Carolyn Robinson has created two nationally significant gardens near the NSW country town of Tenterfield. The first, Glenrock, grew from eight bare acres into “perhaps the finest recent example of a traditional Australian country garden” according to an exhibition in the State Library of NSW, brimming with hedges, terraced garden beds, woodlands and drystone walls.

The second she began at 58, from nothing, on a granite rise above the Bluff River.

Eagles Bluff is now a magnificent contemporary garden of five acres, bounded by river on two sides and backed by wilderness. It’s where Carolyn has been able to express, in garden form, all that she has learned over decades of gardening with the rare benefit of hindsight. For one weekend only, she’s opening Eagles Bluff to the public.

Come and see the garden

Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026

9.30am to 4pm both days

Entry is $20, payable online or at the gate. Both days, 9.30am to 4pm. Plenty of parking onsite. The Red Cross will be putting on tea and coffee and feel free to pack a picnic. Plantsman David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores. Plant drive orders (see below) will also be available for pick-up.

707 Bluff River Road, Sandy Flat, NSW – about 25 minutes south of Tenterfield.

Please share with any gardening-minded friends that might be interested to visit. This is likely to be the last time Carolyn opens Eagles Bluff to the public.

A note on the drive

Bluff River Road is a well-graded country dirt road, and it’s 7km from the turnoff to the garden. Along the way there are several places where traffic needs to give way — at property grids and at two river causeways. Ordinary cars and small buses are fine, but the road is not suitable for buses carrying more than 30 people. Please drive with care, caution and courtesy.

Plan your visit

Take some plants home

Forty-one varieties of Carolyn’s favourite plants are for sale as tubestock, grown for this weekend by Sarah Caldwell of Mole Station Native Nursery. $8.50 a tube.

Order online by 20 September and collect on the day. No postage, and no sales at the gate. Garden entry ($20 a head) is separate.

To help you choose what plants to buy, Carolyn has put together a very helpful planting guide as a companion to the plant drive, with nine different planting combination ideas, and other planting tips.

Separately, plantsman David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores.

Shop the plants

Read the book

Carolyn’s first book, A Garden is not a Painting, comes out in March 2027. It’s a gardening how-to guide, in that it contains a wealth of practical information. But it’s more than that. It’s also about why we garden. And what three decades of planting, failing and starting again teaches you about a place, and about yourself.

A beautifully made hardcover book published by Galah Press, with photography throughout by Brigid Arnott. Pre-order now and we’ll post it to you after launch in March 2027.

Pre-order the book

Coming to the garden AND want the book?

Open Garden Entry + Book Pre-order is $90 with postage included – $15 less than buying them separately.

Garden entry + book pre-order

Open garden practical details

• Where – 707 Bluff River Road, Sandy Flat NSW · Directions on Google Maps

• When – Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026, 9.30 am to 4 pm

• Entry – $20 per person, at the gate or online beforehand

• Parking – on site, with signage on the day

• Plants – Plant drive tubestock are pre-ordered online only. Orders close 20 September. Collect on the day. Separately David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores.

• Tea and coffee – The Red Cross volunteers will be making tea and coffee.

• Food – feel free to BYO picnic

• Free entry for children under 16

• Tenterfield travel guide, with Galah’s favourite things do in the region, coming soon.

A note on the drive. Bluff River Road is a well-graded country dirt road, and it’s 7km from the turnoff to the garden. Along the way there are several places where traffic needs to give way — at property grids and at two river causeways. Ordinary cars and small buses are fine, but the road is not suitable for buses carrying more than 30 people. Please drive with care, caution and courtesy.

Photographs by Brigid Arnott.

Have any questions?

Don’t hesitate to send me a message.

A Garden is Not a Painting is – or rather, will be – a book about gardening. About plants. About the weather. But above all, it’s about the joy of making something living and growing with it.

For more than a year, writer Lucy Munro and photographer Brigid Arnott followed renowned Australian gardener Carolyn Robinson through the seasons as she tended her magnificent five-acre garden near Tenterfield, NSW.

Together we are making a book to record Carolyn’s philosophies and the practical lessons she has learned over a lifetime in the garden. And I am going to publish it.

“Along the way I came to see that a garden is not a painting to hang on a wall. It is alive and ever-changing,” said Carolyn.

“My hope is that by sharing these hard-earned lessons – especially with newer gardeners – others can avoid the pitfalls I made along the way, and instead find joy in cultivating a manageable, thriving garden.”

We had hoped to host a garden party and tour in Carolyn’s never-open-to-the-public garden this April to fund production and printing costs for the book, but the lack of rain means we will postpone. We’ll reschedule when it starts to rain again.

If you’d like to be updated on the book’s progress and the garden party, please click on the subscribe button below if you’re not already subscribed and I’ll keep you in the loop. It’s free, and I won’t send you any spam.

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