Lost Ranches

The beautiful Yarramalong Valley on the Central Coast is where you’ll find the aptly named Lost Ranches - The Barn. A 50-acre historic farmland property, now unique accommodation experience that is all about getting back to nature, comfortably.

Once owned by the Bradley family, who were among the earliest saw-milling pioneers of the area, Adam and Ricki-Jane Wilton, together with property owner and mate Travis Miller, have completely reinvigorated the farm by building an architecturally designed American prairie style barn on the foundations where the sawmill once stood.

Speaking with Adam, he gave us the rundown on how Lost Ranches all came to be,

“When Trav first bought the farm, none of the original sawmill buildings existed so we used to camp at the back of the property until The Barn was built. It’s such a great space and too good not to share so we turned it into an Airbnb. I live in Newcastle, he lives in Neutral Bay, so this was the meeting point for both of us.”

Adam best sums up the overall style of The Barn as cigar lounge meets hunting lodge/urban ranch-style accommodation and is undoubtedly every urbanite's dream escape.

It’s the trio’s unique combination of life and work experiences that has created this idyllic accommodation experience with Adam explaining,

“Trav works in finance as CEO and Co-Founder of investment platform iPartners, and I owned a café bar in Melbourne for five years, and Ricki-Jane was working at the Victorian Racing Club for the Melbourne Cup. Then we went and worked on the superyachts in Europe and the Caribbean for seven or eight years and dealt with the wealthiest of the wealthy. When we came back to Australia we weren’t really sure what we wanted to do. We do have other jobs, but this is where we have landed and we enjoy it.”

Of the 50-acres of land around half of the property is made up of the Ourimbah State Forest, so it’s completely normal for bushwalkers to just appear with a well-used bushwalking track winding its way through the property.

What The Barn does best is seamlessly blend into its beautiful surrounds, with the country-luxe interiors providing all the comforts you would expect from a boutique accommodation experience. Like those gorgeous Chesterfields which make for the perfect place to snuggle on in front of the fire.

If you’ve brought the family along, outdoors is where you'll be spending most of your time with Adam explaining,

“When we were setting The Barn up we always thought about if we were here and we had kids, what would we want? You don’t necessarily want the internet but it’s there and you’ve got it.

Ricki-Jane says, “If it’s wet, you can rely on it. But when the sun’s shining, you’re outside. There’s a ground-level trampoline and a half-sized basketball court behind The Barn, and out the back we have an undercover area for shooting hoops when it’s raining and a ping pong table.  

Of an evening, the only place to be is firepit side where you can sit back and soak in the starry show.

“It's full of stars, it’s awesome".

“We have a telescope, binoculars and the bird book, and they're the sort of things we like to have so people can get out and have a look and get involved with nature. That’s my favourite thing to do, sit out with a coffee at daybreak and take it all in.”

Ever-changing Ricki-Jane explained that they regularly like to mix things up in The Barn, 

"It’s a continuously evolving space, it gets our creative side out and about. Like, the lights upstairs – we found a bit of wood and we’re like ahhh let’s put that in here".

Being bang on an hour's drive south of Newcastle and north of Sydney, for those of you looking for the ultimate wind down and back-to-nature kind of experience that still provides all your creature comforts you need to book in a break at Lost Ranches.