News Corp Australia
First published 29 Jan 2026, 1:18pm
Renowned Adelaide artist John Dallwitz is selling his Fleurieu Peninsula sanctuary and has stern words for anyone wishing to purchase it.
“It’s not just a house, it’s a conservation project,” said Mr Dallwitz, who is equally recognised as a painter, photographer, architect and building and landscape specialist.
“Yes, you are getting a beautiful house to live in but … we don’t want to conceal that this is a conservation piece of land and (the buyer) needs to be somebody that’s … prepared to keep on looking after the vegetation and the property and make it better.
113 Maple Lane, Hay Flat. Supplied
The eclectic home. Supplied
Inside the artist’s home. Supplied
“We want that to be the focus (priority of the new owner). Otherwise, we’re not going to sell it to them.”
Mr Dallwitz, the son of the late jazz musician and abstract artist David Dallwitz, created the stunning off-grid home, at 113 Maple Lane, Hay Flat, with his sculptor wife Dora in 2014.
While the four-bedroom residence is certainly impressive, with expansive views of the valley and coastline and timber ceiling beams, doors, windowsills, skirting boards and architraves crafted from a single red gum tree found fallen in a Barossa Valley paddock, it’s the 10.93ha of land Mr Dallwitz is most proud of.
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With the assistance of conservation grants, made possible through the property’s listing on the South Australian native vegetation register, the couple have eradicated most of the weeds that once dominated the site and replaced them with native plant species.
One of the quirky bedrooms. Supplied
The bathroom and laundry. Supplied
The view from the living room window. Supplied
Birds and wildlife flourish in the restored environment – Nature Conservation Society surveys reveal that of 175 properties in the Mount Lofty Ranges, the Dallwitz property ranks second in terms of bird abundance and is in the top third for bird diversity.
“We’ve got two birdbaths and at this time of year we have to fill them up twice a day or the birds come and knock on the windows saying, ‘Where are you? We want a drink’,” Mr Dallwitz said.
John Dallwitz with his sculptor wife Dora in 2000.
Mr Dallwitz from the Social History Unit of Pitjantjatjara Council with the exhibition ‘Ara Irititja’ on display at Flinders Medical Centre in 2006. Picture: ROGER WYMAN
Mr Dallwitz in 1974 with his “relic wall” at his Coromandel Valley home. Some of the old farm equipment in the display came from the Monarto area.
Some of those relics can be seen at his Hay Flat home. Supplied
“We’ve got finches, wrens (and) honeyeaters. There’s at least 50 (bird) species that come and feed right in front of our windows.
“We’ve got kangaroos and there’s also an occasional echidna that walks past the window.
“We also get antechinus, a native marsupial mouse that looks like a tiny shrew, that eat insects and mice. We don’t have any normal (rodent) mice because they’re actually eaten by the antechinus.”
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Mr Dallwitz, 84, who wished he had built the home “20 years earlier”, said a need to move closer to medical facilities and family in Adelaide was behind the sale of the property.
He said it had inspired many of the couple’s more recent artistic endeavours, with a 2023 art exhibition featuring abstract photographs Mr Dallwitz had taken at the property.
While regretful, he said the sale showed the property had come full circle.
The property really pulls the birds. Supplied
Mr Dallwitz says the home’s picturesque surroundings are to be preserved. Supplied
SA artist, the late David Dallwitz.
Painting “Two Gums” 1980 by David Dallwitz.
“That’s art, I suppose,” Mr Dallwitz said. “You make it and then you hand it on to someone else.
“We’ve loved working on (creating this property) and now we’ve got to hand it on like you do any piece of art.”
The property, which has been advertised without a price guide, is listed with Michelle Korakianitis and Travis Aurelius of Harcourts Packham Property.
– by Lauren Ahwan
English (US) · 