Jodie Gibbons

It was spring when Denise and Mark Duffield-Thomas made their way down the driveway framed by poplar trees at the historic Lorn Rose Farm in Lorn, New South Wales. Cradling their newborn daughter, Denise stepped from the car. Taking in the idyllic property bordered by bucolic farmland, she had an overwhelming sense of coming home. It was as if the four-hectare property, with its early 1900s homestead, rustic barn and three-bay covered rose farm, was calling her. “I said to Mark, ‘Can’t you see it?

When passionate gardeners Treska and Dave James found themselves in a newly built house on the South Coast of New South Wales, complete with shiny new furnishings and a lawn "manicured to within an inch of its life", they had an overwhelming sense that something was missing. "We built a massive home on a postage-stamp block," says Dave, who, along with Treska, works as a public servant and commutes to Sydney part-time.

Dairy, bakery, local shop – this charming house in Durras, on the NSW South Coast, has played several roles since it was built in the 1880s. Now, after undergoing an extensive but sensitive renovation, it's ready to usher in a whole new era as a light-filled, comfortable family home. Its new owners – just the fourth in the home's long history – have their own connection to Durras. Sarah and Geoff first bought property in the town, the traditional lands of the Yuin people, in 1987.