COUNTRY charmer

A pocket-sized cabin in northern NSW offers an immersive rural experience for those who stay in it.

- Chris Pearson

Despite its 24-square-metre size – that’s less than a shipping container – this weekender at Wollombi, in the Hunter region of NSW, delivers spectacular experiences on a grand scale. With soaring eucalypts on one side and a meadow with billabong on the other, nature is literally at the doorstep. Open the doors and any sense of separation from the great outdoors simply slides away.

“My wife, Shirani, and I grew up in the New Zealand countryside,” says owner Michael Clark. “We spent most of our holidays camping in beautiful locations around the South Island, so we wanted others to benefit from a similar connection with nature.”

The idea for this rural retreat, named ‘Billy’s Hideaway’ after a local bushranger, was sparked after the couple visited another wilderness cabin in NSW’s Kangaroo Valley in 2020. Designed by architect Madeleine Blanchfield, it had a bathroom set 30 metres away from the house – a so-called mirror-clad ‘outhouse’ (voted Best Outdoor Room in H&G’s Top 50 Rooms of 2019) – that disappeared into the foliage. And anyone inside soaked up nature, as well as the suds, through one-way glass. “Madeleine’s work stood out to us as beautiful, elegant and timeless, which aligned with the relaxed luxury we wanted to create here,” says Michael.