Prestige Property: Quamby Estate, Hagley, TAS
One of Australia’s most historic homes hits the market.
2 min
Quamby Estate has adopted diverse and distinguished roles in the rural, cultural and political life of Tasmania.
The historic manse – which dates back to 1828 – remains as one of Australia’s most desirable family homes.
The 10-bedroom, 10-bathroom, 5-car parking pile is surrounded by some 64-hectares of prime farming land, ideal for those who prize privacy, and are searching for a comprehensive escape from city life.
The picturesque homestead – built in an Anglo-colonial style – is a heady mix of art and architectural wonder with an elegant flagstone paved verandah wrapping around the residence to the north and east – bringing beautiful light to the home.
With a distant view of Ben Lomond plateau the house enjoys double-hipped roods and attics and is structured around a transverse hall. Aside from the ballroom, which was added later, the principal rooms open directly onto the verandah through eight-pane French doors in pairs with transom lights.
Upon entry one is led into the hall which sees two evocative reception rooms – each embodying the home’s classic character with French doors and fireplaces and a library wedged between.
Elsewhere, the dining room’s soaring ceiling, floorboards and generous proportions are ideal for entertaining with an adjoining bar and fireplace adding a layer of intimacy to the residence.
The kitchen – which is built to a commercial quality – ensures Quamby has indeed, moved with the times.
The expansive residence is privy to 10 bedrooms, each accompanied by a sophisticated ensuite.
However, the estate is not limited to the historic homestead, with Quamby including its own manicured nine-hole golf course (yes it has its own golf course), complete with its own clubhouse delivered in a converted stables building.
Further Quamby’s light-filled function room, Georgian era coach house and extensive farm outbuildings play to the estate’s adaptability, with many hosting weddings on the grounds.
Built for Sir Richard Dry, who became the first Australian born state premier, the home sits just 10 minutes from the township of Hagley, and only 30 minutes from Launceston.
The listing is with Knight Frank Tasmania’s Sam Woolcock (+61 400 813 033). Price guide, $8-$10 million; knighfranktasmania.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’
