When a home nearing 3 decades old has had only 2 owners, you know instantly that it is a great place to live! The first owners who had it built and created the dream garden here stayed for 15 years, until failing health finally forced them to leave. Our current seller and his late wife spent 12 years here, but now it is time to move into that retirement village. His decision opens up an opportunity for new owners to take full advantage of this perfectly private property with its sublime gardens, swimming pool and large low set north facing home. The original owners built the home to accommodate plenty of large antique furniture and a huge collection of memorabilia and art from all around the World spanning a lifetime of collecting. They were Brisbane folk, so knew the importance of having land where the long front wall of the home could face north and the gentle slope of the block ensured that beautiful gardens could be terraced to allow the winter sun to do its natural heating in a steel frame home with tile floors and fully insulated walls and ceiling.

The long, low home with its hint of Mediterranean styling was positioned lengthways on the block to achieve near perfect natural climate control and mitigate expenditure on both heating and cooling costs. The garden was then created over the next fifteen years with much imagination and ingenuity. High solid timber fencing with matching gates provided a very strong level of seclusion which was enhanced by dense border plantings. Citrus trees and avocado trees blended into lovely stepped meandering pathways surrounded by a multitude of exotics, including camellias and many rare plants as well as more mundane plants chosen for either perfume or flowering season so that there would always be something flowering to have freshly picked flowers inside.

The current seller added the delightful swimming pool with its great surrounds tucked right into the most sunny corner of the garden. He also added a full new colourbond roof and installed the excellent white kitchen with its quality appliances. The appliance list includes a large underbench gas oven, 5 hob gas cooktop, high quality rangehood and an AEG dishwasher. Although this is a galley style kitchen, it has plenty of storage space including a double door pantry and a very wide space to accommodate an upright fridge / freezer combo. The square bay window behind the double sink looks out into the gardens and the vegetable patch is within view from the kitchen sink.

The paved outdoor living areas that run along the northern side of the home include 2 big covered and lit spaces including the BBQ area adjoining the rumpus room. In between the covered spaces there is an extensive open terrace which gets shade from the house and its wide eaves as the afternoon sun moves across the sky The BBQ area also has a southerly wall to keep out the cool winds during the winter. There are beautiful open arbours dotted around the garden for simply relaxing in its tranquil beauty in sunshine and in shade. All the superb garden ornaments, bird baths and the big garden seat placed here by the original owners will stay on with property, as they are really part of its history. Indeed, this home and garden have played host to some quite illustrious people including some of Australia’s best known artists and one of the World’s best known actresses from the middle of the 20th century. Ron Sabien, who had the house built and created the garden, was actually the leading interior decorator in Brisbane for many years and his creative ideas were way ahead of his time in many ways. It is Ron’s magic touch that has made this home and its surrounding so very special and totally unique.

He also had a great eye for land and position. Although Gallery Walk was in its infancy then, he chose this elevated, red soil land located within walking distance of Gallery Walk for his home site and had the temerity to sink a water bore and find good water when there were few homes with bores on Tamborine Mountain. Of course the water was reticulated around the garden and concrete rainwater storage tanks that hold 16,000 gallons were also installed to ensure that the house would never need to buy fresh water.

This is truly a quiet and private haven where happiness, pleasure and entertaining all seem to go hand in hand. Wild birds are part of the scene too, as they love the dense gardens and spend lots of time there, even though there is large areas of National Park very close by. Garden lovers will find the whole package just so hard to resist!