News, Press & Videos
Artistic vision
Country style August 2014
Karen Cotton
Jo Bertini wasn't worried that her prospective new home was falling apart and had some unruly residents. When the artist sold a property in the Kanimbla Valley, just west of the Blue Mountains, in 2011 she began searching on the internet for a replacement - an found something very intriguing North of Crookwell in the Southern Tablelands of NSW.
"Wallaburra was 16 hectares on a creek with all of the original buildings from its day as a 1200- hectare shearing station," she says. "But the big drawcard was the shearing she, which I could picture as my studio. Even though the house was derelict, and occupied by roos and wombats, it had so much potential I bought it immediately."
Jo enlisted a couple of builders from nearby Taralga, Matt Corby and Joe Cosgrove, then explained she intended to use recycled materials whenever possible - "I think they thought I was completely mad when they first met me and saw the project I had set myself." However Matt and Joe were soon converted to Jo's approach and even started picking up old pieces of furniture and timber on their travels. ("They're great blokes," Jo says. "They cared about this woman alone in the bush - they used to ring up and make sure I was okay.")
Meanwhile, Jo spent months stripping layers of rotten wallpaper from the walls, and getting rid of the dirty carpet and lino to reveal cypress pine floorboards that were crying out to be sanded, stunned and polished. "I was lucky because the house had great bones," Jo says. "The walls were stone quarried from the surrounding hills and valley, so it was solid: it just needed some TLC after years of neglect."
The small, boxy windows and doors were replaced with beautiful reclaimed pieces Jo had been collecting for years, including some green Egyptian shutters whose unusual size was a reference point for the renovation. This opened the house to the garden, valley views and natural light.
The house's elevation and thoughtful positioning mean that is catches cool breezes in summer while in winter it's warmed by sun from the north-east. The best spot to enjoy the great outdoors is the new wraparound veranda, which was inspired by a neighbour's gift of a dozen old telegraph poles. They were converted into posts and stairs with minimal finishing. "It was important that the house retained its original look and integrity, which I was able to do by letting the timbers of the veranda age and turn silver naturally," Jo explains. "And I chose simple fencing wire to run between the posts rather than anything slick and shiny."
Established by the Abraham family in the 1860's, the property was bought by a returned soldier, and the garden planted by his wife in the mid 20th century. Jo gives thanks to that former custodian, whom she believes was responsible for the orchard full of fruit trees. These range from quince and apple to plum, apricot, nectarine and peach. Old rose bushes sit beneath elms, oaks, maples and japonicas, while spring sees bulbs flowering everywhere.
Jo spends part of her week in Sydney, where her son Timothy is completing high school but looks forward to making Wallaburra her full-time home. Meanwhile, she has become a keen birdwatcher, marking the visits of finches, rosellas wattlebirds, galahs and kookaburras. "There are also shingleback lizards and gorgeous little bats," she says. “Occasionally, I catch sight of an old goanna with patterns on his back like an intricate Aboriginal painting; he's usually going up for a hunt up a tree. This valley still has wallabies, kangaroos and wombats. And the dam at the rear of the property is home to yabbies and long-neck turtles."
Her partner, Andrew Harper, helped renovate and require the old shearing shed in between his work leading camel-train expeditions in Australia's central deserts. Large timber bi-fold doors and oversizes cedar-framed windows from Jo's collection have transformed it into a studio with an abundance of natural light and plenty of space. Which, along with a lovely country home and garden, is what Jo had dreamt of for years.