The pirate’s daughter

“I wanted to have time together as a family. It’s the most important thing in my life.”
– Collette Dinnigan

Poplars line the winding road out of Bowral in the Southern Highlands – their leaves a burnished, early autumn yellow. The road climbs and twists and turns. Then, behind a drystone wall, a pair of woolly alpacas gambol in grass that’s knee-high and emerald green. A silvery mist rises from the valley, shrouding a picture-perfect 1880s weatherboard farmhouse. This is the enchanting world of Collette Dinnigan AO, once the toast of Paris Fashion Week, now the creative heart of both an eclectic homewares business and a warm and welcoming home.

Gates swing open and up the farmyard drive bounds Bosco, a livewire, eight-month-old border collie, followed by affectionate, four-year-old beagle/spaniel Sooty, struggling on her little legs to keep up. Louis, 14, a Swedish golden retriever, guards the porch. His ears twitch at the crunch of gravel and his mistress rounds the corner, tussle-haired and dressed in workout wear and wellies. She leads the way to a kitchen warmed by an old, butter-yellow AGA stove. Fresh figs, lemons and cut flowers are arranged on benchtops in earthenware jars.

Collette’s very particular, beguiling aesthetic is everywhere here, some of it no doubt learned on her life’s passage but much also inherited from her parents, whose gypsy spirits were only equalled by their gift for creating a generous, nurturing home.

“I was born in Durban, in South Africa,” Collette begins, once the dogs are breakfasted