OUTBACK OASIS

When John and Joss Chandler arrived at Kyneton, the garden was bare except for two trees and a paddock full of burrs and buffel grass. These days, it’s a verdant delight — a tribute to more than three decades of hard work.

By KIRSTY MCKENZIE

Joss Chandler cheerfully confesses that in the 30-plus years she’s been developing the garden at Kyneton station, she’s shifted the fence so many times she has no idea what area her garden covers. She hazards an acre but a few days later, texts to let us know she has actually measured the park-like expanse that surrounds the homestead on the 43,000-acre (17,400-hectare) cattle station near Barcaldine in central-western Queensland. As it turns out, the garden is now a sizeable 2.5 acres (slightly more than a hectare), no mean feat in an environment where drought, flood and bushfire are ever-present threats, summer temperatures are routinely in the high 30s and low 40s and roos, rabbits and echidnas are constantly looking for opportunity to feast on the green fodder she has planted…

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Australian Country Homes (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 19

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