I first met Kelly in Kuala Lumpur over fifteen years ago. Today, we are a far cry from that modern, bustling Asian city with its Twin Towers, multi-cultural population, concrete overpasses, lush tropical gardens and heavy, humid climate. Kelly and her family have escaped from such hectic city scenes to the wide open spaces and pure sea air of Eurobadalla, on the south east coast of New South Wales.
Here they found a nineteenth century, weatherboard rectory at the end of a long farm track, built in 1864 as part of the Bodalla Company Estate. Tucked off the main street of Bodalla – and easily missed – All Saints is bordered by the Tuross
River and views that stretch to the horizon across lush green dairy farms and distant wooded hills.
Bodalla (population 528) is a pretty country town in the heart of Eurobadalla (a twenty minute drive from Moruya airport, four hours south of Sydney or two hours east of Canberra ), a land of eucalypts and farmland, wooded escarpments and swamps, state forests and national parks, winding roads, rivers and beaches – it’s only an 8km drive to Potato Point Beach.
Nearby towns provide a positively poetic string of names: Batemans Bay, Moruya, Merimbula, Narooma, Mogo, Tilba Tilba, Broulee, and Tuross Head, and a string of activities: surfing, sea kayaking, fishing charters and whale watching. Inland, you can go horse riding, or visit Moga Zoo, local art galleries and country markets. And for the foodies, there are reams of restaurants at your fingertips, including Bodallas Dairy Shed and Blue Earth organic café, the Whale Restaurant at Narooma and The River at Moruya, its menu chock-a-block with local, seasonal produce, or the Wray Street Oyster Shed at Bateman’s Bay. There are cheese factories and wineries to visit too.
Meanwhile, back on the farm, Kelly has created her own corner of heaven above the Tuross River. We are greeted by two wolf-like, but soft-as-butter huskies, Phoebe and Sibu, who escort us cheerily through the gate. The broad wrap-around veranda is edged with box hedges, perfectly trimmed. A magnolia tree has been espaliered to the wall on the near side of the garage, which has been designed like an old American barn and painted in a deep, rusty reddish-brown to match the house.
When the Kershaws first bought the property in 2002, there was a scattering of fruit trees and an enormous eighty year old pine. Over the next decade Kelly designed, 
dug and developed three acres of garden: twelve landscaped ‘rooms,’ where once there were only paddocks, framed by seventy Leyland Cypress pines to create a wind break to protect the flower beds from the overly enthusiastic southerly winds. On this clear, wintry day, the garden is quiet and understated. Large flower beds of stone and rock encircle bare-branched trees and huge Ali Baba urns. Archways of naked wisteria vines and wrought iron gateways lead us through the maze of gardens past a dam, sculptures created from local iron-mongery, box hedges and a rose garden. Occasional benches provide resting spots to sit in the winter sun and soak up the view. Horses in the next paddock bow their heads in prayer.
Kelly also has a hen house where she maintains a clutch of chooks that happily provide fresh eggs for breakfast, just beside a large veggie patch. She has also built a wood fire pizza oven beside a cosy picnic area overlooking the orchard of about thirty fruit trees: apples and pears; pomegranate and peaches; plums, figs, and olives; mandarins and mulberries; lemons and limes. An old-fashioned flower bed behind the salt water pool sends forth a seductively strong scent of jonquils and violets. The garden has been such a success that Kelly was persuaded to enter it into the Open Garden Scheme in 2011. Now she shares the gardens with visitors three days a week for a small fee.
She also provides Bed and Breakfast through Spring, Summer and Autumn. Fresh and pristine, after a two year renovation and reconstruction through 2004-5, the 
house has been tastefully and simply decorated with memorabilia from years spent abroad. The white weatherboard walls provide a comfortable, beach holiday feeling, the sofas are deep and inviting. There are two bedrooms which compete for the best view, over garden and hills, one with an en suite bathroom, one with a full-sized bathroom next door, for which she charges between $169 and $199 per night per room. It is a heavenly, luxurious getaway.
Kelly is not only a creative gardener and an expert interior designer, but a fabulous
cook. We are only five for lunch, and despite the appetites of two tall, teenage boys, we are quite daunted by the array of food: she has cooked for a multitude! Two huge pizzas, a roast vegetable tart in perfectly crispy filo pastry, a cous cous salad with cashews and roast pumpkin, another green salad with feta cheese, rich brownies dusted with icing sugar and an enormous ginger cake with delectable lemon icing lie invitingly on the vast kitchen island . Luckily we toured the garden before lunch, as I can barely waddle from table to sofa when we are finished, utterly satiated. Still, I am looking forward to staying for a sleep-over next time, and checking out breakfast!
To book a weekend at All Saints you can contact Kelly on +612 4473 5764 or +61 450 731 909 or email: [email protected]
*Photos 2,4,5 are borrowed from Kelly’s website. The rest were taken by my daughter, with thanks!