Phoebe Burgess lists Tuscan-style Burradoo property for $2m-$2.25m

• Owner: Phoebe Burgess
• The property: Four-bedroom Tuscan-style retreat on 6949-square-metre block
• Address: 613 Moss Vale Road, Burradoo, NSW
• Price guide: $2 million-$2.25 million
• Private sale

When she fled Sydney during the COVID lockdown and the end of her marriage to former NRL player Sam, Phoebe Burgess sought solace in the Southern Highlands at her parents’ estate, Daffodil Downs, outside Bowral.

“It was always a place to come home to fireplaces and that cosy feeling of being locked away on your property with your family, good food and the people you love,” says the former magazine journalist and now social media influencer.

“It was a sanctuary for me; I was going through a painful time, and I had these two little kids who just came to life every time we drove down the highway.

“It was this soothing place where there was no one looking in.”

Burgess had attended boarding school in the area before her parents relocated there from Canberra. She jokes that, almost 20 years later, the family are still not classified as locals, but do consider the region home.

Along with Poppy, now 8, and six-year-old Billy, who was a baby at the time, Burgess fell into an easy rhythm on the four-hectare property: outside playtime, farm jobs, egg and firewood collecting, gumboots kicked off in the mudroom at the end of the day. As they grew, the kids graduated to riding horses and motorbikes.

“It’s really grounded,” Burgess says of their lifestyle here. “The sun starts to set, and my son says, ‘Sunset, chooks time,’ and they come in dirty and feral, and it’s bath [time] while dinner’s on. It sounds really simple, but it’s busy in the most wholesome way.”

Burgess began to see life in the Southern Highlands as a long-term plan, but owning her own place wasn’t on the cards until she stumbled across an aerial photograph on Instagram of a house for sale and texted one word to her real estate agent brother-in-law: “Possible?” He replied, “Yep.”

Burgess says it was a “big step” to purchase a property solo, but she fell in love with the Tuscan feel of the four-bedroom house and its lush 6949-square-metre site, complete with pony paddock, chook shed and hollowed-out tree trunks perfect for fairy garden magic.

Acre Hill would be her own, smaller version of the life her parents had created just down the road.

“It’s like a mini farm in the middle of this incredibly beautiful, highly sought-after land,” Burgess says. “There’s a bore, there’s gardening, there are chooks, and then you can change in an instant and be out the door to some of the best schools in Australia, or to eat at one of the amazing cafes or restaurants.”

Set over two storeys, the house has a spacious, well-equipped kitchen, an open-plan dining and living zone with a cosy wood heater, a formal sitting room, a study and a family laundry downstairs.

The four bedrooms sit above, and boast views over the sweeping lawn and large established trees.

Burgess says she loves the feeling of being cut off from the world while knowing that civilisation is five minutes away, down your own private road.

“I read a quote once about The Hamptons, something like, ‘The magic is what lies behind these big hedges,’ and Burradoo’s a bit like that,” she says of the peace and privacy enjoyed by residents in the exclusive pocket. She felt as though she had found it just in time.

“I was seeing this place right before that massive migration of people from urban areas and cities coming down because everyone was looking for space and calm at a time when we’d all been locked down. That happened right after I’d purchased this home.”

Burgess paid $1.7 million for the property in April 2021 and started planning a renovation – vintage shuttered windows, beds of lavender and pebble pathways – with a vision that was Under the Tuscan Sun meets French provincial, she says. But life as a busy solo parent took hold.

The children began attending an exclusive school nearby, extracurricular activities demanded more time, and the dream never quite eventuated. Instead, she began to see the property as an investment, and it was tenanted.

Guide: $2,000,000 - $2,200,000

613 Moss Vale Road, Burradoo NSW 2576

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Life with her parents, Sarah and Mitch Hooke, remains idyllic – equestrian pursuits for Poppy, her father building bike jumps for Billy, a veritable village for her to lean on – and enables her to remain in the area.

“We are a single-income family, completely, which is why I’m selling, which does break my heart,” Burgess says. “We couldn’t have it all at once, and that’s OK. That dream will have to be realised in the future.”