At rainbow’s end

With her strong media background, Helen Swinton says she thought she was way too pragmatic to be swayed by a photograph. But there she was, standing on a hilltop on the western side of the NSW Blue Mountains, looking at views of the Kanimbla Valley, when she spotted a real-estate billboard for a property for sale.

“It was for a 30-year-old cedar weatherboard kit home,” she recalls. “Nothing remarkable about that except there was also an enormous shed on the three-acre [1.2-hectare] block. Handy, but a practical feature wasn’t the deal breaker. I know it’s ridiculous to be swayed by a picture, but in