Australian Country Homes Issue 11

Dear readers, There’s no denying it — we’re living in a challenging time. For many, 2020 has been a year of change, and not all of it positive. We’ve had to pivot and shift our plans to achieve our goals. We’ve had to embrace alterations in a way we never have before. It was with this thought in mind that I curated the features for this issue of Australian Country Homes. In the pages of this magazine you will find stories of homeowners who have altered their plans and sometimes their lives when an unexpected curveball was thrown their way. For some, it’s the story of a change in circumstance that resulted in a change of profession. For others, it’s the lure of a country lifestyle that prompted a new…

The white Carrara marble bowls from Kandili Pty Ltd are the perfect way to enhance the sense of opulence in your home. Made from 100 per cent Italian Carrara marble, the vessels are unique, with no two patterns the same. Choose from four different-coloured lids and a wide variety of scents that will help you relax and bring a calm ambience to your home. kandili.com.au Add warmth and texture to your bedroom or living space with the hand-knitted Brighton throw and cushion cover from Eco Down Under. These cosy additions to your home are knitted using a generous classic cable-stitch pattern in the Pantone colour of the year for 2020 — Classic Blue. Each item in the hand-knitted Brighton range is unique and handmade by women in rural India. Supporting…

They say to be born into the Turner family means to be born in the saddle. While that’s not strictly true, the Turner women all started riding almost as soon as they could walk. Gendy Parry Okeden, the oldest of the three Turner girls, started riding at the age of two and was back competing just three months after her twin boys, Sam and Tom, were born. “My mother, Beth, is a veteran eventer and horse riding coach and trainer,” Gendy explains. “She grew up in New Zealand where everyone rode and hunted and then she met my father, Warwick, who was also into horses. They came back to his family farm at Oberon where, naturally, my sisters Nicky, Jamie and I grew up not really knowing that horse riding…

Some of us just aren’t wired to live in suburbia, with fences for privacy and neighbours within earshot. It can work for a time, but the call of the country seems to always prevail. Wayne and Marie Stewart first bought their patch of rural paradise in 1980. In the lofty green hills of Peachester, overlooking Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, it was untamed bush — wild and rambling. Teachers by trade, with two boys in tow and dreams of a new home and flourishing orchard driving them forward, they began the mammoth task ahead of them. “We cleared some areas including a road in,” Wayne recalls. “Then we built a shed near where we lived in our caravan for 18 months while we built a house.” In time, they planted custard apple,…

A western NSW farmer who can talk about furniture designer Mark Tuckey as confidently, and passionately, as about agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere, Moree’s Andrew Ball is fascinatingly contrary. Pinterest, his go-to for inspiration, reveals expertly curated folders on architecture and design, seamlessly coexisting with pins on rugby and cars. His large farmer’s hands swipe, and the fact that he even has a Pinterest account speaks volumes. “My mother had a beautiful eye for design and style,” he reflects. “It’s quite amazing — you never forget those things that were ingrained into your childhood.” Nestled in a leafy local street, Andrew and his wife, Barbara, have restored one of the town’s most stately properties, the type passers-by crane their necks at in anticipation of a glimpse beyond the perfectly manicured…

Local lore around the twin towns of Echuca-Moama on the Murray River has it that you can trace the fluctuating fortunes of Australia’s rural industry through the buildings on Perricoota Station. There’s the imposing double-storeyed, nine-bedroom brick homestead, built in the 1860s as the HQ for pastoralist James Maiden, who had established a 120,000-acre [48,562-hectare] sheep and cattle grazing property on the NSW side of the Murray in 1843. The sprawling shearing shed, although no longer part of the station holding, also dates from this time, when the economy was booming thanks to the gold rushes and the wool industry, and wages for working men reached world-record levels. Perricoota was sold in 1865 to wool brokers Kirk, Row and Goldsborough, founding fathers of what would become agents Goldsborough Mort, which…