When Ryan and Rebecca McDonald purchased the 2,300-hectare Victoria Park, it was a blank canvas.
Even with a lack of power and water on the property, the seasoned home builders were able to create a home they loved.
The couple and their four children – Matilda, 8, Tommy, 6, Annabel, 5, and Elsie, 3 – are right at home in the open-plan, six-bedroom home.
“I think I just wanted open plan and spaces for the kids,” Rebecca said.
“Lots of storage; an easy house really.”
Just 20 minutes from the border town of Goondiwindi, nestled in the midst of green lawns and fat Angus cows is their sprawling home.
As experienced builders and renovators, Ryan and Rebecca knew exactly what they wanted their home to look like.
“We kind of wanted the home to not be super architectural or modern, and wanted it to match into the environment, but then not totally try and replicate an old homestead either.
More of a modern farmhouse, still having the verandahs and the screens,” Rebecca said.
Ryan said an important consideration was the positioning of the home.
“We positioned the home to take in the northern aspect, and block the south-westerly winds,” he said.
As a family that doesn’t like to be shut inside, the McDonalds made sure the house would seamlessly flow from inside to outside.
Many of the rooms in the house open onto the verandahs that wrap around most of the home, and outdoor living has been very much catered to.
“We put some air con vents out on the verandah as well so in summer if it's hot we can still use it,” Rebecca said.
As keen entertainers, the McDonald’s made sure to include all the necessities.
The outdoor living boasts a sitting area with a projector and drop down screen, built-in barbecue, food preparation area, and Ryan’s favourite thing of all, the beer tap.
“Now I just need a champagne and wine tap,” Rebecca said.
While they would still like to do a lot more work outside in the garden and the yard, both Rebecca and Ryan enjoy the home they have built for their family.
“It's a big enough block to do what we need to do, but it's still close to town to go in and out when we need to,” Rebecca said.
“It's a pretty good spot here. Twenty minutes to town, 10 kilometres to a bus stop for the kids, you can't really get a better spot,” Ryan said.
‘We enjoy having a project’
Building a home was nothing new for the McDonalds.
Ryan has run his own construction business, Ryan McDonald Building, based in Brisbane for the past 15 years and the couple has renovated and sold 10 homes together.
This experience, and their love for a good project, helped them create the perfect family home.
Rebecca said renovating previously meant they knew what they liked and didn’t like, and were able to put it all together into a home they love.
“We wanted one level, whereas most of the homes we renovated before were two level homes,” she said.
Ryan said Rebecca designed the home to include everything important to them, before an architect they work with in Brisbane was called in to draft the plans.
Beginning in April last year, Ryan and a team of tradies worked on it throughout the year, and the McDonalds were lucky enough to move in for Christmas 2016.
Victoria Park: A home for children of all ages and stages
Entertaining four energetic, country kids can be quite a task, but Victoria Park certainly has the job covered.
Boasting a tennis court, pool, two full-size football goal posts, and the animal yard with chooks, pigs and a poddy calf, outside the home is a kids’ wonderland.
Rebecca said one of the most important things to her and Ryan when building their home was creating a space that would suit their kids not only while they’re little, but also when they’re teenagers.
Inside the home is also very much geared towards being child-friendly.
The house boasts a room dedicated to arts and crafts, known as the ‘school room’. With enough space for the kids to set up their assignments and projects, the ‘school room’ ensures homework stays well away from the dining table.
With an abundance of space both inside and outside, the homestead at Victoria Park allows the kids to do what country kids do best.
Building their cattle business
Buying Victoria Park is all part of the McDonalds’ plans to expand their cattle operation.
In addition to the 2,300 hectares at Victoria Park, Goondiwindi, Ryan and Rebecca also own 2,000ha between Talwood and Weengallon.
Their second property, Evergreen, is part of their breeding operation on which they run 250 of their 500 Black Angus cows.
Each year their 500 breeders are joined to Lawson Angus bulls from Victoria, and Ryan said they try to carry much of their progeny through as possible.
“We try to carry them through to feedlot weight and go to a local feedlot where possible,” Ryan said.
“We aim to keep 100 replacement heifers a year.
“With our breeding and keeping the replacement heifers, we’re getting our genetics close to the way we want them to be.”
Though there have been dry times at Evergreen, Ryan said they played it safe by lightly stocking the property and that they were lucky enough to get some rain recently.
“It’s amazing at the moment; it looks really good,” he said.
“We've obviously been through the dry times.
“We're in the middle of developing this block.
“We've developed Glenoe, which is part of Victoria Park.
“We're now in the process of pulling and raking country here, and ploughing it and putting it back to pasture.
“That's a pretty big thing for us. Half the place now is cleared and farmed, and we’ve been able to start growing forage.”
As part of their expansion plans, the couple want to develop the entire 2,300ha at Victoria Park.
“We had to re-fence the whole place,” Rebecca said.
“New boundary fence, put new cattle yards in, put some dams in and pipes to the bore.
“I guess we were lucky; even though there was nothing here, we got to do everything, plan everything from scratch.”
Once this project is finished, Ryan and Rebecca said there are plans to continue expanding their operation.
“The plan is to expand on what we have with more country,” Ryan said.
“Once this is developed, we'll be able to run a lot more here.
“We'd probably like to run 800 breeders. We’re joining 500 at the moment, and we're happy with that.”