NESTLED on a 105-year-old family property on the Queensland-New South Wales border stands a modern masterpiece, strongly influenced by traditional Australian and European design elements.
The home was built 10 years ago by Richard and Cate Bucknell of Calooma, Hebel.
It has all the inclusions of a modern-home; such as a pool, three bedrooms, multiple bathrooms, a large multi-purpose kitchen and entertaining areas, finished off with contemporary accessories like heated towel rails.
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But the Calooma home is truly characterised by the traditional Australian charms and European influences.
It’s simply more than a large wrap-around verandah. There’s an old English boot room near the main entry.
Out back is Richard’s cellar, which is accessed using an old wool bale lifter.
Large sitting rooms with antique Victorian chairs are complemented by the heavy wooden furniture, the Silky Oak and Mahogany pieces passed down through family generations.
Each room features a large traditional centrepiece, enhanced by modern luxuries.
In the main bathroom, it’s the claw-foot bathtub which looks out through large windows.
Another talking point is the bidet. While the low, oval basins are still creeping into Australian homes, the Bucknells have always had a bidet ever since they did up their bathroom when living in Collarenebri, 40 years ago.
The couple saw one while travelling in France and decided to include it in their renovations upon returning home to the north-western New South Wales town.
“That caused huge hilarity, because it was sitting on the back of the builder’s Ute in town and nobody knew what it was,” Cate laughed.
“The locals just kept looking at it.”
Though Richard is English-born and Cate grew up between a family property in South Australia and Calooma, they say it was not a calculated decision to incorporate such elements into the design of the home.
“They must have just been innate in us, because it wasn’t something that we consciously thought of,” Cate said.
“I guess we wanted something where all the old furniture looked comfortable and not totally out of place.”
Antique furniture a family touch
A LOT of the antique wooden furniture in the home at Calooma has been passed down through the generations on Cate’s side of the family.
“A lot of people don’t like living with other people’s bits and bobs,” Cate said.
“I like to live round, building layers of family – the English are good at doing that.
“They will happily live in a house that one family has been in for hundreds of years and live comfortably within their skin and the skin of the house.”
One particular piece, a large sideboard (pictured), was brought up from her family home in South Australia.
Though it divided into three pieces, the bottom was so heavy it required five men to heave it into the house.
Cate is quite fond of the Australian hardwoods such as Queensland Silky Oak and Mahogany which she grew up with.
“I hate the throw away world. I just like things that last and I’ve got to the point in my life where I’d rather buy something secondhand.”
They’re sold on the cellar
RICHARD Bucknell always wanted a wine cellar.
Too many times he had gone to open a bottle of wine, particularly white, which had sat in the cupboard over summer only to “chuck it out” because it had gone bad from the heat.
So when designing the new Calooma house a cellar was the first to go in, with a refrigerated container buried on-site.
An innovative gent, Richard opted to install an unused wool bale lifter to access the cellar.
Up in flames: A history of fires
ONLY weeks before Richard and Cate Bucknell moved into their newly-built house at Calooma, a disaster hit just metres away.
The property’s cottage was engulfed in flames and quickly destroyed. At the time it was occupied by their son Iann, his wife Jen and their two young boys.
So the young family moved into an attached annex with Richard and Cate while they set about rebuilding.
The Calooma cottage wasn’t the first home to burn down in Cate’s family.
Around 1942, Cate’s parents were living in a new house at Collarenebri.
While they were away their home was burnt down.
“Probably deliberately lit, because that was happening a bit then, but nobody really knew,” Cate said.
It was during the war and it was too difficult to rebuild the house so her parent’s moved to Calooma in 1947.
“They basically bought it from my grandfather and then they used to commute between South Australia and here two to three times a year,” she said.
Then, in 1959, they were struck by disaster again.
Her parents were completely renovating a big old stone house which they lived in in South Australia.
“The last thing to do was to paint the outside and the blow torches used to rip off the old paint set the house alight,” Cate said.
“The spark from the blow torches set alight sparrow nests…it got a hold in the ceiling which was insulated by sea weed so it burnt really well.”
Quite a large amount of family furniture was rescued from the building, including a grand piano which went on to be sold to now Federal Agriculture and Water Resources Minister Barnaby Joyce.
It was in this South Australian region that Cate would meet the man she eventually built her own dream home with.
Englishman Richard moved to Australia in 1965 at the age of 18 to work as a jackeroo. He was on a shorthorn stud near where Cate lived when they met.
They married when she was 20 years old and lived in Melbourne, Victoria for a couple of years before moving to Collarenebri together.
Twenty-four years later they followed her parents’ footsteps and moved north to Calooma in 1996.
The 20,234-hectare (50,000 acre) holding comprises of three properties – Calooma, Mildool and the Springs. It stretches over two states and three shires.
10 years on: ‘There’s a lot of things I love about the house’
THERE are many intentional design elements which have become some of the Bucknell’s favourite features thanks to their pragmatisms.
“We wanted high ceilings inside and plenty of veranda space to shade outside walls,” Cate said.
Evaporative air conditioning was a new addition, as it wasn’t in the old home, and the fly-screened veranda was oriented to make best use of the north-east summer breezes.
Another priority was to have easy-care cladding so they chose colourbond.
“It is still a thrill to have a dust storm come through and not have dust in the house, as long as the windows are shut!” Cate said.
The tile floors and designated boot room also help keep the house tidy.
“We like to think of it as a no-fuss home that people can feel comfortable in. Although the living rooms are separate and very different, they are open and interconnected so it feels inclusive and welcoming,” Cate said.