Original subtitles

- From its barren beauty

to lush landscapes,

the Australian countryside is as beautiful as it is breath-taking.

Many Australians are discovering rural life and making the move.

So I'm on the hunt to help everyday Australians find their perfect country house.

Giddy up. I am in Outback Queensland, with horse-mad besties Ainsley and Eliza.

Now, we have a full-blown country living ensemble of horses, pigs, rocking chairs,

backyard cricket lawns and...

a Hills hoist.

- We could hang the washing on the line in the nuddy. - Hang the washing on the clothes―

Have you been in my backyard?

- But what feature will win over our buyers ―

farmland views, private stables or maybe their new country neighbour?

Across the road is a lucerne farmer ― 100 acres, you're never gonna see the gorgeous farmer.

Or maybe you'll get lucky and you will.

- Join me as I try and find the perfect new home for Ainsley and Eliza.

Today, we are meeting two best buddies, Ainsley,

who is a grand dreamer, and her friend Eliza, who makes those dreams come to fruition.

Now, not only are they best friends, they're also in business together,

and they live together with their respective partners and families,

and you can clearly understand why they need an escape,

a second location that will also cater to their love of horses, so I think today is gonna be alot of fun.

- Pretty much we hit it off straight off the bat and just have become really good friends

and had some amazing adventures together and done great things together.

- Horses is what brought us together.

- Horses are what brought us together.

- So, we run horsemanship clinics. Most of our clients are our age, you know, women who love their horses

but need a little bit of help learning to connect and be soft.

That sort of thing is very empowering for a lot of people,

so it gives us a sense of achievement with our horses.

- All righty, let's get a sense of what's on the ladies' house hunt wish list.

- Less than a two-hour drive from where we are would be perfect.

- But it can't be too remote for the business either. - Yeah.

- People have to come to us for the clinics and things, so it has to be relatively easy to get to.

- Yeah. And if you could get us close to Toowoomba, that'd be amazing.

- We love Toowoomba. - We love it. We absolutely love the gourmet food lifestyle in Toowoomba.

It's just evolving. Over the past 10 years, it's just been amazing.

- And it's a big horse area as well. - Yeah.

- So it's something that― It'll evolve with the business as the business grows.

It's the right place for that.

- However, Ainsley and Eliza's Toowoomba property need to also

accommodate a very unusual family member,

Eliza's pet pig,

Woodrow.

- So, Woodrow is my baby.

We didn't know that having a pig was like having a 3 year old.

He comes everywhere with us. He goes to clinics. He comes on visits with us,

so we have to have pig-proof space that he can enjoy and not annoy the neighbours ―

not eat their pumpkins or there lucerne.

- So, something suitable for horses, events and Woodrow.

Wish me luck as I try and find a home that covers the list of must-haves.

Established in the mid-1800s, Toowoomba is a one and a half hour drive west of Brisbane.

Visitors are never quite sure if it's a small city or a really big town,

as it offers an abundance of retail and hospitality options,

yet still maintains its small country town charm,

and with loads of nearby land that's suitable for keeping horses,

I think it's clear that Ainsley and Eliza are on to something here.

I think it's clear that Ainsley and Eliza are on to something here.

First up, we have this move-in ready contender, which backs on to grazing paddocks

and offers impressive views that reach out for miles,

so let's bring in our ladies to see if it will work for them.

Well, I can't half tell you're a horsey.

- You're clearly the horse whisperer. - Yeah!

- And you're the dreamer. - I am.

- So, how did you two meet? - We actually met online, weirdly.

- Not on a dating show. - Right. To establish that from the top.

- Eliza had put an ad up looking for―

- Agistment. - ...a place for her rescue horses. - Right.

- And I just recently bought a property and had the feed and had the land, and I said,

'Come and agist here.' And we met, and we hit it off right from there.

- You're best friends. - Yep.

- You're in business together. - Yeah. - Mm-hm.

- And you all live together as well. - Yes.

- Is this wise to now get a second place together

or what's the story there? - Yeah, well, I have all my adult children living with me as well,

- and my grandson. It's a lot. - AKA nightmare!

- Yeah, it feels a little Brady Bunch at our house at times, you know,

and there's a lot of people, and we need some privacy. - Yes.

- We need some space and somewhere to breathe, so we're looking to find that, you know,

to find that place that we can just relax and get away from the crazy that we have at home.

- What else is on your wish list?

- Ability to have our horses on the land. - Yeah. Privacy as well.

Like, the place needs to be in a private place. - Mm-hm.

- And because we have horses, you can't really have pretty gardens with horses,

because they end up in the garden, so...

- I've got sheep. I understand. I totally understand. - Yeah.

- So, all the places I'll show you today, they do fit in with beautifully with that wish list.

I know that you're also on a budget of under one,

around one, under one? - Yeah, because it's our second home, we wanna be able to

- not, you know... - Overextend yourselves. - Overextend ourselves, yeah.

- Great, great, that's wonderful, because this first place completely fits the bill.

I'm so excited to show you. - Yeah, great. - Follow me.

- Cool. Thanks.

- Now, the floor plan is a bit of a selling point for this particular house.

We've got the master bedroom at one end, three extra bedrooms at the opposite end of the house.

Media room. I think this place is kinda the best of both worlds.

We're only 10 minutes from town, but you have five acres here.

Is this ticking any boxes for you? - Yeah, definitely.

And I think that the two separate bedrooms either side of the house...

- Yeah, that works. Yeah. - ...works really well for us,

so that we can be in the same house and not tripping over each other. - Yeah.

- So that's great.

- And what do you think of the kitchen ― open plan, country style. - I love an island bench,

so that's awesome for me. Yeah, it looks easy.

- So, without saying a word, you're the cook?

- No, actually, my husband is a cook. I don't cook. - Really?

- Yeah, so both of our men are cooks, actually, aren't they, so... - Yeah, I cook too. Butyeah.

- Oh, so you guys are just lucky? - Yes, we are. We're blessed. - We are.

- All right, so when you're ready, after you've had a look around inside,

I'll meet you outside for a little cherry on top.

I can tell that you keep looking. - We're keen.

Looking. Looking out there.

- But take a wander, and when you're ready, I'll see you outside.

- OK. Thank you so much. - Awesome. Thank you.

- This is nice, isn't it? I like the view. - Pretty.

- Yeah. - Really pretty.

- Would be perfect if it had a little bit more character. - Hmm.

- Do you think? - Yeah, it's not quite country enough.

- Yeah, but I love how easy it would be for us to do it. - Hmm.

And close to town. - And hopefully― Yeah.

The view's beautiful. - The view is beautiful.

- Now, this garden is quite beautiful. Of course, you've got the pool.

- Wow. - Which with this sort of weather is a major selling feature...

- Yeah, always a bonus. - ...that looks down to a beautiful fire pit.

- Yeah. - Mm-hm.

- We've got a lovely veggie garden right here.

Something that I just can't help but mention is I do hear a whipper snipper,

and I think it's also joined by a lawnmower as well. - Yeah.

- So, be honest with me, I've given you the view, but...

- It's a little closed in. - And a little high maintenance.

This is gonna be our second home, so time is gonna be precious to us when we're out here,

so we don't really wanna be spending it on the upkeep on gardening. - Gardening, no.

If we get three or four horse girls here, we can be a little loud

in the afternoons and evenings. - Really?

- So we probably need to be a little bit further away from the neighbours.

I knew we'd get along well.

- So, tell me, what do you think this place is on the market for?

- Eight... 8-50. - Yeah, I would have said eight.

- Well, you'll love the fact it's actually 7-50.

So considering you're looking for anything hovering around one million. - Surprising.

- You've got plenty of extra cash to buy... Buy up the neighbours. - Yeah.

Yes, well, we did notice that block of land next-door. - Absolutely.

- Price is great. - Really good. Yeah.

- And it might give us the option to purchase that land with the cow. - Yeah.

- Which would be a great way of getting around all of our needs.

- The next place, once again will meet elements of the wish list. I'll just see what you think.

Up next, we head a little bit further out to a home on more land, with a separate self-containeddwelling.

And later on, we tour a rough diamond that is need of a little work,

but it offers rolling green hills that are a horse owner's dream.

We're in Queensland's horsey country around Toowoomba,

looking at properties that would suit best friends turned business partners Ainsley and Eliza.

Now, we first toured a home with impressive farmland views,

but our ladies felt that the neighbours were a little bit too close for comfort.

So maybe this next one will fit them better.

Join me under the tree. I feel like if we look up, we will find koalas amongst these beautifulgums.

It's so peaceful here. - It's beautiful.

- Tell me how the dreamer and the horse whisperer come together in what you do. Give me an idea.

- We do events for horse women mostly.

Probably 85% of our clients are women. - Mm-hm.

- Around our age as well.

And so we have clinics. They come to a venue and bring their horses

and spend two, three, four days playing with their horses, learning new things,

learning some trick training, getting out on trails, eating well.

- And we've just started to incorporate great food into our clinics as well,

so we have a wonderful chef that's moved to the area.

He's a Michelin star chef. - Really?

- Great food, horses and women getting together and gathering and supporting each other.

- That just sounds amazing. - Yeah, it's pretty cool. - It sounds―

It sounds like my kind of thing. - Yeah.

- I just had to ask, cos I think that will tie in beautifully for this next house.

We're on five acres. We also have five bedrooms, and that includes a granny flat.

- Perfect. - So this is perfect for the in-laws and or guests.

- Right. - Mm-hm. - Are you keen?

- Yeah, I'm very keen. - Absolutely. - Oh, I need to warn you,

the owners are currently moving out, no judgement, in we go.

- Cool. - OK, let's go.

- So, you've almost got two living rooms here as well. You've got that front one,

and then there's this one here. Keeping in mind that you said you have a Michelin star chef

and you wanted a blank canvas house, this is definitely low-maintenance,

can you see your chef here in the kitchen?

- The kitchen's big enough, and it looks modern, but it feels a little enclosed.

- It does feel a little enclosed, yeah.

I'll get to that, all right.

- I'll get to that, but I know that you also, once again,

want very clean floors, because― - Yeah, floorboards are great.

- Why do you need that, because? - Someone has a pig... that comes everywhere with us.

- OK, but the pig doesn't go inside? - Yeah, he does. - Oh, the pig does. Yeah.

The pig sleeps inside. He's fully house-trained.

- Oh. - Yep.

- You're not just a horse whisperer. You're a pig whisperer too. - She can train any animal.

Any animal. - We had the pony inside last night, so... you know.

OK, the pony and you may want to have a look at the granny flat.

- Sounds great. - Head on through here, and we'll check it out.

- You want space... - Hey.

- ...who other than the pig would get this space? - I'm gonna give it to you.

Oh.

- This will be Eliza. - This will be us.

- Yeah. - Yeah, this will be us. - Really?

- Yeah. - We're always out with horses. So inside is to shower, eat, go to bed.

- OK, OK. - So space inside doesn't bother me.

- Have a look at the whole house, and when you're ready, I'll see you outside.

- OK, sounds good. - Thank you. - Giddy up.

- I dunno. What do you reckon? - I like the separate granny flat.

- Me too. Yeah. Me too. - Of course, because it's completely separate.

And this area of the house is separate too from the living. It does feel tight, though.

- Just knock walls out? - Maybe. - I dunno.

- Well, you're good at that. - Yeah.

I think it's got more land, so it's probably gonna be something that would suit the horses better here.

- Yeah, so I wanna see the acreage to see if the land makes up for the things

that we don't like about the house. - Yeah, me too. I think it will be a deal-breaker.

- Well, clearly, someone likes their lawnmowing. - Mm-hm. Yes, yeah.

- The horses will do a good job. - That's Eliza's job.

- That's right. That's right, really. - Well, I just put the horses on it. - That's cheating.

- It is cheating.

- Everybody in this community is horse crazy. - Yeah.

- Just one street beyond is how you can wander down into the forest for long trail rides.

- Nice. - I know that the stables here are not huge.

Of course, you can expand on that. - Yep.

- And all this land is yours, and it goes to a dam that's about 10 feet deep,

but I think probably a great selling point is that you are on town water here.

- Water is a selling point for us, absolutely. - Hmm.

- What do you think it's on the market for? - Um, 900.

- Bravo. Well done. - I was gonna say eight. - Offers 900 and above.

- Mm-hm. - Don't worry. I've got one more card up my sleeve.

- OK.

- Still to come ― I step back in time as I take a tour of Toowoomba's Empire Theatre.

And then it's time for our final property, which is a little bit rundown.

However, it is surrounded by lush paddocks.

The Empire Theatre is the perfect example that if you can protect and honour your past buildings,

you will reap the benefit into the future.

This is now Toowoomba's number-one tourist attraction.

But it hasn't always been valued by the community, is that right?

- Just before it opened, the entire council lost their job over actually rebuilding it.

- Because of the money that they had to spend to restore it to this former glory?

- Many people just thought it was a waste of money at the time.

Luckily, it got built, and we have what we have here today.

What you see today is 1933 after it was burnt down and rebuilt.

So there's pieces of it from 1911, the outside walls, and the rest of it,

and of course, 1997 is what you see here. - Really?

- The most beautiful reconstruction of the most beautiful theatre in Australia.

- It is the jewel in Toowoomba's crown.

Do you just love living here? It's such a beautiful town.

- It's a beautiful city to live in, and it's... It's kind of a country city.

So while we're quite metropolitan, you still feel like you're actually in a much smallertown

than you actually are.

- I actually stopped myself from saying, 'Is it a city? Is it a town?' I'm not quite sure,

because, you're quite right, it still has that country essence, but it's absolutely booming, isn't it?

- Yes, it is. You know, people do think they should still be able to

park outside the shop that they want to be in, and most of the time, they can.

- And people keep telling me that the food scene here is off the chart. - Absolutely takingoff.

Lockyer Valley is the garden of Queensland, so there's certainly plenty of produce.

I really enjoy being where I am. - You always come back to Toowoomba. - That's right.

- Our final house is all about the extremes. The views, well, they are unbeatable,

but the house itself... Yeah, well, it's definitely a fixer-upper. Let's see what the ladies makeof this one.

Ta-da!

Amazing.

- Big smiles. - So pretty. - Yeah.

- We're on 70 acres here. - Oh, wow.

- Plenty of lush pasture. It's already fenced.

What do you think about the fact that the house itself is... It might need some work?

- If the land is gorgeous, then we would... - And I don't care.

- I could live in a stable. - Really? You're such a horsey person.

- Yes, she is. - With my pig.

- I need to show you the house. Come on in and have a look, OK? - Yes, great. Thanks.

- Keep in mind ― country character. Country cha― - Yeah, potential.

- Oh. - All I can see is potential with this property. I love it.

- I suppose a question I'm never gonna ask again ― how would your pig feel about this space?

I'm pretty sure he'd love it.

I think I wanna bring him here and see. - It's very pig-proof, isn't it?

With the hard wood and the lino. It's pig proof.

- Not everything is pig proof, but, you know, we'll try it.

- You love the weatherboard? - Yeah, I love it when I'm renovating it. Cos it's―

- Because it's character. - It's character, but it's also easier when you're renovating.

- And what other character are you picking up in this room?

- Well, nothing in this room particularly because I wanna gut it.

But I―

- You're honest. - It's the ability to gut it, though.

- It's the ability to― I just walked in here and said, 'I'm going to just gut this place, and I can't wait.'

- Don't let me hold you back. Come and have a look there. A beautiful place to have your G andT's.

Don't pull that face.

- I would not normally show you a kitchen like this.

However, as I'm standing here, I am seeing views straight up.

- Amazing. - That's all your land there. That's all your land there.

Across the road is a lucerne farmer on 100 acres. You're never gonna see the gorgeous farmer.

Or maybe you'll get lucky and you will.

- Not too big a deal. This room can go straight through there. - Yeah, yeah.

I hate it, but it doesn't scare me.

- 'I hate it, but it doesn't scare me.' - So― Yeah.

I'm happy to do this sort of work. Done it before.

- Could you utilise that space? - Maybe that would be another bedroom.

Cos if I took the entire walls out through the middle of the house,

it would just be such a big kitchen-dining-living area.

- Do your vision thingamajigies around here. - Yeah, yeah.

- And then when you're ready, we'll catch up, OK? - Can't wait.

OK, I'm gonna chase this dragonfly out of the kitchen. Out we go.

- There's your master. - Yeah. - I'll take it.

Floorboards.

- It has the ability to be five bedrooms, so we could even host things in here.

You know, you could have four or five clients here... - Yeah.

- ...inside the house. - I could live with the kitchen. I know you can't.

- No, I can't. - I could live with it. - But the view is amazing.

- Did you see the Hills hoist? - I did.

- Oh, there's solar on the roof? - Yeah.

- We're about 20 minutes from what they consider the city here.

- Yeah. Yeah. - Of course, Toowoomba.

But did you clock the bath? - I know, an outdoor bath. - I missed it.

- Just to be able to get away somewhere like this and breathe and― - Peace and quiet.

- And if you leave the soap inside, you can just jump out, run in. - It doesn't matter. Runin.

- We could hang the washing on the line in the nuddy. - Hang the washing on the clothes―

Have you been in my backyard?

- It is definitely the appeal of country life. - Yeah.

- And I know to some people, that sounds really crazy, but it is a beautiful element.

If you love to sing. If you love to have parties. If you've got children. - Yeah.

- If you've got horses. If you've got a pig. It's all OK.

What do you think it's on the market for? - It has to be a mil.

With this much land. - Just around...

900, so you have plenty of play money. - Wow. Yes.

- If your budget's a mil... - Yep.

- ...you've got 100 grand. That's a lot of paint.

- Yep. - Hmm.

- Well, you never know what's going to happen. I'm not quite sure what decision they'll make.

House one had the view that they were after. It was compact, move-in ready.

House number two, it had the mains town water.

That is very important for horsey people.

And here at house three, I thought they're run a mile, but they can create magic there,

because this is really the selling point, so let's see what they decide.

I have given Ainsley and Eliza some time to think about the homes that we visited around the Toowoomba region,

so let's now regroup to see if they have decided on their next move.

Well, I wanted to bring you here to what I love Toowoomba for,

and that's there at Norwood Roses, for the gardens, for the flowers. - Gorgeous.

- This is what I know and love about the place.

I really just had no idea about what was beyond Toowoomba city. - Yeah.

So thank you for showing me that.

- I can completely see why everybody is wanting to move to Toowoomba. - Yeah, it's changed alot,

even in the last five years. - Hmm.

- We have some fabulous chefs as friends,

and they seem to have all migrated up here. - Really?

- Yeah, and the gourmet food side of Toowoomba has just grown unbelievably.

- So that's why I thought you might like that first house,

because of the proximity. - Yeah, yeah.

- You like the view. - Yeah.

- But what were your other feelings about that one?

- Maybe a little suburban for us. - Suburban, that was the problem. - Um, yeah.

- But with the second house, that also had a few other houses around it.

- Right. - It did, yeah.

- It had the acreage, but there was a house on every side sort of thing. - Uh-huh.

It was just so clear that when we rocked up to that third place ―

you couldn't stop smiling. - Yeah. Set my soul on fire. - I thought that you'd look a bit...

- Really? - Yeah.

- Cos― Oh, OK, I have to admit. I looked at the house and went,

'Oh, there's no way.' - Yeah, yeah.

- You saw beyond that. - Yeah, renovation doesn't bother me, and paint, you know.

Things like that are cosmetic, but where you live is so important.

And to love that. - Just driving down that road... - Right.

- ...and all the mountains around it.

- We were like, 'How bad could it be?'

Yeah.

- If it's a shack, we don't care. - We don't care.

- Really. Well, what do you think you'll do next?

I think we'll buy it.

- Just no illusions there at all.

- It just ticks... so many boxes. - It has so much potential. Yeah. - Yeah, and...

Both of us got so excited by it. - Yeah.

- It was perfect. - I could just see us riding down the road.

- Yeah, me too. - Here's to people making dreams come true.

- Thank you. Thanks for that. - Cheers to that. Do what you love. - Yeah.

- Ainsley did put in an offer on the fixer-upper house, and guess what? It has been accepted.

We wish Ainsley and Eliza all the very best for rural life with their horses

and, of course, Woodrow, the pig.

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