HIDDEN behind beautiful green foliage and enormous trees is the historic Ballintrae homestead, part of the history of the small town of Bunyip.

Ballintrae was built in 1898 for Major Arthur Haywood St Thomas A'Beckett on a gentle slope overlooking the surrounding paddocks.

The church in Bunyip is named after A'Beckett, and the road Ballintrae fronts also bears his name.

It is also thought that the local pioneer employed the famous Edna Walling to design the beautiful gardens surrounding the timber house.

Three years ago Marilyn Boyse and John Fontana bought the 8ha property, attracted to the old house and the gardens.

However, the house had seen better days, and the couple spent much time and money restoring the grand building.

"It was a real fixer-upper and just too good an opportunity to pass up," Marilyn said.

What she describes as a "hectic three years" has culminated in a bright and airy house, which retains some of its original features, however, still has some more modern creature comforts.

"We worked, room by room and re-plastered, re-painted and re-stumped," Marilyn said.

"We took out the lining boards which were in the house and put them into the veranda ceiling."

The result is a bright, airy house, with the main bedroom drenched in morning sunlight from french doors and a large bay window.

The adjoining bathroom and dressing room have been modernised by Marilyn and John.

"All of the bedrooms have french doors (on to the veranda). It could easily be used as a bed and breakfast if someone wanted to do that," Marilyn said.

There are four bedrooms with two bathrooms (one of which is the ensuite to the main bedroom), and the large spacious kitchen has an imposing island bench and a restored Rayburn wood stove. The original maid's room adjoins the kitchen.

Many of the floorboards, which Marilyn and John polished, are original Baltic pine.

The lovely old house is almost over-shadowed by the gardens which surround it.

What was once a croquet lawn is surrounded by large trees and established gardens. Some of the old trees include a lilly pilly, copper beech, elms, jacaranda, Canadian ash, hoop pine, flame tree and a South American flowering chestnut.

The original killing room still stands in the garden.

There is also the disused herringbone dairy at the top of the driveway.

Alpacas, which Marilyn has shown and bred under the Ballintrae Alpacas name, graze among the old fruit trees and across the green paddocks.

The Bunyip River runs along the boundary of Ballintrae and the property has a pumping allocation which is pumped to a header tank and then gravity-fed to troughs.

The property is also connected to town water.

Bunyip is about an hours' drive southwest of Melbourne in Victoria.