Our story begins in 1985, two years after Ted and Gail Nettelton bought a beautiful 80-acre property in the Clare Valley intending to plant 25,000 trees for commercial use. At the time of purchase, the property produced wheat, though a third of it had never been cultivated.

Plans changed, a mud-brick cottage took on grandiose proportions, the 25,000 trees were planted but never harvested and the uncultivated land is now heritage-listed.

How did we decide on the name? In winter, the wind and rain "wuthers" through the trees on the property. The atmosphere seemed to evoke Emily Bronte's classic novel, "Wuthering Heights."

The House the Nettelton Family Built.

The House the Nettelton Family Built.
Back: Beverley, Penelope, Spencer
Front: Tanika, Gail

Here, in pictures, is how my parents, my two sisters and I, in our teens at the time, left the city and created Wuthering Heights.