Adelaide Crows great Shaun Rehn's renovated Byron hinterland home for sale

Adelaide Crows great Shaun Rehn, and his wife Kerry, fell for the coastal town of Byron Bay on a camping holiday – over 20 years ago.

“We were supposed to be making our way up to Airlie Beach,” Kerry remembers, “but we ended up staying at Byron because we loved it so much, and that was when the dream started.”

With the two-time premiership-winning ruckman’s 134-game stint with the Crows drawing to a close, the couple enlisted an agent to tour the local hinterland with a mind to relocate.

“We drove all over the countryside,” Shaun says. “Eventually, he took us past this place; it was overgrown and pretty rough at the time, but we were taken with it immediately.”

Tucked down a long driveway, ensuring absolute privacy, the sprawling estate shares an Emigrant Creek boundary with Australian actor Chris Hemsworth’s 40-hectare Newrybar property, the exclusive postcode also home to his brother Liam.

With its macadamia orchards and tropical fruit trees, lush pasture for cattle and three spring-fed creeks, 28-hectare Emigrant Springs was the stuff of fairy tales for Shaun, who grew up on a sheep and wheat station in rural South Australia.

“There is evidence of life and fresh water everywhere here,” he says. “We lived through many droughts as kids, so it’s in complete contrast to that environment.”

The couple’s offer was accepted, but on the drive home, a call from Hawthorn Football Club upended their plans – they pulled out of the sale and relocated their family to Melbourne instead, Rehn seeing out his playing career with the Hawks.

Five years on, in 2007, with Shaun now on the coaching staff at the Brisbane Lions, Kerry was on holiday with friends in Byron Bay and out for a drive to Bangalow when she took them on a detour.

“I said, ‘I’ll take you past this property we almost bought once’,” she recalls. “And as we drove past the ‘For Sale’ sign was back up. I rang Shaun, and we bought it that night.”

The couple, along with their three young children (oldest son Thomas, and twins Tori and Angas), threw themselves into farm life, the “honour box” stall at the end of their driveway – a common sight on Broken Head Road – testament to the land’s bounty. The kids would stock it with macadamias, eggs, bananas, mangoes, avocados, persimmons and more.

While living in the existing five-bedroom house – dubbed The Gatehouse and used as an income stream today – the Rehns relocated a huge 1875 Queenslander from the Brisbane suburb of Kedron and rebuilt it at the centre of the property.

The beautiful old house, now in its 150th year, was trucked down in five pieces and features a return verandah, wide central hallway and original timber floors.

Full-height sash windows drink in views of the surrounding hills, and all four bedrooms open out onto the verandah. Even the laundry enjoys a stunning scenic outlook.

The couple have also added two large barn-like structures for additional recreation zones, which surround a courtyard garden – one serves as a games room, the other an extra living space.

A haven for kids, young and old, the Rehn children grew up camping, fishing and swimming in the creek; climbing trees, riding motorbikes and tending to their chickens.

When the farm chores are completed, great coffee and food await the new owners in Newrybar village just up the road, and a 10-minute drive can have you swimming at Broken Head Beach.

“It was the perfect place to raise a family, idyllic really, but now that our kids are grown, we’re ready for our next adventure and to head home to South Australia,” says Kerry.

Black cockatoos screech their rain forecast from above, and platypus – as elusive as the many celebrities ensconced in these hills – call the creeks home. The Rehns have secured grants to regenerate the rainforest on their land, and the 12,000 trees in infancy already measure four metres tall.

“The scope of what this place will look like in five, 10 years is going to be incredible,” says Shaun. “And there is prospect for more grants in the pipeline. This property will only improve as the years go on. We are really proud of the legacy we will leave behind.”

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112 Broken Head Rd, Newrybar NSW 2479

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