Nicola and Warrick live at Penobscot Farm on the southern outskirts of Watervale. Once a 1600 acre sheep farm the property is now a more modest 9 acres, and an organic, bio-dynamic farm managed by Jared Murray to perma-culture principles.

The original cottage was home to Mr Young, the first surveyor to the Clare Valley. Young’s road is the main copper route from Burra to Port Wakefield. After 1851 the next occupant Mr King called the property Kingswood. He was a real estate agent who sold blocks surveyed by Mr Young. Upon King’s death the property was acquired by Adelaide lawyer John Richman who extended the stone house and called the property Warnbunga. John was Watervale Justice of the Peace from 1861 until he died in 1864. His daughter Sophia married Walter Hughes a Yorke Peninsula pastoralist who became very wealthy due to copper mining and moved to Hughes Park Watervale. Hughes and Richman acquired Springvale Wines, and employed Carl Sobels to manage that business. The property remained in Richman family hands until acquired in 1892 by Carl Sobel’s daughter Selma and her husband Earnest Castine. Castine named the property Penobscot. 

The name comes from Maine in the USA where the town of Castine sits on the Penobscot River, itself named after the local indigenous Indian tribe.

The Castines operated the property as a 1600 acre sheep farm until 1978. In the period between the World Wars Earnest was a Member of the Legislative Council, and Penobscot was a seat of regional governance.

Nicola and Warrick were married on the property in 2018, receiving dinner guests in the renovated shearing shed.

The cottage on the property, most likely a managers cottage from the 1860’s, has been renovated as Penobscot Farm Cottage – a single bedroom bed and breakfast tourist accommodation.

Guests can book farm tours and dining experiences including degustation dining at Penobscot Restaurant seated in the kitchen of the Watervale Hotel.