The Wensley

On eighty acres of farmland behind Anglesea, a timber-clad house reached over its own bridge takes its cue from the Australian shed and the American ski chalet in equal measure. Architect Nick Byrne built it from recycled Oregon and salvaged ironbark pulled from demolished Melbourne buildings, with high ceilings and full-height glazing that keep the valley in view from almost every room. Interior designer Lisa Buxton set leather, brass and sun-worn colour against all that timber, and a loft with two queens and a king sits above two further bedrooms, sleeping up to ten. The whole estate is taken by one group at a time — no shared spaces, no other guests — with an open-plan kitchen built for actual cooking and a separate shed for overflow and laundry. It sits close enough to Lorne, Aireys Inlet and the restaurant Brae in Birregurra to anchor a longer Surf Coast trip, but the point of the place is the valley outside its windows and the quiet of having all eighty acres to yourself.