Impressive gardens and an array of wildlife have called 130 Hyslops Rd, Boneo, home for decades.
The Melbourne couple behind one of Victoria’s top tourist destinations have made a heartbreaking decision to sell the $11m garden estate where they “effectively live in a zoo”.
Nick Smith, son of Sale of Century and Channel 9 announcer Pete Smith, and his wife Annemaree Van Rooy bought the Boneo farm on the Mornington Peninsula 30 years ago and have spent the following decades establishing an incredible array of 22 distinct gardens and has regularly featured on shows from Postcards to Gardening Australia.
The spectacular 130 Hyslops Rd property known as Azure on Panorama’s residents include a mob of kangaroos, including a dozen rare albinos, peacocks, swans, geese, emus, wallabies, alpacas, miniature horses, pigs, about 50 chickens, ducks and quails.
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“It’s a very unique situation to walk out your front door in the morning and there’s an emu standing there,” Mr Smith said.
“We effectively live in a zoo. And it’s amazing.”
The pair renamed it from Panorama Garden Estate when they added resort-style features a few years ago, including a heated magnesium bath, sauna and plunge pool.
It’s now regularly booked out a month in advance, has a five-star rating on TripAdvisor and has collected the site’s Traveller’s Choice gong.
Some of the gardens feature sculptures inspired by the owners’ young relatives.
A garden inspired by the universe includes a model of the solar system at its heart.
The owners have established a well-regarded spa destination on the property.
The property’s wildlife is shielded from foxes and feral cats by a 2.5m high electric fence that wraps around 2km of the property, which is more than 22ha in size.
The animals, as well as visiting guests, roam around the property’s 22 different gardens, with Mr Smith’s personal highlights including a 1.6ha “crater” garden: “a 9m deep hole” he excavated himself over the span of a month, then lined with 3000 tonnes of rocks and boulders it took a decade to collect from a local quarry.
“When I finished that hole after a month, the machinery constantly getting bogged as it had been raining, I was thinking what the hell have I done,” he said.
“But it’s the biggest of the gardens and took the most work. And I don’t think anyone would be doing that again.”
The estate’s crater garden was inspired by a collapsed volcano in South Africa.
Panorama Gardens Estate in Boneo (Now Azure on Panorama) have many albino animals including Alexander the white peacock, and this joey born to a brown kangaroo. Picture: Alex Coppel.
A barn at the property is surrounded by impressive gardens.
Other gardens on the property include a rainforest along a fern-lined creek fed by a bore on the farm, an orchard terrace with a mix of fruit trees from apples to oranges, a lavender rockery, a sunken rose garden, a lake filled with Murray cod and yellow belly perch and bass surrounded by 8m-high date palms and even a “universal garden” inspired by the universe and featuring a solar system sculpture at its heart.
There’s also Moroccan reflection ponds, gardens with statues of their grand daughters, a par 3 golf hole and a separate putting green at the very top of the farm where the water views extend across Bass Straight and drink in everything from Lorne and Jan Juc to Point King at Portsea and the Westgate Bridge on a clear day.
Owner and creator Nick Smith with partner Annemaree Van Rooy and their dog Ralph and Molly the sheep with Palm Lake in the background in 2015.. Picture: Jason Sammon.
A rare white peacock at the garden estate. Picture: Jake Nowakowski.
The sprawling estate spans a significant 22ha.
“Half my heart will always be here … it could be more than half,” Mr Smith said.
“It has consumed me for 30 years. We have spent millions building the gardens, even with me doing a lot of it — to get it professionally done would be impossible.
“There’s nothing like this in Australia, and I’ve been overseas looking at gardens 25 times and there’s nothing like this anywhere.”
The only thing they didn’t do was build a house to match the location, with the couple expecting the next owners could spend as much as $10m building a dream mansion on the property where they have lived in a luxury barn for the past few decades.
“And they’d probably sell the whole lot for $30m after that’s built,” Mr smith said.
Views from the property extend across the Victorian coast line and into the blue of the ocean.
The vast scale of the estate means visiting all of its gardens as well as the spa is an hours-long activity.
Tory the Scottish Highland Bull has also been among the estate’s residents. Picture: Jason Sammon.
The next owners could be getting their own chance to buy a zoo or wildlife sanctuary, as while the pair will take a few animals they have a more personal connection with to their next home, for the right buyer they’re open to leaving many behind.
Mr Smith said with the native wildlife taking care of themselves, the only ones really needing any effort put into them were the pigs, miniature horse, alpacas and the chooks — though the latter produced a steady supply of fresh eggs.
Christie’s International Real Estate Victoria principal Sean Cussell is handling the sale of the estate which includes a five-bedroom, two-bathroom home, a separate barn and machinery shed, stables, a loft, billiards room and a barbecue pavilion.
Mr Smith tees off at the estate’s par three golf hole in 2015. Picture: Jason Sammon.
A baby albino kangaroo on the hop at the estate. Picture: Tim Carrafa.
The animals on the farm their lives like a pig in … well, mud. Picture: Jason Sammon.
“There is simply nothing else like Azure on Panorama in Victoria, or in Australia,” Mr Cussell said.
“It is a once-in-a-generation estate that combines world-class landscaping and conservation
initiatives to create an unparalleled residential oasis, wellbeing retreat and hospitality
destination just an hour’s drive from Melbourne’s CBD.”
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