274 Main North Road, Clare SA 5453 Phone: 08 8842 1427
Travelling across the Mid North, it is always amazing to see how our history continues to live on in one way or another.
It can live through artistic expression, like the art created by the man who adorns our cover for this latest edition, Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford who has preserved in paint the likeness of famous figures, such as sporting legends and renowned leaders, as well as the landscapes we enjoy, creating a snapshot that is forever captured on canvas.
Mid North towns are full of historic structures that provide iconic landscapes and tell a story about the places we live and visit.
You would be hard pressed to find a town that embraces its history as much as Burra with its rich Cornish mining history, which includes on a global scale as it pursues a World Heritage listing, and continues to provide a great stop for lovers of history across the state.
While it is great to see these historic buildings continue to stand the test of time, there are also people in our communities who have either built on, or provided new life to these structures.
A gateway to the Clare Valley, Owen is a small town that boasts a hotel full of character, and in this edition people can learn how owners Cathy and ‘Space’ Gregory have built on and offered so much more to this nearly 120-year old Owen Arms Hotel.
In the Flinders Magazine, you can read how Cat and Craig Blesing had created a one-of-a-kind brewery inside a historic church building, built in 1875, in another town that embraces its own history, Laura.
We have history all around us in the Mid North, which is being preserved, written, painted or photographed for future generations to enjoy and appreciate, however it is important to note the story of our communities continues to be written, as our towns continue to change in appearance and in the makeup of the people who live in them, bring fresh ideas and activities.
The next time you travel across the Mid North, hopefully you can take a deeper appreciation in where we have been, and where we are going.
Jarrad Delaney Editor
Front page: Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford
Photo: John Kruger
Flinders Magazine
Front page: Alex Catford & Maddie Du Rieu
Photo: Meridee Groves
Big things from ‘Tiny Tourist Town’
Artistic Utopia in Clare 17
Nigelle-Ann Blaser
Nigelle-Ann Blaser has been running Miss Gracie Taylor’s Pre-Loved Books for 16 years. Previously in Ness Street, and now on the Main Street of Clare.
After relocating from Sydney to Adelaide, and a stint co-owning the Farrell Flat pub with her husband, Nigelle-Ann has become a fixture of Clare, always happy to help with a recommendation or chat. Always advised to name the shop for something she loved the most, Nigelle-Ann named the shop after her children’s middle names, Grace and Taylor. What is the best thing about working at Miss Gracie Taylor’s?
Sharing my love of reading and books with people, especially if they are in a bit of a rut and don’t know what to read next, helping them choose something new is always exciting.
Getting kids who think they don’t like books and showing them that books are more than just words on a page, they are adventures that can take you places.
Best thing about working in the Clare Valley?
It’s the support and kindness. We are a country town with a big heart. If you get into trouble there is always someone who will know you, so there inevitably will be someone driving past who can help. In a business sense, everyone is really supportive.
It’s really home, it’s beautiful, you come from the city on a wonderful drive and it feels very welcoming.
What three items would you take if you and the family were deserted on an island?
Do I have to take my kids? I’m ditching my family in a deserted island scenario you are on your own!
I’m taking coffee, books, and chocolate.
Three of my favourite books, so I can reread and find something different each time, 30 per cent books, 50 per cent chocolate and 20 per cent coffee.
Summer or Winter?
I’m a winter person, I love putting on big jackets and woolly socks. I love the darkness of the nights, going home and not feeling pressured to do anything with the remaining light; just getting cozy with a book. I’m not a gardener, nothing survives in my garden, but there is always an element of feeling like I should be out doing something. In winter you can’t, it’s cold or it’s rainy, you’ve got to be inside.
What is the most interesting book that has passed through the shop?
I was very lucky to get some early leather bound editions of Charles Dickens from Italy. We researched them back, and they were bound in Italy, and what was really special
was, while most people know Charles Dickens, it was hand bound with workmanship you don’t see anymore as everything is so mass produced. I sold them on, I would have loved to have kept them but I can’t keep everything, they were just going to sit there on my shelf doing nothing. A lady bought them for her daughter who had just finished her law degree, so they were going somewhere special. They were white gloves kind of special where you didn’t really want to touch them, the quality and beauty of the binding was really impressive.
Most common book request?
The Little Prince by Antoine de SaintExupéry, and I don’t know why, but I have never had it, it’s not something that’s ever passed through the store. It’s always requested by parents. Just this week three people have asked for it.
What time does your alarm go off and how does a typical morning unfold?
Monday to Thursday my alarm goes off at around 7, people who know me really well know that even though I open at 9:30, getting to work on time is a real challenge. I literally wait to the last minute, get up, have a shower, as I’m walking back to get changed I put my toast in, get dressed, and eat on the drive to work. I always have crumbs on my seat. I am always running late. Fridays my alarm goes off at 4:30 and you will find me on the road by 5:15 and in the pool from 6 to 8. That’s the one day of the week I actually open early. Who would play you in a movie of your life?
In another world I would like it to be Julia Roberts, but I think Helena Bonham Carter is a bit quirky and I am too. I think we also perhaps have filter issues, when you just think it and it comes out. You kind of go… I don’t
think I meant to say that. What is your idea of a perfect weekend in the Clare Valley?
If I have visitors we quite like heading to one of the wineries. We quite like Jeanneret, I think because it’s up high, it looks over bushland and has a really friendly vibe where you can blend into the crowd. They usually have food trucks, and we just sit and while away the afternoons. I only get a day and a smidge off, so Saturday afternoons I will generally head home, but Sundays we sometimes come back in to the wineries. What Clare Valley wine is in your wine rack?
I’m the worst person to talk to about wine in the Clare Valley. I love really sweet dessert wines, and there are very few wineries in the Valley who do that, so I will often have a gin instead; the local gin is often on my table. Tim Adams does a nice Muscato, but I love a syrupy dessert or fortified wine. I’m very undignified, I usually drink it in a tea cup because I can’t find my port sippers. Favourite place to eat in the Clare Valley?
I love having breakfast at Just Julies on a Friday, they do a great breakfast, but I have to say Antidote Kitchen is pretty special. I really like their loaded fries. Ragu is lovely as well. Last movie or show you watched, was it any good?
Oppenheimer is the last thing I saw in the cinema. Very eye opening and confronting. We know the surface stuff, but it goes into the deep layers. It really stayed with me and I end up googling bits of information. I’m also streaming The Rookie on Netflix, but I end up binging whole series and then having nothing to watch.
Last book you read?
It’s a bit embarrassing, because everyone has this vision that I read a million books a week. Unfortunately it’s a bit like a butcher’s shop where you don’t want steak every night.
The last one I finished was a Nora Roberts book called Mind Games. I like crime. Christmas is when I do my binge reading, but I am time poor like everybody else. I just immerse myself in the books here.
Favourite book of all time?
Enid Blyton, The Folk of the Faraway Tree. I spent a lot of time on my own as a little person, and that book gave me friends, took me on adventures, and showed me reading was exciting.
The book I reread the most is The Charm School by Nelson DeMille, it’s a Cold War Thriller set in the 1980s, and it’s a what if about the missing in action Vietnam vets set in Russia.
Favourite musician?
ABBA and only ABBA. That is it, I have nothing else in my life, only ABBA. Jon Bon Jovi is my hall pass, but ABBA is my first and only love. I saw them in Sydney when I was young and just love them.
If you could have someone else’s job in the Clare Valley for one day, what would you be doing?
I want Rachel Bloom’s job to work in the Florist (Rachel Bird at Main St Blooms). I always call her Rachel Bloom which she thinks is hilarious. She is such a happy, generous person. I want to surround myself with all that gorgeous colour and beautiful flowers. I want that job! I want those flowers!
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The late afternoon sun streams in among the trees, undergrowth now green and lush.
The days are pushing out longer, and Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford’s eyes light up as he speaks with wife, Alison Mitchell-Hannaford, of the way the light is dancing across the ground.
Labrador/poodle cross Ruskin, Alfie and Alison’s constant companion, has excitedly greeted his guests, and gives a gentle nudge while awaiting a thrown tennis ball.
Nestled among the hills of the Belvidere Ranges at Peters Hill - near Riverton – Alison and Alfie’s home has no shortage of beauty to inspire the work that makes them both renowned artists.
“I love the fact that it’s so quiet here, we’ve got the view of the great western sky and we sit out there in the evening and watch the sun go down and it’s so quiet,” Alfie said.
“The bats come out and after dark the Mopoke might call down the valley and it’s just such a delight to have that experience.
“To go outside and walk down to the studio, as I did last night, and when there’s no moon we see the heart of the Milky Way, which we’re so lucky to see in the Southern Hemisphere.
“Sometimes it’s so spectacular, this quietness and beauty, it’s one of the reasons I love the bush.”
Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford.
Alfie – affectionately nicknamed by an uncle after Alfie Obbs, a character in the early Australian radio comedy Mrs Obbs – is an internationally-renowned artist of portrait, sculpture and landscape.
He has been a finalist in the Archibald Prize close to 30 times – although he admits he has not kept count - and is a is a three-time Archibald Prize People’s Choice Award winner, along with a swag of other accolades.
Alison also has an admirable collection of acknowledgements, among them, a finalist in the 2023 STILL National Still Life Award. She has also exhibited extensively, including New York in 2020.
While she is mostly known for her still lifes, she is equally adept at landscapes and portraiture and has painted murals, illustrated books, shared her art through teaching, and is a fluent signwriter - a talent shared with Alfie.
From their studios adjacent the farmhouse, where again, the light is both coveted and celebrated, Alfie and wife Alison speak of their preference for painting from real life.
They manage to capture light, shade and realism, almost freakishly photographic in the detail and clarity.
Alfie has painted and sculptured some of the most famous faces – Queen Elizabeth and Don Bradman (whose statues stand outside Government House and Adelaide Oval respectively), Bob Hawke, Paul Keating and Dame Joan Sutherland.
He has also painted many of the least known faces, equally as detailed, without prejudice in his work.
It is a privilege that has given him audience to so many household names, since his early 20s, but all without fuss, Alfie is hesitant to name any standouts.
“I have met some fascinating people,” he said.
“I’ve painted probably 300-400 different portraits and it’s a happy coincidence that just by continuing to do what I love, you come across so many different people.
“I get to know people quite well because it does take usually a week or so to paint them, and I see them every day for days. I get to know them in a way that many people wouldn’t have the opportunity.”
For Alison, having graduated from Adelaide University with first class honours in anthropology, and keenly observed nature since her very early years, her art extends beyond the obvious.
It comes naturally for her to fully “engage with a theme”.
“My exhibition ‘Unlemon – a meandering tale of citrus’ was first shown in the Museum of Economic Botany in the Adelaide Botanic Garden,” Alison said.
“It told the history and imminent demise of
citrus from a bacteria not yet in Australia.
“The anthropologist in me really likes to dig beneath the surface and put a narrative to it to fill it out.”
THE EARLY YEARS
Alison was born in Malaysia of English/ Malay heritage but migrated to Mount Gambier with her parents when she was two and a half.
It was there where she grew her passion for nature and the outdoors, always surrounded by a big garden and lots of animals, riding horses and weekends of “botanising plants” and finding and naming birds and orchids with her family.
In many ways, her upbringing was not too dissimilar from Alfie’s.
He grew up on a farm, not far from where the couple is now based, the third of four children, and a fifth generation Hannaford in the area.
“It was a fantastic childhood, we were free and spent a lot of time up in the hills or down at the creek playing with tadpoles, and exploring the hills, the Belvidere Ranges and over the back into the natural scrub,” Alfie said.
“I had a pet kangaroo – Hoppy - that I used to walk all over the property with, over the hills and everywhere.”
SETTING DOWN ROOTS
While he moved away for school and work, Alfie eventually returned to the area, buying and then renovating a derelict farm house, where sheep had taken up residence.
It is the same home Alison and Alfie share today, having set down their roots there after their wedding on the property in 2007.
Married atop a hill, surrounded by saplings, with a reception in the local church hall, it was a nod to the pair’s shared conservation interests.
Alison’s appreciation was sown in those early years in the South East, her father also heavily involved in conservation.
Meanwhile, Alfie co-founded the Bushland Conservation Company some 50 years ago, with land on the south coast of Kangaroo Island and the Tothill Ranges (Mid North) dedicated to regeneration.
Alfie says he had a strong appreciation for the land from a young age, and also for those who roamed before him.
His ‘Aboriginal woman and child’ sculpture in Riverton exquisitely captures the story of the region’s Ngadjuri culture.
“I became aware of the culture that lived here before white people when I was very young,” Alfie said.
With over 25 years of experience, our team will bring your wedding or event to life. Servicing the Clare Valley and beyond.
Alison Mitchell-Hannaford in her studio.
“My grandfather pointed to a spot where he said that when he was a kid at the end of the 19th century, he remembers Aboriginal people being there, and that surprised me as a six-year-old.
“I’ve been conscious of the fact and when you sit up on the Belvidere Range and look out, the topography would have been exactly the same when they looked out.
“I always just wondered how their perception and thoughts would have differed, and that interest in Aboriginal culture has just grown with me.”
Home is where the art is
Well-travelled and with their art in demand, the couple could live anywhere in the world, and Alison says “home is where you put your paintbrush down” , and wherever her chooks are.
But for now, they are content living in their piece of paradise, surrounded by nature and finding inspiration all around them.
- See Alfie and Alison’s art work on display at their Riverton Light Gallery, 54 Torrens Road, Riverton, open most Sundays. www.rivertonlightgallery.com
Spacious and luxurious, one and two bedroom apartments.
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Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford and Alison Mitchell-Hannaford at home in their farmhouse at Peters Hill, near Riverton.
Alfie reflects on a painting in progress in his home studio.
Hutt River.
Every 10 years the Clare Valley Wine Hall of Fame showcases the best of the best including the Legends of the industry.
The 2024 Hall of Fame Gala and Awards Presentation did not disappoint, with the latest Hall of Fame Legend inductees honoured, surprised and humbled with their awards.
The Clare Valley Wine Hall of Fame shines a light on those who have been pioneering, innovative, inclusive and ambassadors for the region over significant time in the region honouring those who have influenced and contributed to the Clare Valley wine industry.
The selection process this year was as tough as always with an extremely high number of exceptional candidates.
Held at O’Leary Walker Wines, Leasingham, the five 2024 Hall of Fame Legend inductees have each contributed to the industry as a whole, and growth of Clare Valley as an outstanding region on the global stage. Katherine Maitland of LightBulb Media said, “It was a fabulous award celebration on the 24th of May. A very special evening to celebrate all the achievements of award winners and legends of the Clare Valley.”
Peter Barry (Jim Barry Wines)
Peter Barry (Jim Barry Wines) said it was a wonderful reward and accolade to receive. “It is the only organisation I have been with my entire life, the Clare Valley winemakers, having started attending meetings back in 1977”
Peter Barry has had four terms as chair for the organisation and reflects on the inspirational times where half a dozen winemakers would
sit down sharing some great wine and discuss how they would tell the Clare Valley story to the world. He was part of the first winemakers team to pioneer travel overseas, exploring export opportunities with the first trip in 1983.
“The first thing we had to do,” Peter said, “was to educate people where in fact Clare Valley was and tell the story, then showcase the wines. We had business cards with a map of Australia showing where Clare was!”
Roly Birks (Wendouree)
Roly is indeed a worthy recipient of the Hall of Fame Legend Inductee Award. Wendouree is considered to be among the most beautiful and distinctive wines this country has to offer.
Roly ‘The Gunner’ Birks was the winemaker and salesman through a long, difficult period from 1917 to 1970, continuing the legacy of his family who arrived in Angaston, South Australia in 1953. Aged 77, Roly sold the estate however, the brand Wendouree still continues today and is a highly sought after wine by wine lovers around the world.
Roly is a legend we will always honour.
Neil Paulett (Paulett Wines)
“I’m flattered to have been considered as a ’Legend’ and better still a ’Living Legend’“ Neil Paulett said. “Back in 1982 the chief winemaker of Penfolds Don Ditter, suggested we look at Clare. We took a drive and I fell back in love with the region having visited often when I was at Roseworthy.” It was on August 4, 1982 that Neil Paulett moved back into the region
Andrew Pike (Pikes Wines)
“It is a nice accolade, I will take it with me with pride,” shared Andrew Pike as he also reflected on the time he first decided to plant in Clare. “I can remember walking out here in the winter of 1984 in a crop of some sort of wheat or barley and my wife had just recently given birth to our eldest son Jamie” Andrew Pike shared. “We were walking through the crop and I thought ’it looks like a pretty good place to put a stake in the ground’ so that is what we did“ The family history was already there in beverage and hospitality with his great, great grandfather the founder of Pikes brewery in Oakbank, South Australia. Andrew Pike credits the industry already being in his DNA. Andrew Pike played a large role in bringing the Grape Growers Association and the Wine Makers Association together, creating significant benefits for the region overall. “The wine industry is a lifestyle,“ he said “You have got to be in it for the right reasons,” Innovation and ’having a shot’ has been Andrew’s driving force, which has fuelled his contribution within the industry for Clare Valley.
Stephanie Toole (Mount Horrocks Wines)
“I am very honoured to be included amongst such other great recipients,” said Stephanie Toole as she shared she originally was committed to be at an event in Belgium, however quickly rearranged her schedule for this very special award presentation.
Stephanie Toole bought and transformed the Mt Horrocks Railway Station, incorporating her deep passion for chemical free living. In 2000 she planted the vineyard, which in 2012 received Organic certification, followed by Biodynamic certification in 2018. As a passionate innovator and always seeking ways to improve and enhance what she does, Stephanie Toole was part of the team of four winemakers out of 13 from Clare Valley who introduced the screw cap in 2000. In that same year they took the wine producers product to London to be presented at Australia House to a circle of wine writers who were influential in the UK. “I was confident it would change our industry for the better and I was 100 percent all in after all, having to uncork and line up wines before a dinner event or tasting to test which ones were corked or not... well it was a ‘no brainer’ to me.” Stephanie Toole emphasised the fact she was not going to be retiring any time soon and was moving ahead to discover more improvements and innovations to elevate the industry. “I hope that other younger wine makers see that now it is possible, in this gorgeous place tht we live, that it is possible to not farm in the traditional way, but to embrace new and modern, chemical free technology,” she said.
Words: Jaynie Morris
Stephanie Toole - Mount Horrocks Wines - was honoured to be included in the Legends Inductees 2024 Award.
Neil Paulett has added ongoing innovation into the industry since falling back in love with the Clare Valley region in 1982.
Roly Birks Hall of Fame Legend Inductee 2024.Peter Barry - Jim Barry Wines - had his first export trip in 1983, pioneering Clare Valley as a region to watch in the Wine Industry.
Andrew Pike says that the wine industry is a ’lifestyle’ - you need to be in it for the right reasons.
Business woman Cassie Fuller saw a need for a co-working office space in Clare, and created Gleeson Collective to both encourage and support other small business operators.
As a business woman and busy mum of three, Cassie Fuller spends plenty of time in the car commuting to and from the family farm, 50 kilometres north of Clare.
It is relished opportunity to catch up on the day’s school news from the kids, maybe even clear her head after a busy day, it is also where Cassie brainstorms some of her best ideas.
It was there, travelling the familiar path home, that she pulled together her own experiences and devised a plan to create a collective workspace for others just like her.
People needing a small office space where they could create their own business identity, somewhere to be proud of, somewhere even just to check into for a few hours a month to sort out the family admin away from the bustle of home life. And Gleeson Collective in Clare was born.
The Collective is a co-working space in the centre of Clare where tenants can rent office space long- term, short-term, or even just rent a ‘hot desk’ or boardroom for the day.
Cassie, who has established her own new business as a qualified draftsperson, is also a fully-qualified and experienced property valuer who saw a need for small business spaces in the Clare Valley.
“It was an idea I had in the back of my mind for many years,” Cassie said.
“When I was working as a property valuer, working regionally across the state, and working solo most of the time, if I ever needed an office space outside of my home, I’d maybe ring the local accountancy firm and see if they had any space available to rent.
“You’d just tack yourself onto the end of some other businesses space.
“And while that was always really great, you never felt like you had your own space and that sense of ownership in a place that is collectively everyone’s.”
The concept of shared office, or co working, spaces is taking off around the country, however Gleeson Collective is a first for the Clare Valley and a leap of faith for Cassie.
Cassie said the idea of a collective office space bubbled away, until she was spurred on by a podcast from the founder of a similar space in Grenfell, New South Wales.
Her story resonated with Cassie who sought out the business owner to get an insight into how it could work in Clare.
“The population of Grenfell was slightly less than Clare and I thought, if she can do it successfully there, we can do it here,” she said. Call it serendipity, but at the same time, a
Words: Gabrielle Hall
Photos: John Kruger
building came up for sale and Cassie immediately saw its potential.
“This property at 12 Gleeson Street in Clare was for sale and my husband, Leigh, and I looked through it,” Cassie said.
“He said definitely no, there’s too much work to be done on it, and I said definitely yes because it’s an 1870s cottage – one of the earliest built in Clare – and I have a huge affinity with old spaces and just couldn’t let it go.”
Formerly a semi-industrial space used by Clare Print in most recent years, the property was also once a family home, and Cassie fell in love with its charm.
“I love old buildings, growing up in an old farm house, and the thought of repurposing something for modern use really appeals to me,” she said.
“A lot of the drafting work I do now is with old buildings and I love the challenge of enhancing what some might see as flaws, but I see as character.”
Cassie and Leigh – along with their children, Lewis 10, Evie, 8, and Grace, 6spent 12 months gutting the interior of the building, replacing roof trusses, flooring and adding a new slab in the centre.
“Fortunately, being farmers we did have access to heavy machinery, and it was a lot of hard work,” Cassie said.
“Leigh and I, with help from Leigh’s dad, had to work out a way to get into the centre of the building and then jackhammer out the floor, and I’m pretty sure it was at this point that my father-in-law was really questioning what I was doing and thinking it was insane.”
Throughout the renovation, locals were keen to know what was planned for the cottage, and many were pleased it was being given a new lease on life.
“We had a lady pop in one day and ask what we were doing, she was worried the building would be demolished,” Cassie said.
“She had lived there as a child, along with, I think nine siblings, all part of the Salter family.
“It really was like almost a sense of responsibility to the community to do something here with this old building.
“It was like it belonged to the community as well, and we haven’t really felt that before, nobody sees what you’re working on out at the farm.”
It took loads of hard work, many weekends, lots of problem solving and crunching of numbers, but the outcome is fresh and welcoming.
“We were really specific about the brief, we wanted it to be a really nice, inviting space, almost like a home so that people come in and have that sense of ownership and want to come to work because it’s nice and it’s warm and it looks good,” Cassie said.
“We wanted space and lots of light, a place that is comfortable and inclusive.
“We really encourage people to become part of a work community, and create almost a little business hub of its own where people can chat in the kitchen, have someone to say ‘hi’ to when they arrive at work, and really have a sense of place.”
Cassie is keen to also encourage others into ‘having a go’ at their own business, particularly women, and has plans to expand the outdoor shed area into a larger, useable space suitable for workshops, group interactions or any activity that required a “blank” space.
“It’s a goal of mine to see women in particular, but men too, to succeed and have confidence to put themselves out there and have a belief that they can succeed in their own business,” Cassie said.
Clare’s new co-working space, Gleeson Collective, is giving small business owners the opportunity to create their own space and identity.
One of the Gleeson Collective meeting areas.
Michael and Sharryn Smith toast the success of the Ulster Park Wines Cellar Door.
previous rented cellar door space in the Auburn RSL Building.
The Smiths’ Ulster Park Wines shares the villa at 23 Main North Road in Auburn with Three Little Birds distillery and A Joyful Bunch boutique and eclectic giftware shop – and together they have created a thriving new attraction.
“It came about by serendipity,” explained Sharryn.
“A friend was selling her villa on Main North Road, just as we were leaving our
“We knew the front room would make an ideal tasting room for our wines, so we went ahead and bought the villa, then thought about who else we invite to share the space with us.”
Michael made an approach to Leigh Brown from Three Little Birds distillery in Adelaide to become a co-tenant at 23 Main North Road, being a particular fan of Lee’s shiraz gin.
“We liked the idea of providing something different to Clare with our range of craft
Dianne Tilley, Lisa-Marie Gordon, Michael Smith and Sharryn Smith enjoy the outdoor space.
Lisa-Marie Gordon with some of Three Little Birds’ offerings.
Kaisha Bullen
spirits, so we initially agreed to do pop-ups on weekends,” Lee said.
“That has now seen us move inside to established a permanent sales room and tasting space, where we can mix up cocktails for customers.”
Dianne Tilley from A Joyful Bunch also joined the shared space, taking one room in the villa before realising her diverse giftware business needed more space.
Having previously operated as a florist from a space within the Terroir@Auburn building, Dianne’s enterprise had grown to also include clothing, homewares, books and gifts, so she
eventually rented three rooms and expanded her range further.
“They’re unique – not the usual things you find in the Clare Valley,” Dianne said.
When the villa opened for business in January 2023, a very friendly and social space was unveiled.
A spacious front lawn attracts a crowd happy to linger, tasting Ulster Park Wines – its flagship Matriarch Shiraz, Pinot Gris, Grenache Rose, Mayors Shiraz and Fernilee Sparkling – and Three Little Birds spirits, in the company of pizzas cooked by Lee Brown in a portable pizza oven he sets up as a popup
attraction on the front lawn.
“The crowds that come and enjoy themselves on the front lawn have made our business very visible, and this has undoubtedly prompted more people to stop and see what’s happening,” Sharryn said.
Success has prompted plans to build an enclosed pavilion next to the villa, on the north side of the property.
“It will provide heating and shelter in the colder months, and provide a secure space where we can host functions.”
Still, the three business owners choose to
keep modest hours - from noon to 7pm, Friday to Sunday, plus long weekends and some school holidays.
“We want it to always be enjoyable, so we choose the hours that best suit us,” Sharryn continued.
“It took a leap of faith for us to build this larger enterprise, but it has been of such great benefit to Ulster Park Wines and our two neighbours.
“We’ve created a fun vibe in this venue, and we have fun together. It has been a very joyful journey.”
Dianne Tilley is full of joy about A Joyful Bunch being a part of the shared space in Auburn.
The Clare & Gilbert Valleys region has plenty of both – a region of South Australia which is known for its fine wines and food experiences is also filled with hidden riches.
History and heritage are shown off in buildings and conservation parks, including the Martindale Hall Conservation Park which is located just outside of the State Heritage listed township of Mintaro with its many historic buildings with interesting stories to tell.
The stunning abundance of local artists and their work complements both the scenery and heritage of the area, and form the fabric of cultural tourism activities, which also exert a strong pull for visitors.
Cultural tourism includes stand alone arts events, venues, activities and places which attract visitors and add value to and enhance
visitor experiences – and the region has these experiences in abundance.
Many artists have their own dedicated galleries or share space with other local businesses, such as wineries, cafes, shared gallery space and more.
If you are travelling into the Clare & Gilbert Valleys from the South, then Riverton is a great stepping stone to the remainder of the region.
Street art, which celebrates a life size bronze statue of an Aboriginal mother and her child, stands outside the Riverton Community Hall.
The sculpture is by acclaimed artist Robert ‘Alfie’ Hannaford, whose Riverton Light Gallery located nearby, combines exhibition space with an artists’ studio for Hannaford and his partner Alison Mitchell.
While Hannaford is best known for his portraits and Mitchell for her still life paintings, the gallery exhibitions are diverse and reveal a wide range of their subject matter, providing an insight into the inspirations and motivations of this local couple.
In Clare, the Clare Arthouse houses regularly changing exhibitions and works for sale by regional artists through the Clare Valley Arts Collective. A feast for art lovers in a range of mediums by talented creators.
There are several galleries to visit on the way northwards and a list of regional art spaces and public art work can be downloaded from the Clare Valley Wine, Food and Tourism Centre or the Clare & Gilbert Valleys Council website.
Every art work and every artist in the region has a story to tell – and there are hidden discoveries everywhere we look.
Explore the Clare & Gilbert Valleys with a glass of wine and an eye for local stories –wine and art – a perfect match!
Learn – Discover – Experience
Colin Stevens with some beautifully decorated urns.
They’d had enough of the scorching desert heat, so Colin Stevens and Christine Clissold packed up and moved from Alice Springs to Clare in 2012. However, they weren’t about to abandon their passion for Indigenous art, which led to them creating Clare Valley Art Gallery.
“There’s something special about this art, because it speaks volumes about both the people who make it and the place they come from. It’s truly authentic,” says Colin from the spacious gallery space, created in a former workshop on Main North Road, at the southern entrance to Clare.
Artists featured in the Clare Valley Art Gallery are from the remote area of Utopia, an Aboriginal homeland and former cattle station located north-east of Alice Springs. The artworks have a unique style, developed by women from Utopia who initially learned to print bright colours on fabric by batik artist Jenny Green, commissioned to teach at Utopia thanks to a federal governmentsponsored program in 1973.
The Utopia artists have since transferred designs and patterns born from their batik artworks, along with a vivid colour palate, to paintings on canvas. These artworks often draw their inspiration from the women’s tasks of gathering bush tucker, of examining the flowering of plants and the changing of seasons.
“There’s a rich story to tell behind every artwork,” says Colin, who is happy to explain the meaning of each piece to gallery visitors.
Colin and Christine became involved in the Indigenous art industry more than 15 years ago, making direct contact with the Utopia artists, and initially showcasing collections of Utopia artwork from their home in Alice Springs.
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Colin Stevens with some of the aboriginal artworks on display at Clare Valley Art Gallery.
Merchandise printed with the aboriginal designs is available to purchase at the gallery.
There is a wide array of giftware for sale at the gallery.
Some examples of art from the Utopia artists.
Their connections to the women artists of Utopia have remained strong, with all of the 300 art pieces in the Clare Valley Art Gallery being sourced directly from Utopia artists. Indeed, most of the exhibited artworks have been produced at the Clare gallery, when the women artists have regularly visited, worked in residence and stayed with Colin and Christine.
The international reputation of the Utopia artworks has brought many visitors to Clare from around Australia and other countries –specifically to access the unique artworks exhibited by Colin and Christine.
“We’ve built quite a reputation, and many people make the journey here from afar to buy these artworks,” says Colin. “Unlike many other galleries dealing in Indigenous art, we have a direct connection with the artists, and their artworks are priced to sell without being inflated by agents or other people in the middle – which works nicely for both us and the artists.”
When renowned Indigenous entertainer, storyteller and artist Ernie Dingo came to open the Clare Valley Art Gallery in 2013, he was also inspired to create a few of his own paintings during his visit – which now hang near the gallery entrance.
The gallery also has a range of gifts available for sale, including Clare Valleybranded souvenirs, and Colin can ship artwork throughout Australia and internationally – or, if you are located close to the gallery, he can stretch your painting so it is ready to hang on your wall.
Clare Valley Art Gallery is open between 10am and 4pm from Thursdays to Sundays, or private viewings can be arranged by appointment.
Book your Christmas or end of year function at the Watervale Hotel. Function Areas
Beer Garden under cover Max capacity is 96
Hell Hole with private terrace and toilet facility (for up to 22)
Hell Hole with private terrace and toilet facility (for up to 22)
Private rooms for intimate celebrations
Private rooms for intimate celebrations
Menus (food prices only):
Menus (food prices only):
Individually plated degustation dining for $110 / head Gourmet Feast for $90 / head Farm Feast for $60 / head
Individually plated degustation dining for $110/head GourmetFeast for $90/ head Farm Feast from $50/head
For the very special occasion, why not book the Wendouree Degustation $500 / head.
Icons of Clare Degustation at $250/head, including iconic wines from Grosset, Wendouree, Kilikanoon, Jim Barry, Pikes and Mount Horrocks.
Why drive home afterwards, check availability of the Watervale Hotel Guesthouse.
For more information please visit www.watervalehotel.com.au and email taste@watervalehotel.com.au for enquiries.
For more information please visit www.watervalehotel.com.au and email taste@watervalehotel.com.au for enquiries. 12705369-AW36-24
A look inside the Clare Valley Art Gallery which includes works from Utopia. These works also featureon giftware for
Tiny town’s big appeal
Both Regional Council of Goyder Chief Executive Officer David Stevenson and Mayor Bill Gebhardt said the people’s choice victory was a huge surprise, and a major result for a town with such a small population base. “Getting the public vote has been amazing. Staff, community, friends and family have all come together for it,” Mr Gebhardt said. “We have a good team here and this demonstrates how good it really is.”
Mr Stevenson was palpable in his excitement at the win, and though quick to praise the team behind the campaign, said it was a win for the entire community.
“At the end of the day they have done all of the hard work,” he said. “It doesn’t matter what part of the little town you’re in, everyone is proud about their garden or shopfronts. Everyone’s got a smile, and the invitation that offers to guests just speaks volumes, I think that’s why the people’s choice award came our way.”
Sue Freeman-Ward, team leader at the Burra Visitor Information Centre said the town was enlivened by the result. “You couldn’t walk past someone without them saying they had voted, and sent their friends the link. It was a real team community effort,” she said.
Pip Edson, a member of Friends of Burra Railway station and Burra Community Management Committee concurred, noting the vote got out well beyond the local community. “We have family living in Paris, so we said- you have to vote. And they did, the whole family voted,” she said.
Ms Edson said visitors were often quick to praise the town of their own accord too. “We get a lot of people at the station who have met people while caravanning and have been told- if you haven’t been to Burra, you must go.”
The recognition formalises what has been something of a recent renaissance for the ‘Tiny Town’ , with Mr Stevenson noting the importance of the town’s heritage. “The Cornish mining heritage we have here has been bolstered by the continuum of support from the community over time,” he said. “In some small communities that wains, but it has just gone from strength to strength in this community. Everybody should be very proud, all the hard work that goes into the businesses and the general residential population all contributes to what makes this town so special.”
Together with Moonta, Burra is well on its
way on a journey for World Heritage status to further celebrate its Cornish Mining heritage.
While the Australian Cornish mining sites have already attained State and National heritage recognition, there is significant potential benefit to the region to be gained from World Heritage inscription.
Expert International World Heritage consultant Barry Gamble said the sites are well placed. Mr Gamble’s first involvement in a World Heritage application was in 2003-05, as Principal Author of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape. His experience lends gravity to his assessment of the significance of the local sites.
“Outside of Cornwall and West Devon, the Cornish mining technology and wider culture was exported around the world,” Mr Gamble said. “When my initial heritage application was successful, the indication was that Cornwall is fantastic in what was achieved there, but it was when it went around the globe that amplifies this significance. Of these exports, there is nowhere more preeminent than these sites in Burra and Moonta. “I’ve seen engine houses in Mexico, South Africa, Spain, Ireland, but nowhere is this combination of cultural quality and value
better demonstrated than here in Burra and Moonta.”
Knowing a little something about the culture, Mr Gamble speaks enthusiastically about his time spent in the region.
“I’ve stayed in a miner’s cottage in Paxton Square, built to accommodate miners out of dugouts, and I picked up a Cornish pasty at the bakery. When I think about the landscape compared to the rest of the world, in terms of a transplanted cultural landscape, this is the best there is; that is why we are nominating it, it is very very special.”
Mr Gamble noted there was a lot going for South Australia and its visitor economy regionally, with another world heritage nomination currently in the works for the Flinders Ranges. “It is very complimentary to Burra and Moonta,” he said. “When you think about the situation of coming into Adelaide, travelling up a couple of hours to Burra then over to Moonta, you have the Clare Valley and the wine, then the coast. It is a rich potential cultural offer, which is very attractive for South Australia.”
The Burra community recently celebrated its recognition as the state’s top ’Tiny Tourism Town’
Expert World Heritage consultant Barry Gamble at Morphetts Enginehouse, Burra- the only known reconstructed Cornish enginehouse in the world.
This authentic German soft bread pretzel recipe will take you away to Deutschland with it’s unique salty bread flavours.
This recipe is so delicious and will also be available at The UPPside on October 6 for the Clare Valley’s first Oktoberfest
Yield: 12 pretzels
Ingredients
■360ml warm water
■7g instant or active dry yeast
■6g teaspoon salt
■12g brown sugar
■14g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cool
■470-500g all-purpose flour, plus more for hands and work surface
■coarse salt or coarse sea salt for sprinkling
Baking Soda Bath
■120g baking soda
■2.1L water
Instructions
Whisk the yeast into warm water. Allow to sit for 1 minute. Whisk in salt, brown sugar, and melted butter. Slowly add 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. Mix with a wooden spoon until dough is thick. Add 3/4 cup more flour until the dough is no longer sticky. If it is still sticky, add 1/4 – 1/2 cup more, as needed.
Knead the dough: Knead by hand on a lightly floured surface for 5 full minutes. If the dough becomes too sticky during the kneading process, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of flour at a time on the dough or on your work surface. Do not add more flour than you need because you do not want a dry dough. After kneading, the dough should still feel a little soft.
Shape the kneaded dough into a ball. Cover lightly with a towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes. (Meanwhile, I like to get the water +
baking soda boiling as instructed in step 6.)
Preheat oven to 200°C. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Silicone baking mats are highly recommended over parchment paper. If using parchment paper, lightly spray with nonstick spray or grease with butter. Set aside.
With a sharp knife or pizza cutter, cut dough into approx. 75g portions.
Roll the dough into a long rope. Form a circle with the dough by bringing the two ends together at the top of the circle. Twist the ends together. Bring the twisted ends back down towards yourself and press them down to form a pretzel shape.
Bring baking soda and water to a boil in a large pot. Drop 1-2 pretzels into the boiling water for 20-30 seconds. Any more than that and your pretzels will have a metallic taste.
Using a slotted spatula, lift the pretzel out of the water and allow as much of the excess water to drip off. Place pretzel onto prepared baking trays. Sprinkle each with coarse sea salt. Repeat with remaining pretzels. If desired, you can cover and refrigerate the boiled/ unbaked pretzels for up to 24 hours before baking.
Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from the oven, serve warm or cool on wire racks
Cover and store leftover pretzels at room temperature for up to three days. They lose a little softness over time. To reheat, microwave for a few seconds, or bake at 180°C for 5 minutes.
Serve with mustard and German sausage like a bratwurst or eat them as a snack
UPPside Soft Bread Pretzels
RIGHT: Ali Cobby Eckermann and Dr Helen Macdonald forged a friendship through the late Ngadjuri elder Vince Copley, whose life was recounted with friend Lea McInerney in the book ’The Wonder of Little Things.’
Pictured also is Mel Agius’ work ’Healing Together,’ which was gifted to CGVC, and sits within the council chambers.
“As an Aboriginal woman, I have always cared for country, wherever I reside,” Ali Cobby Eckermann reflects, sitting close to a waterway maintaining a slow trickle as she speaks.
“I think we really need to look and pause, and really ask ourselves if we are treating this beautiful landscape with the respect it deserves. There are such pockets of ancient land here, and you can feel the story. I may
never meet anyone who can tell me the story, but I know this place holds story.”
The Yankunytjatjara poet and artist, whose recent verse novel ‘She is the Earth,’ received the honour of being named Book of the Year at the New South Wales Premier’s Literary Awards, has a long history with the region, where she chooses to reside. Growing up as a child of the stolen generations at Hart, and attending Brinkworth Area School and Clare
Ali shares words of experience at the recent Clare NAIDOC event.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names of deceased persons.
High, Ali has seen much change over the years.
“When I went to Clare High School there were a lot of Aboriginal families living here and going to school, but by the end of the 70s it seemed like everyone left,” she said. The shadow of racism may linger, but Ali has since learned Ngadjuri were always visiting country, just remaining unseen.
“It’s been rewarding to meet with Ngadjuri on country, 40 plus years later,” Ali said. “It was so exciting to be invited for lunch when the Ngadjuri Nation Aboriginal Board had their first meeting out here in Clare, on country. This is stuff I never thought I’d see in my lifetime.”
Significant shifts have taken place in recent times. In July 2023, the Ngadjuri people were formally recognised as native title holders in South Australia’s mid north, following an application dating back to 2011. In June 2024 the Regional Council of Goyder and the Ngadjuri Nation Aboriginal Corporation came together to sign a Memorandum of Understanding on country in the Burra Council Chambers. Ali notes getting to know the Board has been a highlight of her tenure in Goyder.
The memorandum stands in place for longer than the current administrations of either side of the agreement are likely to, and shows what can be achieved in changing the social landscape.
“It just takes a consideration, and a commitment, and a care,” Ali says. “I’m proud to have played a small part in the process.”
The change has been felt within the Clare community too, with NAIDOC celebrations now a firm part of the annual event calendar, a far cry from its early inception. Helen has had a significant role in the shift. “The first NAIDOC event I attended on Ngadjuri country was in 2018,” Helen says. “It was held by the then Natural Resource Management board, at their office in the back lunch room. There were quite a few people there, but it wasn’t a public event. After that, council got heavily involved and started organising it along with the landscape board.”
Torres Strait Islander woman Natalie Sommerville has been another instrumental voice in developing the event. “It was one of her life goals to ensure there was an annual NAIDOC event in the region,” Helen notes.
Many others have paved the way, they are far from alone, and recognise they play a small part in a long story. “It has been a slow progression, Ngadjuri people are coming back to country more frequently, certainly than they have been for some decades,” Helen reflects.
Ali and Helen first forged a friendship through a shared connection with Uncle Vince Copley, the late Ngadjuri elder whose ability to build bridges through his kindness had lasting impact, and continues to inspire.
“Uncle Vince was coming up with archeologists from Flinders University and doing research along with others,” Helen says.
“Helen was going to visit Uncle Vince, and I jumped in the car,” remembers Ali. “That seeded a good friendship.”
The profound influence of Uncle Vince is just one thread of kindness which continues to resonate. Following a meeting in Burra in 1998, Copley set up a research partnership with Flinders University which continued for the rest of his life and beyond to create Ngadjuri Heritage Project. Through recording oral histories, and much research, the project identified more than 600 Ngadjuri sites.
These echoes ripple further back, to Ngadjuri elder Fred Warrior, who grew knowledge of the culture through research and study with archaeologists and historians to produce the book: Ngadjuri in 1985.
Ali notes a meeting which took place between Ngadjuri woman Aunty Angelena Harradine and Watervale Hotel Co-owner Nicola Palmer.
An early ally to the Ngadjuri was Esther Greenslade, owner of the Watervale Hotel in the early days of settlement.
Esther would bake bread for the Ngadjuri women, leaving it for them to collect in a large hessian bag to take back to the creek.
The story of Esther has been passed down through the Ngadjuri generations, finally
reaching Aunty Angelena Harradine, who was inspired by the love and generosity Esther displayed, and reached out to Nicola to break bread in a resounding ripple of kindness not forgotten, resulting in the largest gathering of Ngadjuri women back on country for over a hundred years.
“It’s a good reminder that history repeats itself,” Ali says.
With many members of the community now involved in Clare’s NAIDOC committee, and a lasting agreement in place in Goyder, there is still much work to be done, but Ali remains circumspect about the timing of her departure.
“Timing plays a part,” she says. “It’s wise in a continuum to know when to leave, when to let go and hand over to the younger generation. You can get wrapped up and think only you can forge forward.”
“You may think if you don’t do it, nobody is going to,” Helen responds. “You have to let go and know that people are going to do it differently, but that’s ok.”
“Doing it differently is how Aboriginal people have become the oldest culture in the world, because they weren’t rigid,” says Ali. “Rigid snaps, flexibility bends with the wind and grows in time.”
Having now learnt the value of sitting with elders and listening to an Aboriginal law which remains hidden but unbroken, Ali notes
Natalie Sommerville, a driving force behind Clare’s NAIDOC celebrations, thanks Helen as she prepares to step back from her position at CGVC.
there are many who have great love and insight into the local landscape. “I hear a lot of comments about the strength of the sky and the beauty, but we haven’t really learnt how to rally together and listen, not only to Aboriginal people, but learned conservationists and scientists, to come and have conversations so that we can all be a little bit informed, even if it is just so we are not sitting in the worry.”
there are two landscapes which need to continue healing; the natural and social.
Though the culture is more visible and protected than when they took up positions in local government, both women express concern for the future across Australia. Ali says
“In my time of living here, being a stolen kid and growing up, only in our sixties are me and my brother starting to understand and outgrow the effects of the social landscape we were forced into,” she says. ”I also grow concerned for the natural landscape. I know from my travels across the country and the world, that where big enterprise is is never favourable for Aboriginal practice. If I look through that spiritual lens, it causes concern.”
Another concern is the water, still there; riven lines in earth.
“It is a very harmed and impacted landscape,” Helen says. “Being here for a while and realising most of the Mid North and beyond is dependent on the Murray River, everyone is dependent on that water. In my mind it is a high risk. When you go further North, It’s crying out to be left alone.”
Helen acknowledges the work of historian and lecturer Skye Krichauff, whose work traces the wounded spaces of the mid-north, showing how the waterways across the country no longer flow as they once did.
“When you look back to first settlement, there were permanent bodies of water around
places like Booborowie. Obviously climate change has a lot to do with it, but so does what we do to the landscape. A lot has changed… There are places which have not, and they feel quite different.”
Ali, who has taken up residence in Koolunga for the past fifteen years, says she has witnessed much change to the river since she moved in. “Whenever I go for a walk, I have a pray talk to the river, because I see it is really suffering,” she says. “It is really damaged… it is still alive. Think it appreciates good conversation.”
Ali notes there are many with knowledge of the land, along with new people coming to the mid north who are very keen to have conversations about how we can fix a patch. “I think that’s exciting because it heralds change, and change can come with friendship and goodwill,” she notes. “Fostering friendship and communication, caring for a river bank or surveying the birds, even sharing a picnic in the park… this is the beautiful energy that country enjoys, rather than being ignored. I think we all need to talk to country, no matter what background we come from. Country is always listening.”
Through the combined work of many parties, Ali and Helen leave their tenures at local government with Ngadjuri culture in a more visible place than when they began, with hope new voices will continue on a path of healing.
Arms full of potential
22 years.
From the outside the local hotel in the small town of Owen may seem like your typical country pub, but after entering through the front door and seeing what it truly has in store you realise it is much more than that.
The Owen Arms Hotel has been a part of the local community since 1905, when it was established by Walter Robert Standley as the Wooroora Hotel, and then later the Hotel Standley.
Cathy and Ian ’Space’ Gregory are the modern day owners of the Owen Arms Hotel, and in November will celebrate 22 years of managing this popular watering hole.
The Gregorys have truly kept this hotel in the family, having taken over from Cathy’s parents Carol and Toly Borissow who managed it for 11 years and from the beginning had been helped by their children, Teagan and Mitchell, who were 9 and 12 when they started.
Cathy said the past nearly 22 years the hotel had opened its doors for many different gatherings as Owen, with its population of about 300 people, had turned to them for many different events, and even times of emergency.
Tom ReddenGeneral Manager
Cathy and Ian ’Space’ Gregory have been managing the Owen Arms Hotel for nearly
“We’ve had over the years may wakes, had baby showers, times of stress like the Pinery fire when everyone was in front of the pub with their birds, cats, dogs wondering what to do, waiting for news,” she said.
Another unexpected event would force the hotel to change how it did things, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought Australia to a stand-still in 2020.
Like many businesses across the country, Owen Arms had to adapt in how it did business and how it served the public.
“Covid was the biggest challenge in our 21 years, but we flipped it pretty well, we did as much as we could online to keep our customers engaged,” Cathy said.
“We continued social club draws and sold
whatever we could as takeaways and take home meals.
The hotel has built a reputation on the meals it cooks up, especially its pizzas cooked in a wood oven out the back that the Gregorys built themselves out of stone from the old stable ruins.
For the past decade the pizzas have been a hit every Wednesday night, with Cathy stating they sell about 100 every Wednesday.
She said meals had become an even bigger part of the hotel’s business post-Covid, a noticeable change in recent years.
“Since Covid we’ve extended our hours and across the board we’re hitting 500 to 600 meals per week, which is huge for a little town,” she said.
Kaila Dunk prepares the wood-fired pizza oven, which cooks the hotel’s famous pizzas.
Sasha Branson gets ready to pour a drink at the bar in the Owen Arms Hotel.
The hotel is open for dinner Monday to Saturday, and for lunch Wednesday to Sunday.
As well as offering tasty pizzas and other meals, the hotel has also branched out in distilling their own beverage with the launch of Red Granny Vodka late last year.
After Space and his son Mitchell did a university course to learn distilling, they learned more about the craft from other sources and created their own still piece by piece.
Their vodka has enjoyed some success, and has seen distribution at pubs in areas including Freeling, Sevenhill, Saddleworth, Wasleys, Balaklava, Mallala, Port Wakefield, Truro and Tarlee.
While the Owen Arms may be known as a place to come and enjoy a meal, and a drink or two, there is one resident who has become a local celebrity, who shares a name with a famous pop star.
The hotel’s resident camel Fergie (named after the popstar of Black Eyed Peas fame, famous for hits like ’My Humps’ ... get it?) can often be seen poking her head up over the back fence, greeting guests who may snap a photo, or even feed her a carrot or two.
Cathy said Fergie had been a big part of the hotel since she was a calf.
“We got her as a little baby, she had to be fed animal milk,” she said.
“Right after Pinery we thought it would be something to put a smile on people’s faces.”
Fergie has certainly put smiles on people’s faces, and has become so popular that she
even has her own Instagram page @ fergiethecamel, where she has 545 followers as of the end of July.
Cathy said Fergie has truly added to the enjoyment of people who come to visit the hotel.
“People visit her all the time, feed her carrots, and one bloke brings in 20kg bags of carrots all the time,” she said.
“If the band is on, she dances up and down the fence.”
Fergie is just one part of what contributes to the Owen Arms being a “family orientated” venue.
Cathy said they regularly hosted birthday and Christmas parties, with families and people of all ages enjoying some great times on the premises.
In and around the hotel, there has been great change over the years as the area around the First Street/Railway Terrace intersection has really come alive thanks to the hotel as well as surrounding businesses like Steamy Beanz, HeART of the Plains and the Owen Emporium, as well as the nearby silo art catching the eyes of motorists passing through.
To further accommodate people for events and social gatherings, the hotel has updated its underground room which now includes an 8-ball table, large TV and couches, and has turned into a private function room for groups to enjoy.
No matter how much the hotel has changed, or how much the town has changed,
for Cathy and the family what has never changed is the enjoyment managing the Owen Arms Hotel, and being a part of the Owen community, has brought.
“It’s more of a lifestyle, not really a job, you just live it because we live on premises, my Mum and Dad lived here, my kids lived here, we just live it,” she said.
“Owen is a very community-minded place, there’s no better place to have a hotel.”
So next time you find yourself in Owen, why not stop by the local hotel and experience the hospitality and atmosphere for yourself. You are sure to be welcomed with ‘Owen Arms’.
Fergie enjoys a snack.
There is so much to the Owen Arms Hotel in Owen.
This time of year is actually my favourite. I love that feeling of cool weather, hardier food and most importantly I love pumpkins and weeds, two things that are in abundance at the moment. Being someone that hates waste (especially the food kind), I wanted to share a few recipes and tips that ensure to use up those gluts and weed piles in a delicious and nourishing way.
Not just for breakfast these pikelets are a wonderful dessert or lunchbox treat cold. You can use any kind of pumpkin and spice them up with any of your favourite sweet or savoury spices.
Ingredients
■1 kg pumpkin
■Himalayan pink salt
■2 tablespoons of plain flour
■a knob of organic butter
■cinnamon and coconut sugar to taste
■Organic cream to serve (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180ºC and line a baking tray with baking paper. Core the unpeeled pumpkin (reserve the seeds if you like and toast them) and chop it into chunks. Put the pumpkin on the tray and sprinkle with salt. Roast for about 20 minutes, or until soft enough to mash. You do not need oil as that makes the pumpkin soggy. Salt is enough as it draws out the liquid.
Remove from the oven, slice off and discard the skin and place the flesh in a bowl. Mash with a potato masher or stick blender until smooth. Mix in the flour.
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Heat a small frying pan over medium heat until hot, add the butter and add two tablespoons or so of mixture to the pan to form a pikelet. You can use as much or as little mix as you like depending on how big you want the. Cook the pikelets in small batches until golden brown on the outside and cooked but still soft inside , about 3-4 minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar and serve hot with cream if desired.
TIPS: Reserve the pumpkin seeds. Put them on a baking tray, sprinkle with paprika and sea salt, and roast at the same time as the pumpkin. Serve as a snack. For a savoury variation, you can eat these pancakes with butter instead of sugar and cinnamon.
This is a darn good pumpkin pie and gluten free too. The crust itself can be made using any
wayy.
nuts (depending on what you have in your cupboard. You can also use a combination of pumpkins and sweet potatoes if you don’t have enough of either to go around.
Ingredients
■2 .5 cups macadamia meal
■2 tbs buckwheat flour
■2 tbs coconut oil, melted
■1 free range egg
Method
Preheat your oven to 175.C Line a small pie dish, (about 20cm or smaller for a thicker crust) with coconut oil. If you have one, use a spring form or detachable dish. Into a small bowl mix all of the ingredients together. Push out into the pie dish evenly up the edges and across the bottom. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. Oil will begin to froth from the piecrust but there is no need to worry, it will subside once cool. You can also blot with paper towel when you remove from the oven. Set aside until ready to use.
TIP: Keep in an airtight container for up to three days.
Ingredients
■750g cooked pumpkin
■120g sugar
■1 teaspoon cinnamon
■1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
■1/2 teaspoon mixed spice
■2 free range eggs, beaten
■160ml whole milk
■1 tablespoon butter, melted
■1 teaspoon icing sugar and extra cinnamon for dusting Method
Push the pumpkin through a sieve into a bowl. In another bowl mix in the sugar with salt and spices. Mix in the eggs, butter and milk. Stir well. Pour into the tart shell and cook for ten minutes at 200.C Reduce oven too 180.C and cook for a further 30 minutes until
the pumpkin has just set. Just before serving, dust with icing sugar and cinnamon.
TIP: For a savoury pie leave out the sugar and add things like paprika, sumac, and fresh herbs. Serve cold in your lunch box.
Ingredients
■350 g stinging nettle tops
■50 g of mixed weeds such as wood sorrel, wild fennel or wild rocket (optional)
■1 clove garlic or wet garlic
■1 large onion
■2 large potatoes
■50 g butter
■1 litre vegetable or chicken stock
■1 tbs apple cider vinegar
■Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
■3 tbs goat’s curd or sour cream for serving
■Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling Method
Wearing rubber gloves, sort through the nettles, discarding anything you don’t like the look of and any thick stalks. Wash the nettles plus other weeds and drain in a colander.
Crush the garlic, finely chop the onion, cut the
onion and cook gently for 5–7 minutes, or until softened. Add the stock, nettles and potato. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for about 15 minutes, or until the potato is soft.
Remove from the heat. Add the vinegar and using a stick blender, purée the soup and then season with salt and pepper to taste. Ladle into warmed bowls and float a dollop of goat’s curd on top. As this melts, swirl in a few drops of extra-virgin olive oil.
FUTURE CRAFTED FOR LAURA CHURCH NO BUSINESS LIKE SHOW BUSINESS FOR JUDY
A unique craft experience in Laura
Words: Jennifer Johnston
For three years Cat and Craig Blesing travelled from their home in Two Wells, north of Adelaide, searching for a property they could run their business from but also live on the premises.
“We were drawn to country communities,” said Craig.
“We kept returning to the Southern Flinders Ranges in particular to Laura and Wirrabara.
“We like Laura’s close knit community.”
Finding the church
In 2022 while staying in the Laura Caravan Park the couple were asked about their ideal dream home.
In the past, Cat had mentioned to Craig she’d love to live in an old stone building.
As a joke Cat said, “We’d love an old church, and we’d call it Little Blessings.”
They were told the Baptist church across the road from the caravan park was coming up for sale.
“We nearly fell off our chairs,” said Cat laughing at the memory.
“We knew that church was exactly what we wanted.”
They bought it in August 2022.
Church renovation project and the local trades
Although the church had been neglected for many years, the pair recognised it had good bones.
“We decided if we are going to fix it properly we need to take it back to the stone
and start again,” Craig explained.
The couple did most of the work themselves, with the help of a few trades.
They found local stone mason, Romanian, Ernie Schulz.
“At almost seven foot tall, he had an impressive reach,” said Craig.
Eleven trailer loads of render were removed from the walls.
“Our electrician, Andrew Trott, went above and beyond,” said Craig.
“Any time we needed electrical work, he would squeeze us in, because he felt our project was great for the local community.”
The original 150 year old baltic pine church floor sloped from the middle to the back door. (For the congregation sitting in the back to see the sermon.)
The floor was jacked up then raised.
“Russell from Spencer Floors spent an extra two and a half days working on the floors to give the timber the respect it needed,” Craig said.
They found an old boot while working under the floorboards.
“Apparently that’s something Europeans did to ensure good luck. We left the boot under the boards, but we’d like to build a viewing window so people can see it.”
The project took 18 months. They renovated the chapel, replaced the church roof, converted the old Sunday School into a one room apartment, built an amenities block, a shower toilet, an access toilet and then the brewery.
The overgrown yard was cleared, ready for 500 square metres of lawn.
A call was put out to the community for help with laying lawn and 13 people turned responded.
Craig has been brewing for about five years now.
One of them was John Barberein, a 76-yearold Laura local.
“John returned every day to look after the lawn until we opened,” said Craig, appreciatively.
“John is retired. He’s actually a diesel fitter, but became a general builder later in life.
“He saw our struggles with our undertaking such a large project and wanted to help us open on time.
“His building skills and knowledge were invaluable. So whenever John stops by for a drink, it’s on the house.”
To help pay for the renovations, Craig, (reluctantly) sold his beloved Ducati motorcycle collection.
“The business has been time consuming, so I wouldn’t have time to ride them anyway,” said Craig on reflection.
“I may have lost my beloved motorcycles, but we’ve gained a special community in Laura.”
Brewing for years
Before Little Blessings, Craig had been distilling for 10 years.
He added brewing to his repertoire around five years ago. Craig designed his Little Blessings Brewery, sending the drawings to China, where it was manufactured.
Ten weeks later it arrived in Australia. The church wasn’t big enough to accommodate
the brewery, so a large shed was built behind the Sunday school.
You can’t see the brewery from the tap room, but inside the church a video storyboard runs during opening hours.
“Its our story, showing the full renovation, the building of the brewery, and the transformation of our little house,” Cat explained.
Best Seller
Little Blessings best seller is one of Craig’s brews, the ‘Laura Lager.’ It’s an easy drinking German style lager - a nice multi beer, clean and crisp on the palate.
Craig uses local grain malted by Coopers.
“I use their malt because our local farmers supply to Coopers - it’s part of the circle of life.”
To involve the community they held a competition to name some of their beers.
A local came up with ‘Ale Mary’ . The ‘Rocky River Red Ale’ was another winner, named after the river that flows through Laura.
In addition to their own beer, they offer other locally sourced beer and spirits.
They carry wines from the Clare valley and Blesings Garden Vineyard in Bangor. (David Blesing is Craig’s second cousin.)
Cat and Craig try to be sustainable. The spent grain (left over after the brewing process) is sent to a local farmer to help feed
Phone: (08) 8641 9116
Email: info@aalbg.sa.gov.au
Web: www.aalbg.org
sheep and goats.
“Because everyone’s running low on hay, the farmer is grateful for our grain,” Craig adds.
The yeast that’s a by-product of the brewing process, once dry, is used to supplement the sheep’s feed.
Craig in his brewery, which is situated out the back of the old church.
The ’Laura Lager’, one of Little Blessings’ best sellers.
Ernie Schulz working on the entrance out to the beer garden, picking the rocks out of the cut-out door before rendering it back up.
The wow factor
When people enter the church the first thing they see is the bar.
“We’re often asked if it’s the original pulpit,” said Craig.
“Catherine designed it to look like a pulpit using pressed tin on the bar and the tap splashback.”
At all stages the couple has tried to be respectful of the building and its history.
Each window has a memorial about prominent people from the church or town.
“With the help of the locals, I’ve researched those people,” said Cat.
“I’ve created a commemorative window board explaining each window’s history.”
Little Blessings opened the weekend of the Laura Fair (13th April, 2024.)
Since opening they have been busy.
“Thursday and Fridays are comfortable but our Saturday, Sunday trade is overwhelming,” Cat exclaimed.
Food trucks are organised for every
weekends, with a variety of different options being made available.
The Future
Little Blessings is a two hour drive from Adelaide and two hours from the Outback.
“I’m trying to promote the motto: ‘Come and stay on the way’ . See all the beautiful things we have in the region and then continue” , Cat added.
The biggest challenge is people travelling between Adelaide and the Flinders Ranges taking Highway One, on the other side of the range, which completely bypasses Laura and the Southern Flinders Ranges.
“We would love it if people turned off at Crystal Brook and came this way, because it’s such a beautiful part of South Australia. And you’ll find the only church brewery in Australia.”
Little Blessings Brewery is open Thursday to Sunday until 8pm and Friday and Saturday open until 10pm
Craig and Cat Blesing with the exquisite bar, which Cat designed to look like a pulpit.One of the many story boards and stained glass windows (inset), displaying information about Heinrich and Johanna Walter, who built the Laura Baptist Church in 1875.
Labor of love: Alex Catford and Maddie Du Rieu soaking up the sunset views from their glamping accommodation, Canoee’s Realm.
At home on the farm, Maddie and Alex say they have definitely found their ‘place’ and love sharing it with others.
For as long as he can remember, Alex Catford and his family have enjoyed camping and family gatherings in the hills of their Tarcowie farm. With magnificent sunsets and views across the southern Flinders Ranges, it was their own little piece of paradise.
Alex’s love of the outdoors is shared with his partner, Maddie Du Rieu, and they dreamed of escaping their tiny city apartment and heading off into the sunset to share their passion for the simple things.
“We love bush campivng and we go all over the place camping, so really wanted to re-create that experience for people,” Alex said.
“For a while we were looking at moving interstate or trying to buy a block or run a caravan park.”
But it was a casual conversation with his late dad, Ian - or Canoee as many may have known him through his long-time involvement with the Variety Bash, conservation, and mulesing business- that led Alex and Maddie back to his childhood home.
With the blessing also of his mum, Rosemary, Alex and Maddie made the move to the farm and Heggie’s Hill Bush Camp and Canoee’s Realm glamping experience was born.
“Dad was always quite a private person, and I thought he really did want to keep our farm just within our own family, it was his little bit of paradise,” Alex said.
“But one night I was driving dad home from Adelaide where he’d been having chemotherapy, and I started talking to him about what Maddie and I would love to do and out of the blue he said why not do it at home?
“I had lost my older brother, Tom, who had been here on the farm, and dad was crook, and I really didn’t want to see the farm go.
“Things just fell into place, with his blessing, I felt like this was where we needed to be.”
For Maddie, although she grew up in Adelaide, her parents had grown up around country SA, and she also found her ‘place’ , settling in well to rural life.
As a midwife, her skills are in demand, as are her sporting talents. A semi-professional soccer player in Adelaide, it has taken a little adjustment, shifting her skills to the netball court, but all is going well.
“There’s nowhere close by to play soccer up here, unless I go to Port Pirie, so I started playing netball for Orroroo halfway through last year in the E-grade,” Maddie said.
“This year I’m playing A-grade so I guess I’ve picked it up ok.”
The camping experience
Alex, a qualified plumber, and Maddie both work full-time off the property, while running the campsite business. It took shear hard work and determination to be able to throw open the gates to Heggie’s Hill Bush Camp site in June 2023.
It includes 17 sites (rotated between eight-10 sites at a time to maintain the feeling of being ‘out bush’), loads of space, amazing views, kangaroos, echidnas and birdlife.
Each site has running water, and if you needed any other excuse to give bush camping a go, then a shared, fully-flushable toilet – with possibly the fanciest seat any bush dunny has seen – might sway you.
At Canoee’s Realm (officially opened in June 2024), the experience reaches next level. A renovated caravan – with full flushing toilet and a shower that both Alex and Maddie agree is better than theirs at home – kitchen and barbecue facilities, television and outdoor ‘lounge’ area greets visitors.
But perhaps the most enticing feature is a wood-fired hot tub overlooking spectacular views and sunsets.
“It’s higher than Mount Lofty here, and dad’s claim to fame was always that he had the highest cropping country in South Australia, above sea level,” Alex said.
“The views are pretty amazing across the Southern Flinders Ranges to Mt Remarkable and the Bluff over at Wirrabara, and a few local hills including Hog’s Head where dad was known to hang-glide off.
“We’ve tested the campsites and also the glamping site a few times, and I think Maddie spent about three hours in the hot tub one day, she enjoyed it so much. It’s definitely a drawcard for the glamping site.”
While the farm itself has been leased out, Maddie and Alex do have some animals that also delight their visitors, young and old.
“People love coming over to meet our cows and lambs, and we’ve been told many times
that’s the real reason people come here,” Maddie laughs.
“We’ve got six Miniature Belted Galloways – Wesley, Elvis, Dot, Valerie and Daria, and a bull that Instagram followers of Canoee’s Realm will have the chance to name soon.”
Down the track
The couple have plans to expand the camping offering, with their sights now set on nearby Mad Man’s hill.
“The hill is known for being too steep to crop, I think Canoee was the only one brave enough to ever crop it,” Alex said.
“I remember going up and down the hills with dad, thinking I was going to fall out the back window because it was so steep.
“Ever since the place has been leased out, it has only been used for grazing, and we think it would make an ideal campsite to really take in more of the amazing outlook this place offers.”
Spectacular sunsets and views all the way to Mount Remarkable and The Bluff, Heggie’s Hill and Canoee’s Realm is the perfect place to take it all in and unwind.
One thing is for sure, Alex and Maddie have found their passion and just love to share it with other like-minded campers.
They say coming ‘home’ to the country has been the best move they could have made.
The couple are loving what they have created, being part of a “supportive” community and say they can finally stop and ‘breathe’
“I didn’t realise how frustrated I was living in the city, in a tiny apartment, after having grown up here,” Alex said.
Maddie agrees. “We probably thought the city life was fine for us at the time, but moving here it’s just less pressure, a different lifestyle and we love it – we wouldn’t go back.”
- Check out Heggies Hill Bush Camp on Facebook and Instragram, or drop into Hipcamp to make a booking.
BELOW: Alex and Maddie chat with guests at one of the Heggie’s Hill bush camp sites.
Fancy pants: the Heggie’s Hill dunny takes bush camping to the next level.
Performers and musicians of Whyte Yarcowie Vaudeville Trap together on stage one more time.
Judy Lewis shows off one of the costumes in the Whyte Yarcowie Theatre Precinct.
She looked up at the dancing girls on stage in shiny pink and blue satin costumes and knew, with mesmerising clarity, that she wanted to be on that stage, dancing, in those amazing costumes.
Fast forward 73 years, Judy’s passion for show business remains as strong as it was that day as a 7-year-old.
She can still tap dance the first routine she ever learned at the Ross Riddle School of Dancing in Mount Gambier.
She can still swing her dancing legs high in the air and do the splits, even after breaking her pelvis in a car accident on Mother’s Day in 2023.
She has two rooms filled with costumes, shoes and props she has gathered from all around the world, lounge room walls proudly filled with photos from throughout her showbiz career.
Also taking pride of place in her Whyte Yarcowie home is the OAM she was awarded in 2015 for her contribution to performing arts and the community.
She loves to entertain and make people laugh and plans to keep doing so for the rest of her life.
Judy’s show business career has been vast and varied, from comedy in England, dancing in Italy, choreographing at the Old Kings Music Hall in Adelaide, directing hundreds of school productions throughout the northern
part of South Australia, and being performer in the Vaudeville Troupe, rehearsing in the town hall stage of her tiny hometown of Whyte Yarcowie.
Judy grew up loving rhythm.
“My Dad would sit at the kitchen table and beat rhythm if music came on the radio, using cutlery as drumsticks,” she said.
Her Mum because the chief costumer designer and sewer for the Ross Riddle School of Dance, finding her own flair behind the scenes and as a comedian.
Judy spent 12 years at the dance school, in the latter years becoming dance partner of the talented and handsome head dance teacher.
“I looked up to Ross, I wanted to be like Ross, and because Ross had gone to London, I wanted to do that too,” Judy says.
So Judy, as a 17-year-old, set off to discover business in England, farewelled by Ross with a show in Mount Gambier called All Aboard.
Taking her dad’s advice, she picked up a job as a shorthand typist, but all her spare moments were spend pouring over Stage Magazine, where local auditions were advertised.
She won an audition for a dancing role, walked into the wrong audition room, and landed a job as a comedian for the summer season at Devon, alongside widely-know English comedians Charlie Drake and Arthur Aske.
Each day she would play different shows in a theatre on the pier where the show would go on, regardless of the noise from the carousels alongside.
It was a role she cherished, and to his day loves to make people laugh.
“I love laughter, I like to make people laugh, I think there is too little laughter in the world,” Judy said.
Her first dancing role overseas was head girl dancer, for a tour of Italy.
“I adored Italy, working at night, days to sight see the Italian Rivera, Rome, and Florence was my favourite,” Judy says.
In her day job ushering at movies, a total treat was to show Humphrey Bogart to his seat.
She auditioned for the Blue Bell girls famous for kick routines, secure a role, but honored a promise to her Dad that she would come home for her 21st birthday.
Returning to Australia, she met and fell in love with Noel Lewis, head detective in Mount Gambier, called off an engagement to an English dancer and moved to Adelaide.
Over the following years she became head choreographer of Old Kings Musical and Castle Hotel and danced for Bunyip Children’s theatre on Saturday mornings.
In 1975 Judy and Noel moved to Port Augusta to manage a hotel and were married.
Judy Lewis commits to her part on stage with the Whyte Yarcowie Vaudeville Troupe.
“Noel was quite definite that said there would be no more of this dancing business after we are married,” Judy said.
A year later they travelled to Whyte Yarcowie where the hotel was for sale.
“I took one look at the town and the pub and said there is no way we are staying here.,” Judy said.
Almost 48 years later, Judy still lives in Whyte Yarcowie and has danced, sang, and laughed every day.
From this tiny town, Judy has spread the joy of show business throughout the northern regional areas of South Australia.
She taught ballet and tap dancing in Jamestown and Port Pirie and was employed as director of Port Pirie Youth Theatre for 11 years.
She directed and choreographed hundreds of school production from Jamestown to Carrieton, Mount Bryan to Gladstone.
“Some years we had 13 school productions on the go at once,” she said.
“Principals and teachers will tell me the thing that the students remember most fondly about their time at school is the productions they performed in.”
This year she is directing and choregraphing her 22nd school production at St James Catholic School in Jamestown.
was born in 1984.
Judy, Noel and their sons Matt and Ben joined with Whyte Yarcowie farmers Pam and John Staker and their three children Sam Nigel and Naomi for a one-off performance of Old Time Music Hall for a History Week celebration.
It was the beginning of an incredible 40 years bringing joy and laughter to towns across SA.
Whyte Yarcowie Vaudeville Troupe has produced 21 separate shows, at times performing that show 11 times throughout South Australia.
They have featured on national television and been the only amateur performers to secure a regular place in the Keith Michell Theatre’s Morning Melodies program.
“The comment we get the most is you don’t hear those old songs anymore, and people really embrace the corny old sketches that we do,” Judy said.
“We adlib everything, it is never scripted, as long as you have the cues and the tags it works out.
“We get skits from everywhere. Jokes can be turned into sketches, some are weak, some are funny, some we can’t do anymore because it’s just not politically correct.”
Judy Lewis has embraced her years performing on stage.
Over time the Vaudeville cast and crew evolved, with mainstays including Glen and Shirley Cornish, Ian and Julie Sutcliffe, Ian and Val Seaman, Ron and Daph Wenham, Lesley Kulow, Inez Hancock, John Moore, Jack Napper, and Margie Symonds.
Judy says the Troupe has only ever cancelled one show, at Yacka, when Judy fell off the roof and broke her leg in two places.
“Yes, everyone who said break a leg before that show thought they were very funny!”
Over the years, the Troupe performances have enabled local communities to raise thousands of dollars for charities of their choice.
Equally, the Troupe became like family, a constant.
In sickness and in health have been there for each other, the Troupe got us through a lot
of hard times personally.
“I really need to pay tribute to Pam and John Staker, they have been with me from woe to go, without them there would not have been a Troupe,” Judy says.
Pam has also been the main costume maker for the Troupe.
In April this year, the Vaudeville Troupe performed its final two events, and emotional time of excitement and sadness.
“The Vaudeville Troupe has been such a big part of my life,” Judy said.
“When one show goes on, I start thinking about the songs and skits and costumes for the next show.
“I don’t know what I am going to do now, but they say when one door closes another one opens.”
“Maybe I’ll take on some solo acts or smaller performances in aged care homes and prisons.
“Who knows?” Judy says. “There is no business, like show business.”
Relax in the Flinders in true style
Crack open a locally distilled G&Tand share a moment of rustic luxury with Flinders Gin
The Whyte Yarcowie Vaudeville Troupe
Ian Sutcliffe and Judy Lewis perform alongside Pam and John Staker.
Peter Fuss and his wife Sue have collected a broad range of antiques and quirky items over the past couple of years.
Peter Fuss and his wife Susan have been married for 49 years. They have the renovation bug.
In the mid-1990s the couple moved from Adelaide to the Hunter Valley in New South Wales, where they bought and restored an old timber house, built in 1912.
In 2001 the couple had to sell because Peter, who worked in HR Management, accepted a job in America.
For four years Peter commuted to America while Sue stayed in Australia. Their first grandchild was born the initial year Peter was in America.
When Sue’s father died they bought the family home in Adelaide from her siblings and renovated that property which is now their family home.
Peter then accepted a role in Port Pirie.
“We started looking for our next big project because we were coming to the end of our careers,” explained Peter.
“We both wanted another crack at one more renovation while we still can.”
On the weekends Sue would drive up to Pirie.
“We’d take country drives and Laura was one of the towns we’d regularly visit,” said Peter.
“Whilst it’s not as big as it used to be in the early 1900s, Laura hasn’t faded away like so many other country towns in South Australia.”
When Sue saw the Anglican church
Words: Jennifer Johnston
Photos: Lisa Schulz
(formerly St John the Evangelist Anglican Church) on East Terrace was up for sale she suggested Peter go to the open inspection.
“Sue was minding grandchildren in Adelaide that Saturday,” said Peter.
“The moment I walked inside I fell in love with the church. It’s stunning and I was very taken with the impressive stained glass windows.
It clearly needed attention, but it felt so right.”
For the couple approaching their early 70s, there were questions around whether this project was within their renovation skill set.
But they didn’t have much time to think, the auction was the following week.
The risk takers
“We talked about making an offer at the auction, but Sue wasn’t as convinced. We decided if it went for a certain price, we could make it work.”
Peter felt the church ticked many boxes.
“We figured let’s take the risk and see how it ends up.
“At the auction I went past the agreed amount!” he says, laughing at the memory.
Renovations in full swing
During the two month settlement, Peter and Sue took photos and measurements, organising quotes for the renovation work.
Both buildings were uninhabitable.
The roof on the hall needed replacing. The ceilings were damaged and water was falling onto the flooring.
One gutter had failed - water was palling around a footing.
Underpinning was needed on one corner
of the church and a corner of the hall.
In November both buildings were underpinned, then roofing contractor, Jamie Cairns from Reliable Roofing began working on the roof.
“He was, and still is one of our favourite trades to work with,” said Peter.
“He is passionate about doing up old churches.”
A galvanised roof was installed, similar to the original roof.
Peter fell in love with the church immediately, going past the agreed amount on auction day.
“We’ve been fortunate to find people that restore old buildings with such care” “W e”
“We went for the highest grade galvanised roof, and three years later, that roof still absolutely blings on a summer day,” Peter exclaims.
“When Craig Blesing of Little Blessings saw our new roof he immediately contacted Jamie.” (At that stage the Blesings were in the process of buying the church - see Little Blessings story on page 32.)
The flooring in the hall is a mix of 100-yearold Jarrah in the lower section, and Baltic Pine in the raised section.
Because there were no suitable floor sanders for hire in the region, over six weekends, the couple hired a sander in Adelaide.
They’d sand from Saturday morning through to Sunday afternoon, then rush back to Adelaide to return the machine.
“The old timbers polished up beautifully,” said Peter.
On the western side of the building, where the sun had beaten relentlessly for 100 years, the windows were literally ready to fall out.
David Medlow, owner of Coco Laura on Laura’s main street, was working on his shopfront.
David introduced his carpenter, Al Stewart, to the Fuss couple.
He made replacement sash windows for the church.
“We’ve been fortunate to find people that restore old buildings with such care,” Peter commented.
The story of the lost cross
The church originally had two cast iron crosses.
When the Fuss’s purchased the church, one of the crosses was missing.
Local Rod Taylor, a parishioner for 40 plus years approached Peter saying he knew where to find the missing cross.
“A few weeks later, he dropped off the cross that had fallen from the building 20 years before.
“It was still broken, in three pieces. My brother in law, Radley, restored it.
“And when Jamie was finishing the roof, he returned the 140 year old cross back to the church.”
Antique Collectors keeping it in the family
Peter and Sue wondered if they could run a business from the church.
“For the last 20 years we’d bounced around ideas of what we were going to do in our retirement years.
“We discussed running an antique shop, but parked that thought, because jobs and family life got in the way.”
But the church purchase reignited that idea.
In 2023 they established their collectibles business, The Opulent Eye.
“We’ve been madly collecting for the last year,” said Peter.
“Then Sue’s sister-in-law asked if she could become involved. And then our eldest son, David and his his wife, Kelly approached us.
“We opened in April and people were surprised at how many antiques and quirky items were in our collection.”
Peter and Sue have been collectors since their 20’s.
“Everything I buy is because I love it for being interesting or different,” Sue says.
“That’s how things end up in our store.
“We have quite a broad collection. It’s an eclectic style because different people are involved, and they don’t collect what I collect, like Kelly, with her vintage vibe.”
The Opulent Eye customers are from everywhere.
“Plenty of locals drop in, not necessarily to buy anything, they have a chat and we love that,” Sue said.
“Great friendships in the making, the church has become a social space again.”
Peter and Sue’s son, David and his wife, Kelly, purchased this extraordinary light from the National Trust Warehouse in Adelaide.
Inside you’ll find the lectern (left), font (right) and pedestal and alter, which were originally part of the church.
What’s old is new
The re-opening of the local watering hole has given the Southern Flinders town of Tarcowie a big boost, with a place for people to gather again. It’s a dream-come-true for first-time publican Mark Jefferson.
When the doors of the Tarcowie Hotel reopened this year after a 17-year closure, it was the realisation of an almost life-long dream for Mark Jefferson.
Mark had grown up on a nearby farm at Hornsdale, where his brother and family still farm, and he had spent much time at the watering hole over the years.
But it was a family connection, with his grandmother, Elsie Evelyn May Douglas, running the same pub some 90 years ago, that spurred Mark to buy the run-down building and bring business partners Ange Avina and Ladio Zavoral along for the ride.
Together, they have pulled up their sleeves and transformed the 1878 pub into a modernday version of what it once was, and helped breathe new life into Tarcowie along the way.
“It is a dream come true,” Mark said.
“I always thought it would be good to buy the pub, and when it closed on Australia Day, 2008, I knew I’d love to get hold of it one day and open it again.
“When my brother told me he’d heard it was for sale, I knew I had to buy it.”
It has not been an easy road, but in 12-months the trio have transformed the derelict building into a little oasis in the southern Flinders town.
“When I first bought the pub, I didn’t really know if it was ever going to reopen as a pub to be honest, it really was in quite a state of disrepair,” Mark said.
“The roof was leaking, there were buckets everywhere catching the leaks, water streamed down the walls during a downpour.
“The first thing we had to do was get a new roof on it.”
Then it was onto new toilets, new commercial kitchen, revamped and modernised bar, dining and pool room, everything has been repainted, rewired and
There’s so much history and so much beauty
plumbed, the front verandah has been fully renovated and a new beer garden added.
However, one very distinctive feature of the front bar was meticulously maintained.
“The previous owner Bob Tonks, who has
here re
and
“His wife, Leah, told me it took him about two years in 1999 and 2000 to painstakingly
but
was really
a
so
for us
now passed away, collected beer memorabilia
he created a collage of beer coasters on the ceiling,” Ange said.
create the feature.
“It
important
to keep that,
there was
big hole in the ceiling and water coming in
we had to take all the old coasters off.
Mark Jefferson and Ladio Zavoral pour a beer at the Tarcowie Hotel.
Tucked away among the hills, the Tarcowie Hotel is drawing people back into the Southern Flinders town.
“We’ve had to add a couple of new ones in, and I’ve snuck a couple in from Europe to put our own mark on it, but the ceiling really is in memory of Bob, it was his thing not ours.”
The circular pattern above the front bar really does almost send one spinning if you look for too long, but if eagle-eyed patrons have the patience to study it, they may find two coasters the same.
And if they do, Ange says there will be a free beer or soft drink waiting for them.
The dining room floor has also become a work of art, with old newspapers found at the pub now lacquered down, and plans to add more over time.
A few local faces even appear in the 1950s-1970s pages, including local debutantes featured.
With Ange’s Italian background, her cooking is something she is looking forward to sharing, including recipes taught to her by her grandfather, and especially her trademark ‘Mediterranean schnitzel’
The pub’s wood fired pizza oven is already proving popular on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
“I was brought up on a market garden/ dairy farm in Victoria so everything was homemade and I was taught by my grandfather all the old traditions,” Ange said.
“I also lived in Europe for seven years and the Mediterranean schnitzel is the way southern Italians cook it, so I’ll have that on the menu, as well as schnitzels cooked the way the Aussies know them.
“It’s really about wholesome, healthy, homemade food, not processed food. I want to know what my customers are getting, I’ll be doing as much from scratch as I can.”
The trio still have some work to do on the pub, and hope to eventually finish it off to
include accommodation, but for now, they are enjoying the opportunity to meet the locals and be part of the Tarcowie community.
They say there is really nothing to not love about the place.
“There’s so much history and so much beauty here,” Ange said.
“Where can you see on dusk a couple of kangaroos with their joeys and a couple of bucks standing across the road looking at you?
“This place has just got that feel about it – I can’t explain it, but I can say it’s the love of the land and the love of the area that keeps you here.”
Mark agrees, and says Tarcowie really it is the “centre of everywhere”
“You can’t get any better than this outlook, we feel like we’re a million miles away, but really we’re smack bang in the middle of
Appila, Booleroo Centre, Orroroo, Jamestown, Peterborough, Laura, all only half an hour or less away.
“It’s nice to come home to where I grew up and it’s just so nice to see people coming together again in the pub, that they have a meeting place again.
“There’s so much history here, if the walls could talk ….. or maybe it’s just as well they can’t.”
ABOVE: Tarcowie Hotel’s trademark beer coaster collage on the front bar ceiling is a talking point for visitors.
RIGHT: Tarcowie’s historic 1878 pub has been revamped into a modern-day version of what it once was.
39 See 9-down 40 Australian subscription video streaming service (4) 41 Electric guitar accessory (3) 44 Green tropical fruit (7) 45 Mythical ape (4) 46 Cinder (3) 49 Nation’s economic measure (1,1,1) 51 Unfancied runner (4,4) 52 Observed (4) 54 Rough woollen cloth (5)
56 Manhattan neighbourhood (7)
58 ‘The Greatest’ boxer (3)
59 Australian Greens senator, — Waters (7)
61 Tasmanian-founded confectionary company Pascall makes these internally colourful sweets (8)
62 Asian nation served by Changi Airport (9)
DOWN
1 Australian TV host, — Pickering (7)
2 Favourite (3)
3 Tasmanian location of the oldest stone span bridge in Australia (8)
4, 43-down Largest desert in Australia (5,8)
5 Australian actress, — Palmer (6)
6 Dull (4)
7 Drowsy (9)
8 John (coll) (3)
9, 39-across Location of Tasmania’s first British settlement in 1803 (6,4)
27 Skill (10)
28 Seaweed (4)
29 In what way? (3)
31 Genetically distinct form of plant or animal adapted to a particular environment (7)
32 Frozen treat (3)
35 Domestic animals (4)
37 Baz Luhrmann directed a biopic on this music icon (5)
38 Alaska’s largest city (9)
42 Tracks (4)
43 See 4-down
46 Grow older (3)
47 Moisten (7)
48 Australian swimmer, Susie — (6)
50 VFL team formed in 2001, Tasmanian — (6)
53 Synthetic fibre (5)
55 Ululates (4)
57 Gigayear (3)
60 Originated the role of Eliza in the Broadway musical Hamilton, Phillipa — (3)
ACROSS
1 Creator’s protection (9)
6 Taylor Swift’s eighth studio album (8)
11 Object (7)
19 Tubular pasta (8) 21 Chinese steamed bun (3)
22 — Mendes, US actress (3) 24 Film genre (4)
12 Australian certificate signifying knowledge of alcohol consumption regulations (1,1,1) 13 1982 film starring Dustin Hoffman (7) 14 Temporary substitute (5) 16 Examine (4)
25 Night Fever band (3,4)
26 Fish (3)
27 Soft, sweet food for afternoon tea (4)
29 Part of the foot (4)
30 Judge (7) 33 Mugful (3)
34 School subject (abb) (3)
36 Freedom (7)
10 Australian scientist Howard Florey led the team that developed this life-saving drug (10)
15 Australian bank (init) (1,1,1)
17 State of drunkenness (7)
18 Australian motorcycle racing word champion, — Price (4) 20 Leading (5)
23 Calf’s meat (4) 26 Formerly (arch) (4)
WORDFINDCALCUDOKU
■Our 2021 Clare Valley Shiraz was awarded a Gold Medal with an outstanding score of 96 points at the prestigious 2024 London Wine Competition. Not only did it shine brightly among tough competition, but it also clinched the title of “Best Shiraz in Show.”
■(available in a 1.5L magnum) 93 Points - Halliday Wine Companion
■With its bright acidity, aromatic bouquet, and wellbalanced profile, Mr. Mick Fiano from the Clare Valley proves to be a worthy addition to any wine lover’s collection. Its ability to complement a wide range of dishes ensures it will become a favourite choice for discerning palates seeking quality and character in every glass.
■For aficionados of aromatic whites or those seeking a new discovery in Australian wines, the Tim Adams Fiano is a must-try. Its balance of fruit, acidity, and complexity makes it a standout choice for any occasion, from casual gatherings to special celebrations.
■A mod Oz version of this traditional French blend, showcasing this regional hero with a punk rock edge. Concentrated berry fruits sit alongside spice and a hint of menthol and dark fruit lingers on the finish. A great drinking wine that punches above its weight delivering on all fronts and keeps calling.
■A small 35yo dry grown vineyard in the Armagh area of the Clare Valley that produces lovely cabernet fruit with intense black fruit flavours of black currant and black cherry notes with fine chocolatey tannins on the finish. Aged in 40% new French Oak barrels for 12 months to develop more length and complexity. Food Match: Slow cooked Lamb Shoulder. CELLARING: Drink Now or Cellar 5-10+yrs. SILVER Medal – Clare Wine Show & Aust Small Winemakers Show. Only 150dozen produced.
Mary, a vibrant Irish lass, a twinkle in her eye, hails from the Armagh Valley, Clare. She is a beautiful reflection of all this rich soil has to offer, sturdy yet soft, headstrong yet refined, a giver of pleasure to be sure!
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Cup frenzy in Clare Valley
Kicking off with a visit from the Peoples Cup – the Lexus Melbourne Cup on Sunday, September 22, as part of the 22nd tour of Australia by the 18 Carat Gold Cup.
The day gives you the chance to hold and see up close this iconic trophy of the race that stops a nation, at The Clare Valley Racing Club, The Riesling Trail in Clare, The Clare Valley Visitor and Information Centre and closes with a ticketed function at Greg Cooley Wines.
All events excluding the night function are free and family friendly.
On Sunday, December 1, Clare Valley Racing Club is hosting what it believes is the 129th running of the Clare Valley Cup.
According to minutes a meeting was held on November 1, 1888 to form a club with a view to operate a horse race and sports day on New Years Day 1889. On November 27, 1889, Mr Blekeney Carter was appointed as honorary secretary of the club.
The club was more formally incorporated as the Clare Valley Racing Club in 1895 and Mr TP Gillen was appointed secretary and served
until 1929, a term of 35 years for which he was awarded Life Membership!
Since that time there are families with over 4 generations involved with the club. Since 1993 jockeys including Jason Holder, David Tootell, Dwayne Dunn, Clare Lindop and Jamie Kah have steered their mounts to victory in the Clare Valley Cup.
In a new and exciting schedule change, the club will host a Twilight Meeting on Friday, February 14, with racing commencing at about 2.30 pm. As the date falls on Valentines Day, the club will host speed dating, wedding themed fashion at the Races Classes, and afternoon and evening hospitality options as well as some fun team race giving local clubs the chance to battle it out for some prize money.
Saturday, April 19 sees the CVRC host the best Easter Racing in South Australia. A long running tradition which attracts patrons from interstate and throughout the Mid North, West of South Australia, and the city.
Crowds enjoy a great seven-race program, a range of food trucks, full TAB and bookie services, big screen, kids activities, a range of hospitality options, Fashion at the Races, free parking and the option to swag it overnight, with full security and shuttle buses to and from Clare.
at countryracingsa.com, for any enquiries email cvcr@bigpond.com.au
Early bird GA tickets are available for all race meetings now
Racegoers dress to impress at the Clare Valley Racing Club.
Dom Tourneur rides Dazzling Prospect over the line to win last year’s Clare Valley Cup.
Enjoy a range of hospitality options at Clare Valley Racing Club.
Festival of the Lamb
September 18 - 22, 2024
Clare Valley
The annual Clare Valley Festival of the Lamb for 2024 will be held from the 18th to the 22nd of September! An annual spring equinox festival that combines with the first buds of the vines and the premier time for new-season lamb.
What’s on in the Valley
The Uppside - Oktober Fest 2024
October 6, 2024 11am - 3pm
Experience German Food and Culture at The UPPside, Clare Valley. We will be showcasing German food made from local and fresh produce that is home grown on-site. Featuring German music and Pikes Pilsner beer on tap, served in steins Ein Prosit auf die Gesundheit! – A toast to health The first Oktoberfest was celebrated at the wedding of Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese in October 1810. If you know a bit of German, you may remember that das Fest means “a celebration” and since the festivities took place in the month of October, it was decided that in subsequent years, the citizens of Munich would celebrate what would come to be known as Oktoberfest, a festival of good beer, food and music.
RFDS Clare Black Tie Gala Ball
October 26, 2024
Clare
Prepare for an evening of enjoyment as the Royal Flying Doctor Service Clare Support Group hosts an elegant Black Tie Gala Ball, commemorating 70 years of fundraising efforts.
Wirrabara 150 Years Celebrations
October 4-6, 2024
The committee has been working hard over the last few years to bring together something for everyone during the Wirrabara 150 Celebrations to be held over the long weekend, October 4th-6th.
Commencing Friday evening, the highlight will be the screening of the Centenary and various historical media.
Saturday's street parade will include the Clare Concert Band, floats, vintage cars and machinery.
Wirrabara - the Continuing Story book will be launched, blade and handpiece shearing, woodwork and blacksmith displays will be a feature.
Meet the Authors will feature Annette Marner, Dianne Becker and Adrienne Easton.
Saturday evening’s dinner has been sold out, however tickets remain for the fashion parade.
Sunday concludes with Ecumenical church service, open mic, unveiling of a plaque to acknowledge the volunteers associated with the Bangor fire, then the
Bill Gigney on bike which is has been restored and will feature in the Parade on Saturday as part of the 150 celebrations
weekend's celebrations will conclude with music by local artists.
To keep up to date visit Wirrabara 150th Celebrations on Facebook, or www.
Goyder Gardens 2024 October 5 & 6, 2024
Burra
Goyder Gardens 2024 will highlight several open gardens in the area. It is a credit to our dedicated gardeners working their magic in what can be a harsh environment.
Memories of Mintaro 175th Dinner
October 25, 2024
Mintaro
The event is run over 2 days from 10am to 4pm and will feature garden related stallholders, presentations and food vendors.
Join the 175th Mintaro celebrations with a Memories of Mintaro Dinner being held at the Mintaro Institute. The Mintaro Institute has been the centre of the town’s social and cultural activity ever since the foundation stone was laid on 4 February 1878.
Art & Craft Spectacular
November 15-17
Wirrabara
What’s on in the Valley
The Art & Craft Spectacular is held from the 15th November until 17th November from 9am to 4pm. The Spectacular is a display of local arts and crafts with some visiting artists and craft persons. The articles are for sale and can be taken with you. Devonshire tea is for sale and entry is by gold coin donation
Our friendly cafe offers: • Light lunches • All day breakfast
• Coffee and cake • Milkshakes & smoothies
• A large range of SA made Gelatissimo ice creams and sorbets (Vegan friendly options available)
• Delicious bubble teas with flavourful popping bubbles
We can accommodate a variety of dietary options OPEN Monday - Friday 8.30am to 4.30pm Saturdays 8.30am to 1.30pm
Wilmington Ag Show & Ute Muster
Sunday, September 15
Quorn Show
Sunday, September 22
Balaklava Show
Saturday, September 28
Melrose Show
Saturday, October 5
Jamestown Show
Sunday & Monday, October 6 & 7
Burra Show
Saturday, October 12 Clare Show
Saturday,October 19
Kapunda & Light Agricultural Show
Saturday, October 26 Eudunda Show
Sunday, November 10
Port Germein Foreshore Market
Fourth Sunday of the month | October 5 & 6 - Antique Fair & Market
December 15 - Twilight Market | February 23- Classic Car Rally & Market
April 27 | June 22 | August 24 Port Pirie Market
Second Sunday of every month
Memorial Park, Port Pirie Wirrabara Producers Market
Auburn Spring Carnivale
October 5
Auburn Centenary Park Manoora Hall Markets
October 5
November 8 (Twilight)
Third Sunday of every month High Street, Wirrabara Auburn Market
Third Saturday of every month Auburn Uniting Church Clare Show Market
Barrier Highway, Manoora Burra Market
September 16, November 30 Market Square Burra Tarlee Country Market
October 7
Second Saturday of every month Ennis Park and Clare Town Hall
Saddleworth Country Market
First Sunday of every month Saddleworth Institute
Main Street, Tarlee Hamley Bridge Market & Town Garage Sale
September 29
Institute, 12 Gilbert Street, Hamley Bridge
Highlights included the streets of Clare coming alive on a Friday night with the Gourmet Eve Street Party, which included a showcase of local businesses and a fashion parade, the Gourmet Weekend saw people make their way to wineries and other venues across the valley to enjoy local food, wine and entertainment, and the Hall of Fame Gala recognised those who made the local wine industry what it is today.
An enjoyable weekend made all who attended look forward to 40 more years of Gourmet Week, and even more beyond that.
Jo Sprigg and Alli Neville from Broken Hill, visiting Sevenhill Cellars on the Saturday of Gourmet Week.
Jo Goodwin from Clare with Kylie Agnew from Semaphore at Skillogalee.
Shaun and Stacey Schutz from Eudunda at Mitchell Wines on Sunday of Gourmet Week.
Peter and Jenny Labrie from Sydney (back) with Scott and Amanda Parmenter from Adelaide at Mitchell Wines.
The festival came to a spectacular close with a sold out Burning of the Barrels event at Eldredge Wines, one of many highlights.
The 40th Clare Valley Gourmet Week saw the valley once again come alive in a celebration of the region’s food and wine, with the milestone weekend attracting people from across the state, and beyond.
Donna Scotson provides people a taste with what Bake and Brew Shop offers with her stall at the Gourmet Eve Street Party
Brooke Hallman goes down the catwalk, modelling Grace and Maple fashion, as part of the Street Party.
Floyd and Vicki Ganley from Huntfield Heights warm themselves up as evening sets in at Sevenhill.
Motel Music entertained audiences at Skillogalee.
Amongst the crowd at Skillogalee Wines were Claudia McDonald, Beth McDonald, Sean Anderson, Bec Golley and Matt Golley.
Ted enjoys the sun at Eldredge Wines with Rose Morris, Harvey O’Brien, Oliver Weckert and Abbe Weckert.
Brasil Nuts rock the Sailing Club.
Victoria and Andrew Leibie.
James Chambers, Kayla Rowe and Kieren Tolcher.
Alister Sandow and Guy Sandow at the Hall of Fame Gala.
Rick and Lynn Morris from Grange enjoy some nibbles at Skillogalee.
