ph: 03 9751 0154
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June Winter Escape
A bonus pot of soup with bread and a bottle of bubbly. Enjoy a midweek break for three days for $650 in the cottage and $550 in the Garden Suite. We can't promise snow but the air is bracing and feels so clean! Offer only applies if you ring directly 9751 0154.
contact us
20 Woolrich Road, Olinda
Victoria 3788, Australia
Host : Mary & Ches Mason
Melways : Map 122 B9
Phone : 03 97510154
Mobile : 0447686560
Guest Comments
What an absolute delight it was to stay! Mary was very hospitable Nothing was too much trouble. The food that was left for our breakfasts We're huge and delicious !! The garden suite was very warm and welcoming. The gardens were a delight! We had the best four nights at Woolwich Retreat! Thank you again! Murray and Judy whiteApr, 2012 - Garden Suite at Woolrich
One word to describe the whole experience - exceptional! We travel quite extensively and mostly stay in self contained cotttages etc This is, without doubt, one of the best, if not the best we have ever stayed in. Beautiful surroundings, stunning accommodation with everything we could want or need catered for. You have done a fantastic job - truly a home away from home. Thankyou for the experience! We are now considering changing our travel plans to the Grampians in July to Woolrich instead. Thankyou so much!Mar, 2012 - Woolrich Retreat
Rangeview Gardens
Ted Woolrich, the son of the original settlers of the ten acre allotment of Rangeview and what is presently Cloudehill, was amongst the first nurserymen in the hills and established his Range View nursery in 1917. His mother arrived in Olinda in 1862. Ted Woolrich also helped establish the National Rhododendron Gardens and entered a display into the Garden Show in St Kilda Road every year. He was so well-known hat his catalogues were bequeathed to the Royal Botanic Garden Herbarium. Iris Woolrich, Ted’s wife, was the first proprietor of the Cuckoo, then called Quambie. Their original cottage built in 1920 is now Woolrich Retreat, the accommodation on the site.
Woolrich Woods are mature and secret.. A small dell is overhung by a huge weeping beech. A giant American tulip tree rears up from the end of a narrow path. There is an azalea maze of Kurume azaleas, the first to be planted in Australia. In the gazebo area there is a mass of camellias, and on the bottom path a forest of rhododendrons, their blossoms only visible from above, Keith Purves, the previous owner of Range View cleared the site of blackberries and established the paths. We have used our energies building rock walls from stone gathered on the site to combat the lyrebirds who constantly erode the banks; tree works to improve the health of existing trees which when we bought the property needed great care; and the clearing of weeds and replacement of the ground layer of plantings – a process which continues. We have been helped in this by our gardener, Matt Nadji and the gardeners of Cloudehill.
We suggest those exploring Woolrich look for lyrebirds. Most guests catch glimpses of them. A colony of them live in the gully below the property and they wander into the woodlands constantly. We also have wombats although no one ever seems to glimpse them. The occasional wallaby visits.
Next door we have Cloudehill to which our guests have free entry. It is one of the most beautiful gardens in Australia and has an international reputation. Developed by Jeremy Francis in the early nineties, it is constantly being transformed. It is divided into some twenty rooms in the style of properties such as Hidcote in England. It includes herbaceous and shrub borders, a tree peony collection, spring bulb meadow, and a green theatre. It also now has a restaurant, Seasons; open for breakfast, lunch, and morning and afternoon teas.
Woolrich – “a magical paradise” – “so hard to leave behind”
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