SUMMER LOVING

A contemporary reworking of the traditional has created a mesmerising home with an unbreakable link to history.

- DEBORAH BIBBY

It’s hard to imagine a setting more beautiful than a historied home sitting on the very edge of a bay, perched high and with banksia-yellow shutters. It’s the kind of house you float past and dream of owning. Built-in 1862, Ventnor is said to be the oldest surviving home in Sydney’s north and today it remains one of the most visually dreamy, with the beach on one side and a wharf and boathouse on the other. You can only access Ventnor by boat, and it’s after you dock that the magic happens.

This page The boathouse features ‘Twiggy’ furniture including the coffee table and dining table and stools, modelled from foraged branches and reclaimed wood by Melbourne furniture maker and landscaper Greg Hatton. Opposite page One of the oldest homes on Sydney’s northern shores, Ventnor was built by William Oliver and his wife Mary in 1862. William was the son of parents transported to Australia in the 1790s, his father Henry convicted for stealing bacon, a finger of butter and two ducks, and his mother Margaret for taking fabric and bread. William and Mary turned the property into a “food bowl” and working farm with goats, fruit and olive trees, and a bakery on-site using local red gum to fire the oven. Salt was produced at nearby Scotland Island.