Traditional country living in Echunga
This traditional late Victorian farmhouse-style home sits on 71 acres of land and enjoys vast views of Adelaide.
Chris Bates built his wife’s dream house more than a decade ago when they moved to their 71-acre property in Echunga.
Having previously lived in the country before moving closer to the city for their children’s’ schooling, Chris and Michelle were “itching” to get back to country living.
“We found this place that had views forever, and it was a clean slate,” says Chris, a semi-retired builder.
“Because we’d been on acreage before we lived in the city, it was about getting back to what we loved, which was having space around us.”
Michelle had always loved Anne of Green Gables and wanted a weatherboard house in the New England and Southern Canadian style of the nineteenth-century fictional house.
An open living and dining area and American oak floorboards through the entirety of the home – including the bathrooms and kitchen – were non-negotiables of their new build and, of course, the weatherboard exterior.
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Chris and Michelle have around 50 belted Calloway cows and four chickens along with a large vegetable garden with 16 raised beds.
“We eat our own animals, we eat our own eggs, we heat our own meat off the property,” Chris says.
“I like getting up on a Saturday morning, having a hot coffee and cooking some eggs, and even a T-bone steak for breakfast … and that’s that moment where you can just sit back and enjoy the property.”
The two acres of landscaping surrounding the house had to stay within the Anne of Green Gables aesthetic.
“Because Michelle loves that North American look and feel, it’s all pines and deciduous trees, so we’ve got lots of maples and lots of latent pines and blue pines and Japanese maples and pear trees,” Chris says.
Chris and Michelle named the property Pear Tree Farm after the old pear tree at the bottom of their property that Chris estimates to be at least 150 years old, so they have also planted lots of non-fruiting pear trees around the house.
In the decade since they built the house, they haven’t carried out any major renovations but Chris says they have always “kept chipping away”.
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They added a swimming pool, changed the colour of the exterior to be lighter and brighter, enclosed a part of the outdoor living area with floor-to-ceiling glass and added solar panels and batteries.
Chris wanted the batteries stored away from the house because of the potential fire threat, so he built a potting shed in the same style of the house to conceal them.
“Michelle said to me ‘you’re not putting a tin shed in my front yard’… so I had to build it with a 35-degree pitch and in exactly the same weatherboard as the house, so it looks really sweet,” Chris says.
Because they have so much land, they have loved hosting some milestone events — their eldest daughter was married on the property and their two sons hosted their engagement parties there.
Now retired with the kids having all moved out, Chris and Michelle are leaving Pear Tree Farm to downsize.
“I will miss the views … I feel like we can see forever here and we’ve never gotten sick of the views,” Chris says.
“I love the view on the clear days where you can see easily over 100 kilometres, and the sunrises and the sunsets are absolutely magnificent.
“We’ve loved living here, we love the land, we love the neighbours, we love the location.
“We’ll be really sad to go but we feel like it is the right thing to do … at our time in life, we don’t need a big four-bedroom house, and we hope that some other family gets to enjoy it.”
The sale of 150 Anderson Road, Echunga, is being handled by Belle Ker and Harry Shorland on Harcourts Adelaide Hills.
