Escape to a rainforest retreat in north Queensland

A four bedroom tropical getaway at 17 Warril Drive, Kuranda has just gone on the market through Ray White Cairns Beaches.

The luxury rainforest estate is owned by Major Les Hiddins, also known as The Bush Tucker Man, and wife Sandy Hiddins. Over the past decade the couple have completely overhauled the main house as well as adding a master suite and landscaped garden.

“The house was built in the late 80s and when we bought, it was in its original condition so over the last eight years we’ve basically gutted it and rebuilt it almost entirely from scratch as well as adding in a couple of wings that have doubled the size of the property,” Mrs Hiddins said.

The master suite and other additions were locally designed and built by award winning Cairns architect firm Chris Van Dyke and WIP Construction respectively.

“We decided to build the master suite in particular because we’ve got adult children and grandchildren coming to visit so we wanted a much bigger home and a separate wing where we could just have complete privacy and shut that off from the remainder of the house,” she said.

“The architect and builders did a great job so now we have this lovely master wing built with a very large bedroom opening out onto a wide verandah, big ensuite, huge walk in wardrobe, all with beautiful cabinetry made by woodworks here on the tableland.

“There’s also a reading room particularly for Les - he wanted the north Queensland section with a large library in the home as he’s got over 600 books, so that’s adjacent to the bedroom.

“The wing was built like an original homestead so the wide verandahs have the lovely sandstone trims and the tiling is all tessellated and individually laid - so, it’s really quite lovely.”

The estate also backs onto heritage listed rainforest and overlooks north Queensland parklands at the front - something that Mrs Hiddins said was part of the reason they bought the property.

“We wanted to live in the general Atherton tableland area - we were looking for something that wasn’t suburbia and was a really beautiful location so that’s why we chose Kuranda,” she said.

“When we saw the place, we just fell in love with it straight away because it’s such a dramatic background or dramatic environment with the world heritage rainforest on our back boundary with a spring fed creek and then the front of the property is more parklands.”

The couple said they will miss their favourite parts of the house despite being excited about the prospect of another adventure - this time further south in New South Wales.

“It’s hard to answer what our favorite features of the house are as we love it all but we’ve got a lovely cantilever deck out over the spring fed creek in the rainforest and is an absolutely pristine, quiet and clean environment that is just stunning so we love to have a few drinks out there, read and entertain out there - it’s just such a lovely cool spot.

“And probably the outdoor areas, we’ve got a very large deck off the living area facing the rainforest and we eat a lot out there in summer.

“In winter time, we’ve got a wood burner in the living room because it gets cool here in Kuranda in the evenings, so sitting by the fire in the evenings is a top spot.”

The property will be on the market on an expressions of interest campaign and being represented by Ray White Cairns Beaches sales and marketing consultant Sonia Poole.

Media contact

Shannon Cook
Ray White Group
Media Advisor
Scook@raywhite.com
0437 593 050