in the heart of northern NSW’s hinterland utopia 84 Bold and beautiful A born decorator with a soft spot for bygone eras and a penchant for all
6 Australian Country HOMES
68 116
Subscribe today Receive four issues of Australian Country Homes plus Home Design’s annual collector’s issue for only $29.95. See page 66 for details. AUSTRALIAN
COUNTRY
omes
H TH ASH on a budget GL bathroom uide
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things vintage skilfully revives an old Queenslander into a family home 94 Divine inspiration For an expatriate couple, returning to Australia meant putting down roots in the Margaret River region of southwestern Western Australia 102 Precision planning Kylea and Grant Wilson used an
extended working holiday to hone the style and design of their dream home 110 Bathed in glory A bathroom experience encompassing practicality and aesthetics has never been easier to achieve 116 Renovator’s recipe Fay Gamble has made a life out of rescuing bruised and battered homes
Easy ideas to inje ct
country charm
124 Country comes to town They might take in city rather than rural views from their verandah, but this family remains country at heart 132 Haven in the hills Interior stylist Evelyn Neis has battled all sorts of adversity to forge a rich life for herself and her family in the Adelaide Hills. HOMES Australian Country 7
W
elcome to the first issue of Australian Country Homes for 2019. As well as curating a collection of great homes for your reading
pleasure, we’ve created accompanying looks pages to help you achieve each design style. We’ve also shone the spotlight on bathrooms this issue, from the quaint and quirky to the sybaritic and sumptuous. As poet and author Sylvia Plath observed in her novel The Bell Jar: “There must be quite a few things a hot bath won’t cure, but I don’t know many of them. Whenever I’m sad I’m going to die, or so nervous I can’t sleep, or in love with somebody I won’t be seeing for a week, I slump down just so far and then I say: ‘I’ll go take a hot bath’.” All the stories in this edition include bathrooms where solace may be taken. And in Bathed in Glory, our features editor, Daria Kurilo, takes you through the essential elements for a beautiful bathroom, from the fixtures and fittings to the pamper products, storage units, towels and even bathrobes for ideal ablutions. In conjunction with this issue, we are excited to announce that Online Bathroomware is offering some beautiful bathroom accessories as a competition prize. If you would like to be in the running to win a Bastow Georgian basin mixer and exposed shower set valued at $1444, go to our website, australiancountry.net.au. We hope this issue helps you find your temple of calm and plenty of design inspiration as well. We look forward to bringing you more in the next issue, which goes on sale June 13.
KIRSTY MCKENZIE, editor
kmckenzie@umco.com.au
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ARCH
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IL 2019
N
ARY YOUR CONTEMPOR
AUSTRALIAN
COUNTRY
LE MAG COUNTRY LIFESTY
AZINE
ic: Mountain Mag A cottage transformed
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Homes
2019
ORE DASH THAN ecorating on a budgCASH et ATHED IN GLOR Y eautiful bathro om guide
Editor Kirsty McKenzie Design Michaela Primiano Features Editor Daria Kurilo Photography Ken Brass, John Downs, Anastasia Kariofyllidis, Ross Williams Contributors Bronte Camilleri, Meryl Hancock, Tahn Scoon, Tamara Simoneau
h At home wit history in:
Chairman/CEO Prema Perera Publisher Janice Williams Chief Financial Officer Vicky Mahadeva ns y Garde Co untren Easy ideas to inje ojee Lea ct Associate Publisher Emma Perera Magnific t Normont Verdant Ve country rbrae Stunning Sher Finance & Administration Manager James Perera charm Circulation Business Development Manager Mark McTaggart C Creative Director Kate Podger Marketing & Acquisitions Manager Chelsea Peters To subscribe visit universalshop.com.au or ring 1300 303 414 E VALLEY C ARE SA’S CLAR & THE NSW CENTRAL WEST
s’ recipes art on noch ome
Australian Country Homes (No 6) is published by Universal Magazines, Unit 5, 6-8 Byfield Street, North Ryde NSW 2113. Phone: (02) 9805 0399, Fax: (02) 9805 0714. Melbourne office, Suite 4, Level 1, 150 Albert Road, South Melbourne Vic 3205. Phone (03) 9694 6444 Fax: (03) 9699 7890. Printed in Singapore by Times Printers, timesprinters.com. Distributed by Gordon and Gotch, Australia. Singapore — Car Kit Pte Ph 65 6 282 1960 magazines1source.com NZ Distributors: Needlecraft: (06) 356 4793, fax: (06) 355 4594, needlecraft.co.nz. Gordon and Gotch New Zealand, (09) 979 3018 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Enquiries should be addressed to the publishers. The publisher believes all the information supplied in this book to be correct
ISSN 1323-9708/2208-1100 Copyright © Universal Magazines MMXIX ACN 003 026 944 umco.com.au
8 Australian Country HOMES
at the time of printing. They are not, however, in a position to make a guarantee to this effect and accept no liability in the event of any information proving inaccurate. Prices, addresses and phone numbers were, after investigation and to the best of our knowledge and belief, up to date at the time of printing, but the shifting sands of time may change them in some cases. It is not possible for the publishers to ensure that advertisements which appear in this publication comply with the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and the Australian Consumer Law. The responsibility must therefore be on the person, company or advertising agency submitting the advertisements for publication. While every endeavour has been made to ensure complete accuracy, the publishers cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions. * Recommended retail price
This magazine is printed on paper produced in a mill that meets Environmental Management System ISO 9001.
Please pass on or recycle this magazine. WE ARE A MEMBER OF
Marketplace Things we love that you are bound to want in your life. ----------compiled by BETHANY SHEA
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Cooking has never looked so good than with Thomas Cook’s homewares range. With a selection of tea towels, oven mitts, pot holders, and aprons on offer, each featuring an adorable farm animal print, you will be spoiled for choice. Make it a set and feature your favourite animal throughout your kitchen, or mix it up and have something different on each item. With horses, dogs, cows, piglets, roosters, ducks and more to choose from, the options are many and all of them have a high seriously cute factor. thomascook.com.au
The Fruity Parfuma from Treloar Roses is a stunning rose bush to add to your garden. The spectacular bright fuchsia petals will release an enticing fragrance of ripe raspberries and rhubarb with a hint of patchouli to permeate your yard. Plant them throughout your outdoor space to create a spectacular rose garden or arrange a single rose bush to make it a key centrepiece. However you decide to plant the Fruity Parfuma, your garden will look and smell incredible. treloarroses.com.au
A mix of quintessential vintage design with a contemporary edge, Colonial Castings Lifestyle’s extensive outdoor range provides long-lasting furniture solutions for both commercial and residential spaces. Stylish and durable, the aluminium six-seater Chelsea table and Morocco chairs (sold separately) are perfect for a lively outdoor entertaining space. Made in Australia. colonialcastingslifestyle.com/products
Relax in timeless style and comfort with the Lucy furniture collection, exclusive to Vincent Sheppard. In cool tones of grey and white, there is a range of modular seating pieces, armchairs and side tables in synthetic rattan available, to help you create the perfect outdoor lounge setting. Discover this collection at the Cotswold Furniture showrooms in Sydney, Melbourne and Mittagong. cotswoldfurniture.com.au
Love that elegant, laid-back country look and want to inject a little pizzazz into your home? Country Touches features a wide selection of homewares and decor to enhance your space. Choose from a variety of candles, frames, wall art, tableware, skincare products, kitchen appliances and even beautiful pieces for the little ones in your life. Browse the Atherton Tablelands store or visit the online shop. countrytouches.com.au
10 Australian Country HOMES
Boasting more than 600 architectural hardware options for your kitchen or bathroom, Marina Isles ensures your space is as individual as you are. From basins to baths and everything in between, you can fit-out your kitchen and bathroom in practical, modern style. This stunning bathroom cabinetry features Marina’s MJK2B matt black Shaker cup pulls, which complete the look. Crafted from solid brass and available in seven eye-catching finishes, these cup pulls are exclusively available from Marina Isles. marinaisles.com
Create a kitchen that exudes classic style and charm with Malcolm St James’ renowned range of handmade French stoves. The company specialises in the supply of French provincial, classic and traditional country-style stoves, so there’s bound to be one to suit your tastes and space. Paired with the brand’s classic butler’s sink and custom solid-timber cabinets, a Malcolm St James’ stove will turn your kitchen into one of timeless elegance, with the added bonus of all the modern conveniences of today. malcolmstjames.com.au
For more than 35 years, Restoration Station has been supplying renovators, restorers and designers with an extensive range of hardware fittings and accessories. The company has the largest range of traditional lighting in Queensland, cast-iron baths, pressed-metal ceilings, bathroom vanities and taps, doors and windows, cast-iron fireplaces, surrounds and tiles, mirrors, clocks and much more. Take a look at Restoration Station’s extensive range of attractive, traditional fittings to restore your home to its original glory. restorationstation.com.au
Sydney Flooring is a family-owned and -operated business that specialises in supplying an extensive range of Australian timber flooring. No matter the size of your house, the team caters for the installation and/or supply and repair of floorboards, hardwood flooring and timber decking. Leaders in the industry for quality, service and value with more than 50 years’ combined experience, you can be assured of a stunning timber surface to accentuate your home when you choose Sydney Flooring. sydneyflooring.com.au
Gilly’s Waxes & Polishes are handmade from the finest Australian beeswax. They are designed for all aspects of wood finishing, from restoration to the care of your finest antiques. Gilly’s products offer food-safe finishes that are petro-chemicalfree. The company also offers a variety of finishes for furniture and floors. All formulas are 100 per cent naturally derived, with carefully selected essential oils included for their proven individual qualities and delightful aromas. gillyswaxesandpolishes.com.au
Jade Pools uses 3D imaging to visually walk clients through their dream pool before it is built, ensuring the finished product remains true to its surroundings. This 9.7-metre-long pool was designed to fit with an architecturally designed home and provides a luxe setting with travertine paving surrounds and a stunning combination of two Azarri glass tiles. jadepools.com.au
HOMES Australian Country 11
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HAMPTON HIDEAWAY Jen Ballard has created a provincial French ambience in the historic stone cottage she converted as a weekend getaway at Hampton just west of the Blue Mountains in central NSW. -------------------By KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
M
Clockwise from opposite: Scrubbed pine and sisal flooring add a rusic ambience; an avowed Francophile, Jen has filled her house with French books and accessories; the original stone dwelling was built in 1847; the house has a rambling cottage garden; hunting and shooting props by the fireplace.
14 Australian Country HOMES
ost people yearning for a country life list peace and quiet as a primary objective. For Jen and Geoff Ballard, it was precisely the opposite that attracted them to the village of Hampton on the western side of the Blue Mountains. As the owner of motorcycle parts company Ballard’s Off Road and the driving force behind Australia’s most successful enduro team, Geoff was looking for somewhere he could make as much noise as he liked testing bikes and training for events without disturbing the neighbours. He found what he was looking for at Hampton, a tiny village with a pub and a church and not much more on the road to Jenolan Caves, in 2006. He established a training track and man shed for boys' weekend jaunts to the country. And that probably would have been the end of the story if Jen had not accompanied Geoff to Hampton for one of the weekend trips and taken a reccy tour of the district. “I was just pottering around when I climbed up a path not far from the village,” she recalls. “I looked over the fence and saw a wonderfully random garden and loads of daffodils. Then I realised that behind a wisteria-clad verandah, there was a delightful historic house. I didn’t want to intrude, so I retraced my steps. The property wasn’t for sale, so I kind of put it out of my mind for a couple of years. But my interest was piqued and as soon as I heard it was on the market, I knew I had to go back for a proper look.” Regular readers of Australian Country might recall Jen from a story we ran in 2015 about the fabulous rustic French provincial home she created out of a former stable with a straw-bale extension on Sydney’s western periphery. They will also recall how Jen discovered her passion for all things French when she travelled with Geoff at the beginning of a ›
Above: Recycled timber shelving, towel baskets, a marble basin and distressed finishes in a bathroom. Top: Old garden gates are born again as a bedhead in a guest room, which has a soft blue accent.
16 Australian Country HOMES
professional motorcycle racing carer that would see him become Australia’s most decorated off-road racer, with an OAM (Medal of the Order of Australia) for his services to the industry. “Geoff was unbelievably good,” Jen recalls. “He rode so fast, but he also crashed so many times, he could go from first to last three times in a race. So when he decided to go to Europe to pursue his racing career, it was a given that we would go with him.” What followed was an amazing four years of thrills and spills and professional success. Living out of a motorhome on an absolute shoestring, Geoff, Jen and her 11-year-old daughter based themselves in the north of France and travelled all over Europe on the circuit for the “Olympics of motorcycling”, the International Six-Days Enduro (ISDE). To support themselves between events, they teamed up with the French answer to the daredevil Evel Knievel, Jacques Krouto, who ran a stunt show. So with Geoff on a bike, and Jen in the air precariously poised at the top of a ladder attached to the bike, or lying on the ground with her fellow team mates while the bikes jumped over them, they earned sufficient funds for Geoff to represent Australia 26 times and add 12 gold medals and seven silver medals to his CV. France brought an awakening of a different kind, because suddenly Jen had found the aesthetic that she loves and continues to celebrate to the present day. “I just loved the cobblestone streets, the stone houses and walls and the big baskets of geraniums,” she says. “I saw such beauty in marble and cast iron and utilitarian objects that have the patina of age.” Little wonder that when Jen heard that Hilroy, as she discovered the 1847 farmhouse was called, was on the market, she immediately knew it would be a great canvas for her passion for design and
Above: Jen mixes functional, contemporary appliances with country touches such as the zinc-topped kitchen table, wire baskets for storing utensils, a butler’s sink and an old bread bin. Left: The region experiences extremes in summer and winter, so a good stockpile of firewood is an essential for the inevitable colder months when the temperature often drops below zero.
decoration. “We looked at it for about two hours,” Jen recalls. “We met the owners, historian Ted and artist Bev Docker, who had created that fabulous haphazard garden and a couple of days later, we bought it.” Jen looked to the Dockers to fill in the details of the farmhouse’s history and was fascinated to learn that the property had served as the schoolmaster’s residence for many years. “It was also a
kind of a boarding house in winter,” she explains. “When there was too much snow in the valley for the children to go home, the schoolmaster and his wife would let them stay in the attic so their education wasn’t interrupted.” Jen also learned that the farm was initially called Mallara, but the name was changed by the Dockers’ predecessors, Hilda and Roy Olsen, who amalgamated their first names to create the moniker › HOMES Australian Country 17
when they moved in in 1950s. When Bev and Ted came along in the 1980s, they thought of reverting to the original name, but bureaucracy got in the way, and Hilroy has stuck. Jen says she loves the sense of continuity that comes with the house and the stories that are part of its very fabric. She adds that she was mindful of her place in a long history when she approached the renovation and is delighted that Bev has given her efforts her seal of approval. Jen set about giving the farmhouse a facelift with a distinctly French accent. Floor coverings were removed and floorboards polished, bedrooms cleared out, rustic iron light fittings added and shabby painted finishes utilised throughout. Jen then set to work colouring
Clockwise from above: Jen shows her dab hand at painted finishes in the dining room; even the mud room gets a makeover with baskets and urns filled with flowers; Jen’s signature style extends to her outfit.
in the details, with soft furnishings, books and big urns of flowers to give the home a light and bright ambience that still acknowledged its long history. Sadly, the Ballards had little time to enjoy the retreat when it came time to move their business to the Gold Coast. So when we visited, the property was again on the market and Jen was looking forward 18 Australian Country HOMES
to the next challenge. “I had visions of lots of lovely girls’ weekends in the mountains and sharing the garden and the produce with family and friends,” Jen says. “However, it was not to be and now I’m on the lookout for another project, possibly in Queensland. Who knows what’s around the corner?” As they say in the serials, watch this space. ACH
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Create that elegant French provincial style with a palette of wicker and soft pastel hues. compiled by DARIA KURILO
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20 Australian Country HOMES
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This page: David’s daily flower offerings are often the inspiration for Criss’s celebrated still-life paintings.
The art of life Art, food and flowers collide in a joyous celebration of the finer things in life at Burnside, in the central Victorian highlands. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
“I
didn’t do it for you,” artist Criss Canning candidly admits as she ushers us into the kitchen at Burnside, the home she shares with her nurseryman husband, David Glenn, in the central Victorian goldfields region. Indeed the display that greets us resembles one of her celebrated still lifes, featuring vases filled with flowers, platters and bowls laden with fruit, and jars and bottles meticulously lined up on the shelves. “David brings me flowers every day,” she adds. “They are so beautiful, it would be unthinkable not to make the most of them.”
Criss and David inherited the bluestone homestead with a 40-acre (16-hectare) property they bought at Avoca in 1991. It took the best part of a year to relocate David’s Lambley Nursery from the Dandenong Ranges to central Victoria, and the house was run down and needed major renovation work to make it habitable. The house and garden have been works in progress almost continuously ever since, though Criss is at pains to point out that neither of them makes much distinction between work and leisure. Most days, David is up at dawn, overseeing watering, planting and
the countless tasks involved in running the nursery that ships seeds and plants all over Australia. As well, he looks after the gardens that serve as display pieces for both dry-climate gardening and experimental beds for determining the best vegetable seed varieties for everything from yield and looks to flavour. Meanwhile, Criss spends at least eight hours a day working in her studio. She is represented by Sotheby’s Australia and is a veteran of 26 solo exhibitions. With four books to her credit, Criss is also represented in the permanent holdings of the National Gallery of Australia, the Art › HOMES Australian Country 23
This page: A splendid black swan rendition by Lucy McEachern in a cosy corner of the sunroom.
Gallery of NSW, the Art Gallery of Ballarat, the Cairns Art Gallery and Melbourne’s Artbank, as well as private collections of art lovers the world over. The land around present-day Ballarat had been managed by the traditional owners for many thousands of years before white settlement. As one of the first Europeans in the region in 1836, explorer and surveyor Major Thomas Mitchell’s reports of the good soil and pastures in the region had droves of squatters following in his footsteps. Among them was Captain Coghill who had come down from Braidwood in NSW and took up a vast swathe of land, which includes the present-day Burnside. “The discovery of gold at Clunes in 1851 brought about the second invasion, this time of miners,” David explains. “Due to the discovery, a lot of squatters had their leases terminated but were granted a pre-emptive right to one square mile. This right meant that ownership extended to the centre of the earth. We only have 40 acres [16 hectares] here, but the historic right continues, so technically we own to middle earth.” By pure coincidence, in the 1840s, Criss’s great-great-grandfather also lived in the region and worked for another famous local settler, Captain Hepburn. “My mother had access to a diary, which noted that he rode over on horseback to do some work for Captain Coghill,” Criss recalls. “My paternal great-greatgreat-grandparents owned a farm in Ascot during the mid-1800s. I didn’t know about this connection when my father died, but when we placed his ashes under a sculpture in the garden, it felt right. Without knowing it, I’d brought him home.” The property was subsequently bought in 1853 by John Lester, who later became the district’s shire president. “The first house was probably a cannibalisation of Coghill’s timber ›
Clockwise from left: Stained glass and elements of chinoiserie in the entrance hallway; the studio is lined with vases and vessels Criss collects on her travels; the house is filled with her own and friends’ artworks.
HOMES Australian Country 25
cottage,” David says. “But in the 1860s, the Lesters started work on the present homestead with bluestone quarried on the property and bricks made on-site. A travelling brick maker came up from Bacchus Marsh for the works.” As befitted a well-connected gentlemen of the time, John Lester set to work on the garden. In this task, he was inadvertently helped by the Victorian government botanist and first director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Baron von Mueller, who also designed the Ballarat Botanical Gardens. David says two towering trees — a Sequoiadendron giganteum and a Pinus nigra — probably came from von Mueller’s seed collection, intended for the many public gardens he helped build. Sons of John Lester moved on to Gippsland more than 100 years ago and that line still farms there today. The Lesters who kept Burnside ran out of heirs and when they retired, the farm was sold to a descendant of Coghill. Criss recalls the Burnside they inherited had parts of the ceiling falling in and leaking windows “There were rats in the cellar and possums in the roof and, believe me, it’s taken a lot of work to get to what you see today,’’ she says. ‘‘But that only makes us appreciate it more. It is just wonderful to be here.” The garden, too, presented many challenges, as David points out that it had been continually grazed from the 1830s and the soil was seriously compacted. “Basically, we started with 20 acres [eight hectares] of weeds,” David says. “But, gradually, we’ve chipped away at it and now I can pick flowers for Criss in all but the two mid-winter months. We arrived to drought, which persisted for almost 15 years. And then when it finally broke, vast areas and thousands of dollars worth of mulch were washed away by floods. But that’s part and parcel of living in rural Australia. We do go from one extreme to another.” 26 Australian Country HOMES
Above: A blazing fire is a good remedy for the often frosty weather of winter in Victoria’s goldfields region. Below: Brushes and vases from Criss’s extensive collection form part of the decor in the studio.
These days, however, the vegie garden, where David trials seed varieties, and the orchard produce more fruit and veg than the couple can ever hope to eat. The larder is full of bottled surplus, including David’s legendary marmalade, jams, chutneys, passata, pasta sauce and pickles, and they give loads of fresh produce away. Criss’s career has been similarly punctuated with feasts and famines. As she recalls her childhood, when she wasn’t drawing, she was dancing, attending up to seven classes a week. As a school leaver, she started work designing embroidery for women’s clothing at the height of the kaftan era. “My boss used to go to › painting classes and when he saw my
Clockwise from above: Most rooms frame views of the beautiful garden David has created; flowers and art inform Criss’s decorating style; David and Criss take a moment for tea on the verandah.
HOMES Australian Country 27
folio, he encouraged me to do likewise and introduced me to Max Middleton,” Criss recalls. “I started going to painting classes two nights a week and I knew that I had found what I was meant to be doing. Much to my family’s horror, I abandoned the notion of a career in dance. Frankly, I didn’t think I was tough enough to be a dancer. As an artist, at least you have the privacy of your studio to make errors. As a dancer, you have to do it in front of an audience.” Criss married young but the marriage didn’t last. “I found myself as a young single mother with two babies to feed,” she recalls. “Times were tough, but I managed to buy a little house and even take the children to Greece for a year, which was also an opportunity to visit the galleries of Europe. Simple acts of kindness got me through as did the many people who encouraged my work along the way.” She had her first exhibition at 32 and met David when she visited the nursery to get flowers to paint. “He is my rock,” she says. “He encourages me to be strong and to stay true to my vision. Spending day after day in the studio is a very solitary existence and travel is my antidote to that. Every time I go overseas, my work takes a leap.” 28 Australian Country HOMES
Above: A loft bedroom provides guest accommodation for David and Criss’s visiting family and friends. Top: The roomy main bathroom is a monochromatic study with an elegant soothing atmosphere.
So, too, does her collection of props. The studio is filled with a vast assortment of vases and vessels, fabrics and other artefacts that inevitably find their way into her works. “I scour antique shops and flea markets,” Criss says. “When I see something perfect, I can usually envisage the painting I’ll do. On a recent trip to Austria, I posted home about 40 vases in bubble wrap. They all made it undamaged
and I have already used many of them.” Criss adds that, having overcome a health crisis, she has no intention of slowing down. “I count my blessings daily,” she says. “I have my soulmate by my side and I feel that I am just hitting my stride in my 70s. Art is not a career choice for stability, but I have reached a stage where I am comfortable with that. The amazing adventure continues.” ACH
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Inspired by ... Vibrant art meets country charm in this Victorian highlands homestead. compiled by DARIA KURILO
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1 Green glass vase, $34, cranmorehome.com.au, 0437 647 811 2 Freestanding Madeline towel rack, $119, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 3 Boheme ribbed tan rug, $1069, thedesignhunter.com.au, 02 9386 9638 4 Desmond faux fur Breakfast cushion, $59.95, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 5 Birch cafe chair, $149, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 6 Paisley tiles, POA, jennoliart.com.au, 02 9981 1009 7 Dinkum Magpies sculpture, $115, australianwoodwork.com.au, 02 6645 1702
30 Australian Country HOMES
Sup∞rfin∞ m∞rino wool fashion
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MONOCHROME MAGIC A serial renovator finds her nest in New South Wales’ stunning Northern Rivers, reviving an architecturally designed home with her bold signature style and bucketloads of black paint. --------------------
by TAMAR A SIMONEAU, photography ANASTASIA K ARIOFYLLIDIS
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ane Rennie-Hynes is fearless in her approach to life and renovating. Many wince at the thought of splashing a bit of colour on the walls, intimidated by any hue that ventures beyond the safe confines of the myriad shades of white. Most wouldn’t dare paint them black, but Jane is emboldened by her innate sense of style, nurtured in her childhood home rearranging her mother’s furniture. Coating her house in lashings of inky black inside and out certainly raised eyebrows along the way, until the end result voided any need for explanation. “Most people seem to have to compute that the house is painted black inside and out, then allow themselves to admit that it looks great,” Jane says. Jane’s Black Shack, as she calls it, is perched gloriously atop a rise in the verdant Tweed Range near the picturesque town of Murwillumbah, on the banks of the Tweed River. From her kitchen and front patio, Mount Warning looms, a rocky lone wolf against a stark blue sky most days and a dramatic backdrop to passing storms on others. Her driveway is hard to find off a winding rural road, creeping through lush tropical gardens before the Black Shack comes into view at the top. Jane counterbalanced all that black with bright white trims, while a pair of aged stone lions lies in greeting either side of the sandstone stairs that lead up to the house. It’s her little slice of heaven, and it’s striking and subtle all at once. “This house is a bit unique with the timber double-hung windows and the architectural cross-beams all framing the views on either side,” she says. ”My vision was to highlight those features without › 32 Australian Country HOMES
These pages: Jane’s quirky colour scheme may initially have raised eyebrows, but now it is acknowledged that she has created an oasis of style in the Tweed Valley.
losing lightness. I wanted the house to pop but still complement the surrounds.” She purchased the property after one inspection less than two years ago. “I saw it, saw the great features, felt the amazing vibe of the house and property, and wanted to bring it back to something glorious,” she says. “It all happened fairly quickly, and I’m a big believer in things that are meant to be falling into place easily.” Just as quickly, she pulled on her work boots and set about giving it a new lease on life with help from trusted tradies within her family, who have learnt to have faith in Jane’s instincts and enjoy the no-holds-barred renovation ride. “It’s almost like you want the house to be proud of itself again, to sit up here sticking out its chest saying ‘look at me, don’t I look gorgeous, come and enjoy me’. That’s what drives me and the sharing of the home with family and friends when it is completed.” With a background in commercial property development, Jane has built up a portfolio of residential investment properties along ›
Clockwise from opposite: Pampered pooch Sebastian gives the nod to the living area; extensive windows frame views of the verdant Tweed Valley landscape; Jane even painted the benchtops black. HOMES Australian Country 35
the way — giving most of them complete overhauls. “Houses to me all have their own personalities,” Jane says. “I see them and they talk to me, the essence of them, and from there comes the vision of how they will look. Restoring the charm of a house that has been let go into a home that is loved, lived in and enjoyed by all who visit, what’s not to love about that?” Nothing seems to daunt her; she can sledgehammer old walls in seconds and rip up a verandah full of cracking and crusted tiles before lunch, and she’ll have her hilly eight acres (three hectares) mowed and manicured in time for sunset gin and tonics by the magnesium pool with her partner, Merv, who visits from Mount Isa whenever he can. “I think it would be fair to say I have always been an independent soul, probably due to being the eldest of six kids,” Jane says. “I believe that had many advantages, not least of all being responsible for myself.” 36 Australian Country HOMES
Above left: Cane furniture, potted orchids and lush green surrounds add to the tropical atmosphere. Above: Jane stayed on theme indoors and out, with chevron-printed and striped cushions on the deck.
A modest upbringing also fostered a love of treasure hunting, and Jane’s filled the Black Shack with a mix of second-hand finds from far and wide and rare items she trawls for online for hours. Every piece is considered and each has a story. She once drove 10 hours for a pair of vintage wicker chairs that set her back much less than the cost of petrol for the trip! “The house is my sanctuary, set up to feed what feeds
my soul,” she muses. “I share this with people I love, people who also need to find sanctuary at times, people who make me laugh and who share the same values as me. Your vibe does attract your tribe and I really like having a place where my family and girlfriends can come chill and have a break from their kids or family needs and find themselves again, rejuvenate and go home feeling good.” ›
Clockwise from left: A perfect spot for a Planter’s Punch sundowner; Jane and Sebastian enjoy the tropical surrounds; palms and greenery provide a cooling contrast to the palette.
HOMES Australian Country 37
But, true to form, she is certainly not finished yet. “My family loves music,” Jane says. “My younger brother is a musician, my sister plays piano, another brother plays guitar and we can all hold a tune. So I’ll be building a stage down the back, which is like a natural amphitheatre, to host some house concerts. I’ve had some at my previous home and they are a really nice time for adults to do something for themselves — chill, listen to some good music from talented artists, enjoy a wine or beer and forget about life for a while.” Somewhere between projects and planning, Jane does find time to enjoy all she’s worked so hard for. Her perfect antidote for a hectic day is “to cook some dinner for my partner and me while watching the last light fade over Mount Warning, sipping a nice buttery Chardonnay and chatting about our days. Then it’s a long soak in the tub and some reading in bed before lights out listening to the frogs and crickets, watching the moon come up from bed.” Like a scene from a movie, it’s not hard to imagine it all playing out before a peaceful fade to black. ACH 38 Australian Country HOMES
Clockwise from above: Although the location is subtropical, the elevation means it can be cool enough in winter to justify an open fire; the master bedroom looks out to the garden; black tiles, a sunken bath and a green wall in the bathroom contribute to Jane’s signature style of effortless elegance.
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Embrace Jane's monochromatic stylee with natural timber, textured fabrics and big bursts of greenery. 1
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1 Mud cloth throw, $189, safarifusion.com.au, 0416 037 117 2 Tractor bar stool, $127.95, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 3 Mud cloth ottoman, $479, safarifusion.com.au, 0416 037 117 4 Mirage floor lamp, $218.95, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 5 Anglet round floor rug, $245, thedesignedit.com.au, 03 9013 5678 6 Classic tan leather cushion, $175, thedesignhunter.com.au, 02 9386 9638 7 Hand-woven collapsible basket, $19.95, shop.oxfam.org.au, 1800 088 455
HOMES Australian Country 39
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with the Spantec system being on the inside of the structure. • Size of the floor and deck structure was 690m2. • Home was built over a sloping site which fell approximately
2.5 degress north across the width of the home. • Due to the high termite and bushfire zone the wall frames and roof trusses were all manufacture out of steel.
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“Due to the nature of the site we had to choose a sub-floor and pier-type arrangement. When the geo-technical report was completed, we found that the site where the house was intended to be built contained Hawkesbury sandstone. On top of this, the house was located in a rural setting adjacent to bushland meaning there was a high probability for termite attack and we were about to build in a bushfire zone. As we wanted to use a tongue-and-groove floor over a plywood base, we required a sub-floor that had no bows or twists, was made of steel, and provided a solution that gave us peace of mind in the location in which we were about to build. After researching a lot of companies, we choose Spantec, as it was a reputable company that had been around for years, the sub-floor products were of the highest of quality and I found the service to be excellent. Spantec had a large selection of different sized beams, and this worked in well with my design as we had to achieve a large span over the garage areas. Using the Spantec system we could achieve this without requiring additional posts or deep timber beams that would reduce the height of the ceilings. Spantec offered us a design package that came with a full set of site drawings, which we found to be very accurate when it came to putting the material together onsite.”
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These pages: The Yorks relocated the 1882 house from Springsure and gave it a complete makeover to create a stylish showpiece.
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A small-town showpiece With equal measures of good luck, hard work and design flair, the York family enjoys an enviable lifestyle in the tiny central Queensland town of Rolleston. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
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hen Alex York moved to Springsure in central Queensland and fell in love with an old Queenslander, little did she know that in another time and place, she would be living in it. She recalls arriving as a young nanny in the district, gazing over the fence at the 1882 homestead and dreaming of owning such a house. That was 26 years ago and she had just met her husband-to-be, Jeff, an agronomist who worked across the road from the high Victorian weatherboard house for stock and station agent Primac. “There’s been a lot of water under the bridge since then,” Alex says. “Jeff and I married and moved to Moura, and life got pretty hectic as we ended up with five kids under the age of five. When Jeff decided he wanted to start his own agribusiness, we agreed it could only work if we lived right next door to it. As luck would have it, we found what we were looking for in Rolleston. Jeff had confided his plans to a client who had become a friend and, amazingly, he made us an offer that at the time seemed too good to be true.” As it turned out, the client’s in-laws owned — you guessed it — the old Queenslander in Springsure. Albeit much the worse for wear, with the verandahs half falling off and white ants constantly feasting on the timber. “The offer was that we could have the house if we removed it, restored it to a family home and cleaned up the block it
had stood on in Springsure,” Alex explains. “Because we knew the children would have to share bedrooms, we made the proviso that we would only accept if one room measured at least five metres long. I knew it was meant to be when Jeff went to
inspect and he rang and reported that the first room was 5.7 metres long. He quickly added that I shouldn’t get too excited as he could see daylight through the walls.” Where there’s a will, there’s a way › and the Yorks forged on, finding a house HOMES Australian Country 43
Clockwise from opposite: Felicia the bookworm in the huge open-plan living area; wooden fretwork is a feature of the master bedroom; the boys share a bunk room.
removalist from Roma to shift the home the 70-odd kilometres from Springsure to Rolleston, and throwing themselves into the restoration of what some had disparagingly dismissed as “a pile of matchsticks”. Jeff was hands-on with much of the restoration, and commuted at weekends from Moura to work on the house. His parents also helped out, staying in their motorhome as works proceeded. Amazingly enough, the family moved into the work in progress just four months after it arrived on-site in time for Christmas 2010. Applying her considerable design nous Alex then set to work colouring in the canvas that the home presented. These days, it’s such a showplace that passers-by stop to take pictures of the grand old lady restored to her glory days. A huge double fireplace that divided the kitchen from the living room had to be demolished before the house could be moved and the Yorks made the decision to leave the kitchen, dining and living area as one large open space. The cement blocks from the fireplace were repurposed as walls for a rose garden at the front of the house and a firepit out the back. They crowned the entrance stairs with six iron finials, souvenired by Alex’s grandfather, who had been the Brisbane City Council’s bridge engineer when the Victoria Bridge was replaced in the 1890s. Jeff and Alex then decided to extend the verandahs with an outdoor barbecue and eating area to one side. “We matched it all up by using the same balustrading all round,” Alex says. “It’s turned out to be a great addition as it extended our living space and we spend a lot of time out there.” And living space the Yorks need, as the family now includes George, Sidney, Felicia, twins Elliot and Olivia, and Arcadia, who arrived with such haste that she was born in the master bedroom. As if managing the young family and the
business were not enough, the Yorks also took the decision to home school the children. With Alex in the role of home supervisor, they do classes through the Home Education Unit of the Queensland Department of Education.
“Our reasons for home schooling have evolved,” Alex explains. “Initially when we lived in Moura, it was to do with the school culture but since we’ve moved, it’s more to do with how it suits the children, not to mention us financially. When you have six › HOMES Australian Country 45
kids and high school means six years of boarding school for each of them, it adds up to a truly scary figure. So we made the decision that they will go away for years nine to 12. That means George will start this year.” In the meantime, Alex hastens to add, her approach to home schooling is not to push, push, push. Rather it is to explore each child’s strengths and guide them in that direction. Although only in year one, Arcadia has already demonstrated her mathematical bent and is comfortable with fractions. Felicia rarely has her head out of a book and while all the children share household chores, George knows his way around the kitchen, preparing lunch for the entire family on the day we visited and having recently taken on a host of outstanding country bakers to take out the prize for Grand Champion Cake of the Springsure Show. Nonetheless, the home school routine is not just about doing the things you’re good at, and Alex maintains a pretty strict 8am to 3pm regimen, to keep on top of the curriculum and prepare the children for the discipline of the high school classroom, when they eventually have to don uniforms and toe the line. When school’s out, however, the world, or at least Rolleston, population 120-ish, is their oyster and the children 46 Australian Country HOMES
Above: Polished floorboards, intricate fanlights and weatherboard walls are Queenslander hallmarks. Top: Felicia, Olivia and Arcadia in their bedroom, featuring high ceilings and a light and airy atmosphere.
are free to ride their bikes and roam all over the tiny township where the Brown River becomes the Comet. For the York kids, however, it’s just part of their playground, a place for a cooling swim on a hot summer’s day, or perhaps to hook a yellow belly for dinner. In spite of its tiny population, Rolleston and the surrounding district supports a vibrant arts community and a busy social life. The Yorks’ house adjoins the John Beazley Park, where a bunch of locals maintains a coffee cart during the tourist season from Easter until September/October.
“We work on a roster and sell coffee and home-made cakes to visitors coming or going from the wilderness destination of Carnarvon Gorge,” Alex explains. “The whole world passes through Rolleston at certain times of the year and we decided we needed to encourage visitors to take a closer look at our town and raise a bit of money for the community at the same time. It may just be a dot on the map, but Rolleston really has a lot to offer in terms of community. We couldn’t be happier with the way things have worked out for our family.” ACH
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Inspired by ... Finishing touches and accessories that transform a house into a home. compiled by DARIA KURILO
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1 Decorative teak-root ladder, $99, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 2 Parrot and Palms print, $69.98, wallartprints.com.au, 1300 181 546 3 Mango wood heart, $12.95, shop.oxfam.org.au, 1800 088 455 4 Willow table cloth, $123, lmhome.com.au, 03 9419 6800 5 Garden ginger jar, $85, lavenderhillinteriors.com.au, 02 8399 5890 6 The Floral Garden cushion cover, $49.95, shop.oxfam.org.au, 1800 088 455 7 Revive rug, $4500, tribehome.com.au, 0402 491 972
48 Australian Country HOMES
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These pages: Kristine’s home is a tribute to her eye for detail and DIY creative ablility to turn other people’s discards into truly fabulous decorator objects.
A BUSY BEE Kristine Franklin says anybody can do what she has done to transform her outer-Melbourne home into a design showcase. But not everyone has her amazing eye for detail and ability to turn trash into treasure. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
F
or as long as she can remember, Kristine Franklin has loved decorating and rearranging furniture. By the age of 18, she had compiled a scrapbook packed with magazine cuttings as an aide-memoire for how her dream home would look. And when she and her husband, Luke, bought that home, or at least a modest first-homebuyer’s version of it on Melbourne’s northeastern outskirts, she was finally able to start translating her plans into reality. Several years down the track, that house is as camera ready as any we’ve ever photographed, with almost every room a tribute to Kristine’s signature style, thrifty approach and countless hours of hard slog converting pre-loved and bargain furnishings into handsome pieces. Yet she says it’s still a work in progress and probably always will be because, along the way, Kristine has discovered she has a flair for interior design, furniture restoration and DIY decorator projects and she just loves exercising it. She has also discovered that she potentially has a career in the field and is collecting a growing portfolio of clients who just love what she does and want her to do it for them. “I’ve been running a furniture revival business for a few years now,” she explains. “It started out with me doing up pieces for our place, but there’s only so much furniture you can fit in a house, so I sold pieces that I no longer wanted on eBay, which also helps offset the cost of the new purchases. Then I started blogging about what I was doing and now I’m amazed to report that I have thousands of followers, the majority of whom are
American. At first, friends asked me to do projects for them, but increasingly people who have heard about me through my blog are getting in touch.” Inadvertently, Kristine discovered she is building an interior design business.
Some consultations take place face to face, but many of them are done online. “E-decorating is common in the States,” Kristine explains. “I have a program that creates renders of rooms and I use Photoshop to create mood boards for my
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HOMES Australian Country 51
Clockwise from above: Beautiful bay windows frame the living room; Kristine scoured the internet to find the replica Tolix chairs for a song; part of her great flair is a keen eye for an appealing grouping.
clients. It’s then quite a simple matter to email my suggestions to them and we chat back and forth as the work progresses.” Driven by both limited resources and a deep suspicion of buying anything new, Kristine admits that eBay is the cornerstone of her business. She is a frequent browser and manages to find the most amazing bargains within the greater Melbourne region. “Fortunately, Dad owns a ute,” she says. “Most weekends, we are traipsing off somewhere to pick up an online purchase. I also haunt antique, second-hand and thrift shops.” It’s then that the magic begins as Kristine goes to work breathing new life into her pieces. With her talent for transforming cheap purchases with paint, paper and a great deal of patience and artistic flair, she turns these recycled and found objects into pieces that would otherwise be prohibitively expensive to buy. Many of these projects are chronicled on a blog she has named The Painted Hive, which comes with the tagline, “You don’t 52 Australian Country HOMES
need royal jelly to have a happy hive”. There you can learn how she made a lamp stand from an abandoned drum of brake fluid and plastic lace, a light shade from an upturned wire basket, how she downloaded the map of Paris that hangs above her bed bit by bit and reassembled it in Photoshop and how the grouping of nature studies in the living room came as free printables downloaded from the internet. Plain linen is transformed into striped sackcloth with
painter’s tape and craft paint and the mobile in daughter Charlotte’s bedroom is an assembly of laser-cut leaves, wooden birds and twigs that Kristen picked up on walks in the nearby bushland. Kristine modestly dismisses her projects as things “anybody could do, except they can’t be bothered”. But in doing so, she is overlooking her extraordinary eye for spotting a bargain and identifying how it can be turned into a work of art. She is ›
Clockwise from above: Vintage scales, a claw-foot bath and retro steps are features in the bathroom; Kristine thinks nothing of whipping up cushion covers or upholstering chairs; she is also a keen gardener.
also a consummate shopper and spends as much time as the mother of a young family can manage scouring websites for sales and special deals. “I don’t have anything against buying things new,” she says. “But pre-loved items often seem to have more character. I’d say 90 per cent of my furniture is secondhand and I wait to find new purchases discounted or on sale. ‘‘Even our lounge suite was floor stock 54 Australian Country HOMES
and I scoured the websites to find the replica Tolix chairs in the dining room at the best possible price.” Confined to hospital for two months prior to daughter Charlotte’s birth, Kristine says she did what any other bored inpatient with wireless internet would do and shopped online. There, she found bargain ticking sheets from EziBuy and countless other little finishing touches for her own and her clients’ homes.
“I always have a list of projects I want to do,” she explains. “Of course, my children are my priority at the moment, but I think I may well have stumbled across the perfect career for someone with my passions. The beauty of it is I can do it from home and in my own time.” If you would like to keep up with Kristine’s adventures in decorating wonderland, visit her website, thepaintedhive.net ACH
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Inspired by ... Inuenced by antiques, these timeless pieces can add a world of character and charm to any home. compiled by DARIA KURILO
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1 Silver rocking horse, $19.95, frenchknot.com.au, 02 9146 4720 4 2 Vintage iron lantern, $29, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 3 Anabella gold large wall mirror, $649, shinemirrors.com.au,, 1300 797 708 4 Streamline kitchen scales, $63.95, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 5 Band Tail wall art, $1399, theinteriordesigner.com.au, 0402 387 170 6 Petrofina cushion, $121, thedesignhunter.com.au, h d h 02 9386 9638 Dunn 60-metre jute twine, $3.50, bigw.com.au, 1300 244 999
HOMES Australian Country 55
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Art with heart Artist and graphic designer Martine Vanderspuy channels her many talents towards fundraising to help find a cure for a rare genetic disorder. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
B
y the time they get around to having baby number three, most mothers can be forgiven for feeling they have parenting pretty much down pat. Sydney graphic designer Martine Vanderspuy confesses that after raising children Kristina and Dan with relative ease, she was totally unprepared for the curve ball that life delivered with the birth of Tom. “I’d managed to stay on top of motherhood and my work as a graphic designer for magazines and advertising agencies,” she recalls. “But it was a completely different story with Tom. From the outset, he couldn’t feed and he had to be fed through a nasal-gastric tube. Then it emerged that his stomach wasn’t processing food properly, so it had to be bypassed, which meant feeding by tube directly into his bowel.” For Martine and her husband, Alan Martin, and their entire family, it was the start of a nightmare that continues to the present day. It wasn’t until Tom was five that he was finally diagnosed with mitochondrial disease, a debilitating and potentially fatal genetic disorder that robs the body’s cells of energy causing organ systems to become damaged and fail. There are currently few effective treatments and, at this stage, no cure for the disease. In Tom’s case, it means that although, on a good day, he looks like a perfectly healthy boy, he has multiple medical issues. In his short life, he has experienced 36 medical procedures requiring general anaesthesia, has suffered bouts of cluster headaches that leave him › 58 Australian Country HOMES
These pages: Martine has brought her considerable design skills to decorating her home.
Above: Wildlife prints reflect Martine’s formative years in the Cape Town region of South Africa. She also uses screen-printed fabrics to make bedheads, cushions and other soft furnishings.
writhing on the floor in agony, has retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that causes night blindness, tunnel vision and eventual permanent loss of sight and, at times, his speech and motor skills are also affected. Tom can’t go anywhere without his backpack, which contains the nutrients that tube-feed him day and night. “When Tom was born, mito was 60 Australian Country HOMES
considered an internet fallacy,” Martine explains. “That was one of the reasons why it took so long for him to get a diagnosis. Gradually, the evidence built to the stage where it was actually recognised as a disease, though initially thought to be extremely rare. Finally, we connected with neurogeneticist Professor Carolyn Sue, of the Kolling Institute for Medical Research
at Sydney’s Royal North Shore Hospital, and she confirmed the diagnosis medically. Now research shows that mito is actually much more common than initially thought and that one in 200 Australians carries the genetic mutation that puts them at risk of developing the disease.” Often called the cells’ powerhouses or generators, mitochondria are the energy source in almost every body cell. They transform food to produce 90 per cent of the energy needed by the body to function and grow. Mitochondria are most plentiful in tissues that require a lot of energy to function and therefore the disease causes most damage to the cells of the brain, muscles, heart, liver, inner ear and eyes. Researchers now believe that mito (as the disease is called) may also be a significant factor in a wide range of diseases including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Huntington’s, motor neurone, cardiovascular, diabetes and even tumour metastasis. With very little but the strength of their convictions that a cure must be found to help Tom’s plight, Martine and Alan set about rearranging their lives to go into battle on his behalf. “As Tom needs more constant care than other children, I pretty soon realised I needed to work from home,” Martine recalls. “So I sold my graphic design business and took on media work that allowed me to work my own hours. Alan is a geologist and has to spend a lot of time overseas, so it was important that I was as flexible as I could be to fill in the gaps. I also decided to devote as much of my spare time as possible to fundraising for the Kolling Institute and the Australian Mitochondrial Disease Foundation (AMDF).” These days, Martine designs a suite of food industry magazines as her main source of income. When Tom is well enough, he attends school for half the day and has a nanny/carer in the afternoons. As part of her intensive internet research into mito, Martine learned that LED light therapy had been successful in mitigating some mito patients’ symptoms. Tom now
Clockwise from above: Martine’s Food for Thought collection includes giant fruit still lifes; Martine in the living room of her stylish Sydney home; Tom’s bedroom features a giant watery feature wallpaper.
has his own sun bed containing 2500 LED lights and with just 50 minutes a day on it, his vision impairment has shown significant improvement and other symptoms have been mitigated as well. As a result, Martine’s fundraising efforts are now directed at funding a proper clinical trial into light therapy. “In the past, I held a big Christmas gift sale at our house to raise money for mito research,” Martine explains. “But that was hugely time consuming so I needed to find a way to mix my fundraising with my day job. I’ve always been a keen photographer and I have a vast image library, so it wasn’t too much of a leap to decide to start an image gallery for bespoke artworks for the home.” Martine’s work fuses macro photography with the bold aesthetics of graphic design. High-key photography is blended with illustration and painting as well as tactile effects such as resin, varnish, paint, Perspex and metal. Her designs translate onto canvas, metal and paper for hanging artworks, and wallpaper or fabrics for rugs, upholstery, cushions, curtains ... pretty much any surface a client wants covered with an image. “What I like best is working with clients to create bespoke works for their interiors,” she says. “I can help them turn their own images into artworks. A percentage of every sale goes to mito research and I’m pleased to report that since 2008, I have › HOMES Australian Country 61
This page: Cool blues in the bathroom are emphasised by the floor tiles, moulded-glass vanity and giant sea-foam images from Martine’s Paint and Pattern collection. A percentage of sales of her work goes to research into mitochondrial disease, which affects the body’s ability to process food along with other functions.
raised more than $250,000 for the cause.” Martine and Alan’s Sydney home is both a showroom and gallery for her artworks and every room displays pieces. There are stunning wildlife images referencing her childhood in South Africa, while giant botanicals peer down from the walls. These can trace their inspiration back to Old Nectar, the only privately owned National Monument-listed garden in South 62 Australian Country HOMES
Africa, which was established by Martine’s grandmother near Stellenbosch, not far from Cape Town, in the 1940s. Fabulous fruit still lifes represent the Food for Thought collection, while Paint and Pattern includes giant sea-foam images rendered more tactile through resin and paint. Meanwhile, Martine adds that for all its pitfalls and heart-wrenching moments, life with Tom has been deeply enriching. “If he
hears me say that mito is a terminal condition, he always says that his is not,” she says. “He’s such a life-positive force and we have all benefited from the experience. He’s a loving and happy person and his disease has taught our family to appreciate each and every day.” For more information on mito visit mito. org.au. To view Martine’s gallery, go to martinegallery.com ACH
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DOWN IN THE WOODS Furniture polish practically runs in the veins of Victorian stylist Cathy Court. At her home in the Dandenong Ranges, she celebrates her family’s long tradition as master wood carvers in the United Kingdom. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
M
ost people can name a French parfumier of choice but for Cathy Court, the fragrance that sends her into a swoon is not Fragonard or Chanel or even Guerlain, but furniture polish. One whiff of the distinctive combination of beeswax, citrus oil and turpentine and Cathy is transported back to her childhood in England, where she was raised in a family of master furniture craftsmen. “My grandfather Frank Hudson was a 68 Australian Country HOMES
master wood carver,” Cathy explains. “He started his business at the end of WWII repairing bomb-damaged furniture. Gradually, he moved into bespoke furniture, which was sold mainly through Harrods. But my earliest memories of Grandpa involve him caressing the wood, touching and feeling the grain with a genuine love for his medium.” Cathy’s father met her mother, a pubsign artist at art college in their home town of High Wycombe in London’s
north-west. He followed his father into the business, which is now run by her brothers, sales manager Tim, carver James and upholsterer Thomas. These days, Frank Hudson Ltd has extended its reach into ranges that are sold in the UK through John Lewis and Selfridges, and some of the components are outsourced to highly skilled carvers in Indonesia and Romania. But the attention to detail remains the same and the brand is as strong as ever. ›
These pages: Ty Coed was built in 1909 for Australian politician and war-time prime minister William (Billy) Hughes.
Clockwise from above: The house has a distinct early-20th-century ambience, reinforced by furniture made by the company founded by Cathy’s grandfather, Frank Hudson, a master wood carver in post-WWII England; dahlias, roses and family memorabilia in the living room; the house in the woods is surrounded by towering trees with the entry framed by sprawling tree ferns.
70 Australian Country HOMES
Cathy, who says everyone in her family has a creative bent, initially worked in the music industry in England and came to Australia as a backpacker in 1997. She’d known her husband, Andrew, an executive with oil and gas giant BP, since she was 15 and joined him in Melbourne for an extended holiday that has never ended. Living in the inner city, the couple frequently sought refuge from the rat race in the leafy parklands of the Dandenong Ranges. “We’d often come up to the Hills for a bit of fresh air and bushwalking,” Cathy recalls. “We loved the serenity of the Alfred Nicholas Memorial Gardens and the William Ricketts Sanctuary.” On one weekend visit in 2004, they came across a weatherboard house surrounded by towering trees for sale in the village of Sassafras. Built in 1909 for Australia’s party-hopping politician and WWI prime minister, William Morris (Billy) Hughes, it was appropriately named Ty Coed, which is Welsh for “house in the woods” and a reference to Hughes’ Welsh parents. “Our son, William, was two and our daughter, Madeleine (Maddy), was a newborn and it just seemed right to move to the Hills,” Cathy says. “It’s hard to believe we’ve been living up here for 14 years now, but it’s a move we’ve never regretted. It’s a wonderfully creative community that’s experienced quite a lot of changes as young families have moved out of the city in search of more affordable housing prices.” ›
Clockwise from above: Cathy in the kitchen; the large open-plan living area has a huge window framing views of the surrounding forest; the bedroom suite is one of many items of furniture by Frank Hudson Ltd dotted throughout the house. HOMES Australian Country 71
Clockwise from left: As the house is hidden in the woods, even the bathroom has views to the outdoors; a cosy corner; persimmons on the branch in a glass measuring vessel make a pleasing vignette.
Cathy adds that along with the changing demographic, lots of new business has come to the Hills, which is within an hour’s drive of Melbourne. “You never know what’s around the corner. But everything about our move has just felt right from the start. There’s a growing buzz about the area. [Chef] Shannon Bennett has taken over the Nicholas family property, Burnham Beeches, and there’s a feeling that the Hills are about to pop,” she says. “I’ll always have one foot in each country,” Cathy adds. “When I am in England, I get homesick for Australia and vice versa. But home is where you make it and that for me is now Australia. I truly have the best of both worlds. I doubt I’ll ever get over the thrill of going into my backyard and picking oranges from the trees. That could never happen in England.” ACH 72 Australian Country HOMES
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74 Australian Country HOMES
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Clockwise from this image: Sharon’s signature pops of red start at the front door, where there are a throw and basket from magnolialane. biz; the deck at the back of the house has a retractable roof.
Bangalow beauty A clever architect turned voice-over artist waves her magic wand over a century-old home in the heart of the northern NSW hinterland, transforming it for modern life. -------------------by TAMAR A SIMONEAU, photography ANASTASIA K ARIOFYLLIDIS
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o those lucky enough to call it home, Bangalow is a blissful utopia — high in the rolling hills behind the world-class beaches of Byron Bay, it’s a little enclave of creatives and self-starters encapsulating all that is the good life. Its main street has enough cosy cafes, fashion boutiques and beautifully curated homeware stores to satiate the throngs of day trippers who swell the population every weekend, and its surrounding roads are lined with gorgeous homes of different vintages
brimming with lush gardens courtesy of time well spent and the region’s enviably fertile soil. Among them is a dove-grey home with a fire-engine red door and a bull’shead knocker — a hint to visitors that stepping inside is going to be anything but predictable. It’s the creation of Sharon Fraser, a former architect, and it was nothing like it is today when she and husband, Steve, bought it six years ago. “It’s a special place as it was about the only one-acre (0.4-hectare) block in Bangalow,”
Sharon says. “But mainly we loved the virtually untouched old house that was here for us to put our stamp on.” And put their stamp on it they did, in a monumental way. “We did a lot of work,” Sharon recalls. “We dramatically increased the size and every part of it was altered and renovated in a big way, while still retaining the character. It was a very large project, involving lots of detailed drawings and working closely with a great builder.” Key to it all was creating an uncluttered, strikingly simple aesthetic with clean lines HOMES Australian Country 77
and minimal styling — comfortable for family life “but not cold and unliveable”, Sharon adds. That bold red front door opens to a grand hallway. “I love the wide hallway we inherited, then lengthened,” Sharon says. “And the fact that we turned it into a gallery for artwork.” To the left is Sharon and Steve’s daughter, China’s, room, flooded with light and filled with everything a youngster could need, including a second bed for sleepovers. Sharon and Steve adopted China as a baby and named her in honour of her birth country. “It’s the best thing we ever did,” Sharon says. “She was 13 months old when we finally could meet her and take her home. I would do it again in a heartbeat, it was a great experience to go through and what an outcome.” China has her own sense of style, but her designer mum’s taste has rubbed off on her, too. “It’s classic nature versus nurture in her case,” Sharon says. “She is becoming more like me, poor her. She keeps her room pretty minimal and I think that’s the nurture part, but she rebels against my minimalism enough to make it her own, for sure. She can let it get a little crazy, then suddenly the side like me kicks in and she’s in there spring cleaning and reordering it all.” Crisp white walls are contrasted with
Clockwise from above: Sharon favours a minimalist aesthetic; she turned the entrance hallway into a gallery; clean lines and lots of stone in the kitchen; a bull’s-head knocker on the front door.
78 Australian Country HOMES
recycled blackbutt floors and, throughout, Sharon’s pops of red tie it all together. “I’ve always loved red and then it became a little bit about China,” she says. “It’s something to do with her cultural heritage, and she loves red, too. To me, it’s always been a great accent colour when things are predominantly white.” Oversized doors and windows stretch the width of the home at the back, creating a seamless indoor-outdoor connection to the deck where the family spends lots of time together and entertaining friends. A lofty Vergola system in the roof of the outdoor area makes it temperate and usable in any season. “It’s a great feature as you can adjust it so that it lets sun in during winter, light in during summer, without direct sunlight, and shuts automatically when it rains,” Sharon explains. “I work from home and, to be honest, I quite like my work days.” Her work days aren’t what they used to be on many fronts. Once a sought-after architect with a portfolio of high-end designs, she’s now a voice-over Clockwise from above: A former architect, Sharon renovated extensively yet retained some features; a window in the living area frames views of the outdoors; the garden is lush thanks to the soil and climate.
HOMES Australian Country 81
Clockwise from left: Cushions and a throw, from Domayne, Maroochydore, in the guest bedroom; Steve, China and Sharon on the extended patio; towels, from Domayne, in the ensuite; the bathroom features a freestanding tub and more splashes of red.
artist — with a sound booth in the spare room. “I decided I needed a change after 20 years practising as an architect,” Sharon explains. “I never thought I would change careers at 50, let alone make a change at all. But I’m glad I did. I wanted to continue designing and realised I still could, just doing it for our own houses, so I wasn’t worried about missing it.” Making what may appear from the outside as such a dramatic career change has ended up being 82 Australian Country HOMES
anything but. “I actually feel my experience as an architect has helped my voice-over career — communicating with clients, understanding their brief,” she says. “I have always been interested in voice-over and I decided to go all out and find out as much as I could, learn as much as I could, practise, build my own sound booth and keep plugging away. It’s paid off; I now have clients and it slowly moved forward into a new career.”
And if Sharon ever feels the urge to pull on her architect hat again, there will be plenty of opportunities. This beautiful home is now in the hands of new owners and Sharon and Steve are on the hunt for their next project. In the meantime, friends considering a home makeover of their own have her expert advice on tap. “I can’t help myself,” Sharon says. “I love making suggestions when they start talking renovations.” ACH
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BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL A born decorator with a soft spot for bygone eras and a penchant for all things vintage skilfully revives an old Queenslander into a family home. --------------------
by TAMAR A SIMONEAU, photography JOHN DOWNS, styling TAHN SCOON
I
t takes a special gene to be able to successfully pair the classic and the quirky and balance the bold with the understated to create an inspired haven with surprises at every turn. Jodie Mae Ladhams has that gene in spades. In just three years, she’s transformed her character home on Brisbane’s north from “an explosion of peach and avocado with accents of the ’90s” to a sublime sanctuary for her family, including husband, Andrew, their children, Jesse and Sidonie, and three spoiled felines. “We were looking, looking, looking and this house kept showing her face in the searches, but she wasn’t in the area we were looking at,” Jodie recalls. “But, eventually, she said: ‘Oh come on, damn it’, so we went to have a look and the minute we walked in, it felt like home.” Jodie promptly tackled the home’s much-needed facelift, reviving the old Queenslander, circa 1883, in keeping with her signature style. “It’s like Vivienne Westwood mixed with Coco Chanel,” she says. Case in point is the kitchen, the ambient hub of family life. Zebra-hued vertical stripes pop dramatically against crisp white walls and feature subway tiles, and crystal bell pendant lights add classic elegance. “I grew up with a yellow and white striped kitchen and it was always so sunny and unique,” Jodie says. “I also don’t like regular kitchens. I like them to be furnished, so I chose the striped wallpaper to provide a good background for my mix of cupboards and wall plates.” The living room has become another canvas for Jodie’s creativity. Decorative timber fretwork frames a huge bay ›
84 Australian Country HOMES
These pages: Jodie describes her style as Vivienne Westwood mixed with Coco Chanel.
These pages: Time for afternoon tea in the formal living room, which is leavened by quirky touches.
window that floods the room with light and allows a generous glimpse of the cottage garden beyond. A linen chesterfield and occasional chairs paired with soft floral and sumptuous velvet cushions imbue a dreamy old-world charm where bonnets and silk gloves would be the perfect accessories. “I just acquire what I love and mix it together,” Jodie says of her decorating. That theme is evident in every room. “Ninety per cent of the things in my house are either heirlooms, gifts, finds with cool stories or things I just had to have,” she says. “I don’t care for contrived, mass-produced, or currently popular things. If I love it, I’ll have it.” And true to form, Jodie isn’t afraid to splash a little colour on her walls. “Pink is my favourite colour but I had to think of others, so the next best thing was Tiffany blue,” Jodie says. “It is a colour that goes really well with antiques and also frames the garden outside when you look out the window.” In another life, that window had a completely different outlook. The home’s 19th-century footprint was in Annerley, now an inner-city suburb, and its illustrious one-time owner was Lady Phyllis Cilento and her family. Known as a doctor well ahead of her time, › HOMES Australian Country 87
specialising in the care of mothers and babies, Phyllis ran her clinic from the home so she could balance work with raising her six children. She’d previously travelled the world, studying and working alongside her medic husband, hailing breakthroughs in treating illnesses with vitamins and campaigning for natural childbirth, family planning and the presence of fathers in the delivery room. Later, as a newspaper and magazine columnist under the moniker Medical Mother, she resonated with a generation and much of what she fought for came to be common practice. Today, Queensland’s renowned paediatric hospital is named in her honour. In the ’70s, the Cilentos had moved on and the stately home was transported to Brisbane’s north, not far from the serenity of Moreton Bay. Jodie has a short commute to work at her picture-perfect boutique, Hello Duckie, in Sandgate, where she spends her days curating and selling gorgeous treasures, new and old. It means she can indulge her passion 24/7, but it doesn’t mean she can’t restrain herself. “I ›
Clockwise from above: Jodie, Jesse and Sidonie at the entrance; Jodie has given the old Queenslander a big makeover; the dining room is a formal space.
88 Australian Country HOMES
This page: Jesse perches at the island bench in the kitchen where dramatic vertical piano stripes pop against the essentially white surrounds.
Clockwise from above White and grey blend with soft pastels in the master bedroom; the bathroom features chinoiserie-inspired wallpaper; Jodie skilfully mixes contemporary and traditional styles.
keep a few things if I truly love them,” she says. “But I don’t want to turn my house into a museum or a hoarder’s delight, so I’m pretty disciplined.” That’s lucky for her Duckies, as she fondly calls her customers, who can pop in for a coffee or gelato and pick up a fringed retro lampshade or oneoff vintage clutch on their way out. Jodie’s self-imposed discipline flies out the window, though, when it comes to 90 Australian Country HOMES
pretty teacups and saucers. “There are teacups everywhere here, I must admit,” she points out. “My Mama started it off and I just continue it.” Her collection would be the envy of any high-tea devotee and because it’s part of her DNA, Jodie has them displayed to perfection around her home. “We don’t just keep for the sake of keeping,” she says. “Everything must be used or admired regularly.”
Her love affair with her inviting abode runs deep and it’s easy to see why. When the family lives out a long-held dream to relocate to the country one day, Jodie says the home may just have to come along for the adventure as well. “I’ll probably move the house with us actually,’’ she says. ‘‘Unless we found a Georgian English manor or perhaps a castle... Whichever!” ACH
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The sprawling homestead overlooks rolling Margaret River vineyards.
Divine inspiration For this expatriate couple, returning to Australia meant putting down roots in the Margaret River region of south-western Western Australia. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
Clockwise from left: Barbara is a great cook so the kitchen is the hub of the house; the Simpsons had a lot of big furniture to accommodate; travel souvenirs in the sitting room; the entrance hallway.
T
hey can’t say they weren’t warned. When Barbara and Phil Simpson were interviewing builders, one of them candidly mentioned that tradies in Margaret River operated by a different set of rules to the rest of the world. “Basically, he said that the reason people live in the district is because of its surf,” Phil explains. “So when there’s a good break, no one turns up for work. But he hastened to add that the privilege of nicking off when the waves are up wouldn’t be abused. We gave him the gig, for honesty as much as any other reason. And so it turned out, our house was constructed on Margaret River rules. The builder and all his subbies turned out to be excellent tradesmen.” Barbara and Phil are true citizens of the world. Barbara was born in Victoria but grew up in New Zealand and says she barracks for the All Blacks in rugby and Australia in cricket. A nurse in a former life, she moved to Canada with her first husband. Phil was a Queenslander originally but grew up in Canberra, then forged a career in commercial real estate. The couple met and married in 1985 and spent eight years living and working in Jakarta and Singapore. When the time came to return to Australia, they moved to Perth, where their children had settled. “After the years we spent in Asia, we were really craving fresh air and sunshine so knew we wanted a place in the country,” Barbara says. “In fact, we bought before we even came back to Perth. We looked at lots of properties, but eventually settled on Yallingup in Margaret River. I like the undulating countryside and the fact that you sometimes need to put a cardigan on in December. I guess it reminded me a bit of New Zealand.” The fact that the 22-acre (nine-hectare) block they named Nunkeri, from local 96 Australian Country HOMES
Aboriginal dialect for “beautiful”, was located in one of this country’s premier wine-producing regions was a bonus. In 2001, the tiny waterhole on what had been a sheep farm was enlarged to make a dam and the first Cabernet vines went in. Considerable effort, not to mention dollars, were devoted to establishing the vineyard to benchmark standards. “Of course, as luck would have it, there was a Cabernet glut about the time we made our decision,” Phil recalls. “But I’m a firm believer that if you don’t compromise
on quality, the product will always sell and our grapes have always found buyers.” These days, the bulk of Nunkeri grapes is bottled under the Snake + Herring label. “Every vineyard has a sweet spot and we decided to hold back a small portion of ours to make our own Back Shed Red, which we share with friends and family,” Phil explains. “I’ve been greatly assisted by Ernie Lepidi, who is the vineyard manager at our neighbour winery, Wills Domain. With his guidance, we produce wine in the traditional European style. The grapes
are hand-picked, there are no chemicals such as sulphur in the wine and it’s aged in French oak. We make about three barrels each vintage, which translates to approximately 1500 bottles, and we are very proud of it. In 2012, the esteemed wine judge and writer James Halliday described Herring + Snake as one of the top-10 emerging Australian wine labels. I maintain our house red is even better than theirs but, then again, I would, wouldn’t I?” Having been lucky enough to live in what is known as a black and white house in Singapore, the Simpsons had very specific requirements when they came to build the homestead on their property. Black and white houses were a phenomenon of the early-20th century. They’re grand-scale elevated bungalows — visualise Tudor crossed with the tropics — designed to accommodate the families of the senior staff of the big British companies that operated in Singapore at the time. “They are big, airy houses and require lots of big furniture,” Barbara explains. “So we had acquired lots of big furniture and needed a spacious home to accommodate that. We did scale drawings of all the furniture and rugs and our architect was able to work the design around them.” Phil and Barbara moved into their › sprawling hilltop home overlooking the HOMES Australian Country 97
Clockwise from above: The bathroom windows frame views of the garden and dam beyond; a loft bedroom provides extra guest accommodation; after years of living in Indonesia and Singapore and extensive holiday travels, the couple have filled the Nunkeri house with quirky mementos purchased abroad as well as artworks.
dam and vineyards in time for Christmas 2004. The heart of the home is a long, open-plan living, dining and kitchen space with a huge AGA cooker providing ample space for Barbara’s cooking prowess as well as supplementary heating in the cooler months. “The AGA has a presence in the house like a person,” Barbara says. “I know now that I’ll never again live without one.” 98 Australian Country HOMES
Due in part to their mutual passion for food and wine, in 2005, Barbara and Phil decided to open the guest wing of their home as an exclusive B&B. Guests enthused about the seclusion of the property, waking to a chorus of kookaburras and vignettes of sheep grazing in the vines. Having proved to herself that she could do it, in 2010, Barbara reluctantly
decided to call her stint in the commercial hospitality industry a day. “It was a lot of work with the gardens and vineyard to maintain,” she says. “We loved our guests and sharing the property but, in the end, I needed to be able to enjoy my home myself. We are now very happy sharing it with our visiting family and friends.” ACH
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1 Jean-Vier Basque Taureau de Bayonne kitchen towel, $29.90, thedesigngiftshop.com, 02 9453 0332 2 Taburet walnut bar stool, $394, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 3 Floral carved brass inlay box, $109, shop.oxfam.org.au, 1800 088 455 4 Fleur 1 Light large table lamp, $269, beaconlighting.com.au, 03 8561 1599 5 Hammer & Thread Charleston recycled cotton rug, $279, upcyclestudio.com.au, 02 8937 0926 6 MJ Lumbar silk-velvet luxury cushion, $90, nathanjac.com.au, 1300 662 992 7 Ovela bamboo bath caddy, $59, kogan.com, 1300 304 292
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BOARDING IS AT THE HEART OF OUR SCHOOL Loreto Normanhurst is an independent, catholic, boarding and day school for girls in Years 5-12. The school offers full time boarding from Year 7 and is a ‘home away from home’ for over 150 young women, mainly from country NSW and the Sydney basin. The school offers a flexible boarding model. While full time boarding is still at the core of Loreto Normanhurst boarding, there is full flexibility on weekends. For country and city-based boarders alike, this means boarding all week with greater access to weekend time with family and friends. This model of boarding can also take some of the pressure off busy family life and help students meet their academic and extra-curricular commitments. Established in 1897, the school provides a holistic and dynamic education experience, helping boarders to learn and grow as young confident women of sincerity, justice and compassion. The award-winning Loreto Normanhurst Student Growth Model is a holistic model of education which is innovative and dynamic, and which fosters critical thinking, curiosity and joy in learning – an education that prepares a Loreto girl for life in the 21st Century. Boarders are provided with excellent support networks to help them reach their academic goals including academic support, tutors and extended opening hours in the Learning Resource Centre. A compassionate, stable and safe environment characterises the Loreto Normanhurst boarding school, where all staff work in partnership with parents to make the most of the boarding experience offered at the school. Boarders foster a close-knit community of camaraderie and are encouraged to participate to the
fullest extent in school life, to discover their gifts and to take advantage of every opportunity for personal growth. Boarders have amazing opportunities for social and emotional growth with the boarding school providing a diverse range of activities to assist the boarders to assimilate to boarding life and become confident in their travels around Sydney. Organised games and activities are a regular boarding life feature and in the company of the Boarding Coordinators, boarders experience activities such as theatre visits, rock climbing, ice skating, picnics in the Botanical Gardens, movies, cultural lunches and a visit to Taronga Zoo. Since its beginning, Loreto Boarding has been an integral part of Loreto Normanhurst. The boarding community is close and has a strong sense of identity and connection with the school. In this sense, the boarding school is the ‘heart of the school’.
enquiries@loretonh.nsw.edu.au | www.loretonh.nsw.edu.au
Did you know you can be a Loreto Boarder?
A home away from home since 1897 For over 120 years, boarding has been at the heart of Loreto Normanhurst. Boarders are encouraged to participate to the fullest extent of school life, discovering their
giftsand building life- long friendships.
Visit us to experience our unique Loreto spirit at our events in 2019: 6FKRRO Tours – May, 13 September, 18 November Spring Fair – Sunday 3 November /RUHWR 1RUPDQKXUVW RIIHUV IOH[LEOH ERDUGLQJ RSWLRQV IRU FRXQWU\ DQG FLW\ ERDUGHUV For enquiries, please contact the Enrolments Manager at enquiries@loretonh.nsw.edu.au
www.loretonh.nsw.edu.au | enquiries@loretonh.nsw.edu.au | 1800-LORETO
PRECISION PLANNING Kylea and Grant Wilson used an extended working holiday to hone the style and design of their dream home. -------------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography KEN BR ASS
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n a strange twist of fate, Kylea and Grant Wilson found the ideal block of land on which to build their dream home as they were about to step on a plane for an extended overseas working holiday. But find it they did when they paid a farewell visit to friends on the outskirts of their home town of Ballarat just before the trip. The eucalypt-studded block was the last remaining in the area and afforded just the right mix of proximity to town and a rural setting. Negotiations for the sale 102 Australian Country HOMES
continued while the couple were abroad. They became engaged in Africa in 1993 and returned to Australia to marry the following year. “All the time we were travelling, we were planning the house,” Kylea recalls. “Right through Europe and the UK, whenever we had time to kill on planes and buses, even on the back of a truck as we travelled through Africa, we were sketching the floor layout. When we came home, we contacted architect Tony Jones of Absolute Building to turn our ideas into a proper design.”
Grant, who is an electrician, and Kylea, an executive with the Ballarat-based company Haymes Paints, had the right mix of knowledge and contacts to proceed with the project as owner-builders. The couple lived in a shed on the block as works proceeded with help from Grant’s builder and plumber friends. When it came to paint selection, Kylea was perfectly positioned for expert advice from Haymes’ sales reps and lab people who came out and trialled everything before decisions were made. By the time Archie ›
These pages: An outdoor entertaining area doubles duty as an undercover play space for the children at the home on Ballarat’s outskirts.
Clockwise from left: Kylea in the parents’ retreat; wild things in Archie’s bedroom; the mezzanine master bedroom includes a freestanding bath and sitting space; Indi’s room features a cute decal with shelves incorporated.
and Indi came along, the couple were well installed in the house and Grant had moved his business into the shed. “We were determined from the outset that we wanted to live in our dream home soon, not when the kids were grown up,” Kylea says. “And with a lot of DIY, not to mention help from friends and colleagues, we achieved that.” Kylea acknowledges her employers as a very family-friendly organisation and says she considers herself privileged to work for them. “The company has been in the family since David Haymes’ father started it in 1935,” she explains. “It’s firmly rooted in Ballarat but there are 13 stores mainly in Victoria and 300 independent paint specialists across the country. People who sell Haymes Paint know everything there is to know about paint. Haymes is also deeply committed to reducing the company’s environmental impact and, with a young family, that’s something we both feel strongly about. It’s also exciting being involved in the launches of new colours and products and getting the word out to the public at large. I can’t imagine working anywhere else.” › Many design decisions were based on HOMES Australian Country 105
they have stayed in, from Queensland and South-East Asia to Europe. “We knew we liked houses that stepped out into the environment,” Kylea says. “We had also experienced the kind of transition zone between the house and the garden that we translated into our outdoor entertaining area. Ballarat does get some hot days but most of the year it can be quite cool, so we knew we needed an outdoor fireplace. It turns out, it’s a great protected space for the children to play as well as being ideal for 106 Australian Country HOMES
entertaining right through the year.” Kylea and Grant decided early on to stagger the build to make it more affordable. The main body of the house, with its loft parents’ retreat above the living room and children’s rooms at the other end, was completed first. When the children were babies, Kylea and Grant “camped” in the toy room so they could be close to them at night, but later they were able to fully enjoy their lofty bedroom position and its leafy outlook.
Landscaping and an outdoor entertaining area came further down the track. “With children and work, it’s a given that there will always be a to-do list,” Kylea says. “The fortunate thing is that because we had so many years of planning, we knew from the outset exactly how we wanted the finished project to end up.” ACH Clockwise from above: It’s a dog’s life; the eat-in kitchen is part of the open living space; the sitting area looks to the surrounding bush.
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Swenrick build building ng throughout Victoria for over 40 years to lock up or completion. Extensive experience building in high bushfire zones. Your design or ours. Montana $42,000* built to Lock up. Also available relocatable plans and lock up kits. For your free brochure please call (03) 5774 7066 ADMINISTRATION AND DISPLAY CENTRE OPEN 7 DAYS A WEEK 7 Buxton Marysville Rd, Buxton Vic 3711
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Red hues and pops of bold colour enhance this stylish rural home. ----------compiled by DARIA KURILO
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1 Jellycat Bashful Slackajack monkey, $34.99, yellowoctopus.com.au, 03 8684 9079 2 Mini Lantern sheet tile, $8.95, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 3 Zulta cushion, $220, fentonandfenton.com.au, 03 9533 2323 4 Paris print, $39.99, wallartprints.com.au, 1300 181 546 5 Waffle cotton throw in Pebble Grey, $69, ecodownunder.com.au, 0402 799 639 6 Karlsson round glass retro wall clock, $49.99, yellowoctopus.com.au, 03 8684 9079 7 Ovela tub chair, $145, kogan.com, 1300 304 292
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MARINA ISLES SHOWROOM:
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BATHED IN GLORY A bathroom experience that encompasses everything from practicality to aesthetics has never been easier to achieve. ---------------compiled by DARIA KURILO
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Splashing around With a swathe of practical, chic finishes and fixtures to choose from, we’ve picked the best of the best for the perfect bathroom space.
Opting for double basins allows room for two people to use the sink at once. This set by Norsu Interiors is the perfect statement piece for any bathroom. norsu.com.au
It’s the small but practical touches that really make a bathroom a comfortable place to be in. This Spa bath mat from Bed Bath N’ Table is great for when extra stability in the bathroom is required. Featuring a suction-cup base to prevent slipping, this bath mat is suitable for use in all wet areas, including bathrooms, bath bases and showers. bedbathntable.com.au
Stylish curves are not the only feature of this Pietra Bianca bathtub. Its sophisticated smooth terrazzo stone surface and seamlessly clean lines mean you’ll be bathing in luxury. pietrabianca.com.au
Gone are the days of a boring bathroom. Make it stand out with on-trend finishes such as this beautiful rose gold shower system. Created with stainless steel, the Jaxx shower fits a standard plumbing outlet. nightingalecc.com.au
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Shower curtains might be the last thing on your mind when decorating your bathroom. However, not only are they great for privacy and preventing water splashing, but they also can help enhance the room’s overall aesthetic. This vinyl shower curtain with a marble effect from Zara is one of our favourites. zarahome.com
Pamper zone Make the most of your bathroom experience with these must-have soothing body products. A pamper experience is not complete without the Frank Body Original coffee scrub. Not only does it keeps your skin squeaky clean, it’s also 100 per cent natural, vegan and great for attacking breakouts, scars and marks. frankbody.com
Avocado feeds the soul when you eat it, but it can also feed the skin when you bathe in it. That’s why we love the Lush Avobath, which transforms your skin from feeling like a dry raisin to being as smooth as silk. Featuring lemongrass and bergamot oils, it’s a great choice for dry-skin sufferers (or avocado lovers). au.lush.com To really take your relaxing bath-time experience to the next level, we recommend the Soothe Baby bath tea. It includes 100 per cent organic ingredients, but its main highlight is that it’s rich in anti-inflammatory agents that can help reduce redness associated with eczema, allergens and sunburn. willowbythesea.com
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Nothing enhances a relaxing at-home spa experience like a couple of beautifully scented candles. The Lotus Flower Ecoya candle is one we can’t live without. Featuring floral, citrus and musk notes, the fragrance is not too intense yet is sensual and relaxing. ecoya.com.au
If you’re a serial bath soaker, then you’ll love the Raw Therapy Dead Sea bath salts. Filled with ancient healing wonders, the ingredients are derived from places that have used Dead Sea salts for medicinal purposes for centuries. chimoo.com.au
Sleek storage Organisation is key to creating stylish and functional spaces. The Freida marble bathroom collection will add a touch of elegance to your benchtop, while keeping it clean and organised. sheridan.com.au
Ensure all your shower essentials are right where you need them with this simple and stylish shower caddy. Created from bamboo, the three spacious shelves make it perfect for shampoos, conditioners, showers gels and more. The fact that it’s waterproof and mold-resistant is a big plus, too. kogan.com
Whether you’re looking to add a touch of contemporary luxe to your bathroom or for an easy storage option, the Soho bath caddy in copper is just what you need. bedbathntable.com.au
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Fabric features From towels to bathrobes, these accessories will ensure a comfortable bathing experience from start to finish. A new kid on the block, La Robe de Chambre offers timeless but practical robes that we can’t wait to try on. These garments are meticulously tailored in the highest-quality linen, with a fully lined silk bodice. larobeaustralia.com
You can’t go wrong with a classic white dressing gown for before or after you bathe. This Clementine design is ideal for those relaxed moments at home. clementinesleepwear.com.au
Perfect for use every day in the shower, the massage action of these gloves keeps the skin smooth and soft, as well as stimulating circulation. target.com.au
Towels are, of course, always useful, but they’re better when they’re high-quality Hydrocotton bath towels such as this set from Pottery Barn. Ten times more absorbent than traditional cotton terry and weighing a fluffy 550 grams, they’re super-soft and fast-drying. potterybarn.com.au 114 Australian Country HOMES
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Supplying Australian gardens with quality rose plants for over 50 years www.treloarroses.com.au | Order online for Winter delivery | Ph: 1300 044 852
These pages: The Goolwa cottage was an original settlers’ home and Fay spent years rescuing and restoring it.
A renovator’s recipe Fay Gamble has made a life out of rescuing bruised and battered homes, sprinkling them with stardust and setting them free. --------------------
by MERYL HANCOCK, photography ROSS WILLIAMS, styling BRONTE CAMILLERI
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’m not at all surprised when Fay Gamble reveals her tiny cottage in Goolwa, South Australia, is at least the seventh she has purchased, revamped and passed on. There’s no doubting her flair, creativity and experience. Walls are whitewashed with many coats, backyards are blitzed and rooms are repurposed according to their light and dimensions. “The first cottage I spruced up was in Yankalilla,” she says. “My husband and I bought it for negative-gearing purposes
but when our marriage broke up, I was left living there. I had no money and I couldn’t afford to maintain it, so I put all my efforts into decorating and cleaning it up for resale.” That positive outcome 13 years ago triggered a light-bulb moment — the realisation that buying and selling could be the key to her financial survival. Somehow, Fay is able to identify a property that has the perfect amount of scope to play with. Built in 1865, her Goolwa cottage was originally a settlers’ dwelling wedged into one of the oldest
spots in South Australia, referred to as Little Scotland. It sits right in the middle of town, is three minutes walk to the river and across the road from a favourite cafe called The Whistle Stop. At the time of purchase, Fay was not a Goolwa resident but was lured by the home’s potential, the seaside and the beautiful old buildings. “I couldn’t look past the amazing light in the cottage and the relaxed vibe it gave off,” she says “Once I had tidied up the courtyard, it transported me to France.” Given Fay has never owned a car, the ease HOMES Australian Country 117
of getting around Goolwa on foot was another attraction. She describes Goolwa as an arty place with a lot of residents who’ve made the giant leap from city living to a simpler lifestyle. Art galleries are abundant, community activities are rife and Fay says there’s always something going on in the Centenary Hall in town. “The wonderful part about living here is there’s no set of rules,” she says. “Everybody is free to do what he or she wants and if you use your imagination, you can dream up some amazing stuff.” Preferring simple, natural interiors without clutter, her skills were initially honed through various workplace experiences. As manager of a brass bed shop, she was in charge of decorating, 118 Australian Country HOMES
buying and selling. Then she had a job she refers to as “titivating caravans”. “It was at a pivotal time when we began to style interiors with white and clay-coloured palettes, instead of that awful brown,” she observes. Although the same furniture has been with her for years, she marvels that each house has given her pieces contrasting personalities due to their variations in light and space. She admits she has always strived to buy the best furniture that she could possibly afford, to avoid the expense of having to update regularly. Years ago, she sourced by trawling antique shops and frequenting the now defunct Country Style store in Adelaide, an early adopter of French provincial furniture and interiors. A typical weekend for Fay includes painting and decorating, walking along the river, having breakfast or lunch with friends, visiting the local market and catching up with family. Her guilty pleasure is drinking red wine, which I’ve concluded from my many Goolwa interviews is a prerequisite for living there. There’s no shortage of characters to share a glass or
Clockwise from left: The kitchen and dining areas are open plan; French doors in the bedroom open to the courtyard; a space for relaxing; a guest area incorporates a second kitchen; Goolwa has a great food and wine culture with plenty of at-home entertaining. HOMES Australian Country 119
two with. “I’ve got quite a collection of friends here,” she says. “We’re called the Tuesday girls as we go out for lunch each Tuesday, so my life is quite decadent really.” Now in her 70s, and given the extent of her latest project, Fay surely is entitled to spoil herself. Forced to sell the Goolwa cottage not long ago, she now owns a HardiePlank shack at Goolwa Beach, which she is in the process of doing up. “It’s a recent build — probably only 20 years 120 Australian Country HOMES
ago — with aluminium windows that have to go,” she says. “It was brown to start with, so I’ve painted it white to give it a bit more character.” She adds that she loves the bushy backdrop, the high stud of the ceilings, the deck out the front and the verandah out back. Goolwa has a special place in her heart and she won’t be leaving any time soon, even though moving again is not out of the question.
“Buying, selling and surviving are my work, but treats keep me going,” Fay says. “Recently, we dressed accordingly and boarded a 1920s wooden boat to celebrate my daughter’s 50th birthday, and it was wonderful. I am continually inspired by the creative people living here and I admire all the wonderful things they do with their lives.” ACH This page: Fay utilised every available space, including roof cavities, in the cottage restoration.
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1 Smoky mirror glass clock, $69.95, quirksy.com.au, 0459 609 689 2 Calais throw in red, $59, lorrainelea.com, 1800 641 089 3 Sheepskin rug, $91.95, zanui.com.au, 1300 668 317 4 Blue striped cushion, $47, lavenderhillinteriors.com.au, 02 8399 5890 5 Spirit of the Orient Akasha medium pillar candle, $17.95, buckleyandphillips.com, 03 9735 3755 6 Barwon candle holder, $84.95, provincialhomeliving.com.au, 03 9089 1351 7 Cream striped three-seater sofa, $1649, templeandwebster.com.au, 1300 900 675
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“The passionate people at Coomber Bros Jewellers made the process of designing and making an engagement ring a true pleasure.�
COUNTRY COMES TO TOWN They might take in city rather than rural views from their verandah, but this family remains country at heart. -------------------by TAHN SCOON, photography JOHN DOWNS
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ronwyn Wruck was a flying instructor based in Moree in northern NSW when she first met husband-to-be, James. His work as a cotton agronomist took them to Tamworth and Toowoomba before both received job offers in Brisbane. However, for this couple, moving to the city didn’t mean completely forsaking a country lifestyle. Rather than buying a typical urban property, they managed to find a 124 Australian Country HOMES
grand, historic home right in the innercity suburb of Lutwyche. “When we first viewed the house, we were instantly drawn to it because it was like a big, old country home with high ceilings, VJ walls and huge rooms,” Bronwyn recalls. “In fact, it was very much like our house near Toowoomba, minus the rural setting” Although the couple, who by now had two children, Sam and Josie, snapped
up the house, they did have their work cut out for them. “It had been terribly neglected and over the years former homeowners had partitioned rooms and enclosed verandahs,” Bronwyn says. “So the first thing we did was strip it back to its original layout.” Unfortunately, there was one downside to taking the home back to its original design. In 1895 when the house was › first built, people didn’t have kitchens
These pages: Bronwyn and James rescued a run-down house in inner-city Brisbane.
and bathrooms inside the home. The bathrooms were easy to accommodate, as Bronwyn and James simply enclosed a portion of the verandah. However, the kitchen was a little harder to place. “We didn’t have a kitchen for four years,” Bronwyn says. “We made do with a crockpot, electric frypan and a sink we bought from the paper for $25. James put legs on it and we’d just move it from room to room depending on where we were with the renovations.” Bronwyn concedes friends found this amusing and wondered how they could live so long without a kitchen, especially with (at the time) two young children. But she says it was worth the wait. “We did do the renovation slowly,” she adds.”It was nice to live in the house and get to know where the light comes in and what layout worked for us.” A new kitchen was eventually added as an extension to the front of the house. The style of the kitchen was based around a lovely antique panel the couple had bought from a church years ago, which was put to good use as a feature panel in the island bench. “The large window was
Clockwise from left: Bronwyn takes a rare moment to chill on the verandah; elegant toile in the dining room; a new life for a crab pot; since a pilot friend gave her an Aboriginal artwork, she has started collecting; a chaise in a sitting area off the the master bedroom.
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actually bought solely because it fitted into the unusual shape we had to work with,” Bronwyn says. “It ended up looking quite church-like, so it all came together.” The living room must have received a renovation sometime in the late 1950s or early ’60s as it features narrow hardwood floorboards (the original boards throughout the rest of the home are wide pine) and striking citrus-coloured wallpaper. “When we moved in, we thought the wallpaper would be the first thing to go,” Kate says. “But it’s really grown on us, so it’s staying.” The living room is cited as being the most used room in the home, as it’s central to the kitchen, bedrooms and verandah. It’s furnished with chairs picked up from the Toowoomba dump, which Bronwyn had › HOMES Australian Country 127
recovered, and is scattered with treasures from the family’s frequent travels. The more formal living room is a nod to Bronwyn’s love of all things Australian. “I know you shouldn’t have themed rooms but I sort of do,” she admits. “A pilot friend gave me my first indigenous art a while back and I loved it, so when I’m on overnights, I collect them from Darwin, Cairns and Perth.” Bronwyn’s favourite place to be in the home is actually in the garden. “Being a pilot, my work is all metal and concrete,” she says. “So when I get home, I like to balance that out by pottering in the garden, preferably with a beer in hand.” Her current gardening project is encouraging the jasmine to creep abundantly over the framing the couple erected along the side patio. “When the house was raised and built in underneath, the proportions looked wrong from the side,’’ she explains. ‘‘So I’m hoping the vine will help that.” And the other place Bronwyn favours for winding down? Her rescued cast-iron bath, which was re-enamelled and painted black. “It’s so deep, I feel like I’m spoiling myself every time I sink into the bubbles,” she says. ACH Clockwise from left: Bronwyn blends vintage and contemporary touches; hat stand with a quirky guardian; the renovation opened the house to light and air; the cast-iron bath is a favourite feature.
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TIMELESSLY DISTINCTIVE DESIGN FOR INDOOR AND OUTDOOR
Traditional craftsmanship in forged steel, hand woven cane and rattan
Gerard Lane Furniture D e l i ve r s S ydn e y / Vi ct or ia / Q ue e nsland / Ade l ai de / T as m a ni a 40 Parramatta Road, Stanmore NSW 2048 info@leforge.com.au / 0468 759 200 / since 1985
www.leforge.com.au
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compiled by DARIA KURILO
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1 1960s retro-style desk telephone, $128.95, yellowoctopus.com.au, 03 8684 9079 2 Haus Aspen herringbone throw in natural, $129, beaconlighting.com.au, 03 8561 1599 3 Curitiba brown and white Brazilian cow hide rug, $656, missamara.com.au 4 Danica leather and iron trunk, $899, schots.com.au, 1300 463 353 5 Namji doll, $195, safarifusion.com.au, 0416 037 117 6 Vintage luggage, $220, ricefurniture.com.au, 07 3806 8000 7 Reproduction vintage tiles, $14.50, jennoliart.com.au, 02 9981 1009
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Evelyn’s home in the Hills has become hospitality central for family and friends.
Haven in the hills Interior stylist Evelyn Neis has battled all sorts of adversity to forge a rich life for herself and her six children in the Adelaide Hills. -------------by KIRSTY MCKENZIE, photography ROSS WILLIAMS, styling by BRONTE CAMILLERI
Clockwise from left: Espaliered greenery frames the entrance; Evelyn is a dab hand at restoring furniture; a French provincial corner; touches of opulence; she also has a keen eye for a grouping; shuttered windows have both an aesthetic and practical role; Evelyn relaxes on the verandah.
E
velyn Neis says she followed the real estate agent’s advice of buying the worst house in the best street when she moved from Adelaide to Heathfield near Stirling in the Adelaide Hills. “It truly was the most ugly 1970s house,” Evelyn recalls. “But it was on two acres (0.8 hectares) and had two big storage sheds, which I use as studios for doing up furniture. But I could see the potential, so I set to work on it, removing the aluminium windows, installing French doors, laying down polished floorboards and adding a massive wraparound balcony.” German-born Evelyn studied psychology in her home city of Munich and worked for the Goethe-Institut all over Europe before migrating to Australia in 1972. She lived initially in Melbourne, but discovered Adelaide on holidays and moved there shortly after. “I was very happy there, but I always loved the feeling of the Hills,” she says. “I guess it reminded me of Europe and I loved the sense of community and village atmosphere that the towns offered, so I was very keen to move up here.” When Evelyn’s husband passed away many years ago, she was left to raise her six children on her own. “I’d been a fashion designer, mainly creating garments from vintage fabrics, antique lace and old doilies,” she says. “But when I had to support my young family — four of my children were under 10 — on my own, I needed to find something more secure, so I turned to property developing. I found I had a knack for interior styling and so my career took a new direction.” Along the way, Evelyn also developed an antiques business and devoted many hours to restoring furniture and giving it new life with painted finishes. The gods, however, were not on her side in 2006, when she underwent hip-resurfacing surgery, which went horribly wrong. “I try not to focus on
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the negatives, but I have been in constant pain ever since,” Evelyn admits. “I had my family to look after, so I sold my antiques business. Six operations later, I have decided it is better to work through the pain. You can be in pain and doing nothing or in pain and doing something, so I decided I might as well do something.” That something turned out to be furniture restoration, giving old but well-made pieces
a new lease of life with painted finishes and reselling them to an appreciative market. Evelyn hosts monthly open-house events, where friends and prospective customers are invited to drop in and have a browse through her work — plus, by inviting people to see her home, she has developed an interior styling business as an adjunct. “There are no showpieces in my home,” she says. “Everything is there to be used and › HOMES Australian Country 135
if you can’t sit on it, or put a glass or perhaps a decorator item on it, it has no place in my house. I never want to have to say to someone ‘be careful’ or ‘don’t touch’. This is a house for entertaining and enjoying.” Evelyn’s other guiding principle is that every room should surprise. “I don’t like anything matching,” she adds. “I do love white and if anything stands still, I’ll put a coat of paint on it. As far as I’m concerned, if it’s dull and dark, it needs paint. But I love rust. All my cast-iron pieces go in the garden until they get the weathered look. A piece of furniture should tell a story and give a sense of history.” To this rustic French ambience, Evelyn has added her “babies”, six mounted stags at last count. “I know I’ve gone a bit overboard with them,” she admits. “I guess it’s the German coming out in me.” In spite of all her trials and tribulations, Evelyn calls herself lucky. “I’ve built a gorgeous haven in the Hills and four of my children are still living with me,” she says. “It’s a bohemian kind of lifestyle, with people, their partners and friends coming and going, and my kids are very supportive when I need help. I’ve built a successful business doing what comes naturally. But really the money is secondary if you are doing what you love. Yes, I think I am very fortunate.” ACH 136 Australian Country HOMES
Clockwise from above left: An oversized bedhead creates a sense of grandeur in the master bedroom; classic black and white tiles add drama in the bathroom; as well as a fondness for rustic French looks, Evelyn says she has a passion for white and adds that if anything stands still, she’ll give it a coat of paint.
Woodglen Manor Vanity Units are hand-crafted in Australia from environmentally sustainable Australian sourced timbers. Custom sized cabinets are available. Visit our website to see the complete range.
WOODGLEN.COM.AU Phone 08 8121 7880 Taps and Tiles are not included.
COUNTRY AUSTRALIAN
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YOUR CONTEMPORARY COUNTRY LIFESTYLE MAGAZINE
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138 Australian Country HOMES
AWARDS "Various awards from 1986 to 2018" 2013
BRONZE
SPASA (METROPOLITAN) FREEFORM OR NATURAL (UP TO 50K) SPASA (METROPOLITAN) TRADITIONAL OR GEOMETRIC (UP TO 50K) SPASA (STATE) TRADITIONAL OR GEOMETRIC (UP TO 50K) SPASA (METROPOLITAN) FREEFORM OR NATURAL (50K TO 100K) SPASA (STATE) FREEFORM OR NATURAL (50K TO 100K) SPASA (METROPOLITAN) TRADITIONAL OR GEOMETRIC (OVER 100K) SPASA (METROPOLITAN) SPAS & HOT TUBS
2014:
GOLD GOLD GOLD SILVER SILVER
SPASA (METRO) INNOVATIVE SPASA (STATE) INNOVATIVE SPASA (METRO) WATER FEATURES SPASA (STATE) WATER FEATURES SPASA (METRO) TRADITIONAL GEOMETRIC (UP TO $50K)
2015:
GOLD SILVER SILVER SILVER
SPASA (METRO) SPA & HOT TUBS SPASA (STATE) SPA & HOT TUBS SPASA (METRO) WATER FEATURES SPASA (METRO) LAP POOL
JADE SWIMMING POOLS PTY LTD
GOLD GOLD GOLD
A.C.N.001 835 552
OFFICE AND SHOWROOM 488 WINDSOR ROAD BAULKHAM HILLS 2153 TELEPHONE: (02) 9686 6000 FACSIMILE: (02) 9686 6665
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SILVER
SILVER SILVER
BRONZE BRONZE BRONZE BRONZE
SPASA (METRO) WATER FEATURE SPASA (METRO) TRADITIONAL OR GEOMETRIC (UP TO $50K) SPASA (METRO) TRADITIONAL OR GEOMETRIC (OVER $100k) SPASA (METRO) LAP POOL
2016:
SILVER SILVER BRONZE
SPASA (METRO) POOL (OVER 100K) SPASA (METRO) LAP POOL SPASA (METRO) RESIDENTIAL RENOVATION (UP TO 20K)
2017:
SILVER BRONZE
SPASA (METRO) POOL (50K TO 100K) SPASA (METRO) WATER FEATURE
2018:
GOLD GOLD SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER SILVER BRONZE BRONZE BRONZE
SPASA (METRO) LAP POOL SPASA (METRO) SPA & HOT TUB SPASA (METRO) LAP POOL SPASA (METRO) COURTYARD OR PLUNGE POOL SPASA (METRO) ENCLOSED OR INDOOR POOL SPASA (METRO) INNOVATIVE PROJECT SPASA (REGIONAL) SPA & HOT TUB SPASA (REGTONAL) LAP POOL SPASA (METRO) COURTYARD OR PLUNGE POOL SPASA (METRO) ENCLOSED OR INDOOR POOL SPASA (METRO) RENOVATION OVER $25,000