Private High Tea at Yallum Park
Step through the front door of Yallum Park and you are standing inside one of the finest Victorian mansions left in Australia, largely untouched since John Riddoch built it between 1878 and 1880. Riddoch was the Scottish born pastoralist who bought this land in 1861 and planted the first vines in its deep red Terra Rossa soil, the beginning of everything Coonawarra has become. Walk its halls today and you are walking through the birthplace of the wine region we have built our lives around.
This house has entertained a poet and a future king, and in 2025 it caught the eye of a Netflix production crew searching for a home to bring My Brilliant Career(opens in new tab) back to life. Yallum Park won them over because it is one of the last grand Australian homesteads never modernised, never altered, still exactly as it was. The production loved it so much they took silicone moulds of the stonework and door mouldings rather than change a single thing on site. Few properties in the country could make that claim.
Yallum Park is a private home, not a museum and not a regular tourist attraction. Its owners open the doors for small group tours on occasion, but a private high tea inside the home itself is a different level of access altogether, and simply crossing the threshold is a privilege very few people are given. This is your chance to step back into history and immerse yourself somewhere few visitors ever get to stand, a private walk through the mansion and its gardens, then high tea laid out in the formal dining room, seated at the very bay window Riddoch once looked out from. Not a display behind glass, not a rope across the doorway, a room you are actually sitting in, teacup in hand, or perhaps a glass of sparkling wine fit for the occasion.
Expect to choose from a selection of delicate macarons, white chocolate-dipped madeleines, coconut lamingtons, warm scones and finger sandwiches, alongside South Australian tea, brewed coffee and a bottle of local Coonawarra sparkling wine to share.
*Menu is subject to change - A minimum of 4 guests is required
This was our first experience at wine tasting and we couldn’t have been in better hands than to have Simon from Coonawarra Experiences showing us how the Coonawarra region works. He was friendly and knowledgeable in all aspects of the Coonawarra from its history to wine making. The wine tasting at numerous wineries was a highlight of wonderful wines and yummy food .Thank you Simon
Tour Details
A private guided tour through the ground floor of Yallum Park, the grand Victorian mansion built between 1878 and 1880 for John Riddoch, the pastoralist who founded the Coonawarra wine district. The home is regarded as one of the best preserved Victorian houses in Australia, 17 rooms, 15 foot ceilings, marble mantelpieces, stained glass, and walls still hung with Australia's largest surviving collection of original William Morris wallpaper. [Note: Gordon House and Austin House are not part of this tour, confirmed]
The house has drawn interesting company over the years. The poet Adam Lindsay Gordon was a regular visitor and is said to have written his famous poem The Sick Stockrider while staying at Yallum. The Duke of Cornwall, later King George V, visited during his 1901 tour of Australia. Yallum Park has been held by the Clifford family since 1914, when the current owners' grandfather purchased it from the Riddoch estate, and it remains privately owned today by Andy and Annie Clifford as its custodians.
In 2025, Yallum Park was chosen as a filming location for Netflix's reboot of My Brilliant Career, valued by the production for being as close to untouched as any grand homestead left in the country, so much so that the production team took silicone moulds of the stonework and door mouldings to recreate the interiors on a soundstage rather than risk changing anything on site.
Your visit also includes a private walk through Yallum Park's historic gardens, taking in the grounds surrounding the homestead.
