Banksia Hill
The Age
Friday September 13, 1996
JAN and Peter Grenfells' initial experience of life in the Wimmera in the early 1970s did not augur well: they arrived in the middle of a mouse plague. Every inch of their new home in Horsham was overrun - even their beds. Then there were the summers, the land baked dry by seemingly endless months of searing sun. It was a world away from verdant Red Hill on the Mornington Peninsula, where they had run a small farm.
They had moved for Peter's job, lecturing in farm business management at Longerenong Agricultural College at Horsham. In 1986, they bought a property just out of Horsham, with a vision in mind: growing native flowers. They started with 10 hectares of noxious weeds, some wattle and just two banksias on a sandy hill; 10 years later they have more than 5000 native plants - an oasis in this flat, yellow land.
Banksia Hill is now a thriving business, selling fresh and dried native flowers to Melbourne and local wholesalers, and to the public who visit the property. But it need not be a flying visit, for Banksia Hill also offers bed and breakfast accommodation in a picturesque setting alive with birdsong.
The accommodation includes a wing of the Grenfells' large, modern home and a converted carport. The wing section has its own entrance, two bedrooms (one double, one twin), a large lounge with television, and bathroom. The former carport is now a timber cottage with high beamed ceiling. It offers a bedroom and lounge area prettily decorated in floral themes, a large bathroom with disabled facilities, and views of garden and pool.
Guests have use of the in-ground swimming pool and barbecue, and are free to roam the property, with its never-ending rows of indigenous plants. If you're not a native plant lover, you might change your mind when you see the amazing variety, and the beauty, on display year-round at Banksia Hill. There are 55 species of banksia, as well as dryandra, isopogon, grevillea, hakea, kunzea and melaleuca. Large cootamundra wattle trees sweep the winding driveway.
Little wonder that Banksia Hill attracts myriad species of birds: rosellas, lorikeets, honeyeaters, doves, black cockatoos, finches, wrens, golden whistlers, owls, and even a pair of nesting tawny frogmouths.
Guests can also browse through the flower farm's drying shed and there's a little shop where you can spend up big on floral arrangements. But don't worry about buying a fresh bunch: you receive a complimentary bouquet, freshly picked, at the end of your stay.
A filling breakfast of free-range eggs, fresh fruit and juices, bread just out of the oven, cereals and home-made jams is served in the Grenfells' kitchen or dining room. Other meals can be arranged, including a candlelit dinner on top of nearby Mount Arapiles, a popular rock-climbing venue.
Mount Arapiles is always worth a visit, but especially at this time of the year - the spring flowering season. From now until around late November, the spectacular show of wildflowers will draw thousands of tourists to the Little Desert, 20 minutes west of Banksia Hill, and the Grampians, 45 minutes south-east. Heavy winter rains mean that flowering should last a few weeks longer than usual, and the land is lush and green.
Peter Grenfell can organise 4WD trips to the Little Desert, which is not a desert at all but 132,000 hectares of varied vegetation - about 670 species of native plants. I was ambivalent about native plants before my stay, now I'm a complete convert.
TRAVELOGUE.
Banksia Hill Hutchinsons Road, Quantong.
Tel/fax: (053) 840 264; mobile: (019) 455 286.
Take the Western Highway to Horsham then turn left on to the Wimmera Highway, en route to Natimuk. Turn left into Hutchinsons Road at Quantong after 15 kilometres. The drive from Melbourne takes about three-and-a-half hours.
Tariff: $60 single; $90 double. Includes breakfast and bouquet of fresh flowers.
No smoking indoors.
Disabled facilities in cottage.
RATING.
Why I'd go back: being a fledgling green thumb, I was in seventh-heaven, and I loved the birdlife. It is also an excellent base for exploring the Grampians and the Little Desert.
accommodation: ***; location: ***; hospitality: ****
© 1996 The Age
