Nina Williams and Warren Drake were looking for a change when they packed up their camper trailer and left Perth for a lap of Australia.

They were passing through Adelaide when Warren, who had recently decided he wanted a career change, heard about a job as a sales manager for a small South Australian company.

“Next thing you know, we were moving,” says Nina, a ceramicist and photographer.

“We came here with absolutely no idea about Adelaide or where we’d like to live.”

Nina is originally from New Zealand and Warren is from Queensland and, while they have both moved around a lot, they hadn’t spent much time in Adelaide, so their house search spanned a variety of suburbs.

They were on their way back from inspecting a property in the Hills when they saw an ‘open house’ flag at 709 Greenhill Road.

“It hadn’t even come up in our search, and so we had a look and the rest is history,” Nina says.

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While the natural light and generous proportions of the home were some of its best selling points, it was the view that took their breath away.

A wall of windows looks out to an expansive deck and pool and, beyond that, sweeping views over the city and all the way to the bay.

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As a landscape photographer and a lover of wildlife and nature, Nina appreciates this strong connection to the outdoors.

“Standing in the lounge room, you can see 180 degrees, you can see all the way to Glenelg, you can see Mount Lofty if you’re out on the deck,” she says.

“And the light in the house changes so much throughout the day and I’m really fascinated by light.

“When you’re inside you still feel like you’re outside.”

The connection to the outdoors is strong even in areas of the home that don’t look out to the spectacular view.

Nina is also a keen gardener, and she has spent the past seven years, since they moved in in 2019, curating the garden around the home so that each room has its own connection to nature.

“Every time someone is in a guest room, I wanted them to have their own little zone, and their own garden,”she says.

“I wanted the garden to look good while you’re in it, but more importantly, there’s a beautiful view from inside.”

But this has been no small task.

There are multiple garden beds surrounding the home that each receive varying lightthroughout the day, so Nina has divided the garden into 13 zones.

For instance, one area is exposed to sun all day, so she has planted native grasses and Perth pink bottlebrush to cope with the heat and to attract bees and birdlife.

Moving up the slope of the property, another zone that is shaded most of the day is lush with dianellas, cyclamen and other plants that thrive in the shade.

“I think if you go with the flow, you end up with a much better result than trying to keep something alive that just doesn’t want to be there,” Nina says.

“I do kind of love that challenge as well and it’s actually been very cool to not let it defeat me and to go, ‘I’m going to get something growing here, come hell or high water’.”

Four bedrooms, three bathrooms and two living areas across two levels and more than 1300 square metres might sound like a lot for just two people, but Nina says the generous proportions are something she is going to miss most.

Built by Serenity Homes in 2013, this Greenhill Road property won the HIA SA award for Use of a Sloping Building Site in 2014 and Nina – who is “absolutely mad about architecture”, – says the quality of the build is evident in the high end finishes and sturdy materials.

Warren and Nina are once again packing up the camper trailer to move back out west, this time to the Ningaloo Coast, where Nina plans to spend her days exploring another of her passions: marine life.

The sale of 709 Greenhill Road, Burnside, is being handled by Brandon Pilgrim and Nick Griguol of Ray White Burnside.