217 Mcallisters Road, Bilambil Heights
On the elevated plateau of Ella’s Farm, where the rolling hills of the Tweed Valley meet the ocean, a planet-focused farming venture awaits its new owner.
Ella Forsythe searched for years for the ideal location to build her northern NSW rural oasis with daughter, Libby, but knew at once when she’d found it.
Libby and Ella Forsyth, of Ella’s Farm at Bilambil Heights.
“When I drove up the hill I just fell in love with it. My granddaughter, who would have been about eight at the time, said, ‘Nana, we are on top of the world’,” Ella said.
“It has such a beautiful, peaceful country feel, but you are only 15 minutes from the beach. It doesn’t matter where you walk on the property, you have ocean views stretching in front of you and at night you can see the lights of the Gold Coast skyline.”
Taking on the 8.01ha parcel at 217 McAllisters Road, Bilambil Heights in 2016, she transformed the property into a permaculture farm with a scattering of unique buildings.
The property is marketed via an expressions of interest campaign
On top of the world
Now, it is time for the next steward of the land to steer it forward, with the property for sale via an expressions of interest campaign with Harcourts Coastal agents, Sean Lewis and Dax Roep.
Alongside the recently renovated four-bedroom dual-living farmhouse, there’s a striking dome handcrafted from aircrete, a traditional Mongolian yurt, a log cabin and tiny home with a commercial kitchen, four one-bedroom garden studios, and a bell tent.
“The intention was to have a variety of alternative structures so that I could demonstrate small footprint buildings that have a soul,” Ella said.
The main house has been renovated
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Marketing agent Mr Lewis said the property’s R1 General Residential zoning under the Tweed planning scheme, “opens up exciting possibilities, including the potential for subdivision into minimum 450 sqm lots”.
Short-term opportunities included a “prestigious residential home site, wedding and entertainment venue, farm stay health retreat, or a cafe”.
Mr Roep said permanent rental income from the farmhouse and two smaller dwellings covered holding costs for the property, supplemented by takings from the farming and tourism enterprise.
The dome
Unique event spaces
Workshop clients paid from $100 for a single class, to $15,000 for the 8-week permaculture design course, while events and location hire brought in up to around $2000 per day.
“These all provide a superb lifestyle and holding income until such time as the site is subdivided into premium residential homesites with ocean views,” Mr Roep said.
Ella grew up on a rural property west of Brisbane. After a career spanning high school teaching and environmental science, she “came full circle”, aiming to nurture the earth and grow nutritious, organic food to share with family, and the wider community.
An aerial view showing the yurt
A yoga workshop was recently held here
Libby, a doctor, explored preventive, holistic approaches to health after working in the overwhelmed public hospital system.
The farm was developed over four years in line with permaculture principles, which provided a framework for reducing waste, reusing, recycling and generating the planet, and our connection with it.
It can exist entirely off-grid, with systems to retain water ensuring the property is resistant to both flood and drought.
In 2019, Ella’s Farm opened to the public, hosting workshops, farm tours, volunteer days, and gourmet picnics.
A bell tent on the property
But Libby was called back over the border in 2020 to assist with the pandemic’s unfolding medical emergency, and Ella, aged in her 60s, is selling up to spend more time with her eight grandchildren.
“The people before me had cleared almost every tree off the place and there was just a little sliver on the one boundary. I’m very proud of where we’ve got to now.
“We’ve got over 500 different species of trees, but it hasn’t taken away from the feeling of being on top of the world — it has just added to it.
“A lot of work has gone into the farm and I just hope the people who purchase it look after the land and enjoy it as much as I have,” she said.
Expressions of interest close November 23.
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