Australian Country Issue #24.2 April/May 2021

It’s no easy task collating a magazine, particularly with pandemic border closures restricting travel. But for this issue, we’ve managed to squeeze in a couple of amazing road trips. Top of that list for photographer Ken Brass and me was a journey to the Monaro, where we photographed the historic Hazeldean homestead and garden. It also allowed me to fulfil a long-term dream of visiting eminent Australian artist Lucy Culliton at her home in the high country. Maybe eight or nine years ago, I saw an article about Lucy and her menagerie of rescue animals in a national newspaper and I immediately knew she would make a great story for Australian Country. I’ve had that cutting pinned to my noticeboard ever since, so I was delighted when the planets aligned…

ANABEL DEAN, JOURNALIST Anabel is an award-winning travel journalist who began her career as a Fleet Street news reporter in London. She has worked as a feature writer for The Sydney Morning Herald, arts editor for The Bulletin and lifestyle editor for Medical Observer magazine. Anabel contributes to national and international publications, sharing adventures of people, places, art, nature and food from around the world. MIRIAM VAN COOTEN, HAIR & MAKE-UP ARTIST Miriam started in the make-up and hair industry 20 years ago in film and television and has worked on fashion pages for magazines across Europe and Australia. She teaches at one of Sydney’s elite make-up schools and tutors personal make-up and hairstyling at her studio on Sydney’s northern beaches. australiancountry.com.au facebook.com/AustralianCountry @australiancountrymag zinio.com pinterest.com/auscountrymag…

April 24–May 2 (NSW) Canowindra International Balloon Challenge After last year’s event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Balloon Challenge is back and bigger than ever. One of the largest events in the region, it offers a great opportunity to showcase Canowindra, a small rural community situated in the picturesque Belubula Valley in the NSW central-west. Don’t miss the famous Nightglow display on Saturday, May 1, where various balloons light up the starry country sky, creating a visual spectacular. canowindrachallenge.org.au April 17–18 (QLD) Coucals Open Garden Don’t miss a memorable weekend filled with exotic plants, native gums and spectacular landscaping at the lovely Coucals Garden in Mount Crosby. Entry is $10 and the event will benefit the C&K Roderick Street Community Kindergarten and the Ipswich branch of the Australian Red Cross. Plants and…

The old adage says that good things, like fine wine, improve with age. Hazeldean’s farming operation, homestead and garden in the Monaro high plains are a case in point. They’ve been a work in progress since the 1860s, when James and Ann Litchfield arrived in the south-eastern NSW high country. When James arrived in the colony from Saffron Walden in Essex, England, in 1852, he had a letter of introduction to William Bradley, a pioneering member of the Monaro squattocracy, who built an empire that, at its peak, covered 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares) of the naturally treeless high plains. James gained employment as a manager of one of William’s properties, Myalla. With the division of the region following the Lands Act of 1861 under Premier, John Robertson, James was able to…

In the pre-pandemic world, Adam Liaw was supposed to spend a sizeable chunk of 2020 travelling overseas in his role as ambassador for the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australia Now program. His brief was to “cheerlead for Australia”, promoting not just our many attractions, but also our innovative and creative skills and our rich multicultural heritage. But, as with so many of us, the universe had different plans for the one-time lawyer and MasterChef Australia 2010 winner turned cookbook author, TV presenter and UNICEF Australia’s nutrition ambassador. He found himself confined to barracks in Sydney, grappling with the fallout not just of COVID-19, but also the bushfires that ravaged vast swathes of food-producing regions during the summer of 2019/20 and, before that, the drought that crippled farmers all…