High-country Hideaway

The Age

Wednesday April 2, 2003

Cas McFarlane

Property review: Eildon, Eucalypt Ridge 564 Skyline Road

Top of the range in every sense, you might say of Eucalypt Ridge.

The spectacular, five-storey establishment really is an award-winning, five-star, small hotel ... a high-country retreat at the top of Victoria.

Here, you can simply relax and take in the magnificent views over forest, lake and river, or enjoy an exhilarating mountain lifestyle of fly fishing, waterskiing, horse riding, bushwalking and tennis.

It all starts at this base, situated 600m high in the sky over Lake Eildon.

Owners Brian and Corinne Dixon had long hankered for a place at Eildon since their waterskiing weekends together, and in 1990 they engaged the architectural firm of Boschler & Partners to design their dream.

The couple's dream soon came to fruition - a building of 90 squares, admirably suited to the site, rather like a contemporary-style, luxury lodge with top-drawer features. These include handmade Daniel Robertson brickwork, Gosford sandstone terraces, Italian granite and quartz, Castlemaine slate and huge windows to capture the stunning, surrounding landscape.

"This is like the Mornington Peninsula used to be," says Corinne, originally a primary teacher and now a talented chef who nurtured her passion on a cooking tour of France and Italy.

"When our family had a beach shack at Dromana in the Fifties, it was a house of the bare essentials - kero lamps and candles, a wood stove and a chip heater for the weekly bath! Like camping.

"But the natural landscape was still wild and beautiful. I decided later that my idea of camping was a five-star, luxury hotel amongst quiet and magnificent scenery. And this is it!"

Brian, who is the host at the small hotel, says: "We're going to miss some of our interesting guests. One was director of France's division of the World Bank. He saw the film The Man from Snowy River and wanted to ride the high plains himself.

So he flew out from Paris, booked the whole hotel and enjoyed the adventure immensely.

"And there was another top-level, American Exon executive, who booked the whole property so he could go fly fishing in a peaceful environment. So we organised

a silver-service picnic lunch for him, by the Acheron River, under a huge red gum with

only a herd of black angus cows for company. He found it very relaxing."

Indeed, the living is secluded and stylish here in the mountains.

The Boschler plan is a sawtooth design, with the four bedroom suites angled at 45 degrees to maintain privacy. Each has an ensuite tiled in polished blue quartz - the same material used in the late Christopher Skase's Quintex offices. No expense has been spared.

The front lobby is decorated with a specially commissioned Charles Billich painting - a surreal depiction of this heady mountain scene.

The sitting and adjoining dining rooms are divided by a central open fireplace.

There's a library and then the kitchen, a chef's delight with a bank of European appliances amongst the granite-topped, black Imperite.

The top storey holds the main bedroom suite ... "blue to match the sky," Brian says.

Another three levels on the sloping, northern side comprise garaging for four cars and a boat, the bedroom wing and an 18-square recreation room, including a billiard table, wood-fired pizza oven and a 1500-bottle cellar ... what a playroom!

Eucalypt Ridge could be an up-market bed and breakfast, corporate retreat or your private getaway residence, less than two hours from Melbourne.

COUNTRY

Agent's quote $1.5 million plus

Bedrooms 5

Agent Castran Gilbert

Telephone 0418 313 038 (Paul Castran) or 0418 326 401 (Dennis Gilbert)

Auction Wednesday, April 9 at 2pm in the Toorak Room at Como Hotel Melbourne

© 2003 The Age

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