Xanthorrhoeas gracing landscape along Paradise Road between Guyra and Inverell near the site where Tom Roberts painted ‘Bailed Up’.

Recently I joined a group from the Australian Garden History Association for an autumn jaunt visiting some fascinating properties and gardens near Inverell, North West New South Wales.

We drove along one of the most picturesque roads stopping first at the historic ‘Paradise’ woolshed, just along the road from where Tom Roberts, known as the Father of Australian Landscape Painting,

worked on his haunting and beautiful ‘Bailed Up’. Nearby we ventured cross country to the beautiful site where he painted ‘In a Corner of the McIntyre’.

Here are just a few of the places we explored.

By the beautiful McIntyre River where Tom Roberts painted.

Locally known as ‘The Castle’, this imposing rocky stack, 25+m high, is adjacent to the site of Tom Roberts’ painting ‘In a Corner of the McIntyre’.

Elmore Station garden.

Our group enjoyed lunch, provided by Inverell Red Cross, in the lovely ‘Elmore Station’ garden, at Elsmore.

Garden lamp in Byron Station garden.

Byron Station was one of the earliest properties settled in the district in the mid 1800s.

An old Byron Station outbuilding.

Wiltshire garden.

Wiltshire garden, and nearby Lunawarra garden near Copeton Dam, are owned by the same Sydney-based family who engaged Carolyn Robinson to design them.

Wiltshire garden plantings have been chosen to segue into the countryside beyond.

Lunawarra garden.

Carolyn Robinson’s signature mix of perennials, clipped shrubs and grasses are always appealing.