Carolyn Robinson's magnificent garden Eagles Bluff will open to the public for one weekend only in October 2026.
UPDATE: Entry on its own has sold out – but you can still get in with a book bundle. One entry + 1 book $90, two entries + 1 book $110.
There is an exemption for local residents (2372 and 2370) and garden club members, who can still buy entry at the gate on the day – $20 a head. All other tickets must be purchase online beforehand.
Carolyn Robinson has created two nationally significant gardens near the NSW country town of Tenterfield. The first, Glenrock, grew from eight bare acres into "perhaps the finest recent example of a traditional Australian country garden" according to an exhibition in the State Library of NSW, brimming with hedges, terraced garden beds, woodlands and drystone walls. The second she began at 55, from nothing, on a granite rise above the Bluff River.
Eagles Bluff is now a magnificent contemporary garden of five acres, bounded by river on two sides and backed by wilderness. It's where Carolyn has been able to express, in garden form, all that she has learned over decades of gardening with the rare benefit of hindsight. For one weekend only, she's opening Eagles Bluff to the public.
Entry is $20, payable online. Both days, 9.30am to 4pm. Plenty of parking onsite. The Red Cross will be putting on tea, coffee and light lunches (cash only). Plantsman David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores.
707 Bluff River Road, Sandy Flat, NSW – about 25 minutes south of Tenterfield.
A note on the drive. Bluff River Road is a well-graded country dirt road, and it's 7km from the turnoff to the garden. Along the way there are several places where traffic needs to give way — at property grids and at two river causeways. Ordinary cars and small buses are fine, but the road is not suitable for buses carrying more than 30 people. Please drive with care, caution and courtesy.
Carolyn's first garden is opening the same weekend. Glenrock is the eight-acre garden Carolyn started in 1991 and its new owners are welcoming visitors on Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October too. Two gardens by the same gardener, begun seventeen years apart, in one weekend.
Glenrock is on the other side of Tenterfield, a few minutes out of town and about 40 minutes from Eagles Bluff. Their cafe is open for breakfast and lunch both days.
Our suggestion: breakfast at Glenrock, then drive south and spend the rest of the day at Eagles Bluff.
Glenrock's hours, entry and bookings are all on their website, via the button below.
Forty-one varieties of Carolyn's favourite plants are for sale as tubestock, grown for this weekend by Sarah Caldwell of Mole Station Native Nursery. $8.50 a tube.
Order online by 20 September and collect at Eagles Bluff on either day of the open weekend. No postage, and no sales at the gate. Garden entry ($20 a head) is separate.
To help you choose what plants to buy for where, Carolyn has put together a very helpful planting guide as a companion to the plant drive, with nine different planting combination ideas, and other planting tips.
Separately, plantsman David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores.
Carolyn's first book, A Garden is not a Painting, comes out in March 2027. It's a gardening how-to guide, in that it contains a wealth of practical information. But it's more than that. It's also about why we garden. And what three decades of planting, failing and starting again teaches you about a place, and about yourself.
A beautifully made hardcover book published by Galah Press, with photography throughout by Brigid Arnott. Pre-order now and we’ll post it to you after launch in March 2027.
Open Garden Entry + Book Pre-order is $90 with postage included – $15 less than buying them separately.
A note on the drive. Bluff River Road is a well-graded country dirt road, and it's 7km from the turnoff to the garden. Along the way there are several places where traffic needs to give way — at property grids and at two river causeways. Ordinary cars and small buses are fine, but the road is not suitable for buses carrying more than 30 people. Please drive with care, caution and courtesy.
