It starts with a vision

Have you been dreaming of taking on a fixer upper but never quite dared to actually do it? Interior design queen Naomi Findlay takes us on a journey from desolate into delightful.

Sitting around a candlelit table with wine, laughter and my closest friends in December 2018, I declared the vision of my dream. The dream was owning a farm where I could use my gifts of creating amazing spaces and share that with the world. Two years to the month later, this vision started to become a reality when our new farm at Waukivory settled.

During these two years I had slowly but surely worked hard on manifesting my vision, taking incremental steps towards making this dream a reality, including surrounding myself with the people and the inspiration that could help make it happen.

When I started to hunt for the farm, my brief to the local real estate agents was to find me something that was magical, that had not too much land but just enough, with hills and flats, dams and creeks and plenty of structures on it, in whatever condition they came in.

A tall order perhaps, but believe it or not the second property we inspected had it all, including the derelict dwellings and belongings of the previous owner who locals say had not lived there for over a decade. With that the journey of Waukivory Estate began, from an abandoned dairy farm to a delightful boutique holiday destination.

Waukivory is a small village in dairy and cattle country 20 minutes from the heart of Gloucester, the closest town to Barrington and its amazing National Parks. At the same time, if you head east, it is just over an hour to the amazing Myall Lakes, Seal Rocks and Blueys Beach. It’s a perfect location to head up into the Barrington mountains or over to our amazing east coast on day trips.

Waukivory Estate sprawls over 22 acres, snuggled into the base of the hills and wrapped by the Wauikvory River. It is close to 100 years old and from what the locals tell us, had been a productive crop and dairy farm in its day but has sat abandoned for over a decade now. The original farmhouse and the old working dairy certainly tell the story of the once working farm with tools, belongings and evidence of its previous life lying all over the floors.

Read more in the Autumn issue of Hunter & Coastal Lifestyle Magazine or subscribe here. 
Story by Naomi Findlay, photography by Joshua Hogan