HISTORY BUFF

Collections of 1970s furniture and art and crafts embellish contemporary this freshly polished heritage farmhouse.

- STEPHEN CRAFTI

Set in Tasmania’s Central Highlands, a 90-minute drive from Hobart, Hollow Tree House is a fine colonial farmhouse on four hectares and now an exceptional period home – stitching together its past with the present. While items such as food were once left by farmers in a hollow tree near the road for locals to collect, hence the name, this home is now filled with fine contemporary art, objects and furniture for the owners and their friends to enjoy.

Reworked by Core Collective Architects with heritage consultants Praxis Environment, the result is an extraordinary contemporary home that has received top accolades – the Lachlan Macquarie Award in 2020 from the Australian Institute of Architects. “In projects such as this, it all comes down to the clients and the builder,” says architect Ryan Strating, director of Core Collective Architects. He is less complimentary about the builders who built the sandstone pile in the late 1820s. “The more talented builders, most likely convicts, were being used on construction sites in Hobart rather than on this farm plot.”