Lavandula Swiss Italian farm hits the market just outside Daylesford after 30-year restoration and expansion
350 Hepburn-Newstead Rd, Shepherds Flat is up for sale.
A 170-year-old Swiss Italian farm, eatery and residence has come to market after being restored by the vendor to make visitors feel like they’re in Europe.
The multifaceted historical property at 350 Hepburn-Newstead Rd, Shepherds Flat is home to a two-bedroom abode, homestead, cafe and bar, farmgate store, event space, extensive parking, storage, and machinery shedding spanning around 30 hectares just outside of Hepburn Springs and Daylesford.
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The vendor and agency are hoping to privately sell the farm for around $5.5m
It all started when Aquilino Tinetti migrated from the Swiss Italian town of Ticino in the 1850s in search of gold, like many immigrants at the time.
Instead, he decided to lease the land where the Lavandula estate sits, eventually purchasing the property in 1870, and slowly constructed the stone house, barn stables and other buildings.
One of the many restored stone buildings.
One of two bedrooms.
The sprawling grounds.
Vendor Carol White then bought the residence in 1987 and has since restored the stone buildings and ran successful businesses including La Trattoria Eatery & Bar, history tours and selling aromatherapy products over the past 30 years.
Ms White said the property was “dilapidated” upon her purchase and stonemasons had to repair the house, barn and stone buildings over three years to bring them back to their former glory.
“There was no garden, so I planted thousands of trees trying to recreate a European landscape so when you go there you feel like you’re in the south of France or Italy,” Ms White said.
“I think I’m a Europhile at heart, I think I must have walked long stone cobbled roads long before I was ever born or in a former life.
“What is it that makes our heart sing when we go there?”
La Trattoria Eatery & Bar.
Inside the cafe and bar.
As a single mum of three children in the 80s, Ms White said she wanted to created a business where she could work from home.
“I started doing European festivals before farmers markets became fashionable and I’d seen that in Europe, those little gorgeous regional festivals that made you feel alive,” she said.
“So I started making body cream on the stove and scones in the oven and jams at night and planting the garden by day, so it’s sort of what you see today.
“But the time has come for me to really retire, I’m 80 next birthday; if I was thirty years younger I wouldn’t be selling.”
Now, it was time for the next chapter for the vendor, Circa Heritage and Lifestyle South Melbourne heritage property expert Dominic Romeo said, as “she feels like she’s done what she needs to do on the property.”
But if prospective buyers didn’t want to buy the entire property or business, Mr Romeo said the 38ha could be split as there are 13 separate titles.
Mr Romeo said at the very back of the farm, there were four, five and six acre blocks that could be developed on while the main structure and business sat on around 20ha.
He added that it had been “quite a successful tourist destination” and that “historically it was quite important.”
“We are getting people looking at it possibly as a private property rather than a business,” he said.
“It’s a real village atmosphere to the property because it has a really beautiful collection of historic buildings; it has a stunning garden.”
The residence.
Lavender fields, olive and chestnut grove, formal gardens and open pastures can be found across the property.
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sarah.petty@news.com.au
