Don and the ‘Burke’s Backyard’ team visited Margaret Porritt and Warwick Callander, who were spending the weekend at their spectacular beach house at Portsea, on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. The 80 square house was completed at the end of...
Laurie Seaman is a retired civil engineer who spent most of his life designing bridges all over the world. He lives in a sandstone house built by his grandfather in 1918, when there were only four other houses on the hill overlooking Palm Beach and Pittwater. Today...
Julie Harvey was once a Sydney businesswoman, but had to take time off work due to illness. During her convalescence she became interested in painting, and then enrolled in art school to learn how to sculpt figures. Julie never returned to her job – instead she...
Don looked at a beachside house in Victoria, which was not what it seemed. What appeared to be a spacious, modern house had been created by converting and linking two farm machinery sheds. The result was a beautifully appointed, six-bedroom, 60-square home at...
Home owner Louise Holly was inspired when she saw the Burke’s Backyard in Spain program. She painted her white Spanish-style house with Dulux ‘Tuscan Gold’.
If something is broken, giving it a good kick or a thump might make it work. True or false? (Well it all depends). Often with electronic equipment the so-called “technical knock” will get some things working but with motor vehicles it’s...
Don visited a Mexican-style house and garden in Noosaville, on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. The front garden uses the structural form of succulent plants such as euphorbias and yuccas to reinforce the design of the house, and to set off the white and terracotta...
Anna Chandler is a designer of decorative home ware. She lived in Morocco and Spain for four years, and this experience has had a huge influence on both her design work and the style of her house. When Anna and her husband Mick bought the house as an investment...
Rita Hill demonstrated a simple technique for making a bird feeder and a birdbath for your garden. You’ll need: bamboo or long, straight, stout prunings from the garden river pebbles 2 shallow dishes (such as terracotta pot plant bases or shallow bowl-shaped...
Through the ages people have used many different methods to tell the future. One of Jackie’s favourites is the apple pip method used in Ancient Rome. To predict the winner of a horse race, the Romans apparently named each pip after a horse, then spat the pips as...