Bolinda Vale in Victoria’s Macedon Ranges has been in the hands of the same family for more than a century. Over the years it has seen some mighty changes. It first adjoined part of family patriarch WJT Clarke’s larger holdings of 100,000 acres that stretched from Melbourne’s north to Sunbury and into the Macedon Ranges. Majestic Rupertswood was then the family home.
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Bolinda Vale didn’t become part of the family holdings until the Victorian gold rush of the 1850s. A bluestone homestead was built in 1878 on its 31,375 acres as the manager’s residence. Thousands of sheep and cattle grazed across the massive space.
It became the family’s prime residence in 1946. Its acreage was reduced in size by sale of subdivisions before World War 1 and subsequent soldier settlement acquisitions.
It sits to this day in prime position on the north-eastern side overlooking some of Clarkefield’s most impressive rolling hills. Throughout the years, the property has hosted royalty, featured in a major miniseries and raised generations of the Clarke family within its boundaries.
Today the latest generations are preparing to wind up a major transformation that has seen some of Bolinda Vale’s traditional English gardens make way for a lively Australian landscape of dry creek beds, waterfalls and sustainable wetlands.
Gently guiding the transformation has been Sir Rupert and Lady Susannah Clarke, who took charge of the property following the death of Sir Rupert’s father, Sir Rupert WJ Clarke in 2005. It was Sir Rupert WJ Clarke who first moved to Bolinda Vale in 1946. The garden was then truly neglected, so he set about building bluestone, brick and stone retaining walls, and planting cypress hedges for both privacy and protection from the wind. A walled kitchen garden, ivy, then wisteria-covered large pergola, swimming pool and tennis court and garden beds, dominated by annuals, were constructed and maintained by a full-time gardener. Numerous additions to the homestead followed.
Then in 2004 major restoration started - the interior of the home was modernised and initial alterations on the garden started.
Today at 5000 acres the property remains impressive. It remains a working farm with sheep and cattle. But the once-deep English-style garden beds are now host to a variety of native plants that better fit the terrain and Australian environment. While the rose garden has been expanded, the massive cypress hedges that were planted 80 years ago have been reduced in height “to capture the views from the kitchen”.
“It’s just a family home, a nice family home” says Susannah, who with husband Rupert raised three children (two daughters and a son) at Bolinda Vale and are now relishing having grandchildren ride ponies and bikes across its rollicking fields.
“It’s nice to see the children coming across the paddocks - and you can guarantee they are coming to visit because their mum won’t give in to them before tea time,” she laughs.
The now-airy bluestone better suits today’s lifestyle, she says. “We redid the pool house and house and now it is more suited to modern living with our extended family.”
It's just a family home, a nice family home. It's nice to see the children coming across the paddocks.
- Susannah Clarke on Bolinda Vale
It was about two years ago when Susannah thought it was time to revisit the garden transformation. “We started on the driveway 21 years ago,” she says. “It all takes time. Time and money and then other priorities come along.”
She enlisted the guidance of award-winning landscape designer Phillip Johnson, who during the landscape makeover won 'Best in Show’ at the prestigious Chelsea Flower Show in 2013.
“It had to be specific and blend old and new,” Susannah says. “I grew up in a traditional English garden on Mt Macedon - the climate is very different there to here, so I wanted plants that would sustain themselves during drought and be more in synergy with the environment.”
While it’s a still a young garden, Bolinda Vale’s new sustainable creation flows seamlessly, from the traditional aspect of the garden with its roses, perennials, sweeping lawns and majestic oaks, into a sustainable wetland.
“When we removed some of the hedges you could see that this side porch was in fact the main entrance to the house. It was sited to overlook the hills and take in the view to the shearing shed and across the acreage,” Susannah says.
A series of dry creek beds collects water from surrounding rooftops and driveways and are planted with exotics and indigenous plants. A solar-powered pump minimises running costs on the streams and waterfalls.
“It may surprise people but we don’t have a full-time gardener - I am it,” says Susannah, a down to earth woman who shuns publicity. “Someone comes in once a month and we attack everything full on, but on a day-to-day basis I mow and maintain the gardens.”
“While the hedges were grown to block the wind here, on a bad today you can’t stand up outside, being able to see to the horizon is important to us,” Susannah says. “At our previous home we could always look through a window and see what was going on. Here we still have privacy because of the size of the land but now we can enjoy the view. And it has allowed so much more light to enter the house.”
Hedges that were retained have been clipped into shape, and some reduced in height to better define an area. The old tennis court “that we learnt was built on top of another one” was removed. “It was too costly to replace and the family prefers to have more garden to run around on and kick a ball.”
The pool was resurfaced and solar heating installed. A new garden wall and steps were added to link the pool with the pool house. “It’s the perfect place for visitors to have their own space.”
Garden beds were repositioned and angled so Susannah can mow the lawn “with effortless ease”. “There’s no need for a whipper snipper,” she laughs. “Basically I am a lazy gardener. If the ride-on cannot take the corners of the garden beds, then I rebuild their angle slightly.”
As the owner of a well-used ride-on mower and chainsaw (“a present from the husband and kids last Christmas) you would hardly call this gardener “lazy”. When at home she is busily tending the garden, pulling out weeds, cutting back branches and mowing the extensive lawns. And when the family’s Jack Russells Pepper and Crumpet aren’t taking a kip under a tree or laying sprawled across the warm drive, they can be found happily following Susannah as she potters.
“They like to have a little bound around. Although it’s Pepper who likes to have more of a fossick in the rose garden - you never know if a rabbit may appear.”
As more oak and eucalyptus plantings were added, the rose garden was altered and expanded. Garden beds are now filled with perennials “to add intensity during the changing seasons”. Soloman’s Seal and hostas are in shady areas, along with irises, cactus roses, sedums and echiums on the northern side.
The magnolia trees in the front garden, planted by the visiting royalty, including HSH Prince Albert of Monaco, Crown Prince Hirohito, now Emperor of Japan and Prince Reza Pahlavi, the eldest son of the Shah of Iran, continue to flourish.
“Phillip has been fabulous,” says Susannah. “He has brought my vision to fruition. It would have been a hard and busy time for him trying to complete this and then work on Chelsea - even with having others here to help him do the work - but he did it. I like to add my own touch though and when he comes to visit he sometimes just about pulls his hair out with what I have done,” she smiles. “It’s all good fun.”
Susannah adds that she did have a few strict instructions for Phillip, including using materials that were already on the land. Landscaping Victoria recently awarded the garden Best Residential Landscape over $200,000.
“A lot of rocks had to be excavated, but I wanted to be sympathetic to the land and reuse them. We already had some pillars in the paddock that were built a few years ago so we didn't want to waste money and remove them.”
The bluestone pillars and basalt rocks now form part of a landscaped water feature that now resides in the once barren paddock east of the lower garden.
“We wanted plants that survive dry periods without additional watering. We water the lawn but didn’t want to spend the time or the cost of watering a garden,” Susannah says.
Sustainable pond and wetland management ensures the dry creek beds capture water runoff from various driveways during heavy rains; and the overflow from domestic rainwater harvesting is directed into billabongs. Solar-power pumping for streams and waterfalls is also an important and functional element of the garden. “Again, it’s about being more energy and cost efficient. It also provides a talking point for visitors.”
An automatic watering system was upgraded after Bolinda Vale appeared in three episodes of Steven Spielberg’s miniseries The Pacific. “You couldn’t recognise the house,” Susannah says. “It was covered in ivy. But I learnt a few gardening tricks from the horticulturalists they had on their production team!”
We have been lucky as fire has missed us in past years, but we cannot be complacent ... some of our neighbours haven’t been so lucky and have lost a lot over time.
- Susannah Clarke
A desire to minimise maintenance and open up the garden to its surrounding views was not the only item on the family’s agenda. They wanted to protect the property from the threat of bushfires that regularly tear through the region. While water from a nearby dam can also supply the garden it is kept in reserve for the harsh summer months.
“We have been lucky as fire has missed us in past years, but we cannot be complacent. We would expect it to come from the north with the northerly winds, so we designed the garden to cope with that. Some of our neighbours haven’t been so lucky and have lost a lot over time.”
On December 6 and 7 the Clarke family has joined with Open Gardens Australia to host a Christmas Fair to raise money for BlazeAid, a volunteer organisation that helps communities recover from natural disasters. Phillip Johnson will conduct guided tours of the gardens and visitors are welcome to picnic and taste local produce.
“It’s our little way of saying thanks and supporting the community. It all has to be local produce because if as a community we don’t support our local stores and providers, who will?” As she prepares for the influx of people to her property, there’s still work to be done.
“On Sunday afternoon we will be out drafting - all of us. One of our daughters lives here, in the old house we first lived in, and one is visiting. It’s all hands on deck here. Even Pepper and Crumpet will be in the field.”
Surrounded by family and in her work clothes I doubt this lady of the manor would have it any other way.
Visit Bolinda Vale from 10am on December 6 and 7 at 1556 Lancefield Road, Clarkefield.