STORY BY MAHMOOD FAZAL, PHOTOS BY DANNY WOOTTON

Lavandula, or lavender as it is commonly known, means to wash in Latin - referring to the use of infusions of the plants. Behind the golden hills of Shepherds Flat, Lavandula Swiss-Italian Farm cherishes our mysterious relationship to the flower of the Old World.

“I love renovating and restoring old buildings. I would travel to Europe every year because my brother lived in Italy, he was working as an artist,” explains Carol, as she walks us through the curated gardens, “My brother and I went to the south of France and I saw these little patches of lavender, around Provence.”

When asked about why Carol wanted to bring her memories of Provence home with her, she is flooded with the joy of memory, “Anywhere with a village market, anyone who spends that much time making coffee and food, anybody who cares about how the village looks, religion. Anyone who cares about the gardens,” explains Carol, “You know like you can drive for miles and miles in France and it’s just a picture postcard. But the reason I started the business was because I had a failed marriage and two small boys. I really had to be home. I'm an ex-nurse. I have good organisational skills, attention to detail and I’m a hard worker.”

Lavandula Farm honours the architecture of the Swiss-Italian migrants who settled in Daylesford throughout the 1850s. “When I bought the property, it was just derelict stone buildings. So the barn that house the little dairy they were all crumbling into the ground at that stage because the Swiss Italian buildings only mud and stone, and if the water gets into the mud they collapse.”

The atmosphere lends itself to a bygone era that is drenched in history and a tradition that celebrated a simpler life. “I had the European buildings. They were stone, they were peasant. I like peasant architecture. I like peasant gardens. I don’t like grand, I like languid.” Carol has a keen eye for understated beauty or as she describes, “beauty out of necessity is just harmonious beauty. And it's not like it's an exaggerated memory.” Behind us, a blacksmith shapes a pair of spurs.

For Carol, lavender was more than just a flower and ornament, there were holistic properties that she wanted to excavate, “I just knew I had to make body products for aromatherapy, because I could see that sort of natural thing coming into play. And so I did an aromatherapy course, a hospitality course, a horticulture course and eventually got to know my trade.”

But it was more than just work and Europe that Carl wanted to memorialize, it was the cultural festivals that celebrated the essence of gardening. In the early 90’s, she decided to host the first Lavender Harvest Festival, “I would cut lavender, make lavender wines, sell bunches of lavender and distil oil. And we probably had 200 jars of lavender hand cream that I've made on the stove.”

She thought roughly a thousand people would attend, fifteen thousand turned up. “We ran our festivals for nearly 10 years. So we decided to have three then Spring, Summer, and Autumn. I think Autumn is my favourite season when all the trees turn you and it's greener. It’s all about water. It is what it is. You have to accept what is happening with the climate.” Suddenly, three horses gallop up the mountain and into the distance. 

Lavandula farm boasts so much more than lavender scones and ice cream, there are pieces of Carol’s dream down every garden path. “I just love the rhythm of the farm life. And I guess if people can sit here and see horses run that they can see emus or they can see the gardener walking by with a wheelbarrow.” Perched beneath the apple tree, with a glass of wine, the landscape leaves us with an ideal that is only a stone’s throw away.

Lavandula Farm - 350 Hepburn-Newstead Road - Shephards Flat - 5476 4393 - lavandula.com.au