Eagles Bluff Open Garden Weekend
Saturday 17 & Sunday 18 October 2026 · 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
707 Bluff River Road, Sandy Flat, New South Wales – about 30 minutes south of Tenterfield
A garden fifteen years in the making, open for two days
UPDATE: Entry has sold out and online sales are now closed.
Garden club members and local residents of Tenterfield, Glen Innes and Stanthorpe can still buy entry at the gate – $20 a head, cash only. Children under 16 free.
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 by the State Library of NSW, brimming with hedges, terraced garden beds, woodlands and drystone walls.
The second she began at 58, 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.
Come and see the garden
Entry has sold out online. Garden club members and local residents of Tenterfield, Glen Innes and Stanthorpe can still pay at the gate – $20 a head, cash only. Children under 16 are free. Both days, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm.
If you have already booked, your ticket has been emailed to you. There is no phone reception at the garden, so screenshot or print it before you leave home.
Take some plants home
Forty-one varieties of Carolyn's favourite plants were offered as tubestock, grown for this weekend by Sarah Caldwell of Mole Station Native Nursery. Plant drive orders have now closed. Pre-ordered plants can be collected from the potting shed on the day – bring your order confirmation and let the volunteers at the gate know.
Plantsman David Johnstone will also be selling plants on the day, including the ornamental grasses that Carolyn adores. Cash only.
Read the book
Carolyn's first book, A Garden is not a Painting, comes out in March 2027. It is 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, with photography throughout by Brigid Arnott. Pre-order now and we'll post it to you after launch in March 2027. Pre-order book.
Practical details
- Where – 707 Bluff River Road, Sandy Flat NSW · Directions on Google Maps
- When – Saturday 17 and Sunday 18 October 2026, 9.30 am to 5.30 pm
- Entry – sold out online. Gate entry $20 a head, cash only, for garden club members and local residents of Tenterfield, Glen Innes and Stanthorpe. Children under 16 free
- Getting there – the last 7km is dirt, with seven cattle grids that take one car at a time and two one-way causeways with traffic control. Please drive slowly, carpool if you can, and watch for stock and wildlife
- Phone reception – there is none at the garden. Sort out directions and tickets before you turn off the highway
- Parking – on grass in a paddock near the garden gate, with volunteers guiding you. A drop-off zone and accessible spaces are available
- Plants – plant drive orders have closed. David Johnstone will be selling plants on the day, cash only
- Food and drink – Red Cross volunteers will run tea, coffee and light lunches. The Grazing Caterer will have charcuterie and cheese platters from $23. Cash only, and there is no ATM on site
- Bring – a folding chair or picnic blanket, and cash