Country Style

Escape the everyday

Country Style2 min read
Welcome Letter
MOTHER’S DAY can be a difficult time. Some may have lost their mother; some may have difficult relationships; some may be estranged. Others still may be unable to become mothers themselves, making this annual celebration a reminder of something they
Country Style1 min read
Country Style
Editor KYLIE IMESONCreative director SARAH FARAGODeputy editor HANNAH JAMESQueensland contributing editor CLAIRE MACTAGGARTArt director BERNHARD SCHMITZJunior designer SAFFRON SYLVESTERStylist KATE LINCOLNChief copy editor, Homes Group PETER GRIFFITH
Country Style2 min read
In This Issue...
The newest member of the Country Style team, Blue Mountains-based writer Rebecca uses her love for the Australian bush to inform her words. She wrote our cover story on page 54. “I grew up in the Blue Mountains and I’m now raising my own family ther
Country Style2 min read
Your Page
Each year, I look forward to the art issue of Country Style, not least because the articles are therapy to the soul and provide inspiration to pick up the brushes. As I write, I hear the sound of gentle jazz wafting down the corridor and feel the oce
Country Style7 min read
May
Grampians Grape Escape, May 5-7 Celebrating its 30th outing this year, the Grampians Grape Escape offers a fabulous weekend of wine, food and music at Halls Gap Recreation Reserve. The fun starts with Feel-Good Friday, as local bands Shell Yeah, 19
Country Style2 min read
House To Home
Immerse yourself in a world of luxury homewares and artisan decor with L&M Home. The Autumn ’23 collection features bed linen in supple, organic fabrics and soft, earthy hues that mirror the seasonal transitions. Visit lmhome.com.au Discover the fi
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Best In Show
12 Patuli Riviera 55cm x 55cm linen cushion, $178, from Walter G. ■
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Guiding Light
WHEN HER TOWN’S PRIVATE hospital maternity unit closed, Tamworth midwife Edwina Sharrock realised the impact it would have on local women. A self-confessed Type-A personality, she threw herself into research. “I discovered 44 per cent of maternity un
Country Style5 min read
Weaving A Spell
WHEN FACED WITH THE DILEMMA of outgrowing their near-original 1930s cottage, Kate and Paul Hoye had a decision to make. “We needed more space for our growing family, so we either had to move to something bigger or extend what we had. We love our home
Country Style3 min read
Words On Work
AND JUST LIKE THAT we are into the last month of autumn, the days are drawing in and there is a stack of jobs to finish before winter arrives. One of them is bedding down the garden plots under a thick layer of sheep manure. I’ve been busy carting wh
Country Style6 min read
My Country Childhood
MUSICIAN ISAIAH FIREBRACE’S upbringing was full of adventures, family road trips and music – all factors he believes were formative for his career. “We were always on the road,” he recalls. “For Christmas holidays, we didn’t really do the traditional
Country Style4 min read
Coming Up Roses
IT WAS SPRING WHEN Denise and Mark Duffield-Thomas made their way down the driveway framed by poplar trees at the historic Lorn Rose Farm in Lorn, New South Wales. Cradling their newborn daughter, Denise stepped from the car. Taking in the idyllic pr
Country Style2 min readArchitecture
Bedtime Stories
Once a porch, this second bedroom at Liptrap Loft, a rustic cabin in Victoria’s south-west Gippsland, was enclosed using recycled timber by its original owner, Jim. “It was a bit draughty, so we added a ceiling of recycled floorboards and partly clad
Country Style6 min read
Travellers In An Antique Land
OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH ANTIQUES HAS CHANGED IMMEASURABLY – no longer seen as status symbols or for a privileged few, they have become more accessible and now appeal to people of all ages. With the notion of ‘buying less, buying better’ ever more preva
Country Style3 min read
A Home With Heart
WENDING PAST A REMARKABLE dry-stone wall ahead of Susie Kotiw’s Axe Creek home, 20 minutes’ drive south-east of Bendigo, the eye is drawn upward to an elegant dormer overlooking the Central Victorian landscape. Though this colonial-style cottage coul
Country Style4 min read
A Place Of Her Own
WHEN LINDA CHRISTALL FIRST laid eyes on her home, it was standing in a removal house yard, covered in mould and dirt. To anyone else, the tired timber bungalow might have looked like too much hard work, but to Linda, it presented an exciting opportun
Country Style3 min read
Naturally Inspired
BIMLOW COTTAGE AND THE pretty grounds that hug the 130-year-old dwelling have evolved gently since Georgie Stuart and her partner Matt Quigley, both 39, purchased the property in 2011. The cottage sits on one hectare of land in the tiny hamlet of Edi
Country Style4 min read
Make Her Day
Serves 6 450g romanesco broccoli, separatedinto florets125g sourdough, cut into 1cm cubes2 teaspoons smoked paprika2 teaspoons cumin seeds1 teaspoon sea salt flakes¼ cup olive oil100g baby rocket leaves, rinsed1 Lebanese cucumber, thinly sliced3 baby
Country Style3 min read
The World In A Grain Of Sand
IS IT WEIRD TO ENVY PEOPLE their composting systems? Are you that person at open garden days taking photos of compost? (It’s not just me, right?!) Autumn is a great time to think about compost – that black, earthy goodness. It is something we respect
Country Style3 min read
An Apple A Day…
WHEN YOU SPEND A great deal of your professional life coming up with ideas which turn into menu items that your customers hopefully like to eat, you sometimes find yourself caught like a rabbit in the headlights (I prefer quokka in the headlights) wh
Country Style3 min read
A Treat For Mum
AFTER MY DAUGHTER was born, my mum told me something that a friend had told her when she first had children. She said, “Welcome to the very exclusive, but extremely large club that is Motherhood.” And she was so right. It feels as if you have suddenl
Country Style2 min read
Shear Beauty
FEW BUILDINGS SPEAK AS eloquently of the Australian bush as the shearing shed. Its rough and ready materials – rusting corrugated iron, slabs of timber battered from use – have come to define a certain rural aesthetic that’s grounded in the farming e
Country Style4 min read
The Style Diaries
AUTHOR, BUSINESS MENTOR FOR WOMEN, AND CO-OWNER OF LORN ROSE FARM, 43 Denise lives at Lorn Rose Farm in the charming village of Lorn, in NSW, with her husband Mark, 39, and their children Willow, nine, George, seven, and Piper Rose, four, plus cavo
Country Style3 min read
Mother Knows Best
APART FROM A pretty glaring blind spot around her kids, my mother is a fairly good judge of character. She prides herself on her ability to quickly grasp a person’s true nature and nail it to the wall. She tastes wine in much the same way. She is a s
Country Style1 min read
Making Magic
THESE PHOTOS SHOW A MATCH made in heaven. “We both come from the same background of being inspired by the rural areas we live in,” says knitwear queen Penny Ashby, of her friendship with Amanda Cochran of The Grampians Goods Co. “And we both have tha
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Scents Of Occasion
FROM LEFT Boronia EDP, $145 (50ml), from Grandiflora, captures the complexity of this native botanical, along with freesia and cassis. With pink grapefruit, magnolia and rose, Freedom EDP, $110 (30ml), from One Seed Perfumes, is calming and meditativ
Country Style5 min read
Book Club
Joyce Moullakis & Chris Wright, Allen & Unwin, $36.99 Advanced driving skills, a year travelling the world – alone – and a six-month internship in an investment bank are what one needs to become a functioning adult, says the wisest person I know. As
Country Style1 min read
At The Museum
AUSTRALIA HAS ONLY a few artist studios preserved as memorials: Norman Lindsay’s home and studio in the Blue Mountains; Brett Whiteley’s studio in Sydney; and Arthur Boyd’s Bundanon Homestead and Studio. All of these offer insight into the private li
Country Style1 min read
Field Guide
Create a dreamy coastal retreat with the Hayes Slip Queen Bed in Oat. Also available in Charcoal, Grey, or Natural. harveynorman.com.au Fabulous Sock by Skein Sisters is a four-ply yarn in Australian merino and nylon – tough enough for socks, yet sof
Country Style3 min read
Lost In Translation
I WAS PUZZLED TO READ the other day that a record number of complaints had been received by the AHPRA. There are a record number of complaints everywhere these days, so that didn’t puzzle me, but what is the AHPRA? I skipped to the next page of the p
Country Style1 min read
Collectables
I HAVE A PORTRAIT painting that belonged to my grandmother. The subject is Queen Elizabeth II, and the painter is Dorothy Wilding. Can you suggest how I might get the painting valued? Cheryl Schubert, via email Dorothy Wilding (1893-1976) was the o

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