Cedar Park is a working lavender farm in the scenically beautiful Yarramalong Valley, a 90 minute drive from the centre of Sydney and one hour from Newcastle. A 27 hectare (67 acre) property a 10 minute drive from the F3 Freeway off-ramps at Tuggerah, on the Central Coast of New South Wales, halfway between Sydney and Newcastle.
Take a relaxing break in the garden of nearly two acres with mature established trees and flowering shrubs for your enjoyment.
The lavender when in flower is mid December to end of January.
The tour provides a talk about Yarramalong Valley (the word “Yarramalong” meaning "place of cedar"), the cultivation, harvesting and use of lavender and the oil, Wollemi Pines and the properties of the essential oil.
They demonstrate how the oil is extracted and all participants receive a sample bottle of lavender oil.
Visitors always welcome. No entrance fee.
The current tour charge is $6 per person over 16.
Recent news is the planting of some 200 Damask Roses. These are the roses used to make rose water and oil. The plants are just coming into flower and should flower through October / November.
Allow for about an hour for a tour visit from arrival to departure. Obviously people are welcome to stay for as long as they like.
They do not at this stage provide refreshments; but all refreshments can be bought at the Macadamia Farm and the general store and Manor in the Village.
Groups frequently bring their own refreshments and have morning tea or a picnic lunch. They can provide seating for about 25 and putting out a table is no problem.
They have toilet facilities, but not disabled.
The grades on the property around the lavender and shop area are reasonable with gravel and grass surfaces.
Visit the shop where you will find skin care products
moisturisers
hand and body lotions
face creams and balms
soaps
bubble bath
lavender essential oil
lavender lollies
sachets
pomanders
dried and stripped lavender
lavender seedlings and plants
decorated planter pots
Provencal style table linen from Nice
A farm tour is available for coaches, clubs and groups; bookings essential; minimum number is 10.
The tour includes a demonstration of the distillation of lavender essential oil; all participants in a tour receive a memento of the visit.
Casual visitors should call in advance as they may be away at a market or learning more about lavender in the fields of Provence as they had the opportunity to do in July 2007.
Cedar Park Lavender Farm has been described as "Provence in the Yarramalong Valley" by a visitor from the village of Tourrettes sur Loup near Cannes in France.
Previously a dairy, a protea farm and a horse training and spelling property, Cedar Park was established thirty years ago with a large garden containing Chinese Elm, Maple, Golden Weeping Cypress, Australian Red Cedar, Liquidambar, Silk Tree, Tuckeroo, Pin Oak, Azalea, Camellia, Clivea, and May Bush; a prize winning combination in the Council garden competition.
After the purchase of Cedar Park in 1999 several proposals were investigated, including clumping bamboo. The concept of a lavender farm grew from visits to two such farms south of Sydney in the course of a nine day cycling holiday in 2003.
After research and reading, Cedar Park Lavender was established in 2004 with an initial planting of 5500 Lavandula x Intermedia seedlings of Super and Grosso.
The first harvest of lavender in the summer of 2005 / 2006 was all hung to dry. The majority of this harvest was stripped and sold in sachets or as dried lavender. The second harvest, in the summer of 2006 / 2007, produced 20 litres of essential oil and a similar quantity of stripped lavender as the previous year.
Intermedia lavender flowers annually over summer when the volatile oil from the flowers perfumes the atmosphere and is seen by passers by as a haze above the plants. A compromise has to be struck between customers wanting to enjoy the sight of the lavender in flower and their need to harvest over summer for oil and dried flower production. The solution is still evolving.
From an initial concept of oil distillation and stripped lavender flower production they are now engaged in product manufacture, with their own oil and Cedar Park Premium label. They have also opened their gate to visitors and provide farm tours including a demonstration of the oil distillation process.
Stroll through fragrant rows of thousands of lavender plants from which they distil essential oil
Take time out and smell the perfume from the beds of selected roses
Marvel at the "living fossil" unique to Australia, a Wollemi Pine
Inspect a hydroponics operation producing lettuce and herbs
Look over the herd of breeding cattle and calves.
Cedar Park Lavender 952 Yarramalong Rd,
WYONG CREEK, NSW 2259 Ph: 02 4356-1025 Fax: 02 4356-1570
