STRAW BALES, SAIL-LIKE CEILING FANS, AND SUCCULENT THAI MEALS.
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It’s a homely setting of cuisine and comfort, and from 2005 to 2023, the homely haunt of The Last Straw was less a café and more a prolonged love letter penned daily by owners John and Yao O’Donoghue.
The café sat just beyond Shepparton’s well-trodden paths – the sort of place stumbled upon by instinct.
But when talking about good, honest food, you’d only have to look at the full tables and bellies to know The Last Straw had a seismic cultural pulse felt by the entire city.
As it turns out, the O’Donoghues’ gift for exquisite environments isn’t bound by borders.
The same fate befell their new home in Avenel.
John and Yao moved into their cottage-style property on Boxing Day 2022, soon after it was built, following the sale of their shop that year.
“This is a historic block – it’s the toll keeper’s house block for the old stone bridge – so, we were mindful of that,” John said.
“We wanted to be somewhat colonial with the design, and we didn’t want to put a big footprint on it.”
The spacious three-bedroom, two-bathroom residence is compact at 10m x 10m, sitting on a speck of the 4.45 hectares of undulating land that overlooks Hughes Creek.
Measurements aside, there are many O’Donoghue touches everywhere.
Against a neutral white palette, earthy-toned art, wall hangings made of natural materials, and a pop of colour in deep turquoise blue tiles hint at Yao’s Thai cultural roots.
John’s signature exposed black steel frame above is a strong contender to be the main feature accent, but contrasted with six large Oregon trusses, it’s an unlikely match made in architectural heaven.
“They came out of an army barracks in Wodonga, but I sourced them from a guy in Moama called Nullarbor Sustainable Timber,” John said.
“I made the trusses up, and Peter O’Dwyer (Second Generation Builders in Shepparton) built the rest.
“The main thing we told him was for it to be as open as possible, from the style of the kitchen flowing through to the dining area and into the living area.”
The open effect is enhanced via the serene minimalism of the bedrooms, where crisp white linens and walls are paired with dark rugs.
Serving as a harmonious bridge between the two sleeping quarters is the main bathroom, which doubles as a laundry.
“A lot is happening in just one little footprint,” John said.
When they ran out of footprint, they went up.
A spiral steel staircase leads to a loft-style third bedroom with its own ensuite, which John frequents as an office and reading room.
“We wanted to be smart with our space,” John said.
“And the great thing about being small is it costs less to build, less to heat and cool, and less space to clean too — even the showers are open, there’s no glass to clean, and it all runs down into the drain.”
That cutting-edge, alfresco approach tumbles out into the backyard.
A beautiful, sun-soaked porch is a stone’s throw away from the 1859 Hughes Creek Bridge — a relic of the old Sydney Road that whispers tales of the past.
Just 150m downstream, the whispers grow louder, recounting the tale of a young Ned Kelly who saved a boy from drowning.
The sprawling grasslands that line the creek remain as untamed and wild as the notorious outlaw himself, allowing wallabies the freedom to bound through.
“I’ve left all the grass as natural as I can for them,” John said.
“The wildlife along here is just spectacular, and you always have a beautiful view from the house and the shop next door.”
Yes, the O’Donoghues have a natural work ethic that draft horses would envy.
John and Yao run Chāar Long, a small weekend-only Thai café whose name means “to slow down”.
“We felt that was fitting given our age,” John chuckled.
The building embraces the outdoors, with a deck shaded in summer and bathed in winter sun for guests to sit back, relax, and admire the block’s historical gems.
John described the interior design as mirroring their home’s colonial-style — inky steel and natural timber included — but having shearing-shed cues, and it just so happens that the space is adaptable enough to one day convert into a residence.
“It’s like a little house, but at the moment we’re using it as a restaurant, and we’ll do that while we can,” he said.
“The Last Straw was like a runaway train.
“We don’t want to work too hard – just do it for the love of it.”
Getting off that crazy train and into their cozy Avenel home has brought the O’Donoghues a sense of tranquility, a delightful shift from the frenetic pace of their former life.
Still, they haven’t entirely put the brakes on.
In a wonderfully unexpected twist, it seems that for these two, there’s always a sense of renewal — it’s never truly the last straw.