14 Spencer Road, Olinda, VIC, 3788, Australia

With a history dating back more than a hundred years, Brambledene is a Dandenongs’ one-of-a-kind that marries Hills charm with modern living.

Nestled in the hills outside Olinda, the two-acre property welcomes you in via a circular driveway. Winding under a canopy of magnificent oak trees and lush ferns, the drive leads to Brambledene: a two-storey A-frame home, historic cottage, and extensive landscaped and rambling gardens on a gentle sloping hillside.

The two-storey main house features three bedrooms, three living spaces, two bathrooms and an external bathroom/laundry. With its herringbone brick floor and central log burner, the ground floor has an Italian farmhouse style. The open-plan living areas flow through the length of the home, seamlessly incorporating an industrial-style kitchen, dining area, two living spaces and a bedroom with modern en suite. A wall of north-facing windows with fitted cedar blinds leads onto a deck with stunning garden views. In addition to the log burner, the ground floor features hydronic heating throughout.

Upstairs, the pitched roof gives the space a Scandi feel, with soaring ceilings and polished floorboards. On this floor, two bedrooms and the main bathroom lead from a central living area. One of the bedrooms features a walk-through dressing room and opens out onto a large private deck, while the other looks out over the fernery and oak trees.

In the tranquil established garden, the surrounding canopy provided by Japanese maples, silver birches, magnolia grandiflora, ferns and exotics ensures that the home is gently shaded from the summer sun while allowing light to stream in during the winter months. Terraced gardens lead down the property to a veggie patch and small orchard with citrus, pear and apple trees, passing a pond, tree fernery and wet garden, home to frogs and visiting wildlife. The garden continues to wind down through a woodland of specimen trees to the bushland below.

Brambledene cottage
The historic Brambledene cottage dates back to the late 1890s, when subdivisions of 10-acre lots were first created to attract buyers to the Dandenong Ranges. The original dwelling operated as a guesthouse in the 1930s and more recently as a Hills B&B.

With charm in spades, the delightful one-bedroom cottage retains a historic feel with a brick fireplace and wooden floors throughout. Surrounded by Japanese maples, azaleas, camellias, rhododendrons and gnarled old walnut trees, the cottage, while maintaining its privacy, has sweeping views down to the main house and on to the valley and hills in the distance. It’s the perfect retreat for friends and family while offering endless potential as a rental or B&B. (STCA)

In the garden

With its winding pathways, garden rooms, specimen trees and shrubbery, it's easy for visitors to lose their sense of time meandering through the Brambledene garden. Here is a list of planting and wildlife that regularly pass through the property.

Ornamentals and shrubs
Oaks, pines, cypresses, spruce, tulip trees, ferns, black bamboo, handkerchief tree, yews, rhododendrons, Japanese maples, silver birches, magnolias, viburnums, dogwoods, buxus, red and white waratahs, camellias, gingko, weeping and knotted elms.

Fruit trees
Fig, lemon, apple, pear, walnut, crab apples, macadamia, chestnut and hazelnut trees.

Veggie & herb garden
Veggie garden with raised garden boxes, herb garden and small orchard.

Flowers
Lilies, Japanese anemones, hellebores, forget-me-nots, roses, azaleas, hydrangeas, daffodils, bluebells, snowbells, lily of the valley, daphne, violets, Irises and native orchids.

Visiting wildlife
Wombats, echidnas, wallabies, possums, lyrebirds, tawny frogmouths, kookaburras, black and white cockatoos, fairy wrens, bowerbirds, king parrots, currawongs, owls, bats and frogs.

Disclaimer: All information provided has been obtained from sources we believe to be accurate, however, we cannot guarantee the information is accurate and we accept no liability for any errors or omissions (including but not limited to a property's land size, floor plans and size, building age and condition) Interested parties should make their own enquiries and obtain their own legal advice. Please contact agents to confirm all appointments as they may be cancelled with short notice.