Rural PROJECTS
Romsey property
Circa 1860. The property has had a few incarnations. A sheep farm, cattle farm, thoroughbred horse stud, and back to cattle farm.
When the current owners bought it, half of the house had to be demolished; our specialist period renovators restored the surviving half back to its former glory. The woolshed, stables, workshop, lunging yard, vet room and many other shelters, all had to be demolished as well, despite our efforts to restore some of them. Unfortunately, they were just too far gone due to borers, termites and rot.
More than 2000 cypress tress in various plantations, ranging from 40 years to 140 years, had never been pruned and were laying over 5km of fencing. We designed the new paddock layout, with lanes and water troughs that were specifically positioned for high rotation grazing. This required replacing all of the old, dysfunctional fencing.
The new house now sits proudly on a double terraced Ha Ha wall. The top terrance is retained by blue stone collected from various parts of the garden and property, the lower on from stacked stone Icon concrete sleepers. The layout connects the new house, man cave, original cottage, farm compound and menage seamlessly. A complete operating farm with all the comforts of a tennis court, pool and entertainment areas.
Kerry Valley (currently in progress)
The house is sited on a 20 degree gradient, falling away to the north east. The excavation for the bottom leve was over. 4 metres deep. We designed three curved retaining walls seperated by 2 garden beds, 1.5 metres wide and the top terrace is a large turf lawn that is connected to the varandah of the main bedroom.
The southern side has an outdoor room for raised vegetable garden beds, excavated into the side of the hill. His has a 2 metre high stone wall and a stone moon gate for its entrance.
We have a laburnum walk journey to the chicken run and a hidden terrace for the clothes line.
There are 3 generous, open turf lawns, parkland trees and with some unusual, understory plantings and perfumed gardens upon the clients request.
The Big Boomerang
One of my Mount Macedon clients bought 40 acres in Ravensbourne, QLD, for an avocado farm. He flew me up to have a look at designing and building a 800 sq metre deck.
I got there and gasped at the 180 degree views that are over 140 km looking from the sunshine coast hinterland (Mt Maleny) to the Gold Coast (Mt Tamborine).
We found a local mill that has a resource of Eucalyptus Sideroxylon (Ironbark).
I popped the drone up and we plotted the site. It was to be split level, in the shape of a boomerang.
Since completing the deck, the client has built a large house on top of it.
