Hilltop HAVEN

Owned by financier Mark Bouris, Belle Helena is a family holiday house, a working farm and a luxury getaway all in one.

- Eliza O'Hare

More than 20 years ago, Mark Bouris bought a rural getaway in the hills of the Byron Shire, NSW, for him and his sons. Now, its most recent transformation has elevated it to a luxury retreat built for fun and as a place for guests to enjoy.

Sitting halfway between the beaches of Byron Bay and the charming village (and great pub) of Bangalow, Mark’s Belle Helena is settled on a golden spot, at the peak of the St Helena Mountain ridge, with majestic views across lush farmland dotted with weatherboard Queenslanders and back out to the vast east coastline.

Originally a dairy farm, this 80-hectare property came onto the market when Norco closed down in the local area and left the dairy industry reduced. “I just wanted a place to go with my sons. I wanted something that had all the qualities of a farm, but I also wanted to be able to look at the sea,” Mark explains. And he got exactly that.

The first job was populating the property with 10,000 trees, the next was fencing all the paddocks. This is still a working cattle-fattening farm with livestock on site, so roads needed to be built to connect sheds to the cattle nursery and up to the houses and main road.