A first look at this historic countryside hotel’s $10m facelift
As featured in The Financial Review here | February 25 2026 | by Eugenie Kelly
The 1910-built, Federation-style manor – a popular holiday spot for Sydneysiders – has been brought into the 21st century by designer Alan McMahon.
Life & Leisure is on-site at Milton Park in Bowral for a first look at the hotel’s $10-million rebrand. Set in a historic Southern Highlands estate, the hotel reopened earlier in February after six months of renovations, becoming the flagship in Salter Brothers Hospitality’s new Ardour portfolio.
A lot has changed – but the misty light that casts this part of NSW as an antipodean England is as enchanting as ever, even on a steamy February day like today. Gazing out the hotel windows at the electric green lawns, set against an indecently blue sky, the scene feels expressive and romantic, as though Turner himself painted it.
It’s precisely this diffused light that both seduced and tormented interior architect Alan McMahon of Sydney firm MAC Design Studio, who led the redesign. “The outward views feel almost like artworks,” he says, “but as beautiful as they are, the quality of light here meant we went through a massive process of refining the colours we had planned for the property. It was quite a journey.”
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