One of Australia's biggest mazes is for sale (house and cafe included)
Don’t hedge your bets at this opportunity – one of Australia’s largest mazes is on the market for the first time and has a price tag of $1.3 million.
Brookfield Maze and Gardens is in Myrhee, about two hours drive from Melbourne.
As well as a full-scale hedge maze, the 2.28-hectare property includes guest accommodation for six people, a cafe and a four-bedroom owner’s residence.
The Brookfield maze is operated by Eryl and Jeffery Neil, who drew up the plans themselves, adapting designs from the internet.
“Eryl had worked in a bank for most of her life and she wanted a change and I said, ‘why don’t you do something you love based around gardening’,” Mr Neil said.
“So we came up with a maze which is the main attraction and we’ve added a brick labyrinth, giant chess and checkers, landscaped gardens, a walk down to the creek and now a bocce court.”
The maze has over 1000 trees and takes four days to prune. Photo: Supplied
In 2010 the couple began planting more than 1000 trees which took four years to grow before the maze could be opened to the public in 2014. It takes four days to prune.
The maze is intended to be challenging and has 1.1 kilometres of gravel path.
“On average it takes people between 20 and 30 minutes, but it can take them up 50 minutes to find the middle and then they’ve got to work out how to get back out,” Eryl Neil said.
Most visitors come from Melbourne, Albury, Benalla and Shepparton, and the Neils estimate that more than 15,000 have conquered the maze since it opened.
The maze and cafe are open on weekends and some public holidays.
“We’ve built it up to a point now where somebody can just step in and take it on and take it two or three steps further and expand the business,” Ms Neil said.
They are planning to retire when they’ve sold the property and stay in the Wangaratta area.
The property includes a cafe, a guesthouse for six and a four bedroom residence. Photo: Supplied
The property would be ideal for tree changers, according to Garry Nash of the eponymous agency managing the sale.
“It’s got opportunity to be expanded into a business that runs during the week, perhaps a reception centre or a restaurant and there’s also space for more accommodation.
“It’s in the eyes of the beholder what the new owner wants to do it, it’s in an exceptional part of the world,” he said.
Mr Nash also said that the city of Wangaratta Council were encouraging in giving approval to tourism businesses in the area that wanted to expand.
