March 16th, 2023Gorgeous gardens set to open at Clunes over Booktown weekend

Open Gardens Victoria will open the Presbytery at Clunes and the Vale Hill House in nearby Ullina on the weekend of March 25 and 26.
Overlooking Clunes, The Presbytery was built in 1905 and has been restored
by owners Dr Kevin Lee and Daniel Cronin, the main landscaper.

Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, the garden consists of a number of beautiful
rooms with distinct and naturalistic plantings that enhance both the history and the terrain of the site.
Kevin’s passion is medicinal plants, and the intimate garden rooms are filled
with plants inspired by the gardens of the Royal College of Physicians in London.
The garden is set over several levels down the gently sloping block. Alongside
the garden rooms, there is a lawned garden for picnicking and a monastic garden
for peaceful reflection.
Guided tours of the medicinal plants will be led by Kevin across the open weekend.

About 15 minutes east is Vale Hill House, a property located in Ullina, the
pastoral heart of Victoria’s Goldfields region. Originally built in 1858 by Scottish
stonemasons, the house, pictured above, was destroyed by fire in 1978, leaving only four
walls and a trio of chimneys standing. The historic house has been reconstructed by
its previous owners, business operators Chris Malden and Wayne Cross, who spent
11 years meticulously transforming it and the garden.
Under the care of current owners Lisa Rosen and Chris Taylor, the garden sprawls elegantly over ten acres, including almost five acres of what is arguably the largest domestic edible garden in the state. Its charming serpentine design contains a wide range of fruit trees and shrubs, including a large number of unusual and rare species, along with sweeping terraced beds for seasonal and annual plantings.
Tickets at the gate or via Trybooking