Mayfield Garden — Attraction in Mayfield

I recently won an overnight glamping stay in Oberon’s Mayfield Garden. My visit took place during their recent Spring Festival, where alongside the 36 acres of Mayfield Garden that are open to the public all the time, an additional 120 acres of the Hawkins’ private gardens are able to be viewed.

While the family friendly camping area is right at the Cafe and Produce Store and car park entry to Mayfield Garden, an adults only camping area is just a short walk away, inside the garden proper. There’s reasonable separation between the fifteen cream-coloured tents.

The tent interiors glow with a warm golden light during the day. Each tent is furnished with a Hugo Sleep mattress lifted up on wooden pallets from the natural fibre floor coverings. Two leather stools, and wooden crate bedside tables complete the tent's interior, which is tall enough to stand in around the central pole.

With endless blue skies and sun blazing down, we took the time to explore the rest of the camping ground. There are cubicles offering press-button hot showers, a clean and permanent toilet block, normally used by guests of Mayfield Garden, and a central space where a power box is supplied to charge the essentials, like your mobile phone.

Before it gets too dark – they do supply you with a rechargeable lantern - we head on down to the Café & Produce Store for dinner. It’s a simply furnished room with products down one side, and a counter in one corner. The Glamping Package ($290/couple) includes dinner, set up in heated metal servers on one of the big tables.

It’s a simple, one-course affair with bread and salad, though glampers can add on a Wine + Antipasto Platter ($55) to their package. Wines are all drawn from the local region, including the Phillip Shaw Pink Billy Saignee Rose ($43/bottle) from Orange. Taken against the antipasto plate which offers up charcuterie, pickles, crackers, and simple cheeses, it’s an easy-to-like-sipper.

Reducing the distance from farm to table sure makes a difference to salad. You can actually taste growth and chlorophyll in the collection of mixed leaves – they’re so good I actually eat two plates of them. They’re served with smoky, tasty slow-cooked beef presented in long strands against a collection of cooked vegetables and potatoes, making for a healthy plate of simple food.

Over dessert, set around a metal campfire, we bond with our fellow glampers. We swap stories as we flame commercial marshmallows then roll them in chocolate sauce and flaked almonds for an Aussie version of s’mores.

Campfire conversation continued back at the tents around blazing fire pits that helped us ward off the night time cold. The backdrop to your conversation sounds like a chorus of banjos being plucked, and it comes courtesy of the Eastern Banjo Frog. They sing up a storm for most of the night from the nearby obelisk lake (and people reckon cities are noisy). The star field is amazing with the only light nearby coming from lanterns inside the softly glowing tents.

We found it hard to get comfortable in the cold air, struggling with getting overheated in the queen bed topped with quality linen but disappointing pillows and way too many blankets and quilts. The benefit of this struggle to sleep was that we were up at dawn, taking in mauve and peach painted skies against another loud dawn chorus, this time from screeching birds.

Walking around the dew-covered garden in the gentle morning light worked out better than the shower, which without temperature you can control, can leave you feeling a bit like a cooked lobster. Do note that the shower cubicle gets almost completely soaked, so choose where you bundle your clothes and shoes very carefully.

Our early start also meant we were first in line for breakfast - a Bacon & Egg Brioche Roll ($12.50) and the Mayfield Breakfast ($23), a not too-abundant collection of fried eggs, bacon, chorizo, and cooked vegetables sitting on a crumbed mushroom that don’t quite work at breakfast time, even doused in...

10/10 - I visited Mayfield Garden in Autumn

“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” – Lauren DeStefano

Perhaps one of the best spot to truly witness Nature’s last beauty is in Mayfield Garden. Boasting a size of 65-hectare, Mayfield Garden is filled with vibrant colors all over the place during autumn. The moment you step inside the garden, you feel you are transported into a different world. It is absolutely breathtaking that you will not get bored inside. There are tons of things you can explore inside the garden.

Mayfield garden is probably the largest and luxurious privately owned garden. Every corner of Mayfield Garden is filled with different themes and concept. Each and every area was strategically placed and designed. From the entrance all the way to the maze, from the eerie woods to the private house and all the way back, each experience was refreshing and exciting. In fact, the whole garden gives off a fairy tale vibe.

I cannot name a favorite place in the whole garden because the whole place is just damn amazing with their own personalities. To make things better, the colorful leaves of autumn make the place more romantic and lovely. I highly suggest going to this place with your partner for it gives off a great feeling of romance and tranquility.

Seeing the Mayfield Garden in Autumn is one of the best things that I did here in Australia. I am very well travelled (rode helicopter in the Great Ocean Road Victoria, skydived in Wollongong, explored Jenolan Caves, hiked Mt. Kosciuszko, experienced the air at Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia, crossed the rivers of Clarke Gorge, etc) but the autumn experience in Mayfield Garden was just remarkable.

Convenience inside the garden was also top-tier. There is a café inside the garden that serves quality food and there are multiple toilets inside the garden. Moreover, if you want to stay the night, you can do glamping inside the garden.

Highly recommended to visit during Autumn. I don’t know how Mayfield Garden look at other seasons but during my visit in Autumn, it was an otherworldly beauty. It is the ultimate display of nature’s last beauty.

Thank you for giving me the most wonderful Autumn experience...

I made this trek (about 1.5 hours from Katoomba) on a holiday to the Blue Mountains on a whim and it was so worth it!

I’ve visited a few private gardens and this one is large, interesting and pretty spectacular. The garden that is open to the public is very big, and has multiple scenes including a big lake, at least 3 waterfalls, fountains, and a lot of walking paths. There are lots of level changes making for some stunning garden scapes. Clearly a lot of thought and passion from the landscape designers.

Some reviewers complain about the lack of flowers in autumn (not sure what they were expecting...) in autumn it’s not a flowering garden but has an abundance of autumn colours. It would have a totally different character in spring but is equally beautiful.

There is a private bit of the garden which is for the property owners, and only open for special events. We went when this was not open, but you can still see a lot of it from the public areas so you can still enjoy the long views and get beautiful photos.

You should also ignore any negativity about the cafe. For what is really a private house garden open to the public, the cafe is really very good and full-service for lunch. We enjoyed lunch first and then spent around 2.5 hours walking the garden. The entry fee to the garden is very reasonable considering the tens of millions that would have gone into the creation and maintenance...