Indholdsfortegnelse for July 2024 i Country Style

I’M WRITING this tucked up in bed on the very first day of winter. Unlike the autumn we have just had – full of sunshine and warm days – today does feel very wintry indeed. The trees are lashing my bedroom window, it’s overcast and there is a chill in the air. This weather has taken me by surprise and I admit to being behind schedule in readying the house for the cold. I’ll spend the rest of the day packing away summer clothes and replacing them with coats, jumpers and scarves. Wool throws will be placed on the arms of the sofas, and oil heaters will swap places with the fans. I’m looking forward to slow-cooking Australian Pork with cider and apples – a family favourite – and making…

THE ESCAPE FROM THE rat-race is a familiar story. But Helen and David Black’s tale is a little different. “We were both really happy in our jobs,” Helen says of the corporate careers they left behind in 2016 – hers in marketing and communications; his in chartered accountancy. So why start The Coastal Brewing Company, which they now run so successfully in Forster, NSW? “It’s my husband’s home-brew project that got out of hand,” Helen says with a smile. It’s also proof that running towards something can be a far more powerful motivator than running away. Despite their happy lives in Sydney, the pair, both from the UK, had always loved the idea of running their own brewery. “Whenever we went on holiday, we’d go to craft breweries,” says Helen,…

IT BEGAN WITH a precious present that Rhonda Campbell received as a child. “A beautiful set of 72 Derwent pencils was given to my sister and me by our father,” recalls the artist. “I guess this was all the encouragement I needed – all those beautiful colours!” From then on, her upbringing in the Central West town of Parkes in New South Wales was filled with two main pastimes: “I loved to swim and make things – my art.” The naturally talented creator honed her skills at the National Art School in Sydney, then went on to teach art in Australia and London. “I now live in Orange, where I came with my husband as a newlywed in 1973,” says Rhonda. That’s also where she put down the paints and…

THERE AREN’T TOO many people who would eagerly take on a 6000-hectare property with multiple run-down buildings, but Elizabeth and Edwin Michell were excited to tackle the restoration of Foxlow, an historic farming station on the Molonglo River near Bungendore in New South Wales. Edwin’s family bought the property in 2014, and Edwin, 40, and Elizabeth, 36, inherited it after they were married in 2017. Established around 1835 by John Hosking, the first elected mayor of Sydney, Foxlow came with a long backstory – and an even longer to-do list. “Foxlow caught our eye because of the scale of the holding and the historic character of it,” Edwin explains. “We were lucky in that there wasn’t serious interest from any big institutional buyers and I think part of the reason…

Shibori tassel fern rug, $8950, from Designer Rugs. Alex lounge chair, from $1430, from Cotswold Furniture. Honest linen and vintage ikat cushion, $160, from Tigmi Trading. Kelo organic rug, from $421, from Lifely. Sample of Coast Driftwood rug, from $1980, from Hali. Bamboo Whitewashed basket with seagrass trim, $129, from Inartisan. Enes linen bedcover, $290, from Saardé. Saar floor runner, $349, from Freedom. Colorscope Naturals grid in Natural/Stone, from $1210, from Cadrys. Raleigh floor runner, $199, from Freedom. Hand-tufted runner in Hamptons Ivory, $449, from Living By Design. Hanami Indian rectangle cushion in Teal, $148, from Walter G. Gard two-tone throw in Charcoal, $179, from Country Road. Raina distressed runner in Charcoal, Grey and Ivory, from $199, and Evryn distressed floral runner in Charcoal, Grey and Ivory, from $199, from…

PHOTOGRAPHY HANNAH PUECHMARIN PRISTINE BEACHES, TOWERING FORESTS and cool-climate wineries are some of the headline attractions that draw tourists to the small town of Denmark in South West WA. And those taking the scenic route will discover another delightful Aussie icon: handcrafted sheepskin boots made by a family-run business, Jassi Leather Works. The Jassi factory and showroom is located about 15 minutes from Denmark on a cattle farm adjacent to William Bay National Park and the stunning Greens Pool. Seven days a week, visitors can drop in and see a range of boots, slippers and slides being made by the small team. “We’ve got it set up so visitors can interact with the girls who are sewing and making the boots, and get a bit of insight into how the…

CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT Natural Marine Collagen, $75 (30 sachets), from Innour, is a doctor-developed formula that stimulates your body’s own collagen production and enriches skin and nails. JS Health Vitality X + Collagen Oral Powder, $69.99 (30 doses), from Adore Beauty, promotes a glowing complexion with marine hydrolysed collagen, turmeric, and vitamins C and E. The delicious açaí-flavoured Skin Elixir Collagen Builder, $91 (30 sticks), from Arbonne, is packed with vitamin C, hyaluronic acid and biotin for healthy skin, hair and nails. FaceGym Collagen Infusion Serum, $84, from Mecca, is designed to be used with FaceGym EMS devices. It acts as a conductor for the electrical impulses that result in a firmer-looking visage and increased skin elasticity. Store your beauty products and supplements on the Paskal Stone Tray, $39,…

TIMELESS ELEGANCE Elevate your wardrobe with the Essentials Collection Izumi Blazer in Neutral from Eva’s Sunday. This boyfriend-style jacket features a boxy cut and effortlessly transitions from casual to professional with its polished design. evassunday.com.au TAKING SHAPE Create permanent angles or curves in your garden, vegie patch, path or driveway with EverEdge Flexible Steel Garden Edging. Transform outdoor spaces by highlighting and separating the different features of lawns and garden beds. everedge.com.au SWEET DREAMS Luxury meets comfort with the King Koil Platinum Posture Lisbon Mattress. This opulent collection features premium CoolMax damask fabric with a cashmere fibre blend, ensuring a naturally regulated temperature for optimum sleep. harveynorman.com.au COLOUR CONNECTION Little Woollie Makes Yarn Store is a destination yarn shop located in Hastings, Victoria. Specialising in natural fibres and hand-dyed yarns…

I WOULD BE VERY happy if you could tell me your appraisal of this beautiful piece that has been in my family for generations. Linda Scholes, Doonan, Qld This purse was made by the native people of the Eastern Woodlands of North America. They are sometimes called wampum bags after the beads made from shell which were originally used to decorate the surface. Later examples, such as yours, are decorated with glass beads. The purses were used to hold valuables such as money and medicines. By the late 19th century, purses and other beaded jewellery and clothing, including gloves and belts, were produced for sale as souvenirs. As the purse has been in your family for generations, some in-depth research might help determine its age and more precise origin. Can…

Editor KYLIE IMESON Creative director SARAH FARAGO Deputy editor HANNAH JAMES Art director BERNHARD SCHMITZ Queensland contributing editor CLAIRE MACTAGGART Stylist KATE LINCOLN Feature writers REBECCA HOOTON, RACHEL WHITE Junior writer LISA EASEY Chief copy editor, Homes Group PETER GRIFFITHS Senior copy editors GRETA DUMBLETON, STEPHANIE HOPE ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Commercial brand manager JO-ANN TAYLOR Advertising production manager KATE ORSBORN Director of sales –NSW, VIC, SA KAREN HOLMES Head of direct sales – VIC, SA, WA WILL JAMISON Queensland head of sales JUDY TAYLOR Creative director CLARE CATT Head of events and sponsorships CATE GAZAL Head of Directories REBECCA WHITE Production controller KARA STEAD Advertising production controller DOMINIC ROY All advertising inquiries ADVERTISING@AREMEDIA.COM.AU MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Director of marketing CARLY BOWRA Head of consumer marketing LOUISE CANKETT Marketing manager JESS…

GROUNDBREAKING is the only way to describe Lake House in Daylesford, Victoria – and to get this restaurant started the founders literally had to break ground. Starting in 1979, the late artist and builder Allan Wolf-Tasker and his wife, chef Alla Wolf-Tasker AM, spent four years clearing blackberry from their block of land at the swampy end of Lake Daylesford. The duo hand-built the restaurant and created a beautiful temperate garden filled with robinia, poplar, pin oak, catalpa and weeping mulberry trees. All of this work was done on weekends, as Allan and Alla lived in Melbourne at the time and held down full-time jobs. They also had their toddler daughter, Larissa, in tow. As Alla has been quoted as saying, more than once: “It was sheer madness, really.” But…

FAVOURITE BUTTER CHICKEN Serves 6 12 chicken thigh cutlets (2.4kg), skin removed 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chilli powder ¾ cup (200g) Greek yoghurt 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger 2 teaspoons garam masala 45g butter 1 medium onion (150g), chopped finely 4 cloves garlic, crushed 1 teaspoon ground coriander 1 teaspoon ground cumin 1 teaspoon paprika 2 tablespoons tomato paste 410g tomato puree ⅔ cup (160ml) chicken stock 2 tablespoons honey 1 stick cinnamon ⅓ cup (80ml) coconut milk Fresh coriander sprigs, to serve 1. Combine chicken, lemon juice and chilli powder in a large bowl. Refrigerate, covered, for 30 minutes. Stir in yoghurt, ginger and half the garam masala to chicken mixture. 2. Heat butter in a 4.5-litre slow cooker on sear (high) setting. Cook chicken, in…

A FRESH START is daunting at the best of times, let alone in the middle of motherhood and an established career. For Julie Ramsay, however, a new chapter is just what she needed. “Feeling washed-up in hospitality, I threw myself in the deep end,” says Julie, 59, the founder of homewares and linen brand Bedtonic. Sustainable and luxurious European flax linens feature heavily in the Bedtonic range, which Julie runs from her 1950s home in Wembley, just west of Perth. It’s here, in her tranquil home office with lake views, that she designs her clothing and bed-linen ranges, making regular trips to the Bedtonic store in Subiaco. “My makers are one suburb away, as is the store, so I’m there two or three times per week picking up samples and…

THE DEED Susannah Begbie, Hachette, $32.99 A debut novel, yet it’s as if Begbie’s been honing her skills for the last 20 years and this is the culmination of all she’s learned. Tom Edwards dies alone. His four children weren’t far away, just emotionally on another planet. The eldest, Jenny, found him, did all the right things. She wasn’t squeamish. His wastrel son, Dave, turned up and, as usual, lifted not a finger to help. Christine, the organised one, surprised everyone by going off the rails – big time. And the youngest, Sophie, spoilt and encouraged to be a bludger, arrived with a zipped toiletries bag of little helpers; she wasn’t going to let death be a downer. Tom’s 10,000 acres could be the answer to Dave’s $6,500,000 debt. Except…

ON TREND Congratulations on bringing back the fashion pages to Country Style. Thank you! It made me so happy to see the fashion story On the Farm in your June issue. I have been buying Country Style for about 30 years now. I was young and newly married when I began this ‘addiction’ and it’s been a staple inspiration in my life since. But in recent times, something was missing. I’m not a huge fashionista, but the limited fashion pages made me feel like I was missing a friend. We all need homes, gardens, food and art… and we need clothing! It’s not an unnecessary indulgence to wear beautiful clothes. So, now it feels like the magazine conveys the complete picture again! Also, the focus on Australian fashion is wonderful.…

TOP, LEFT TO RIGHT Christian Tortu Green Tomato room spray, $88 (100ml), from David Jones. Aēsop Cythera Aromatique room spray, $77 (100ml), from Adore Beauty. Rain on the Roof Laundrette purifying room spray, $59 (100ml), from One Seed. MIDDLE, LEFT TO RIGHT Pink Grapefruit & Peppermint Essential Oil room spray, $17.95 (250ml), from Koala Eco. Jo Malone London Peony & Blush Suede room spray, $91 (100ml), from Myer. Sea Salt room mist, $24.95 (100ml), from Palm Beach Collection. BOTTOM, LEFT TO RIGHT The Ritual room scent, $56 (100ml), from Hunter Lab. Wildwood Reverie interior fragrance spray, $55 (150ml), from Black Blaze. Odalisque room spray, $299 (375ml), from Trudon.…

WITH ITS ELEGANT HOMESTEAD and garden frothing with roses, Karawatha Park is an oasis in the arid landscape of Kimba in South Australia’s Eyre Peninsula, on traditional Barngarla lands. It’s largely thanks to the dedicated work of Barb Woolford, who insisted on establishing a garden at Karawatha when she joined her husband, Bert, on his family’s wheat and sheep farm 40 years ago. “When we first married, there were about five fruit trees and a big jacaranda,” she recalls, “but I was pretty stubborn about saying, ‘If I’m living here, I’m having a garden.’” It was a good compromise for Barb, 62, who admits she never planned to marry a farmer. She grew up on a sheep, cattle and wheat farm in nearby Waddikee, then studied to be a nurse…

BRASSICAS SOUND A LOT like a group of musical instruments, but they are in fact the superstars of the Australian winter vegie garden. It’s a title that covers a whole family of vegetables that grow best in cold weather. Cabbages, brussels sprouts, kale, broccoli and cauliflower that will bolt in summer – or be covered in cabbage moth, caterpillars or aphids – will grow slowly but surely once the weather cools and can stay in the ground even if you’re in an area that gets frost. What legendary vegies they are! Why do we love brassicas? Well, they’re typically high in dietary fibre. You can make sauerkraut from cabbage, which lights up a wintertime steak sandwich like nobody’s business. Brussels sprouts cooked in butter with crispy bacon might just be…

BACK IN THE ’90s, Melbourne was in the midst of a reverse migration of chefs from England. Maybe it was the ‘Neighbours effect’ – you know, sunny skies, chipper dispositions and excellent teeth. Perhaps love interests had led them here, or had too many antipodeans invaded Ol’ Blighty? Whatever the reasons, they soon found themselves offered top-shelf positions within a hospitality industry desperate for a link to the best and brightest of England’s eating establishments. It was a period of Melbourne’s evolving dining scene that had become preoccupied with the successes of the English restaurant groups which had rejuvenated London’s dining scene. These chefs, colloquially known as ‘Britpack Chefs’, arrived with formal training, honed techniques and a hunger to make their mark. The city readily adopted their pedigreed practices, and…

TRAIN OF THOUGHT Travelling Europe by train is a more relaxed way to see the sights – and when your guide is an historian who’s been leading tours for decades, you know you’re in for a cultural treat. Great Trains of Europe owner Stan Klan is based in Queensland and guides each tour himself. This Christmas, try a 20-day Winter Wonderland tour, which starts in Paris on December 28 and takes in Interlaken, Venice, Innsbruck and Prague, via trains through snow-covered Alps and past Italian lakes. Kids under 12 sharing with adults go free. Visit greattrainsofeurope.com Cabarita Beach retreat Halcyon House has bottled the scent of its stylish rooms. With notes of bergamot, fig, frangipani and freesia, the candle, $90, and room spray, $35, will bring endless summer into your…

1 Shepherds’ linen jacket in Natural Woven, $259, from Bedtonic. 2 Market mid-length skirt in Indigo Buffalo Check, $189, from Bedtonic. 3 Chanel Rouge Coco Flash lipstick, $72, from Myer. 4 Graphic Floral scarf in Cream, $149, from Oroton. 5 Everybody Brito boots in Chestnut, $369.95, from Peter Sheppard. 6 Arsony glasses in Solid Black and Havana Tortoiseshell, $495, from Thierry Lasry. 7 Byredo Super Cedar eau de parfum, $298 (50ml), from Mecca. 8 No. 4 Tasmanian Creek Eucalyptus Bark, Grapefruit Rind, Olive Leaf candle, $59, from Hunter Candles. 9 Cylinder vase, $180, from Dakota Yewen. 10 The Waste of the World: Consumption, Economies and the Making of the Global Waste Problem by Nicky Gregson book, $86.40, from Booktopia.…

FROM CUTE CAT videos to FaceTime, online shopping to binge-watching Bridgerton, the internet has improved our lives in many ways. It has also revolutionised education. While we trawled encyclopaedias for research for school projects, our children can access every piece of information ever recorded in seconds. They don’t know life without Google. Sadly, scams, extortion and exposure to inappropriate content have also made the digital world a sometimes-scary place. Reports of cyberbullying to the eSafety Commissioner rose by 40 per cent between 2022 and 2023. There are fresh calls to ban social media for younger adolescents, since teens aged 12 to 15 who spend more than three hours a day on social media platforms are twice as likely to experience negative mental health, including depression and anxiety symptoms. If you…

WESTERN ART HAS often been influenced by the arts of Asia. Chinese porcelain was copied by European factories, especially those in the Netherlands, and several in England in the 17th century. From as early as 200 BCE, the Silk Road brought Chinese and Indian textiles to Europe. When trade with Japan opened up in the 19th century, the fashion developed for Japanese ceramics, textiles and furniture. But it was late in the century when collectors noticed that many of the delicate ceramics imported from Japan were wrapped in woodcuts and that they were often great works of art. French artists Manet and Monet, and the writer Zola, began to collect them. In the early 20th century, Australian painter Margaret Preston studied in London, and in 1913 saw an exhibition of…

A COUPLE OF TIMES a month I load my horse, Frank, onto the float and we drive over Lake Leake and up the Midland Highway to have a jumping lesson. I make a day of it: I stop in Swansea for a coffee and the most delicious slice of tart from Makayla at Cake & Honey; then again at Kalangadoo Roadhouse at Lake Leake to top up the fuel tank. It’s an old-fashioned roadhouse where you can buy anything from fishing lures to woollen beanies and the best homemade sausage rolls. It’s easy to pull in with the float, and I like giving them my small business, rather than battling the rest of Tasmania fuelling up in Campbell Town. I glance at the bowser out of habit to make sure…