Stylish hinterland villas embrace hot new farm stay trend

Lovers of farm stays have a lot to thank Italy for. A relatively new concept in Australia, it was as far back as 1965 that the term “agriturismo” was coined to describe the idea of farm tourism as a way of mitigating the post-World War II exodus from rural villages as the country embraced industrialisation and sought to expand from its primarily rural economy.

By some accounts it was eight years later, in 1973, that the first “Agriturismo” popped up and the concept was made official by law in 1985. Today you’ll see signs proclaiming a property’s involvement and availability on fence posts across the Italian countryside. It’s a heavily regulated sector and as such, generally a quality one, which has provided the benchmark internationally.

There’s no such regulation in Australia, but the farm stay experience here is evolving and improving. And the best farm stays these days are about connecting to farm life, balancing the art of sitting passively and watching the country sun set with actively getting involved in agriculture, or at least getting up close with it.

The proprietors of a new farm stay in Queensland, Jo and Andrew Pitcher, stayed in dozens of these kinds of properties around Australia as well as in Canada and England to glean what worked and what didn’t before creating theirs.

The couple bought a rundown farm at Woombye, home of the Big Pineapple in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, and armed with their do and don’t list, transformed it into Sixty6 Acres. They built six villas while also reviving the property as a working farm that offered a meaningful agriculture experience for guests.

They put in 7200 pineapple plants, in homage to Woombye’s once prolific pineapple industry, and planted a small sugarcane crop. Grapes, citrus, coffee, macadamias, and mangoes are also now under cultivation, and they also planted more than 2000 native trees across the property.

In The Stables, there are animals, including miniature English donkeys, Galloway “belty” cattle, Babydoll Southdown sheep and chickens from a range of breeds, all of which guests can feed and pat.