Prestige Property: Olio Mio Estate, Pokolbin, NSW
Own this opulent slice of the Hunter Valley.
2 min
Olio Milo Estate presents the unique opportunity to acquire an opulent escape nestled into the world-renown Hunter Valley.
Located in Pokolbin, the Hunter Valley’s oldest continuous wine regions, the approximately 63-acre vineyard and olive grove arrives with 8-bedrooms, 6-bathrooms and 4 car parking.
Here, and with Southern European flair, the decadent home is split into 6-bedroom main residence and a separate 2-bedroom guest house.
Once guided up the long palm-lined driveway to the private entrance, the warm invitation of the Tuscan styled residence is immediately felt. The beautifully landscaped grounds feature a swimming pool, mature gardens, an abundance of outdoor entertaining areas – including a pizza oven and alfresco terrace – ideal for entertaining.
Once inside, the southern European charm extends throughout the home with floor to ceiling picture windows capturing panoramic views of Pokolbin valley and large open plan living room – complete with stoneworked wood-burning fireplace – allow you to settle in and relax.
The main residence sees three living areas alongside the kitchen as well as five bedrooms (three with ensuites).
Of the bedrooms, upstairs sees the master retreat, with dressing room, bathroom and sitting room with commanding views of the Pokolbin valley.
The lower level is complete with an office and a cellar – ideal for storing the Stormy Ridge wine the property produces.
The guest house sees interiors of a contemporary style and offers two bedrooms, a kitchen, bathroom and its own private courtyard entrance.
Beyond the spacious accommodation, the property also produces Olio Mio premium olive oil from its grounds and holds a complete olive oil processing plant on site, as well as a six-acre vineyard that produces Stormy Ridge Wines.
Whilst gated and intensely private, the estate is remarkably close to Pokolbin village centre and is roughly 2 hours north of Sydney.
The listing is with Cullen Royle’s Deborah Cullen (+61 401 849 955) and Richard Royle (+61 418 961 575). Price guide, $7.5 million; cullenroyle.com.au
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
A new AI-driven account by leading landscape architect Jon Hazelwood pushes the boundaries on the role of ‘complex nature’ in the future of our cities
2 min
Drifts of ground cover plants and wildflowers along the steps of the Sydney Opera House, traffic obscured by meadow-like planting and kangaroos pausing on city streets.
This is the way our cities could be, as imagined by landscape architect Jon Hazelwood, principal at multi-disciplinary architectural firm Hassell. He has been exploring the possibilities of rewilding urban spaces using AI for his Instagram account, Naturopolis_ai with visually arresting outcomes.
“It took me a few weeks to get interesting results,” he said. “I really like the ephemeral nature of the images — you will never see it again and none of those plants are real.
“The AI engine makes an approximation of a grevillea.”
Hazelwood chose some of the most iconic locations in Australia, including the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, as well as international cities such as Paris and London, to demonstrate the impact of untamed green spaces on streetscapes, plazas and public space.
He said he hopes to provoke a conversation about the artificial separation between our cities and the broader environment, exploring ways to break down the barriers and promote biodiversity.
“A lot of the planning (for public spaces) is very limited,” Hazelwood said. “There are 110,000 species of plants in Australia and we probably use about 12 in our (public) planting schemes.
“Often it’s for practical reasons because they’re tough and drought tolerant — but it’s not the whole story.”
Hazelwood pointed to the work of UK landscape architect Prof Nigel Dunnett, who has championed wild garden design in urban spaces. He has drawn interest in recent years for his work transforming the brutalist apartment block at the Barbican in London into a meadow-like environment with diverse plantings of grasses and perennials.
Hazelwood said it is this kind of ‘complex nature’ that is required for cities to thrive into the future, but it can be hard to convince planners and developers of the benefits.
“We have been doing a lot of work on how we get complex nature because complexity of species drives biodiversity,” he said.
“But when we try to propose the space the questions are: how are we going to maintain it? Where is the lawn?
“A lot of our work is demonstrating you can get those things and still provide a complex environment.”
At the moment, Hassell together with the University of Melbourne is trialling options at the Hills Showground Metro Station in Sydney, where the remaining ground level planting has been replaced with more than 100 different species of plants and flowers to encourage diversity without the need for regular maintenance. But more needs to be done, Hazelwood said.
“It needs bottom-up change,” he said. ““There is work being done at government level around nature positive cities, but equally there needs to be changes in the range of plants that nurseries grow, and in the way our city landscapes are maintained and managed.”
And there’s no AI option for that.
Consumers are going to gravitate toward applications powered by the buzzy new technology, analyst Michael Wolf predicts
Chris Dixon, a partner who led the charge, says he has a ‘very long-term horizon’
