Highlife Magazine Southern Highlands

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Highlife Magazine Southern Highlands

Celebrating country life in the Southern Highlands of NSW since 1996 Highlife is produced six times a year in Bowral, in the Southern Highlands of NSW.

Every issue features quality writing and outstanding photography covering beautiful homes and gardens, inspiring people and places and the best of country life. Highlife is also renowned for its prestige real estate pages.

09/01/2026

Brighten up your day with the latest issue of Highlife! ✨
Our inviting cover shows the pool house at Collette Dinnigan’s Bowral property – perfect for our summer issue! You’ll also get a taste of Jane and Jimmy Barnes’ life in Berrima (and their new cookbook), enjoy a visit to stunning horse property Silverdale Farm, and take a tour of the Highlands’ beautiful waterfalls.
Our Dec/Jan issue has been delivered to all Southern Highlands outlets and is on sale at other NSW and Victorian outlets, including 25 Harris Farm Markets. ☕📖
For stockists, visit www.highlifemagazine.com.au

harrisfarmmarkets

07/01/2026

Tracy Nickl, who owns the renowned Gumnut Patisserie with wife Vicki, has another love in his life: a restored 1959 Skoda Octavia that his father Peter bought in 1960 and kept his whole life. “My parents honeymooned in this car,” says Tracy. “My family saw so much of Australia in it – they were adventurous people.” He tells Classic Car columnist Sam Charlwood all about it in our Dec/Jan issue.

18/12/2025

The Highlife office closes today – we’re back Monday, January 5.
We wish all our readers and advertisers a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Here’s to a relaxing summer break. Eat, drink and be merry!

17/12/2025

Few things bring as much satisfaction as picking and cooking home-grown vegetables and fruit, say Jane and Jimmy Barnes, who talk about their beautiful new cookbook, Seasons Where the River Bends, in our latest issue. The couple bought their Berrima home 20 years ago and have gradually expanded the garden to include an orchard, a rose garden and some very productive vegetable beds (since 2020 they have been assisted by garden manager Kirstine McKay, who writes Highlife’s Home Grown column).
You’ll find five of the Barnes’ delicious recipes in Highlife – try them and you’ll definitely be tempted to buy the book.
We’ve also got five pages of book reviews offering ideas for Christmas gifts and summer reads – plus recommendation lists from The Bookshop Bowral and the Berkelouw Book Barn at Bendooley Estate.
(All photos Alan Benson, from Seasons Where the River Bends)

11/12/2025

Bowral Fire Station has just celebrated 100 years – the main photo here shows fire brigade members outside the station in the 1930s, soon after it was built, while the other historic photo shows the original fire shed in Merrigang Street circa 1910.
For our ‘Then and Now’ story, we photographed 10 of the 15 firefighters in the Fire and Rescue NSW Bowral brigade. A century on, the building’s exterior is still remarkably similar. The uniforms and fire engine, not so much!
https://www.facebook.com/BowralFireStation/

10/12/2025

People farm goats for meat, milk and fleece but they’re also very handy lawnmowers. In our latest issue, we talk to four small-scale goat farmers. Pictured here are Josephine Grieve and her herd of w**d control goats, “the ideal conservationists”, at Pink Moon Farm in Robertson; Doug and Ashley Stapleton of Russett Woods Estate in Glenquarry, who farm goats for meat and rent them out for w**d control; and Marian Shanahan, who until recently, made cheese and other dairy products from her Toggenburg goats. “They’re super smart, very gentle and a pleasure to spend time with,” she says. (Photos Ashley Mackevicius)

04/12/2025

If you’ve already got your new Highlife, you’ll know that there’s a lot going on in the Highlands this weekend.
On Saturday, Light Up Christmas will start with the Angels In Our Town parade in Bowral at 5.30pm and finish with the Festival of Lights and concert in Corbett Gardens, from 6.45pm to 11pm.
Celebrating Christmas Clay is at Bowral Art Gallery (open both days), The Highlands Singers have a concert in Mittagong on Saturday, and there’s a Christmas Collector Plant and Produce Sale at the Southern Highlands Botanic Gardens on Sunday from 9am to 1pm.
We’ve also got a round-up of markets taking place around the Highlands in the lead-up to Christmas – this weekend, markets will be held in Exeter and Colo Vale on Saturday, and in Bundanoon on Sunday.
For more details, grab a copy of the December/January issue of Highlife.

20/11/2025

This beautiful print is the work of Ben Quilty. It’s one of two very different works he talks about in our Oct/Nov issue – and you could have it on your wall.
Ben is patron of the Bowral and District Art Society, based at Bowral Art Gallery, which celebrates its 75th anniversary this year. He created this limited edition print, Olley’s Vase, as a fundraiser for the society. Each print was created using etching, block printing and hand colouring – Ben tells us more about it on page 56.
Only 50 are available, with all funds going to the society. You can contact Bowral Art Gallery on 4861 4093.
We also have a lively interview with Archibald Prize winners and friends Ben Quilty and Vincent Namatjira from a new book called Artists by Artists (Photo Alexander Cooke). Authors Michelle Grey and Susan Armstrong challenged 50 pairs of Australian artists to capture each other in portraiture and discuss their practice (Artists by Artists is published by Thames and Hudson, $79.99).

18/11/2025

The B**g B**g Picnic Races, one of the biggest days on the Southern Highlands calendar, is on this Friday, November 21. Organisers expect around 5000 people and you could still be part of the action if you’re quick.
Tickets can be purchased today and tomorrow on site at Wyeera Racecourse, 460 Kangaloon Rd, Bowral. Visit the website or phone 0402 048 894 for details.
https://www.bongbongprc.com.au/
There will be 7 races on the day, including the B**g B**g Cup. Gates open at 10am and there will be loads of food vendors plus two onsite bars (the event is strictly no BYO).
As always, Fashions on the Field will be part of the fun, kicking off at 2pm. In our current issue we speak to Bowral milliner Michaela Prados-Seabrook, who will be judging men’s and women’s hats. Czech-born Michaela opened her studio Michaett in Bowral in February.

13/11/2025

This fantastic 1928 photo sparked our ‘Then and Now’ story on the Moss Vale Hotel (aka The Pinky) in the Oct/Nov issue. It shows employees of Snow’s Department store in Sydney visiting in a charabanc, an open-topped vehicle with several rows of seating used for sightseeing tours. The photo was supplied by Michelle Coates, whose grandparents are in it. The Moss Vale Hotel dates back to 1865, but significant additions in 1892 produced the facade still seen today.

11/11/2025

These gorgeous ‘Sundae Fraise’ hydrangeas (which tolerate full sun) are in our garden story, which shows an amazing garden transformation. The beautiful haven you see here was a mostly bare, untended backyard just five years ago. Find out how it was planned and planted in our latest issue.

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Tuesday	09:00 - 17:00
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Thursday	09:00 - 17:00
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http://www.highlifemagazine.com.au/

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