When Jane Sullivan’s husband stumbled across a quaint two storey ‘terrace like’ building in the heart of Murrurundi, the creative woman immediately adopted it as her ‘villa in provence’.
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She had never been to Murrurundi before, she had never even travelled further north of Sydney than Pokolbin, however she has travelled the world and when they found Murrurundi she was in love.
Reflecting on her life so far, Jane feels she has done a full circle as she is a born and bred country girl and after spending many years as a city woman drawing from every opportunity and skill base the metropolis offers, she is now back settled in the country and playing an active role in her local community.
When you take a moment with Jane, she is one of those soft and warm people who is always happy to have a chat, share a story over a cuppa or lend a hand where she can.
Having lived a very interesting and colourful life, Jane is very content living with her husband Peter Carlin, together operating Haydon Hall Art Gallery and Café.
Although she jokes about it, Jane feels a lot of her actions and achievements in life have been influenced by ticking all the boxes – she is female, a Virgo, creative and a teacher – so she can make things work.
It all started just over 60 years ago in Invercargill at the bottom of the south island of New Zealand when Jane was born and grew up with her two brothers on a sheep farm in Northern Southland.
Their father was a farmer and they later moved to a larger sheep station in the high country at Lake Wakatipu, which was closer to the city.
When she was just six-years-old Jane went off to boarding school at Invercargill, however she would return home every weekend and for holidays to enjoy all the fun of a country kid.
Sadly, Jane’s mother was diagnosed with cancer so the family moved to Christchurch to be closer to doctors and medical services, but the children still continued at boarding school as their parents didn’t want their education to be compromised.
Jane completed her secondary education at Dunedin, which was full time boarding, but she loved school and was completely involved in all aspects from playing sport to public speaking, drama and music.
Attending an all-girls catholic school, Jane said it was always like a second family as it was a small community of girls that all got along really well, and would often miss each other when they went home for holidays.
Following school Jane spent three years studying to become a home economics teacher at a Secondary Teachers College in Christchurch.
This equipped the young woman to start teaching at Lawrence Area School, which was a district school in the country of New Zealand, where she spent a few years and made some nice friendships with the community.
Being a young and ambitious woman, Jane decided to apply with Volunteer Service Abroad to teach in Vanuatu for a year.
It was the mid-1970s, which was an extremely interesting time to live and teach in the islands as it was going through the condominium to become the New Hebrides.
It was governed by two systems - the French and British governments, just before it became independent.
Jane said it was a very interesting time to be there as it was a very political and very feisty environment.
Based at Aoba Island, situated off the top of Vanuatu, Jane taught in the British system in the subjects of home economics, health and science.
She said she really enjoyed the experience and the chance to work with other volunteers from the United Kingdom, British Solomons, Tonga and New Zealand.
“One day I had the opportunity to go on the mail and food run visiting various different islands and I saw true island living, which was extremely interesting,” she said.
Upon returning home to New Zealand, Jane met and married her first husband, settling in Christchurch and embarking on a career change which was the start of a long journey of creative design.
She started working in the kitchen industry, manufacturing and installing kitchen interiors.
In 1984, the couple moved to Australia for her husband’s work buying a house in Eastwood and adapting to Sydney city life.
While project managing the renovation of their home, Jane worked part time in the retail and furniture department at Grace Bros, where she formed some lovely lifelong friendships.
She giggled as she recollected on the days, where she said they spent most of their earnings back at the shop.
During that time Jane decided to use her skills in home economics and started teaching Italian cooking to adult students at an evening college at Peter Board High School.
She said she taught these classes for a number of years as she loved working with such a cross section of adults.
“It was really fun, being in the late 1980s it was when there was a real growing interest in all things food,” she said.
Later Jane moved to Mosman and moved back into working in the kitchen industry in design, which is when she studied a year long course in interior design through the Society of Interior Designers.
Throughout the next part of her life when she worked in administration and product management for a national kitchen manufacturer and retailer, Jane completed the foundation courses in colour design and consultancy and also met her future husband Peter, who was working in another division of the same parent company.
They were actually travelling to Tamworth on business when they came across Murrurundi in the drought of 2004-2005, however the dry country didn’t deter Jane’s vision.
She said she had never been past Pokolbin, which was very typical of a Sydney resident, and she had never even heard of Murrurundi.
“On the way back through we stopped to look at another place that was for sale and from that point the area just grew on me.
“The next week Peter found Haydon Hall for sale online so we came to have a look and everything just seemed right,” Jane said.
“The building and the district seemed to just grown on us.
“For us, being two fairly conservative people, it was a big move, but we just did it.”
The couple moved to Murrurundi permanently in November 2007 and established the art gallery and café where Peter manages the front of house and Jane is again using her home economics as the prized cook in the kitchen.
Jane said they always had the vision to do the gallery, but the food part had a mind of its own, as they planned to start out just doing coffee and snacks, and now do lunches, coffee and cake from Thursdays through to Sundays, as well as hosting private functions.
Jane’s cooking has been recommended in the Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Guide four consecutive years and had two reviews.
The couple also operate Colours Inside Out – a colour and design consultancy – where they carry out consults on request.
Since moving to Murrurundi, Jane has really enjoyed the opportunity to become involved in the local community and she said being in a small town, she found it just happened.
If you take a look at her back garden you will see why she is a member of the Murrurundi Garden Club.
Jane first joined in about 2009 and is the current treasurer of the club, which meets for a monthly meeting, visits various gardens, embarks on coach tours, garden rambles and more.
Another group Jane really enjoys is the Innerwheel Club of Scone which she is the current secretary of.
Jane said she joined the club a number of years ago and couldn’t be happier to be a part of a such a lovely group of women with a core foundation that is so special.
The group regularly fundraise to provide funds for cord blood research, as well as meeting monthly as a social network.
She has also been a member of the Murrurundi Red Cross since it was re-activated about 18 months ago.
In this role, Jane enjoys visiting the residents at Murravale, assisting with fundraisers and raffles, and continuing to build a presence within the town.
“It’s a really lovely group of diverse people from the Murrurundi district,” she said.
A keen musician, Jane used to sing the Messiah each year at the Opera House, which she loved, as well as being a member of Murratones when it existed.
Jane said she loves to sing as she started singing and conducting choirs when she was young.
“Music has always been a nice part of my life,” she said.
Jane said both Peter and herself love the lifestyle in Murrurundi and they both get involved in what’s happening in the area.
“We do what we can where we can, as members of the community we like to contribute and support where we can.
“We love living here and being a part of the lifestyle,” she said.
“I feel like I have done a full circle as I started out living as a country child then moved into city life where I took all the opportunities to learn and explore, travelling overseas and adventuring, to now bring all those life experiences together to do what we are doing here in Murrurundi.”