'Ridgy Didge' in the Henley Ridge Estate is the name of a unique family lifestyle home on useful productive acreage at Markwood in the Ovens Valley.
The property is listed for private sale by Elders Real Estate in Wangaratta with an asking price of $925,000.
Located at 50 Illawong Road, Markwood, the 5.77 hectare property was developed from an original farm holding that was owned by one of the first wine grape growing families in the north-east region.
On the property is a spectacular, high quality mud brick family home that has an area under the roof of 408 square metres, with expansive views of the Ovens Valley and the Beechworth hills.
With an impressive presentation, it is light filled with three bedrooms plus a study, home office, or even a nursery, and with 2.5 bathrooms the home has many striking features.
There's also space for a sunroom plus a separate billiards table, with an inground pool set in a protected courtyard.
The features include a large undercover alfresco area with its own barbecue and pizza oven, an underground cellar which the vendors use to brew their own beer, to make a few annual bottles of wine, and as a storeroom for their homegrown vegetable produce.
Heating comes from combustion stoves, hydronic panels, and underfloor electric heating with cooling by an evaporative system.
The vendors designed these services for self-sufficiency, and said they rarely have any energy bills.
The home is set in an established garden of about two acres surrounding the home, which includes productive vegetable plots and orchard, with a reticulated watering system sourced from a reliable dam in one of the four paddocks.
The vendors bought the property and the incomplete mud brick home in 2001 and have worked over their ownership to not only complete the construction, but to present it to the standard they sought and to be an ideal easy to run family home.
The small acreage has enabled them to run their registered Ridgy Didge Dorper Sheep Stud, so the four main paddocks and the property's buildings are exactly set up for this and their herd of about 35 sheep and their lambs.
There are small lambing paddocks and facilities and paddock shelters that could be used for almost any other small animal enterprise.
The fencing throughout is ideally fit for this purpose.
The farm shedding includes a three bay enclosed machinery shed of 9 x 7.3 metres to house a caravan, boat, or machinery with internal clearance to suit.
There is an attached workshop and storage with a combined area of 15.6 x 6 metres, plus an additional tractor shelter all under cover and sufficient for any enterprise.
Selling agent Michael Everard said the property is a very smart lifestyle opportunity for a couple or family.
"The vendors created their own estate that operates independently of reticulated services, although they are connected, and to run the agricultural venture of their choice," he said.
"Their work over the last 20 years provides an established family home with a very impressive presentation and I doubt if there would be a better mud brick home anywhere in Victoria.
"They are now retiring so their Ridgy Didge holding is presented for new owners to enjoy a productive, highly efficient and desirable lifestyle, in an ideal accessible rural environment at Markwood, with Milawa in particular, only a few kilometres away."
AGENT: Michael Everard on 0408 653 161, Elders real Estate in Wangaratta.
