Practical projects and tips for the backyard DIY fanatic
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...
Jackie French has a beautiful complexion (for someone who spends most of the time outdoors), and she owes it all to her Aunt Ethel’s homemade moisturiser. Don’t bother with expensive commercial products – Aunt Ethel’s moisturiser is cheap,...
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...
In our segment Scott Cam built a swing set for toddlers for around $200. Scott reckons if you build this swing set for your kids you’ll be a hero, yet this will be one of the easiest home projects you’ve ever attempted! Siting the swing Choose a site on...
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...
Rita Hill demonstrated how to clean tarnished silver without using any elbow grease! The tarnish on silver is a layer of black silver sulfide, formed when proteins come in contact with the silver. When silver is cleaned using an abrasive polish, some silver is...
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’.
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...