The garden at Bank House

A romantic country garden in Victoria’s Central Highlands.

The garden set in the rich volcanic farmland north of Ballarat, just south of Daylesford. We are 550 metres above sea level with very distinct changes of the seasons; we are on the side of a gentle hill with great views out across the surrounding countryside at the top of the garden.

The house dates from the late 19th century and was originally a branch of the Bank of Australasia. It was once surrounded by a hive of rural activity at southern end of the village of Newlyn with a railway station next door and a chaff mill opposite; now it is in a quiet rural setting amidst farming activity. The 1.5 acre garden is influenced by English gardens we have visited and been inspired by and is divided in to separate garden rooms, each with their own identity.

From the road there is little sense of the garden that sits hidden behind the house. We enter the garden through an arch in a privet hedge; close to the house, woodland plants shelter under old trees including two walnuts, an acer and some elderly rhododendrons planted by other gardeners that preceded us; hellebores and snowdrops are gradually naturalising underneath. Behind the house, a rustic stone terrace leads up to four formal parterre beds with a loose, informal planting beginning with tulips and followed by old roses and annuals. Going through another arch in a hornbeam hedge leads you through to an “anteroom” of scots roses before being drawn up the central pear walk which terminates with a pair of antique iron gates at the top of the hill. To either side of the pear walk, other garden rooms reveal themselves including the vegetable garden, grass garden, hornbeam walk and woodland of beech and oak.

The garden is bordered to the east and west with a loose hedgerow with planting including hawthorn, echoing the remnant hawthorn field hedging in the area from early settlers who used it as a field boundary planting. We have incorporated a greater variety of hawthorns including Washington thorn, which has lovely autumn colour and is very drought hardy.

Bank House has been featured in Country Style magazine in July 2014 and February 2015 and in Australian House and Garden in August 2019. While it is mostly our private garden, we occasionally open the garden to share it with visitors.