100 Mt Bernard Lane, Avenel VIC 3664

Totally private and breathtakingly beautiful, 100 Mt Bernard Lane is the result of three decades of building, planting and careful stewardship. Set across 395 acres outside Avenel, it brings together a stone passive-solar home, a hempcrete second residence, an award-winning olive grove with its own processing plant and complete off-grid independence - a combination that very rarely comes to the market in this district.

The main residence was built by local builder Wayne Merritt, with stonework by Avenel master stonemason Paul Nichols, and sits among the gums and granite boulders as though it has always been there. Designed around passive-solar principles, the substantial 3 bedroom and office (4th bedroom) home offers high ceilings and double glazing in red ironbark windows facing north-west to the afternoon light and the sunsets. The open living area, with kitchen and walk-in pantry adjacent, has a genuine sense of space and is warmed by a Stanley fuel stove and a Cheminees Phillipe wood heater. Cooling is provided by fans in all rooms and a ducted split system air-con in the main living area. Fixed wireless NBN is available at the main house. There is a spacious family bathroom plus ensuite, and beneath the home are two cellars that provide extensive cool storage space for extra virgin olive oil, wine, fruit and vegetables.

Below the house is a cottage garden and a native garden and billabong designed and constructed by renowned landscape designer Phillip Johnson. Rather than working against the landscape, it has been shaped around the property's natural granite outcrops, with stone-lined swales carrying rainwater and winding paths. The billabong and its waterfall are the centrepiece of the garden with the surrounding native garden a haven for a wide variety of native bird species. Alfresco dining by the billabong on a summer evening, admiring the birds as they do their inflight bathing on the surface of the water is one of the joys of living on this place.

An established wisteria and ornamental grape vines shade the house from summer sun. A short walk away, the hempcrete second residence was completed in 2015 by the same builder. Lime-rendered walls, plenty of natural light and an outlook across the olive grove make it a comfortable and delightful retreat.

The whole property runs off-grid - there are no power bills. A 13.4kW* solar system with 12kW* inverters and 25.6kWh new lithium batteries power both homes, while a 13.5kVA three-phase FG Wilson generator runs the olive processing plant and provides power back up. Water has been just as carefully considered. Run-off from springs on the hill feed approximately 500,000 litres of tank storage for irrigation, with overflow directed into a 6ML* dam. There is a Mono Sunsub solar pump on the dam.

There are approximately 187,000 litres of rainwater storage that provide drinking water for both houses. A gravity fed fire sprinkler system surrounds the main house.

Beyond the garden, the land is as productive as it is beautiful. The multi-variety olive grove has produced gold medal-winning extra virgin olive oil, with the olives processed on site and the oil kept in a temperature-controlled store. A citrus orchard and established fruit and nut trees include apples, pears, cherries, plums, pomegranates, apricots, almonds, pistachios and a large macadamia. There is also a fenced vegetable garden. A small vineyard of shiraz grapes has produced many tasty in-house vintages and is ready to go for any purchaser so inclined.

Shedding includes a large concrete-floored shed in two parts, comprising an olive processing area and a climate-controlled oil storage room in one section and a workshop and shelving in the other. Behind the shed and established grape vines and almond trees, the hill country rises into land protected by a Trust for Nature covenant, ensuring the backdrop to the property protects native plants and wildlife for ever.

100 Mt Bernard Lane, Avenel - a home, a working grove and thirty years of care, ready for its next owner. The olive processing plant and farm equipment are available by separate negotiation.

Expressions of Interest close Thursday 26 November 2026 at 11am (AEDT). Inspections strictly by appointment.

4km* from Avenel and a little over an hour* from Melbourne via the Hume Freeway

*denotes approximately