When Alex Catford and Maddie Du Rieu dreamed of running their own tourist park to share with visitors their own love of camping and the outdoors, they never expected to find an opportunity staring them in the face.
WORDS: Gabrielle Hall
PHOTOS: Meridee Groves
For as long as he can remember, Alex Catford and his family have enjoyed camping and family gatherings in the hills of their Tarcowie farm. With magnificent sunsets and views across the southern Flinders Ranges, it was their own little piece of paradise.
Alex’s love of the outdoors is shared with his partner, Maddie Du Rieu, and they dreamed of escaping their tiny city apartment and heading off into the sunset to share their passion for the simple things.
“We love bush camping and we go all over the place camping, so really wanted to re-create that experience for people,” Alex said.
“For a while we were looking at moving interstate or trying to buy a block or run a caravan park.”
But it was a casual conversation with his late dad, Ian – or Canoee as many may have known him through his long-time involvement with the Variety Bash, conservation, and mulesing business- that led Alex and Maddie back to his childhood home.
With the blessing also of his mum, Rosemary, Alex and Maddie made the move to the farm and Heggie’s Hill Bush Camp and Canoee’s Realm glamping experience was born.
“Dad was always quite a private person, and I thought he really did want to keep our farm just within our own family, it was his little bit of paradise,” Alex said.
“But one night I was driving dad home from Adelaide where he’d been having chemotherapy, and I started talking to him about what Maddie and I would love to do and out of the blue he said why not do it at home?
“I had lost my older brother, Tom, who had been here on the farm, and dad was crook, and I really didn’t want to see the farm go.
“Things just fell into place, with his blessing, I felt like this was where we needed to be.”
For Maddie, although she grew up in Adelaide, her parents had grown up around country SA, and she also found her ‘place’, settling in well to rural life.
As a midwife, her skills are in demand, as are her sporting talents. A semi-professional soccer player in Adelaide, it has taken a little adjustment, shifting her skills to the netball court, but all is going well.
“There’s nowhere close by to play soccer up here, unless I go to Port Pirie, so I started playing netball for Orroroo halfway through last year in the E-grade,” Maddie said.
“This year I’m playing A-grade so I guess I’ve picked it up ok.”
The camping experience
Alex, a qualified plumber, and Maddie both work full-time off the property, while running the campsite business. It took shear hard work and determination to be able to throw open the gates to Heggie’s Hill Bush Camp site in June 2023.
It includes 17 sites (rotated between eight-10 sites at a time to maintain the feeling of being ‘out bush’), loads of space, amazing views, kangaroos, echidnas and birdlife.
Each site has running water, and if you needed any other excuse to give bush camping a go, then a shared, fully-flushable toilet – with possibly the fanciest seat any bush dunny has seen – might sway you.
At Canoee’s Realm (officially opened in June 2024), the experience reaches next level. A renovated caravan – with full flushing toilet and a shower that both Alex and Maddie agree is better than theirs at home – kitchen and barbecue facilities, television and outdoor ‘lounge’ area greets visitors.
But perhaps the most enticing feature is a wood-fired hot tub overlooking spectacular views and sunsets.
“It’s higher than Mount Lofty here, and dad’s claim to fame was always that he had the highest cropping country in South Australia, above sea level,” Alex said.
“The views are pretty amazing across the Southern Flinders Ranges to Mt Remarkable and the Bluff over at Wirrabara, and a few local hills including Hog’s Head where dad was known to hang-glide off.
“We’ve tested the campsites and also the glamping site a few times, and I think Maddie spent about three hours in the hot tub one day, she enjoyed it so much. It’s definitely a drawcard for the glamping site.”
While the farm itself has been leased out, Maddie and Alex do have some animals that also delight their visitors, young and old.
“People love coming over to meet our cows and lambs, and we’ve been told many times that’s the real reason people come here,” Maddie laughs.
“We’ve got six Miniature Belted Galloways – Wesley, Elvis, Dot, Valerie and Daria, and a bull that Instagram followers of Canoee’s Realm will have the chance to name soon.”
Down the track
The couple have plans to expand the camping offering, with their sights now set on nearby Mad Man’s hill.
“The hill is known for being too steep to crop, I think Canoee was the only one brave enough to ever crop it,” Alex said.
“I remember going up and down the hills with dad, thinking I was going to fall out the back window because it was so steep.
“Ever since the place has been leased out, it has only been used for grazing, and we think it would make an ideal campsite to really take in more of the amazing outlook this place offers.”
One thing is for sure, Alex and Maddie have found their passion and just love to share it with other like-minded campers.
They say coming ‘home’ to the country has been the best move they could have made.
The couple are loving what they have created, being part of a “supportive” community and say they can finally stop and ‘breathe’.
“I didn’t realise how frustrated I was living in the city, in a tiny apartment, after having grown up here,” Alex said.
Maddie agrees. “We probably thought the city life was fine for us at the time, but moving here it’s just less pressure, a different lifestyle and we love it – we wouldn’t go back.”
– Check out Heggies Hill Bush Camp on Facebook and Instragram, or drop into Hipcamp to make a booking.
