Homesteads of Goondiwindi

We always knew we wanted to share more of our country's beautiful homes that are inspired by the Australian bush lifestyle.

Whilst there is nothing like an old country homestead, we get such great inspiration from homes in the city too - with there access to incredible designers and builders, they can create magic out of simple raw materials that bring you back down to earth.

Whilst we love getting inspiration from country classics such as Country Style Magazine, we also love the more modern inspiration we get from design blogs such as The Design Files and Hunter and Folk.

There seems to be a surge of people really digging the process of designing their homes and ensuring they can not only as a sanctuary but a place to bring you back down to earth.

This speaks through with a lot of the modern designs we see today.

For us based on the plains west of Goondiwindi, when building our initial 'home' content for our online website/blog we couldn't go past some of the lovely old homes within our district.

We had gun photographer Pip Williams staying with us for two days to help us build a beautiful portfolio of 'bush' lifestyle imagery to share so we made the most of it and paid two of my closest neighbours a visit!

A lot of homes in the district were built over 100 years ago when the only way to access the properties were by horse and cart. The first settlers in the area built their homes from local cypress.

With no modern relief from the harsh relentless Summers houses built were almost always surrounded by gauzed in Verandahs.

Queenslander homes tell us a lot about our harsh pioneering history. The sun, floods, fires and relief from flies and mozzies were all front of mind when designing homes.

Fires were always a hazard for homes built out of timber so they built the kitchen in a seperate wing from the main sleeping and living area of the home.

We can't wait to share with you down-the-track some of the old black and white photographs we have dug up of houses from 50 to 100 years ago but for now enjoy some of Pip's beautiful photographs of houses in our district today.

Bridget would like to say a special thank you to her neighbours and close friends Holly and James Rae, and Fiona and Will Rae for opening up your doors and garden in the middle of arguably our worst drought on record.

Bridget is lucky to have been entertained many-a-times in these beautiful homes!

In the first part to these series we feature the home of James and Holly Rae, "Windamall".

This home has been in their family for well over 100 years.

James slept on the Verandah with his siblings as a kid. Since then, thanks to Holly, there has been a few modern conveniences added like air conditioners in the bedrooms!

We feel very privileged to be be able to share the below photos with you...