Neil Varcoe was a tech executive in Sydney until he bought an old hotel in Carcoar, NSW, population 272. Here’s the 12th instalment of his monthly column for Galah.
The restoration and construction phase begins at Saltash Farm. Lot 1 in Carcoar opens a new chapter in a storied history. We begin.
Josh Nixon has the personality and dimensions of a happy bulldozer from a children's cartoon. Josh played Jersey Flegg for the Roosters before returning home to run three businesses in Blayney with his wife, Gabby. His earthworks and civil construction company was one of the first trades on site – clearing plumes of blackberry with an excavator. It felt fitting that JN Excavations rumbled through the gate on day one. Josh has begun the important work of shaping the ground for the builder, Aaron Howarth, and preparing the site for the landscape gardeners. We'll plant everything now so that when we swing open the gates in "late 2026," the gardens will be mature and thriving.
When we first met with locals in winter almost two years ago, we heard their pride in the gardens and their sadness at the state of them. As winter melted into spring, we threw ourselves into tidying up the grounds to reveal the heritage gardens and restore pride. We also wanted the community to know that we heard them.
Les Edwards and his team from ED Landscapes joined us. They maintain the grounds at Warramba, our regenerative farm in the Capertee Valley – a project that unearthed a passion for heritage restoration that led to three properties in seven years.
Les and the team have completed the structural work to prepare for planting. Recycled brick paths have been carefully levered up and cleaned, steel edging rims the garden beds, and a happy hum fills the air as electric-powered hedgers and saws trim unruly limbs. It feels good to see progress.
I have bought so many boxes of cold and flu medication that I'm probably on a watch list. Each day, my kids arrive home with finger painting and a superbug. Their button noses gush. They vomit on you in the middle of the night, then wake up like nothing happened.
You fix the artwork to the fridge with a magnet and wait a day or two to see if you have contracted whatever infection they picked up from the window licker at daycare. The germs mutate inside you and grow stronger, flattening you for days or weeks until the next virus presents like an unwanted house guest.
Edwina and I have spent most of the past eight weeks staggering forward – one shaking limb at a time. It's fine when your body aches with it – but what about the bit beforehand when you think everyone is a dickhead, but the problem is you?
I thought it was just that I didn't like having my photo taken. In fact, I hated having my picture taken so much that Edwina told our wedding photographer to "just surprise him." A cover shoot for Australian Women’s Weekly was not my ideal weekend activity.
When my bedroom door cracked open at 7 am with Edwina and a stylist – I offered to get coffee for the crew and returned three hours later. I had the strops – the "irritates," as my father would say (pronounced "ear-rits"). I was so slow getting started that they took the photos in the clothes I was wearing. It wasn't until the delightful team left that I went to bed and woke 12 hours later. Those glorious little monsters had got me again.
I struggled to regain my strength, so I stopped fighting it. I did half days for two weeks until my body wrestled it to the ground. Old Neil would have powered through, but I have learned an important lesson. If I fall over, so does the project – and too many people rely on me to muck it up.
In their recent book, Secrets from the Flower Farm, our friends at Starling Flowers (featured in Issue 12) share tips and tricks for growing incredible cut flowers even in the toughest conditions. Sign up for their newsletter for seasonal flower growing advice, our latest flower crushes and early access to dahlia tubers, spring bulbs and plant sales. Click here to visit Starling Farms.
RAG Status Reporting is used in project management to update executives quickly using a traffic light system. "Red" means trouble, "Amber" signals bumps in the road, and "Green" means everything is fine.
Please take a look at the most recent report below. We have boots on the ground. What can you bring to the table? Let’s align on the deliverables to drive unilateral growth across all verticals. Bring coffee.
The Project is On Track
Plants (224), recycled bricks (18,000), steel garden edging (240 metres), road base (71 tons), gravel (36 tons), compost (100 square metres), river sand (10 square metres), coffees (36), septic tanks (2).
Thank you to Starling Flowers for sponsoring today's We Bought a Hotel.
