In one particularly beautiful moment in Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited, Sebastian Flyte and Charles Ryder are found soaking up the sun under an oak tree. Sebastian turns to his friend and says, “Just the place to bury a crock of gold. I should like to bury something precious, in every place I’ve been happy. And then when I was old, and ugly and miserable, I could come back, and dig it up, and remember.”

The Bridge at Bundonen. Photo © Zan Wimberley

Sebastian’s words echo in the mind as the assembled guests recline on the grassy slope at Bundanon – the Dharawal word for “deep valley” – which overlooks a bend in the Shoalhaven River. Like the rest of the property, it is a view that has inspired many an artist, who has come to stay on the 1,100-hectare property established through a gift to the nation by artists Arthur and Yvonne Boyd two decades ago. Meryl Tankard and Elena Kats-Chernin’s latest collaboration Kairos, opening next month at Sydney Festival, is just one example of a project born of collaboration on the grounds at Bundanon.

Another frequent visitor is composer Nick...