Yass property to earn its living after multi-million dollar renovation

When Lee Pinder first viewed the Yass property then known as Blackburn, it wasn’t the grand staircase that attracted him. Nor was it the nine oversized bedrooms, 14 fireplaces, or the 96 acres of sprawling grounds; it was the English elm trees.

“It was up for auction in the first week of December in 2019, the year with the bushfires. I came down to see it; the paddocks were dry; it had been overgrazed but the homestead was surrounded by English elm trees which in the UK are all dead. They died from Dutch elm disease in the 80s. It’s in my DNA – I saw the English elms and wanted to hug them,” says Lee, a UK native who now declares himself a proud Australian.

With a romantic nature, Lee was also struck by the homestead’s likeness to Tara from Gone with the Wind, a comparison that Lee fears shows his age.

Romantic sentiments of Blackburn are also reflected in historical newspaper articles, with a 1948 publication referring to it as one of the finest homesteads in the district and making the comment that the gardens looked a picture.

As the successful bidders on the homestead with a guide price of $1.4 million, Lee and his partner Edward Wakatama moved into the dilapidated property and embarked on a four-and-a-half-year restoration, which was documented by the Fremantle media production, Restoration Australia.

Lee and Edward’s intention was to make the homestead – dating back to 1895 and once a part of a 60,000-acre sheep station established by John Barber Smith in the late 1860s – a working property again.

“These homesteads get stranded; if not given a reason to exist, they fall apart,” says Lee.

With Lee’s background in property investment and Edward coming from an interiors background, it wasn’t sheep that was going to give the renamed Highclere Farm its future. The couple was set on turning it into a wedding, events and private hire venue.

Before their vision was to come to fruition, there was a pandemic to navigate and Lee and Edward found themselves camped at Highclere, cooking their meals on the verandah and bringing the 900-sqm, Victorian Italianate mansion back to life.

“The first night we had a glass of champagne and could hear the rats behind us, and then half the house’s power went; it just shut down. We had one hot water tap; the services had gone,” says Lee.

Looking beyond the rats, Lee has a keen eye for a house with good bones.

“I liked the layout of the house; it wasn’t higgledy-piggledy; it had a great main hall with a six-flight staircase. The render was in poor condition, but it didn’t have structural issues; I could see it could be polished.”

The multi-million dollar restoration was carefully conducted by Lee and Edward who have coined their own term for the final finish: elegance redefined.

“We wanted to bring that sense of the contemporary heritage so it wasn’t all magnolia, brown furniture and doilies,” explains Lee.

“We’ve deliberately restored it to retain the humanity of the building; we didn’t want to strip it and make it all brand new and sterilise its history – you might as well live in a new build. We’ve restored all the locks, for example, and the stair keepers; we could have gotten all those new from the UK, but we’ve polished the originals and kept the dents to retain that human touch.”

Designed as a business proposition, Highclere is also Lee and Edward’s home, with the couple living full-time onsite.

The main house now has 10 bedrooms and space for 20 guests, including the new Tower Suite that the couple created to add to the functionality of the house.

This unique private hire proposition sees the couple fervently pitching to wedding and corporate bookers with their intention of moving into what they call their little Paris apartment in the former maid’s quarters, when the house is under hire.

With apparent boundless energy, Lee looks to the future in the hopes of the business being really successful, which will allow them to build a replica of the stables on their land and a studio in one of the outbuildings.

Lee and Edward will be hosting a wedding open day on Sunday 30 March with free tickets available through eventbrite.

The Highclere Farm episode of Renovation Australia will air in early April and can be streamed on iview.

For more information on Highclere Farm, head to its website which includes a comprehensive history on the property.