Client: John Singleton Group
Location: Mount White, NSW, Australia
Type: Luxury Lodge
Opening: November, 2026
Credits
Client: John Singleton Group
Interiors: Michelle Leslie Studio
Architecture: White + Dickson Architects
Photography: Lukas Vrtilek
Set within the ancient bushland of Mt White, a little over an hour from Sydney, Grand Saddles Lodge was conceived not as luxury but as preeminence a property so rooted in place it could exist nowhere else. Realised by Michelle Leslie Studio with White + Dickson Architects, it resists the imported European grand hotel in favour of something lavishly and unapologetically Australian, answering in the language of this country’s light, materials, and unhurried land.
The experience begins on the driveway, which winds through the site’s natural slope as the scent of lemon ironbark charges the air and the city falls away. At the foyer, a glass dome presides, backlit by Australian sky, its chandeliers casting fractured amber light across brass, spotted gum and Hawkesbury sandstone. Nearby, a wall of brass stirrups holds the suite keys, a quiet salute to the property’s equestrian namesake.
“Not another luxury lodge, but a new property category in Australia.”
Materiality is drawn from the site and chosen for how it ages: brass that tarnishes, timber that deepens, sandstone that weathers richer than its raw state. The craft is structural: blacksmith Saul Thompkins’s hearthwork, bespoke Studio joinery and carpets, a single large-scale Central Coast painting per suite, Catchpole & Rye baths made by hand in Kent.
From the flame-to-table kitchen to the gilded Piano Lounge, from the wellness amenities to the record player set in each minibar, the Lodge reconciles architecture, interiors, landscape, and art within a setting of ancient natural grandeur. Not another luxury lodge, but a new property category in Australia.
Opening – November 2026
