Raydon
— An Australian bush retreat

Raydon Aerial Photo (circa 1992) Download A4 Version — Adobe PDF (370 Kb)

Raydon was essentially a 33 hectare (82 acre) Australian bush retreat complete with three large dams, two (20,000 litre, 5,000 gallon) rainwater tanks and two large sheds. Buying the property in 1989 was a lifestyle choice for me — get out of the city, onto some acreage, with plenty of native wildlife and room for a horse or two. Selling the property in January 2008 began an exciting new stage in my life experience.

Horsing around at the back shed

The front dam was great to swim in. Even the wild ducks loved it. To make it even nicer for those people not venturing in for a dip, we built a shade house on the southern side where they could stay cool. (See the front dam on the "At Home" page).

The back dam had it's own "beach" and there has been many a good feed of yabbies (freshwater crayfish) caught there.

Bush Regeneration

The previous owner had started to clear some of the areas of majestic, old growth, box gum trees. I put a stop to that and allowed the bush to grow back wherever it wanted to.

Indeed, the great thing about the property was the way the native bush on the property grew back quickly. This enabled birds, possums and koalas to take up residence near the house.

There were a couple of mobs of kangaroos that would come through, with one regularly camping own for the night just to the South West of the house. A lovely mob of wallabies was frequently seen down near the front gate.

One of the mobs of kangaroos that come and visit. See how well their colour enables them to blend in with with their habitat.

With no fence around the house area, combined with a sheep and horses as pets, the large cut area the house sat on still had no proper garden. Eventually, I would have liked to establish a native bush garden in that area.

There was a large 7 metre by 14 metre enclosure for the dogs, just to the west of the house, in the shelter of a stand of old gum trees. In June 2006, Mick Gardiner and I covered a 3 metre by 4 metre corner of the enclosure to provide the dogs with even more protection from the elements.

The Name "Raydon"

I gave this rural retreat the name "Raydon". My great, great grandfather John Borrett gave the same name to his property near Langhorne Creek in South Australia back in the late 1800s. It was also the name my grandfather Robert Lewis Borrett gave to the house he built at 19 Ward Street, Whyalla, South Australia in the 1940s. Thus it seemed a highly appropriate name for my place as well.