Article by Winnie Stubbs Photography by Jessie Prince

“This land has held us through a lot of family milestones. We’ve put a lot of work in but it’s given us an equal amount back.”

Before they found the macadamia farm that would become their home, Jane and David Fewson had spent twelve months travelling around Australia in a fire truck that David had converted into a vehicle so impressive that it ended up being purchased by the circus. Creating is in his blood, and in the time spent on the road, David began to feel restless, craving the satisfaction that comes from seeing an idea take shape. A few months into their trip, the couple began the hunt for their home, and on a sunny day in 2014, they settled on Yalbaruba.

Yalbaruba wasn’t the name of the property when they bought it, it’s a title they’ve bestowed upon it: a term that translates to mean “place of healing” in the language of the local indigenous Bundjalung people. And the healing that Yalbaruba houses is different for everyone - for David and Jane (and their daughter Hannah, who also calls the property home), it involved the creation of a uniquely bespoke collection of buildings.

The journey began with the renovation of the decrepit 1950s farmhouse which is now a strikingly beautiful, light-filled family home that feels both timeless and contemporary.

“I wanted to create a space that suits Jane – she’s so small, so I wanted to build a house that would fit her,” explains David, as we share cake and tea in their warmly-lit kitchen. Despite retaining the footprint of the modest farmhouse that once stood in its place, small is one characteristic that the Fewson’s family home seems to lack – there’s a sense of abundance in the wide corridors, expansive rooms and picture-box windows that open up onto the orchard. The structural design - an open-plan, gracefully functional space – is David’s doing, with help from local carpenter Sean Campbell who’s responsible for the kitchen cabinetry, made from salvaged timber.

Though he’s never trained as an architect or builder, David possesses the exceptional ability to design and create buildings from the ground up - from a sketch on an envelope to an award- winning form in a matter of months. Similarly, Jane and their daughter Hannah share a masterful eye for interiors, and their

home is a perfectly formulated curation of vintage features (including furniture shipped from Jane’s family home in Yorkshire) alongside reupholstered roadside finds.

“Every piece of furniture and art has a story. Buying things without really loving them has never made sense to us, and there’s so much more satisfaction in creating a space filled with things you really love,” Jane reflects.

Once ‘The Big House’ was built, the Fewson’s began work on their next challenge: the creation of an open-plan, studio-style cabin in the paddock beside their goat shed.

Paddock Hall was the Fewson’s first foray into hospitality, and the tastefully bohemian, Alpine-style cabin quickly became one of the Byron area’s most lusted after holiday properties. As with The Big House, Paddock Hall was designed by David, built by hand and decorated by the family – carefully curated with furniture found at thrift shops, and artwork and ceramics made by local friends.

“Hannah and I both collected the furniture and art – from op shops and antiques stores and artists we love, including my other daughter Holly,” Jane explains.

At one end of the cabin, a bed built by hand is draped in muslin curtains, and in the corner by the fireplace, a deep green armchair is framed by a light made from a repurposed fishing rod. Outside on the terrace, a clawfoot bathtub looks out from beneath the timber roof across the paddock where the family’s pet goats graze quietly in the sun. As guests came and went from Paddock Hall, the family began to realise that the potential of Yalbaruba to provide healing experiences wasn’t limited

to them. The leather bound guest book filled with words of gratitude for the time spent suspended in the stillness of the space, so – because creating is what they do – they began work on their next project.

Ground House 107R is the uniquely personal manifestation of a dream – a boundlessly ambitious, strikingly subversive structure that synergises brutalist architecture with Scandinavian design elements and soft, organic forms.

When I first visited the farm in early 2021, Ground House was just a shell: a Chernobyl- esque bunker that cut a boldly brutalist form against the slope of the hill, somewhat out of place amongst the mango trees. Now, the spaceship-like concrete structure is folded seamlessly into the undulating grounds of Yalbaruba – a quietly handsome masterpiece hiding beneath a grass roof that spills native plants across handmade, steel framed windows. Excavated rocks form the wall that curls like a python around the side of the building, obscuring it from view of guests who might be passing on their way down the tree-lined driveway to The Big House or Paddock Hall.

“We wanted the building to look like it had crash- landed into the earth – and incorporating the grass roof and the landscaping was our way of making it look like it’s something otherworldly that’s been reclaimed by the land,” Hannah explains.

“For me, it just made sense. This is what should sit here. It’s a bit of fun ... like stepping into a cartoon,” David reflects.

And he’s not wrong - there’s something very Thunderbirds in the unconventional, futuristic forms, the folding glass walls, the intricate, ambitious simplicity.

“It’s simple, but I like simple things,” David notes, about the spectacular building whose apparent “simplicity” is a result of highly complex design and commendable toil. After sketching out the shape of the building, David made moulds which were filled with concrete and painstakingly retrofitted with plumbing and electricity. The steel-framed windows that form the walls were made by hand, and even the fly screens that replace the walls on summer days were custom made for the space from coils of brass meshing.

“We could have found substitutes, and we probably should have done, but it didn’t feel right to cut any corners,” David says. The same sense of care informed the interior fit out – each of the 300-plus pieces of timber that form the kitchen cabinetry were individually shaped and sanded, and the Art Deco-style brass light fixtures were all made by hand by the family.

Similarly, the few pieces of furniture were handpicked by the family: a Moroccan rug that Jane found in a local vintage store softens the bedroom, a Scandinavian light feature made from recycled paper illuminates the dining space, and a piece of brutalist artwork sourced from Eastern Europe by Jane and David’s daughter Holly hangs above the double-sided fireplace. Bang & Olufsen speakers wired into the walls flood the space with a playlist designed with Ground House in mind – a mix of Chet Baker
and Glen Miller that set the tone for surreal, otherworldly days.

Outside, a magnesium swimming pool formed from two repurposed water tanks and lined with ceramic tiles sits beneath the eucalypts – one final, perfectly cartoonish and delightfully playful addition to the property.

All this aside, it’s the story behind Yalbaruba that sets it apart – the people involved in the unique, cross generational operation, and their desire to share their place of healing with the world.

In early 2021 Jane and David’s eldest daughter Hannah moved into a Queenslander that arrived on the property on the back of a truck. Here, Hannah gave birth to her two daughters, and in October 2022, Hannah married her partner in the sunshine-flooded orchard.

“This land has held us through a lot of family milestones. We’ve put a lot of work in but it’s given us an equal amount back.” Hannah reflects.

Now that the property is complete, the Fewsons are moving on to their next project – so Yalbaruba can house the healing of others.

“We’re ready to move on graciously, with gratitude for everything,”.

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