Innehållsförteckning för March 2025 från Country Style

MY GREAT-GRANDFATHER, Frank Parker, was a photographer. I can still remember the smell of the processing chemicals coming from his darkroom under the house he shared with my great-grandmother in Brunswick Heads, NSW, even though he passed away when I was only five years old. He mainly photographed people, including weddings, all around the Northern Rivers of NSW. My 94-year-old grandmother still tells stories of hand-colouring photographs at his studio in Kyogle, adding a pink lip and a flush to a bride’s cheek. To this day, she still paints watercolours, recently winning first place at the Kyogle Show. I was reminded of all this when I heard photo media artist Tamara Dean describe her creative process at a dinner held at Michael Reid Sydney. “There might be 500 images and…

FROM LEFT In his cookbook Pranzo, Guy Mirabella (pictured) pays tribute to his parents, Diego and Pina, and grandparents, Nonno Gaetano and Nonna Giuseppa, for introducing him to Sicilian food and culture; Guy grew up at Cumbrae Farm on the Mornington Peninsula, Vic. After emigrating from Sicily, his parents bought the farm in 1959 and planted orchards filled with apples, pears and stone fruits, potatoes, pumpkins, tomatoes and broccoli. SAFFRON RISOTTO Serves 4 1 1 litre vegetable or chicken stock 3 tablespoons mild olive oil 40g salted butter 1 leek, trimmed and finely chopped ½ fennel bulb, trimmed and finely chopped 250g arborio rice 125ml dry white wine or marsala ½ teaspoon saffron powder 1 teaspoon smoked paprika 1 tablespoon tomato paste (concentrated puree) 1 bay leaf 3 thyme sprigs,…

VIOGNIER IS A TRICKY grape to pronounce. No problem if you’re a French speaker, but I dropped out of French lessons after two years of struggle. My teacher, Mr Phillips, was well pleased. I regret not persevering, as a decade later I became a wine merchant, with French wine terms like ‘terroir’, ‘cuvee’, ‘appellation’ and ‘brut’ the lingua franca of the trade. I’ve soldiered on with appalling pronunciation, helped (nowadays) by Google Translate, which tells me to pronounce viognier as “vee-ohn-yay”. Viognier is a Northern Rhône white grape that’s found a nifty niche in the Australian winegrowing scene. It’s best known here as the copilot of shiraz, with the Clonakilla Shiraz Viognier the local benchmark. It’s a blend that mirrors the revered wines of Côte-Rôtie, where viognier can be co-fermented…

COUNTRY STYLE Editor KYLIE IMESON Creative director MIA DAMINATO Deputy editor HANNAH JAMES Senior designer JUDIE SIU Contributing designer KELSIE WALKER Queensland contributing editor CLAIRE MACTAGGART Stylist KATE LINCOLN Feature writer RACHEL WHITE Senior copy editor GRETA DUMBLETON ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Commercial brand manager, Homes MICHELLE O’HANLON Brand executive MIKAELA LEZCANO Head of sales – NSW BLAKE WRIGHT Head of sales – Vic, SA, WA WILL JAMISON Head of sales – Qld JUDY TAYLOR Advertising production manager KATE ORSBORN Head of directories REBECCA WHITE Head of creative CLARE CATT Head of events and sponsorships CATE GAZAL Production controller KARA STEAD Advertising production controller DOMINIC ROY All advertising inquiries ADVERTISING@AREMEDIA.COM.AU MARKETING AND CIRCULATION Director of marketing CARLY BOWRA Senior brand and communications manager JENNIFER BURKE Circulation and insights manager NICOLE PEARSON…

ART TROVE Just outside the pretty Tasmanian town of Longford is Blenheim Gallery and Garden, Jennie and Stephen Caswell’s four-hectare sculpture garden and art gallery. It is well stocked with works such as this one, Treasures from the Garden, $2600, by Kyneton artist Sarah Gabriel. Visit blenheimgalleryandgarden.com.au at full stretch There’s room for all the family to spread out on Harvey Norman’s Brady Fabric sofa, from $2599* for a 2.5-seater version. Made in Australia, with a solid wood frame and a choice of fabrics, it’s a beautiful and durable seating solution. Visit harveynorman.com.au velvet touch Country Road’s new home collection for Autumn/ Winter ’25 is all about simple pleasures. And its range of Pia cushions, crafted from deliciously soft cotton velvet in a variety of soothing, earthy tones, is a…

IT’S IMPOSSIBLE FOR GEMMA RASDALL TO SEPARATE her love of sailing from her love of painting. Just as the tide comes in and goes out, Gemma’s art and her desire to be surrounded by water are lifelong and intrinsically entwined. “They’re very different passions, but they are connected,” says the 31-year-old Wynne Prize finalist and self-schooled artist, who has made painting the watery seascapes of Sydney’s Pittwater her life’s work. “The ebb and flow of the water is such a powerful thing and I love the changing nature of it. When you learn to sail, you’re taught to read the weather, the wind, the clouds, the tides. In the same way you can be on the water for ages and lose yourself in it, a similar thing happens for me…

THE DAUGHTER OF A VIETNAMESE FATHER and an Australian mother of Irish-Samoan descent, Mai Nguy n-Long was born in Tasmania but spent her formative years in Papua New Guinea and the Philippines. “I’ve had a challenging time developing a clear sense of belonging,” says Mai, 54. “It’s so simplified to say I’m half-Vietnamese and half-Australian, which I am, but things are very mixed within that.” Born in Hobart in the 1970s, Mai left Australia with her family at four, living first in Papua New Guinea for five years and then the Philippines for 10, due to her father’s work as an agricultural economist for a multinational aid agency. Upon returning to the country of her birth at 19, Mai enrolled in an art history degree and discovered art as a…

CERAMIC ARTIST SOPHIA LEGOE LIVES and works on Victoria’s Bellarine Peninsula, at the edge of a mangrove thicket bordering the Barwon River. She and her husband Matt Walsh, a barrister, bought their idyllic block – located on Wadawurrung Country – in 2014 and have since expanded its 1970s-era brick dwelling with a two-storey modern extension clad in timber and honed masonry blocks. Prior to this, the couple and their three children, now aged 19, 17 and 13, were living in a smaller house just around the corner and looking to expand. “Matt said if we’re going to spend the money doing an extension, we might as well look for something slightly more interesting geographically,” says Sophia. They found a single-storey home hidden by a way ward garden but backed onto…

MY MOTHER USED TO HIDE jars of lemon curd in the pantry, much like a chocoholic will have a secret stash. One of her favourite pastimes was to travel to a market on Melbourne’s periphery, where she would meander around the stalls, poking produce and inspecting bric-a-brac. Made hungry from the wafting scent of cooking snags, she’d buy lunch from a vendor and enjoy it among the throng of market-goers. Finally, she’d relax with a coffee and something sweet, then return home with a few pot plants and a jar of lemon curd. One day I asked, “Mum, why do you like these markets so much?” She patiently explained that she just loves lemon curd. “But can’t you get that at the Safeway?” I’d reply, unconvinced. “True, but someone has…

ARTISTS HAVE ALWAYS LOVED NORMANDY. Its brilliant light and rolling landscapes drew 19th-century painters out of the studio and into the fields, creating the plein-air technique of working outdoors and launching the Impressionist movement. Monet, Renoir, Morisot and co may be the most famous artists who found inspiration in this area of northern France, but they certainly weren’t the first: Normandy is home to prehistoric cave paintings, elegantly decorated Roman villas, the spectacular 11th-century Bayeux Tapestry, and a millennium’s worth of sacred art in its hundreds of cathedrals, abbeys and monasteries. Inspiration is soaked deep into the landscape, then. And where better to tap into it than a romantic 17th-century château, complete with fairytale turrets, sky-blue shutters and two hectares of rambling gardens? When New South Wales-based artist Monique Fedor…

SEE HOW THEY FALL Rachel Paris, Moa Press, $32.99 This new writer, product of Harvard Law School with a career in fintech behind her, is a good bet to win every prize in the genre this year. The setting: Sydney. The milieu: the crushingly wealthy with waterfront mansions in the Eastern Suburbs. The characters: with few exceptions, grasping, devious, and capable of the worst crimes. A poisoner is at large. A trophy wife is dead. Her six-year-old niece is on life support with suspected brain and organ damage. The distraught mother, Skye, is prevented from seeing her daughter due to NSW laws intended to protect children but in practice aiding and abetting those who prey on them (clearly Paris is politicking here). When Skye wants answers to disturbing questions she’s…

THE MARCH FLIES have been out since January, but now they are joined in the air by other March things – thistledown, the scent of blackberries and an evening chill. It must be autumn. There’s wistfulness in the atmosphere too, because the days are getting shorter. With its usual sharp efficiency, the Tasmanian summer has folded up its deckchairs and packed itself away for another year. But there’s no time for wallowing in the wist, because March is for doing things. March is for making hay (or, in our case, maize) while the sun still shines. March is for calving, filling up the woodshed, and clearing the garden of its late-summer shabbiness. It’s for getting a clear view of the year’s projects, and for spending weekends well, with weddings and…

Our January cover was captured at Borradale Homestead in Stanley, Tasmania. Inside the issue, explore Borradale and two more homes located by the water, plus find inspiration for styling an outdoor room at home. You’ll find plenty of tasty summer recipes, travel tips for beautiful Bermagui and Seal Rocks, both in NSW, a helpful guide to selecting a boarding school for your child, and much more. Photography @reneethurston_ Styling @bellebrightproject SAPPHIRE SPLENDOUR Recently, I tried to describe the beauty of the last holiday that my husband and I took to our adult daughter, but I could not do it justice. My husband then returned with the January issue of Country Style, which he’d purchased for me. To my surprise, I immediately found what I was trying to describe: the beautiful…

1 Evie table lamp in Walnut, $279, from Paola & Joy. 2 Le Chapeau 1932 painting, $850, from Vintage Art Emporium. 3 Mocha check ruffled lumbar cushion, $365, from Highgate House. 4 Haven porcelain tumblers, $39.99 (set of four), from Temple & Webster. 5 Abel leather counter stool in Warm Taupe, $538, from Castlery. 6 Stratten four-seat sofa in Avignon Velvet Rose, $7135, from Coco Republic. 7 Calliope small bedside table, $2295, from Highgate House. 8 Weave fabric in Cacao, POA, from Quercus & Co. 9 Muslin throw in Oatmeal & Mocha, $240, from Bed Threads. 10 Ethan woven ottoman, $1120, from Highgate House. 11 Float ottoman in Avalon Piccolo, $1799, from Ellison Studios. 12 Sprig wallpaper in Nuthatch, POA, from Quercus & Co.…

THE RED EARTH OF INDULKANA holds generations of stories. For Yankunytjatjara artists Betty Chimney and her daughter Raylene Walatinna, these stories flow through their paintbrushes onto canvas, where two distinct artistic voices create powerful representations of Country. At Iwantja Arts, an Indigenous art centre in the remote South Australian community of Indulkana, on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, mother and daughter work side by side most days. The studio buzzes with creative energy, filled with the sounds of women talking, laughing and singing as they paint. “The art centre is usually pretty noisy,” Betty says with a smile. “All the ladies share one big side of the building together. Everyone feels supported and excited about what they are working on.” After Betty’s two daughters had grown up, she was drawn to…

LANDSCAPE PAINTER NATALIE ANDERSON has been in awe of the ocean since she was a child. So when the time came for her family of five to find a new place to live, Nat insisted they didn’t stray far from the coast. “We had been living on a semirural property near Geelong and enjoyed being in the countryside,” she says, “but I also wanted to be within 15 minutes’ drive of the sea.” Nat and her husband, Shane, homed in on the Barrabool Hills, in Victoria’s Surf Coast hinterland. “It’s very green, very beautiful and full of broadacre farms,” says Nat. Best of all, it was very close to the beach. But small properties in the hills are hard to find and the search extended for months. Then, one day,…

AS SUMMER DRAWS TO A CLOSE and autumn, my favourite season of all, begins to peek around the corner – bringing with her mornings and evenings that are deliciously cool – my thoughts turn to richer bakes. Cakes with substance and bolder flavours are what I want. Nutty, chocolatey, sticky. Bakes to sit down and savour in unhurried bliss. Now, the cake I have for you this month may surprise those of you who know me well, for it is a coffee cake of sorts. Having not really drunk coffee for more than a decade, the desire to create a cake doused liberally in coffee syrup also took me by surprise. But it was one of my better ideas. This moist, hazelnutty cake has tiramisu-like vibes (in the best possible…

As evening falls, guests can settle in front of original fireplaces with a complimentary bottle of Broad Arrow wine. VISITING TASMANIA, WITH ITS WEALTH of historic buildings and cool weather, always puts me in mind of my native England. But villages like Evandale, a postcard-perfect National Trust-classified Georgian village in the north of the island, remind me that Tasmania has a flavour all its own. In the heart of the historic village, Charleston Cottage stands as a testament to 19th-century craftsmanship, as well as to 21st-century design. Its charming Georgian facade has been lovingly renovated by owner Lydia Nettlefold, who was inspired by the creative spirit that pervades Charleston Farmhouse, the country retreat of the Bloomsbury set of artists and writers whose output – which included the novels of Virginia…

LIGHT EFFECT Carpet Court’s stylish window coverings will enhance the ambience, functionality and energy efficiency of your home. View their impressive array of curtains and blinds online. carpetcourt.com.au/curtains-blinds AIMING HIGH Join Italian Tours’ In the Shadow of the Dolomites Tour this August/ September and explore the majestic Dolomites, the Prosecco Hills and Lake Garda. Savour the local sights, culture and cuisines. italiantours.com.au BEST DRESSED A range of beautiful new Mela Purdie garments have landed at Zebrano. Explore more than 50 designer labels at Zebrano, specialising in sizes 14+. Find all your new-season favourite pieces online. zebrano.com.au TRUE ROMANTIC Miss Rose Sister Violet is a small, family-owned business nestled in the Adelaide Hills in South Australia. Discover the beautiful range of unique, delicately detailed garments for the young at heart. missrosesisterviolet.com.au…

$250 Q: I WRITE IN THE HOPE your expertise can shed some light on antiquities passed on from my grandmother to my mother, and now to me. My mother and I migrated to Australia in 1987 with the pieces. My grandmother was the owner of an antiques shop that partly survived World War II. The most I know about the pieces is that they originated from Malaysia – I believe from the Peranakans. Pauline Liew, Gladstone, Qld A: Your tea service is part of a set which would originally have included more cups and saucers, and probably a slops bowl. It is transfer-printed and hand-painted porcelain in the famille rose colour scheme with elaborate floral decoration. Famille rose, identifiable by the extensive use of pink, was first produced in the…