SA’s historic Anlaby Station axes Spring Festival to focus on sale

The owners of Australia’s oldest merino stud are shutting down a much-loved garden festival to focus on the sale of their 187-year-old farming property.Anlaby Station owners Andrew Morphett and Peter Hayward say this weekend’s Spring Festival – which has drawn thousands of visitors to their historic home over the past 14 years – will be their last.Anlaby Station, a historic SA farming property just north of Kapunda.The couple, who put their farm on the market almost a year ago, said hosting the two-day event along with maintaining the 745ha property, near Kapunda on the edge of SouthAustralia’s Barossa Valley, and continuing their other business interests had become too much.“It’s such a big event – it is just a huge undertaking and to give it the attention we would like means we’re not able to give the attention to everything else we would like to do to sell the property,’’ Mr Morphett said.It includes 745ha with a collection of Victoria and Edwardian-era buildings.The historic homestead is impressive inside.“Most people think (the end of the festival means Anlaby) has sold – no it’s not sold.“When we went to market a year ago we said we would do business as usual, which we have d...