Salbinda Salon with Jeffrey Broadfield

On Sunday 19th April, 2026 we held our first Salbinda Salon, a conversation with craftsman / maker / "realiser" Jeffrey Broadfield.

We restored our house Salbinda in 2015 and ever since have been exploring ways in which we can share this wonderful place on Sydney's Pittwater with a broader community. The idea of having a Salon, a small curated group of people coming together to have conversations, to learn and to exchange ideas in a safe place where people could intellectually 'play', came about during conversations Jeffrey and I had on our verandah over many years.

Our hope is that they also serve as a complement to our Brave Conversations events around the world, but with a focus on the more analogue aspects of our human existence - people and the lives they lead, challenges they face, and wisdom they have to impart.

Salbinda has been part of Jeffrey’s story since the late 1960s, when he first came to the house to visit his friend potter Andrew Halford, whose family had bought the land and built the first original building. The house and land has quietly woven itself through Jeffrey's life and practice ever since and his character and personality are inter-twined with the building with every curve, every plane reflecting his eye for detail and his appreciation of the need for the house to be our ‘home’.  Together with the team of builder Peter Cumming Jeffrey shaped and crafted every piece of timber to gently bring the house into this century while honouring the spirit created by original architect Richard Leplastrier AO who helped guide the restoration.

Jeffrey has had a long, distinguished and fascinating career. He has worked with a diverse range people from theatre mechanics, dwarf actors, and musical divas; ships captains, sea pirates and high end chefs, and architecture luminaries such as Richard Leplastrier, Peter Stutchbury and Rob Brown. In everything he does Jeffrey masterfully creates personal spaces and artefacts highly tailored for the individuals he serves as they live, learn, laugh and lounge.

In this our first Salon, Jeffrey gave us a glimpse of how he sees the world, from his early days in Griffith and Western Sydney to life on the Northern Beaches and now Tasmania. He reflected on how the craft of ‘making’, whether it be in theatre, architecture or nautical inspirations, has shaped his approach to life – and how, in Salbinda as in other projects, he has crafted award‑winning, bespoke buildings that hold both the needs of their custodians and the practical realities of living lightly in the landscape.

Some examples of Jeffrey's work include:

·     Richard Leplastrier's Palm Garden House Bilgola Beach

·     Tiny Houses designed by Casey Brown called Permanent Camping

·     Peter Stutchbury's Indian Head House

·     Jeffrey's own Instagram page full of wonderful realisations

During our conversation we laughed, cried and pondered many of the curiosities of humanity and the world we live in, as Jeffrey and I so often do. What made this so special was having this conversation surrounded by a group of open, intelligent and generous people who chose to come along.

For our first Salon we achieved everything we sought out to do, plus more. Our challenge now is what and who next!

I would particularly like to thank Jeffrey, and partner-in-life Megan Brown, for their generousity in sharing so much of their story, and for their friendship over the past decade. I would also like to thank Alissa Booker and Greg Khoury, both of whom helped to bring together a fascinating guest list, and Tara Sydney who added the 'young vibe'.

Finally a huge thank you to the Board of our Intersticia Foundation who 'hosted with the mosted' and helped make the event a reality.

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