WHEN RODNEY DUNN and his wife, Séverine Demanet, opened a restaurant in Tasmania’s New Norfolk in 2017 – a new chapter in The Agrarian Kitchen’s iconic farm-to-plate journey – their kitchen garden and cooking school were still located at The Old Schoolhouse, seven kilometres down the road in Lachlan. Having established the farm in 2008, there were no plans to uproot them, however a visit from Byron Bay-based chef, farmer and restaurateur Palisa Anderson changed their course.
“Palisa came to dine in the restaurant and I was showing her around the space,” says Rodney of Willow Court, the town’s old asylum dating back to the 19th century. Around 40 minutes’ drive north-west of Hobart, the site’s numerous heritage elements include the Bronte building,
