Country style

Take your pick of DELIGHTS on a LUXURY FARM STAY in Bilpin.

IT’S RAINING when I arrive at the gates of Eden Equine in Bilpin, a 90-minute drive along the Bells Line of Road from Sydney. Considering what the town went through just a few days prior to Christmas 2019, I’m not complaining. That’s when the vicious Grose Valley Fire threatened to engulf this tiny hamlet of roughly 665, which is renowned for its apple and fruit orchards.

As the gates open, an expansive property of rolling green pastures patchworked together by white ranch fencing (some of it destroyed in the fires, which burned through bush right up to the edge of the farm) stretches out in front of me. Grazing horses give me momentary attention as I drive along a tree-lined avenue bound for the newest addition to the property, a collection of five bespoke self-catering cabins, collectively known as Eden Farm Escape.

Eden Equine is the passion project of husband-and-wife team Michael Cthurmer and Deborah Goodman (owners of The Grumpy Baker), who bought the farm after falling in love with it on sight. The couple were looking for a weekender to escape the city; they got more than 36 hectares and a new business. When the youngest of their three children was diagnosed with behavioural issues, the couple researched and tried out various therapy techniques, eventually finding benefit in equine therapy; it didn’t take long for them to decide that the property would be the perfect place to share their experiences with other families in need.

The cluster of cabins that form the luxury farm stay are tucked at the back of the property, adjacent to a menageries of farm animals that includes goats, alpacas, donkeys and one very large rescue pig, Sir Russell Pigsley III, who was found wandering the streets of Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. The resident chickens live in a designer