Andrew Hilton

Wildewood, Wildes Meadow

We were eager to leave the big smoke in '98, our second child Melanie was in her last year of school. At that time I was working in a dual diagnosis rehab in Austral, south west Sydney about 7 miles from Liverpool. The environs of Camden was a possibility, mid North Coast, lots of places but we settled on a place in early '99 in the Southern Highlands called Wildes Meadow. At Wollongong Uni. in the early 70's discovered the beauty of the south coast and Kangaroo Valley where I used to work and hang out at a Quaker farm, but I never really knew Mittagong, Bowral, Moss Vale. As a kid travelled on the old Hume Highway mostly at night headed for the snowfields. But sixteen years later I can say I know and am involved in the place, even feel a sense of the spirituality of the landscape. We live on a bit over five acres with cats, wombats, snakes, donkeys, an alpaca, chickens and dogs, not to mention hundreds of trees and landscaped gardens. I'm often hanging out in a shed up the back with my vinyl records, still the same cliche tastes, turntable, valve amplifier, books, well you get the picture:

Home garden at Wildes Meadow, Southern Highlands

Andrew Hilton and Ric Chau on visit from Canada.