Celebrity horticulturist and television presenter Jamie Durie is embarking on a new adventure with his family – swapping the waves of Sydney’s northern beaches for his own slice of country paradise near Byron Bay.
“I think we’ll always keep a place in Sydney, but we’ve decided to take a bit of a farm break and give the kids a couple of years on the farm,” Jamie tells Woman’s Day ahead of the premiere of his new show Jamie Durie’s Future House.
“We hadn’t initially planned to do that, but the kids are just very different when they’re on the farm covered in mud and playing in the garden.”
Jamie says his treechange to build three sustainable, resilient and cost-effective homes of the future for three families has been the perfect place to raise his young daughter Beau, 3, and son Nash, 1 with his wife Ameka, 39.
“Giving the kids time on the farm is so valuable and we just love seeing their little faces when they wake up and run out to the chook barn to pick up all the fresh eggs every morning,” Jamie, 55, shares.
“It’s just brilliant from the sheep to the cattle. We’ve just put in 200 fruit trees so we’re growing all our own veggies and fruit.”
Beau and Nash are keen to lend dad a hand. (Image: Channel Nine)
JAMIE’S LITTLE HELPERS
Inspired by Australia’s need for more housing, Jamie and his crew on Future House are planning to build three modern, sustainable and affordable houses in just three months.
He and his family are currently building a 3D-printed concrete home that Jamie says “could redefine modern housing”.
Some of the innovations that will be going into these houses include a reverse charging battery system that allows electric vehicles to be charged by renewable energy, and allows EVs to power the house in the case of an outage.
The home’s heating and cooling systems have also been designed to run off renewable energy generated by state-of-the-art solar panels that can provide up to 150 kilowatts per day.
With Jamie in charge of overseeing construction of their new farm house, the rest of his family aren’t excluded in the construction fun with Ameka in charge of styling the property, while Beau and Nash are dad’s little offsiders.
“The kids have their little hi-vis jerseys on and Nashie loves all the digging machines,” Jamie tells.
“Beau is daddy’s little helper and is always helping me on the tools which is really cute. Both of them are very engaged.”
Jamie’s eco-compound is currently on the market for $33 million. (Images: Instagram)
A HOME LIKE NO OTHER
While Jamie’s 3D-printed concrete house is a world-first design, it’s not his first foray into building sustainable homes – as his luxury eco-compound on Sydney’s northern beaches is currently on the market for $33 million.
Build using recycled concrete and sandstone, the six bedroom and six bathroom home boasts over 3000 plants across nine levels, and even a pool with drinkable water.
“What’s great about the house is that it’s unlike anything in Australia. I watch people’s faces when they walk into our living room and it just takes people’s breath away,” says Jamie.
“We have something like 200 plants spilling into an eight-metre-high living room that’s constantly feeding fresh air into the space.”
With the design ethos “a functional forever home that treads lightly on the planet”, Jamie says the home basically takes care of itself.
“We have 14 different gardens that all look after themselves as we’ve got a range of native plants that thrive on their own, and we store 57,000 litres of rainwater that is connected to an integrated irrigation system,” the former Backyard Blitz host shares.
“I haven’t lifted a finger since I moved in as the gardens just thrive on their own. It’s really an incredible house to live in.”
Jamie Durie’s Future House starts tonight at 8:30pm AEDT on Nine and 9Now.
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