Table of contents for October 2022 in Country Style

“We must walk more gently on the earth” are words that I heard recently that really resonated with me. That we must live with the health of our environment top of mind is not a new idea, especially for those who live rurally. For generations, those who rely on the land have realised they must have the utmost respect for the elements that support their livelihood, and that of future generations: the soil; the water; the air; the animals; the trees. Before anything else, they must care for and nurture their land. In the city, it’s easy to forget this connection and interdependence, where almost everything is packaged for convenience – disposable and detrimental to our planet. But in regional areas, it is impossible to ignore the connection to country…

ROBYN VERRALL KNOWS what it’s like counting down the days to the next pay cheque. In her early 20s, the then-single mum was balancing the books to manage a mortgage, her young daughter and the meals they needed to get by on – which often left her eating spaghetti bolognaise for days on end. Now, the 56-year-old lives on 2200 rolling hectares in the south-east of South Australia with her husband, Chris Bullen. The couple produce beef cattle and dorper lambs, with Robyn driving the 600-kilometre round trip to Adelaide every week to deliver their Bully’s Meats direct to loyal customers. But she has never forgotten the quiet dread of having empty cupboards and a bare fridge. “Pride is a really interesting emotion, and at the hardest time of my…

WHILE TRAVEL WRITER SUE PRESTON has never been an early riser, the magnificent views surrounding her home in High Camp, about 90 minutes’ drive from Melbourne, have inspired a change. “I’ll get up at first light and wander out of the bedroom into the front room,” Sue says. There, she’s greeted through the windows by a mob of around 50 kangaroos. Overlooking sweeping plains, mountains and valleys, it’s a magical time to absorb the raw, natural beauty of the landscape. “I can just sit and gaze outside for a long, long time,” she adds. Elemental House, which Sue shares with her partner Jim Elliott, is situated on a 41-hectare former sheep property, on the traditional lands of the Taungurung people. Taking its name from the site’s exposure to harsh wind,…

1 The View by Vynka Hallam painting, $3800, from vynkahallam.com 2 No.811 Hoffmann chair with Natural Finish, POA, from Thonet. 3 No.600 Unisex Work Series boots, $154, from Blundstone. 4 Tilbury Skinny bench, $385, from Tara Dennis Pepperwhites. 5 Weekend wool throw in Sage and Walnut, $269.99, from Living by Design. 6 Petunia rug in Natural, $890, from Armadillo. 7 Rubens Chalk jar, $165, from L&M Home. 8 Larson extra large vase in Off White, $63, from Few and Far. 9 Reclaimed elm sideboard, $3050, from Beachwood. 10 Loft Tan cushion, $73, from L&M Home. 11 P07 Nostalgie Series cooking suite, POA, from Ilve. 12 Tassel wall hanging in Natural, $139, from The Dharma Door. 13 Bungalow outdoor armchair, $1399, from Harvey Norman. LASTING IMPACT Inspired by colours found in…

IN HIS SIXTH BOOK, Futureproof Your Garden, Australian horticulturalist Angus Stewart has teamed up with his daughter, fellow horticulturalist Emma Stewart. The duo delivers a practical guide to plant selection, soil care, sustainable gardens, efficient use of water, and more… RECYCLED WATER One of the tragic wastes of potable water is its use for purposes that do not require drinking quality water. A better option is to make use of recycled water from various sources for suitable applications, such as flushing toilets or providing supplementary water for ornamental garden beds. There are two categories of household wastewater that can be recycled: 1 BLACKWATER comes from toilets, and it generally carries faecal contamination, so it has the potential to make us sick. It needs to be treated before it can be…

HOMEMADE BACON BAKED BEANS Serves 4-6 Pulled from the freezer or fridge, these beans, topped with an egg and served with fresh bread, make a good meal in minutes. They do, however, take hours to cook from scratch. It’ll take you about 4 hours, but you can be asleep for most of this. 200g (7oz/1 cup) dried cannellini or white/northern beans2 brown onions2 garlic cloves1 sage sprig2 teaspoons salt400g (14oz) slab bacon or speck, cut into 2-3cm (¾–1¼ inch) chunks400g (14oz/1 ⅔ cups) tinned chopped tomatoes1-2 tablespoons treacle Put the beans in a bowl and cover with cold water. Set aside to soak for at least 5 hours or preferably overnight. If you haven’t soaked the beans you can still make this recipe, the beans will just take longer to…

EMERALD IS ONE OF those thriving regional towns that people are often drawn to for work opportunities and then decide to stay on for the relaxed lifestyle and welcoming community. Located on the Nogoa River in the Central Highlands of Queensland, Emerald is at the gateway to the largest sapphire gemfields in the southern hemisphere. The town is also known for its diverse economic base with agricultural production, coal resources, health, education and services sectors. For outdoor enthusiasts, the town of almost 15,000 residents is close to Blackdown Tableland National Park to the east, Lake Maraboon Fairbairn Dam (Queensland’s second-largest dam), Minerva Hills National Park, as well as Carnarvon Gorge to the south. With an impressive education and extracurricular offering, Emerald is an ideal place to raise a family, as…

EVEN AFTER 37 YEARS, broom-maker Geoff Wortes still loves the smell as he walks into the Tumut Broom Factory to start work on a Monday morning. “It hits you when you open the door. It’s a bit like walking into a hay shed. Visitors love it, too,” he says with a smile. Geoff was born and raised in Tumut, in the picturesque Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales, and started making brooms at the factory with his father, Cliff, in 1985. “Dad started his three-year brush manufacturer’s apprenticeship in 1948, in the same building we’re in today,” Geoff, 69, says. “He managed the factory, then bought the business in 1978. He called me one day in the mid-’80s and said, ‘Son, can you come give me a hand to…

ANASTASIA KARIOFYLLIDIS Photographer Anastasia has loved Country Style’s beautiful imagery for decades. She shot the bright, botanic cottage in Witta, Qld, on page 56. Queensland’s Sunshine Coast hinterland is home to Anastasia, 48, who says, “We are blessed with the best of both worlds – 15 minutes’ drive and we’re either in the mountains or at the beach.” She lives with her husband, Jason De Blasis, in “an Art Deco house complete with creaking timber floors, a rattling hutch and casement windows to catch the breeze,” she says. “It flanks the forest, so our yard is frequented by an array of native animals.” Of her 23 years as a photographer, Anastasia says: “I’m passionate about what I do. I love the variety, the people, the character-filled homes and the great…

Tread lightly Armadillo’s beautiful rugs are complemented by a commitment to sustainability that really walks the walk. The rug company was the first in Australia to achieve B Corp certification – a recognition of the brand’s focus on social and environmental responsibility. That makes the new additions to its Nook collection, designed for small spaces, look even better. Visit armadillo-co.com Paint perfect This stainless steel camping mug from Sand Dune Sunsets, handpainted with delicate wildflowers, is perfect for a morning cuppa enjoyed outside on the deck in the sunshine. Visit hardtofind.com.au BATHING ESSENTIALS Replacing bath towels can be more of a chore than a fun shopping experience. But this chic Loop Home set scores major style points – and it’s sustainable. Made from organic, ethically sourced cotton, the set uses…

BORN IN CAIRNS IN 1981, Lachlan McIver grew up on a beef farm just outside the small town of Millaa Millaa on North Queensland’s Atherton Tablelands. The property was bordered on two sides by World Heritage rainforests and on the other by a cousin’s dairy farm. “When we weren’t helping our parents, we were rampaging around the rainforests – they were an excellent playground,” says Lachlan. “My cousins and I would go off (or be sent off by our mums) for the day with packed lunches and come back with the best stories. We’d discover new waterfalls, then get lost and have to climb a tree to find the valley to home, or follow a creek until we found a fenceline. Our adventures sound like they’re from another era. It…

WHAT TO DO WHEN YOU’RE planning a family getaway to Maleny in Queensland and all the decent accommodation is booked out? For Heather Hickson, the only solution was to scroll through the local real estate listings in the hope of finding a fixer-upper that might serve as a permanent holiday home. Her search proved fruitful when she discovered a charming cottage on a scenic block in the village of Witta – on traditional Gubbi Gubbi Country – 10 minutes’ drive north of Maleny. “I fell in love with the property the moment we walked down the gravel driveway,” Heather, 66, recalls. “The bunya pine at the front gate and pine trees lining the drive gave it a romantic touch; it reminded me of the English countryside and Yorkshire Dales.” However,…

DOWN THE GARDEN PATH ARE YOU A VEGIE GARDENER? Have you ever done the maths to work out how much each tomato costs you to grow? Best not to, frankly. A bit like backyard chickens, they tend to get expensive. The single zucchini you harvested last summer (it wasn’t a great year for zukes), which probably cost around $70 in amortised inputs, may deter you from ever attempting vegetable gardening again. Oh, the cost of a garden! First, on your mental health as you race out in your knickers late at night to conduct snail and slug patrol. (That’s not just me, right?) Second, on your conversation. Are your friends sick of hearing about organic solutions for fruit fly? Too bad! We’re in over our heads! We have to tally…

SUPER GREEN DITCHING SUPERMARKET PRODUCE BAGS IS AN EASY WAY TO REDUCE SINGLE-USE PLASTIC WASTE. (COLES HAS ALREADY REMOVED THEM FROM STORES – HOORAY!) SO, HOW TO CONTAIN YOUR CARROTS? WITH THE SWAG’S LINE OF PRODUCE BAGS – MADE FROM UNBLEACHED, ETHICALLY PRODUCED, MACHINE-WASHABLE COTTON – THAT HAVE BEEN PROVEN TO KEEP FRUIT AND VEGIES FRESH IN THE FRIDGE FOR MORE THAN TWO WEEKS. VISIT THESWAG.COM.AU WILD HEART Love a tipple that loves the earth? Here are three to try… CITRUS BURST This Finger Lime Gin by Wild Hibiscus Distilling Co. uses fruit from the distiller’s farm in Kurrajong Heights, NSW, as well as locally grown oranges, kaffir lime and Tahitian lime leaf. Visit hardtofind.com.auPURE BLISS The father-daughter duo at Perth’s Swan River Distillery make Australian Native Gin with ingredients…

IT’S OBVIOUS, EVEN TRITE, to observe that the fashion industry is built on trends. But its newest craze is more than a trend: it’s a movement. Fashion is all about ‘sustainability’ now – a buzzword that pops up everywhere from Instagram adverts to the swing tags of new clothes. All too often, it’s simply used as a marketing tactic – but our love of clothing is causing real environmental problems. The fashion industry creates more carbon emissions than aviation and shipping put together, making it the world’s third largest polluter. This is partly because globally, our shopping habits have changed: since 2000, we’ve doubled the number of items we buy each year to a staggering 200 billion, while wearing pieces less before throwing them out. The result? Each year, an…

THE INK BLACK HEART Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling), Sphere, $32.99 The sixth instalment in this gripping saga (it’s not too late to make a start) opens with cocktails at the Piccadilly Ritz. Will clever, kind, decent and shapely Robin and her business partner, Strike – with only half a leg thanks to his service in Afghanistan – finally fall into each other’s arms? Spoiler alert: yes and no. They’ve been a successful duo of private investigators for five years now and they’re very close. But there’s luscious Madeline corralling Strike, and a succession of hopefuls who pursue Robin. Not to mention Strike’s truly ghastly ex-fiancée, Charlotte, viciously stirring. However, this is a murder mystery, not The Perils of Pauline, so let’s get down to business. Edie Ledwell, who co-created popular…

LOOKING AHEAD My family was among many who went through the recent floods. Our home, a converted old Salvation Army hall in a northern NSW country town, is still yet to be repaired. When a friend (hi, Nadine) put us up for a bushy weekend, I read all her copies of Country Style and realised I needed it to help me bring the charm back to our heritage-listed building. As a florist, a second-hand seeker and an Australiana collector, I find it so inspiring. I’m a bird dork, and lost my binoculars in the floods. But after seeing an old pair on a recent cover, I then found some at the Brunswick Heads Old and Gold festival. Things lost will be treasures again. For readers whose homes were destroyed and…

A DAY IN THE COUNTRY IS THE ANXIETY of getting ready to go away worth the actual holiday itself? I’m pondering this question as we are on the verge of setting sail for a long-planned road trip to the Kimberley. The trip itself is simple: catch the ferry to the mainland, drive north, then head west until we hit the opposite shore of Australia, its white sand and clear water so like the coast here, except for a vital addition: the warm temperature. The preparation to get there is anything but simple and in the months leading up to it, The Farmer and I have had the 3am horrors about all that has to be done. It’ll be the first time in years that we’ve had a holiday together out…

GIPPSLAND VIC PEOPLE “JUST START.” THIS SIMPLE mantra is the seed that has grown into a literal forest for conservationists Jim and Heather Phillipson. When the couple bought a 36-hectare beef cattle farm in Upper Maffra West in the early ’80s, they didn’t know exactly how they would go about regenerating the degraded landscape. But they didn’t let that stop them. “It’s like having children,” says Jim, 69, with a smile. “You just have to start.” Back then, the property in Victoria’s Gippsland region was “a desert”, says Heather, 67. “There was not a tree in sight,” she recalls. But Jim and Heather, who both grew up on family farms in nearby Sale, wanted to give their kids, David, now 38, and Kate, 33, the kind of childhood they’d enjoyed…

SHELLEY AND TYRONE KENNEDY had 43 hectares to choose from when building their tree-change home. They opted for the most cantankerous location on their property – the highest, windiest, coldest position, but the spot with the most spectacular views. That was in 2019, a year after they bought a neglected farm near Denmark, 420 kilometres south-east of Perth in Western Australia. “The farm was very run-down, with only a shed on it. There was no power, water or sewerage. The pasture was poor and so was the boundary fencing,” says Shelley, 35, a women’s health physiotherapist. She and husband Tyrone, 38, an engineer and builder, have transformed the ramshackle farm, which lies on the traditional land of the Noongar people, into a productive beef cattle property with bespoke guest accommodation…

BELOW, FROM LEFT Almond Gingham linen picnic rug, $189.95, from Le Weekend. Luca Outdoor cushion in Natural, $129.95, and IL-218 Jungle cushion, $62.50, both from Few and Far. For a similiar stool, try Few and Far. Nightstand carafe and tumbler set, $49.95, from Few and Far. Bahir Outdoor sunlounge, $990, from Inartisan. Rock Pool linen cushion in White with Natural Stripe, $89.95, from Eadie Lifestyle. Grey cushion is stylist’s own – for a similar one, try Few and Far. Mia Tan felt panama, $39.95, from Sportsgirl. Double Marketeer basket, $58.50, from The Market Basket Co.…

AMID THE EVER-CHANGING terrain of Northern New South Wales lie 160 hectares of magnificent scrubland dedicated to wildlife conservation. Landowner Steve Haslam has nurtured a love for Australian animals and nature all his life. Surprisingly, Steve, 50, didn’t grow up in the bush, although he always felt it beckoning. “From an early age, I was always the nerdy kid with the bug catcher in the backyard,” he says. “Mum could never get me inside. I enveloped myself in nature whenever I could. I didn’t realise it at the time, but that was a driving passion; a burning desire to protect it that has always been there.” While Steve has never studied ecology or environmental science at a tertiary level, he has decades of practical experience and knowledge under his belt.…

SPICERS TOWER LODGE POKOLBIN, NSW Longing for a trip to Spain? Step through the doors of Spicers Tower Lodge and it’s as if you’ve been transported to Basque Country. As you explore the stunning lobby with your welcome glass of champagne in hand, the space opens out to a courtyard dotted with tables and potted olive trees. The tantalising aroma of cooking chorizo wafts from the aptly named onsite restaurant, Sebastian. It’s easy to forget you are, in fact, in the Hunter Valley wine region, just two hours’ drive from Sydney, not San Sebastián. The 14-suite boutique hotel was originally built by the late Len Evans, Australia’s most notable wine ambassador, and his family. Later, it was used for Len’s famous wine tutorials. If these walls could talk, they’d tell…

SMART WASH With a five-star energy rating and 15 wash programs, the Electrolux AutoDose washer can handle all your laundry needs. harveynorman.com.au EVERYDAY TONIC Elevate your style with Bedtonic’s range of timeless and sustainable luxury lifestyle products that are made to last. bedtonic.com ART OF LIVING Artist Trish Fraunfelter’s unique homewares feature native flora and fauna, and include a delightful Christmas range. eastbourneart.com.au BLOOMING BEAUTY Bring a hint of luxury to tea time with Dahlia Daze, a stunning new floral collection by Maxwell & Williams. baketableandtea.com.au WIN A GOLD COAST HOME! For just $5, enter the draw to win a $10.6 million Gold Coast home. Ticket sales support Queensland veterans. rslartunion.com.au/BeachHouseJewel STEP IT UP R.M. Williams’ Lady Yearling boot is back in a new caramel hue. This timeless style, featuring…

IN HIS FIRST fortnight of taking office, PM Albanese had a solemn duty to perform. It is not unusual for a political party, newly come to power, to have to apologise for the turmoil inherited from the outgoing mob, but this was a situation of grave concern. It was a “crisis”, said the PM, and one that he would refer to Cabinet. Fierce fighting was continuing due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. COVID figures were on the rise again, and flu infections were at a record level. Energy security and soaring electricity and gas prices were causing consternation. But this was a crisis even more chilling in its fear and foreboding. Colonel Sanders himself (well, a KFC rep) had taken advertising space in the morning media to announce that KFC…