Farmhouse Refresh

Thirty minutes from Brisbane was the outer limit for a busy family, who took on a 150-year-old dairy needing old-style TLC.

- Rosa Senese

Work-life balance can be tricky to evaluate, but Juliette Wright has it sorted. For her, it can be measured by the drive between inner-Brisbane, where she works as the CEO of innovative non-profit body GIVIT, and the bucolic property she shares with her family in a semi-rural pocket north-west of the CBD. “We live on eight acres [3.2ha], but we’re only 25 minutes from the city,” she explains. 

Built in 1867, the home was originally the farmhouse of a large dairy property and had been sympathetically extended in recent times. In 2003 the owner – a friend of Juliette and her then fiancé, now husband, Glen – happened to mention that the house would be going on the market the next day. Already living in the area and loving it – this house in particular – the couple seized the opportunity and bought the place “on a handshake” that afternoon. Today, their two children – Sara, 10, and Hudson, eight – have the run of a picturesque property that features a creek, fruit orchard and rustic farm equipment, where they can play freely with their dogs, horses and ponies, and watch the neighbour’s cows grazing contentedly.