Wollumbi Estate, NSW Southern Highlands

Get a taste of the high life as the pretend mistress of this luxury-laden NSW country estate.

Country pile: Wollumbi Estate.

You wake in your princess-sized four-poster bed in a meringue of linen and faux fur, stepping onto the cool stone floor and padding across to a long wall of glass, sandstone and wisteria. Alarming hoots and supernatural meows were audible last night, and now right outside the master suite sits one of the culprits: a peacock perched on a low tree branch, perfectly colour-coordinated with the lush lawns and peering imperiously through the windows at the crumpled writer. That one, it seems to be saying, head cocked to one side, doesn’t belong here.

The place accommodates up to 14 guests

This is absolutely true – and the writer, somewhat discombobulated by her weekend as pretend mistress of this luxury-laden NSW country estate, will be prone to fall into a frozen trance at the threshold of a sculpture-studded stone hallway, exquisitely genteel morning room or glass bathroom, her mind empty and eyeballs full of antiques and flowers and artwork and $500 copper pans from France. It’s the teenagers, highly attuned to their own pleasure centres, who take to the place like ducks to water, promptly allocating bedrooms and setting up base camp in the plush cinema room before venturing out to shoot pool in the entertainer’s barn. I fear they may get a taste for this life.

Wollumbi Estate, a working farm with paddocks of cattle, vineyards, an olive grove and orchard on 340 undulating hectares between Bowral and Goulburn, is one of a portfolio of 220 high-end, short-stay holiday rentals in NSW, Victoria and Queensland managed by Luxico, “the home hotel”. Alex and Thomas Ormerod established the business in 2013, and since then a handful of similar outfits have emerged in response to demand at the top end of the market, with even Airbnb launching a luxe collection.

Luxe: one of the bathrooms

In that saturated market it’s vive la différence or bust – and Luxico’s difference, says Alex, is the service offered to both homeowner and guest. That includes a 24-7 concierge to prepare the property, meet, greet and troubleshoot and perhaps help organise activities. The Ultravilla upgrade, which applies to a select number of Luxico properties including this one, gets you a butler, daily maid service and fully stocked fridge, with any rockstar-style demands catered for. And Alex says demand is high: “With international travel still off the cards, people are looking to spend more for a luxury experience locally. Overall, demand for these homes has actually been higher with Aussies staying longer than internationals... our guests are booking on average 14-day stays, rather than five to seven nights.”

Our concierge this weekend is Hamish, who shows us around the house and grounds and has tips on local wining and dining, should we venture out. In the kitchen there’s a take-home bottle ready to fill from a drum of the estate’s delicious olive oil, along with estate wines and spa goodies, plus fresh eggs from the farm’s rather exotic chickens and a butler’s pantry full of provisions. We’ll forgo the full Jeeves package, happy to explore and lounge and dream in privacy. And we will not be requiring the three-bedroom workers’ cottage reserved for “additional support guests such as au pairs or assistants”.

Master suite

The seven-bedroom French Provincial-style mansion was built in the ’90s by the late fashion magnate Peter Weiss, who expanded an existing building while his wife Doris oversaw the transformation of the interiors, a blend of grand rooms and intimate spaces found via timber staircases in unexpected corners. The teenagers’ favourite: a “secret” suite behind low antique carved doors in the upstairs study, a kind of homestay Narnia with its own sitting room, kitchen, bathroom and bedroom with glorious views.

But there’s only so much time you’ll want to spend luxuriating inside, with orchards and olive groves to ramble in, a vegie garden, two lakes (one fringed with daybeds), mountain bikes to borrow, a choice of sunlit terraces and a constant parade of peacocks, ducks and other wildlife. Given an extra night, we might have fit in a session by the fire pit and a barn dance under the disco ball. Instead we fill the weekend with cooking, grazing, strolling, reading in sunny corners and simply marvelling at it all.

• Perfect for: Reclusive celebrities, visiting royalty and peasants with deep pockets.

• Must do: Relax. And on the way home, check out Dirty Janes antique market in Bowral (about 30 minutes’ drive from the property) for more inspiration.

• Dining: Cook up a storm in the chef’s kitchen; bring groceries but check with your concierge – many farm goodies, including olive oil, eggs and herbs, are at hand.

• Getting there: It’s about 90 minutes’ drive from either Sydney or Canberra.

• Bottom line: Wollumbi Estate is $6500 per night, sleeping up to 14 guests; two nights minimum.

luxico.com.au