BlackBook Country Escape The tree-lined drive leading to the lodge at Dairy Flat by Lake House Life on the Farm The latest venture from Daylesford’s Wolf-Tasker family allows guests to immerse themselves, with exceptional comfort, in the day-to-day life of a working property. By Carrie Hutchinson As the glass door slides back to reveal the deck of a Vineyard Suite, a pair of crimson rosellas takes off, flying into the distance, and a rabbit bounds beyond the grapes and hides in the grass. It’s summer in Musk, a tiny community outside Victoria’s spa town of Daylesford, and today’s guests are still to arrive at Dairy Flat by Lake House. 34 CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM
Everything on the property is coming back to life – all thanks to regenerative farming practices, composting and companion planting After a false start – thanks to Victoria’s pandemic lockdown – this new agriturismo-style venture is finally welcoming a constant flow of visitors. Not that the time without guests was wasted. Dairy Flat by Lake House is the latest project from the Wolf-Tasker family. For more than three decades, chef Alla Wolf-Tasker has helmed the exquisite and much-awarded Lake House, with its boutique accommodation, spa, cooking school and restaurant, all while championing local producers. It had always been her intention to have a small farm to augment what was already available in the area, but this turned out to be a much bigger project than imagined. “This property came up and it had such great bones and so many opportunities,” says Larissa Wolf-Tasker, Lake House brand manager and Alla’s daughter. “And that happened at the same time as us running out of room in the kitchen. The bakers were coming in at 2am so they could be finished in time for pastry to make a start.” They bought the property in 2018, after it had been left empty for almost six years. The bakers moved into a cellar – it’s linked to the lodge by a tunnel – almost immediately, while work began on restoring the large home as well as the 16 hectares of surrounding land. “When we got here there were beautiful espaliered fruit trees in the courtyard, but they were so overgrown we had no idea what they were,” says Larissa. It was the same story for the vineyards and huge ornamental hedges that had originally been planted in the 1980s. Now everything is coming back to life, alongside the additions of kitchen garden, orchard and growing tunnels – all thanks to regenerative farming practices, composting and companion planting. So bountiful is the harvest that a small farm shop is due to open to sell what can’t be used. The lodge itself, with its living room, library, kitchen and four bedrooms spread across two wings – along with two separate suites in a converted barn – is immaculately decorated. Locally made furniture pieces, botanical illustrations that take inspiration from the garden, and artworks by Allan Wolf-Tasker all feature. Live-in concierge Lucinda Tindal is on hand to make cocktails, organise meals and plans, and generally ensure guests have everything they require for a restorative country break. What is unusual – for Australia, at least – is that Dairy Flat at Lake House is mostly exclusive › The elegantly decorated rooms at Dairy Flat by Lake House; clockwise from top left: the lounge; library; a bedroom in Southern Suite V; the lodge’s kitchen area CENTURION-MAGAZINE.COM 35
