Catriona Rowntree There's no place like home

AFTER MOVING TO RURAL VICTORIA, THE STAR IS DETERMINED TO HELP OTHERS FIND THEIR PERFECT COUNTRY PROPERTY

- Kylie Walters

She’s spent 25 years jetsetting around the world as the host of Australia’s longest-running travel program, Getaway. Yet during that time, Catriona Rowntree has discovered there really is no place she’d rather be than at her home in rural Victoria.

The TV star got ahead of the tree change trend when she made the unexpected move to Little River, about 20 minutes outside of Geelong in Victoria, just over two decades ago. For the former self-confessed “city chick”, moving to the country was never part of the plan – until Cupid played a part that is! Rowntree met and fell in love with farmer James Pettit after being introduced by mutual friends. But Rowntree admits, when she first laid eyes on the ramshackle 1870s bluestone cottage on her then-new beau’s parents’ farm, she wasn’t convinced the Georgian-style homestead was the dream home Pettit believed it to be.

“It was derelict,” the travel reporter tells WHO.

Originally built to house the manager on the thriving sheep and grain station, the cottage had been uninhabited for decades and left to ruin. “When James told me he wanted to do it up and move in one day, I said to him, “Well, I hope your new girlfriend loves it,” and I was thinking to myself, “I’m out of here,” the 49-year-old admits with a laugh.