Mount Barker Springs, SA
A 14-room bluestone gem in the Adelaide Hills.
When Darren Pope answers his mobile to chat about Burbank, the property he and his wife Tania have called home for 17 years, his mood is sanguine.
“I’m sitting on a very comfortable chair on the veranda, looking past the tennis court and the trees and I can’t see another house,” he says. It’s been a special spot, that veranda, particularly when Pope was managing 40 staff and working in an office. “This was my escape,” he says. “As soon as I drove in the gate, down the driveway and over our bridge it was like being in another world. It’s just so peaceful.”
In 2003 he and Tania jumped at the chance to buy Burbank, a 14-room bluestone homestead 40km south-east of Adelaide, built in 1880 on grazing land first acquired by Scottish agriculturalist John Frame in 1846. Acreage was high on their agenda given their blended family of seven children – six sons and a daughter. “It was great for the kids. There were motorbikes, an old ute, bikes and all those sorts of things. I wanted them to get a rural feel.”
Within 12 months of buying the property they extended it, rewiring the original part of the home and adding essentials such as 21st century plumbing. “We spent a lot of time on the extension, making sure it was all done in local stone that came from the property. It had stone walls that had collapsed so we hand-picked through about 15 tonnes of it.”
A rear rumpus room was built for the kids, and the kitchen and family room were extended. A large formal lounge became the parents’ retreat. All up the house has three living rooms, a cellar, six bedrooms and three bathrooms, the main with underfloor heating. Timber floors, ornate ceilings, fireplaces and French doors that open onto the wraparound veranda are all part of the 1880s grandeur.
Many of the original outbuildings remain, including an 1847-built stone cottage, updated into a self-contained one-bedroom cottage with kitchen and bathroom. There’s also a stone barn, which houses an original chaff-cutting machine and a massive shearing shed and workshop cum party space. A second standalone manager’s residence could provide additional accommodation but is currently in use as the family gym.
The peace and tranquillity that comes with 31ha is not lost on Pope and his wife, who have relished planting gardens and hedges to complement the mature trees, creeks, dam and paddocks. But their goal now is to buy something smaller and closer to the city. “You need to move on and do other things,” he says. And there’s that sanguine attitude again. “It’s time for someone else to enjoy.”
Springs Road, Mount Barker Springs, SA $2.8m+
Agent: Dee-Anne Hunt, 0411 555 774, Williams Luxury