Country Style

AS I TAKE a final flick through this issue before it gets sent off to the printer, I realise that the stories contained in its pages in many ways reflect the state around which this magazine revolves: Tasmania. There are modern, cleverly designed hom

AgriCultured, Aug 3-6 An invigorating fusion of agriculture, cuisine and creativity, Launceston’s AgriCultured presents a four-day program of events championing local farmers, producers and chefs. On Thursday, head to Community Day at UTAS Inveresk P

Stylist Julie Willis has an eagle eye for the handmade, the antique and the unique – and she’s stocked her Hobart shop, Wesley & Willis, with just those pieces. Visit the boutique or shop online at wesleyandwillis.com.au Drop into the Devonport home

I’M THAWING FROM A DAY at the 185th Campbell Town Show in the midlands of Tasmania. I was there supporting my friend and fellow writer Meg Bignell, who’d been asked to open the show and judge the community cake competition. Unfortunately, Meg, who is

MELISSA DUNIAM’S DAY starts around 6am, when her husband brings her a non-negotiable cup of coffee. As the morning sun peels the fog off the distant Mount Misery, its neighbour and antidote, Mount Sunshine, is revealed and the dairy farmer, horsewoma

WHEN SELF-PROFESSED city girl Esther Palmer met her now-husband Andrew in Basel, Switzerland in 2002, she was unaware of his long-held dream of owning a farm. “He also wanted a vineyard – which, too, was something I found out later!” she says. Tasman

WHEN PEARL AND ROSS BLANDFORD were dreaming up the design for their new home, they went on long drives around Tasmania to collect inspiration from the state’s heritage houses. But they found it wasn’t the grand manors that sparked their interest; it

2 Thomas O’Brien Katie cylinder pendant in Bronze, $924, from Montauk Lighting Co. 3 Art Deco Mid-Century 1950s curved wood table lamp, $1458, from Pamono.

THERE’S A SENSE OF WILD beauty on Bruny Island – located south-east of Hobart, on the edge of the Tasman Sea. The views are spectacular and unspoiled, the people are outnumbered by sheep, and the weather is unpredictable. Melbourne couple Arthur and

DANISH FOLK HAVE a wonderful term for the feeling of cosy comfort and soul-nourishing moments shared with loved ones. Known as ‘hygge’, this sense of the good life can be found at Cressy House Estate, a sheep and crop farm in Longford, Tasmania, not

THE ROLLING PASTURES OF Tasmania’s only sheep dairy are bounded by coastal heathland and overlook the D’Entrecasteaux Channel and the forests of Bruny Island. The farm, located 40 minutes south of Hobart at Birchs Bay, is so picture-perfect that owne

MELBOURNE ARCHITECT John Wardle, recipient of the 2020 Australian Institute of Architects’ Gold Medal, was introduced to Bruny Island by a retired favourite teacher whom he visited as a high-school student. “The memory of Adventure Bay and the experi

NOTHING PREPARED ME for the culinary awakening I was to experience when my family and I left the bustle of inner-city Melbourne 20 years ago for a bucolic patch of rural Tasmanian countryside. I had always been drawn to the country – perhaps it was m

IT’S EASY TO THINK you’ve ticked all the Tassie boxes. If you’ve braved the windy top of Mount Wellington/kunanyi, eaten your way around Hobart and stopped at wineries on the way to Freycinet Peninsula, then gone on to Cradle Mountain (where, if you’

MILLINGTONS HOUSE A little creak here or a small groan there is to be expected at Millingtons House, a 100-year-old seaside shack a stone’s throw from the Prosser River in the heart of Orford, one hour’s drive north-east of Hobart, Tasmania. Its impe

WIFE, MUM, FARMER, CO-OWNER OF CRESSY HOUSE ESTATE, 40 Margit lives with her husband Henry, 39, and sons Noah, 12, Oscar, 11, and Edward, eight (plus dachshund Coco, huntaway Milly and horse Blossom) on a cropping property in Longford, Tasmania. Th

OPENING THE DOORS of an independent, bricks-and-mortar store seven days a week is rare – even more so in a town of just 800 people. However, Jo Taylor, owner of Coco Blue in Tasmania’s Campbell Town, settled on the decision when she bought the busine

“WHEN WE LAUNCHED IN 2007, we thought we’d be online only,” says Nicola Mason, the co-founder – with husband Carl – of Tasmanian merino-clothing brand Smitten Merino. “But when we got an office space in Battery Point, people started knocking on the d

Marele Day, Ultimo Press, $39.99 In 1979, Day boarded a flimsy catamaran in Darwin, headed for Sri Lanka. Unbeknownst to her the charismatic skipper, Jean Kay, was a wanted criminal who had stolen eight million francs in cash from France’s leading i

THIS ORNATE SOFA is an exceptionally rare example of Tasmanian colonial furniture. Even more remarkable, it is one of a pair. Most early colonial furniture was made from Australian red cedar (Toona ciliata). This native timber grew north of Sydney an