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15 March 2025 | Article by Tenele Conway 

Photograph credit: Kali Rebecca Photography

 When Lee Pinder first viewed the Yass property then known as Blackburn, it wasn’t the grand staircase that attracted him. Nor was it the nine oversized bedrooms, 14 fireplaces, or the 96 acres of sprawling grounds; it was the English elm trees.

“It was up for auction in the first week of December in 2019, the year with the bushfires. I came down to see it; the paddocks were dry; it had been overgrazed but the homestead was surrounded by English elm trees which in the UK are all dead. They died from Dutch elm disease in the 80s. It’s in my DNA – I saw the English elms and wanted to hug them,” says Lee, a UK native who now declares himself a proud Australian.

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