Southern Tablelands property with Edna Walling garden listed

Southern Tablelands property with Edna Walling garden listed
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 8, 2020

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Kiloren, the six-hectare Crookwell property with a mostly intact Edna Walling garden, has been listed for sale. It has been in the care of gardening author Jennie Churchill and her husband, vet Rob Churchill, for almost three decades. It was installed by Walling in 1951 around the three-bedroom, three-bathroom house designed by architect John Mansfield for the Broadbent family. Its classic Walling features include basalt walls and pathways softened by relaxed planting.

Walling described it as one of her less formal designs. She believed that landscape architects should be involved from the earliest stage of the project. She worked around the house under construction on a bare hillside with just one tree. Bringing plants from her own nursery at Bickleigh Vale, near Melbourne, Walling was familiar with the climate and the district given her Markdale, Binda commission for the Ashton family in the late 1940s.

Following its 1982 purchase, Kiloren became the impetus for Jennie's gardening career, including co-authoring two books on Walling.

Offers of about $1.5 million are being sought by Tronn Alstergren of Tronn Alstergren Real Estate Goulburn or at $1.25 million without the cottage that sits on the border of the grounds.

“The top of the property overlooks the township of Crookwell to the hills and slopes of the Southern Tablelands beyond, while the lovely home nestles into the hillside, sheltered and hidden by its magnificent garden,” Alstergren says.

“A visit to Kiloren is essential to appreciate the property's extraordinarily peaceful and private atmosphere, the feeling that you have entered a different, gentler world,” he adds.

The Churchills plan to spend spare time in Tasmania. Churchill published the 1998 book The Vision of Edna Walling: Garden Plans 1920-1951 with Trisha Dixon.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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