When artist couple Chris and Frances Fussell found themselves cramped in a one-bedroom Elizabeth Bay flat in the late 1960s, they dreamed of wide-open spaces.
With Sydney house prices out of reach, a real estate agent in Parramatta introduced them to a subdivision on an old dairy farm in Pokolbin.
"We were living in a tiny flat in Sydney and it felt very claustrophobic," Chris said.
"Frances loved to ride horses and, in those days, the land in Pokolbin was pretty cheap."
After securing a 25-acre lot for $4950, the couple embarked on a seven-year journey to hand-build an earth-walled home that now stands as the Fussell family's legacy.
The house became the couple's canvas: an artistic explosion filled with handmade tiles, recycled doors, copper and mosaics that reflect a life's work.
Known locally as Crowtrap, the grand design - built from 7500 handmade mud bricks and a $250 salami paddle mixer - has hit the market for the first time.
Listed with Cain Beckett of Jurds Real Estate, the three-bedroom, two-bathroom house at 341 Palmers Lane is guided at $2 million to $2.2 million.
The inspiration for the home's mud brick design came during a trip to Morocco.
While outside temperatures hit 50 degrees, Chris and Frances (who passed away in 2022) stepped inside an 800-year-old casbah.
Instantly, they felt the temperature drop to 25 degrees.
"We thought 'well, that's what you need to handle the Australian climate' and, in those days, I didn't think that there was such a thing as an Australian house," he said.
"They were all eclectic designs from other countries and nobody attempted in a serious manner to build an Australian house."
Convinced that earth was the ultimate material for Australia's climate, Chris began planning an eco home with a small carbon footprint designed to work with nature.
The two-storey house features thick exterior mud brick walls to lock out summer heat and retain winter warmth, alongside a ventilation system - designed and built by Chris - with 14 interlocking shutters operated by a recycled Holden steering gearbox.
"The beauty of mud is that it can absorb a lot of heat or cold, and the change in temperature is very gradual," he said.
"With the shutters, you open them at night to let the cool air through the house and that would be stored in 250 tonnes of mud.
"During the day, you close it all up so you can keep the temperature down quite low with no air conditioning at all."
In the 1970s, building with earth was virtually unheard of.
And, according to Chris, trying to convince Cessnock council to recognise the wonders of earth wall structures proved "quite a different matter".
It took 13 months of research and lobbying before plans to construct the mud brick house were approved in 1977.
"It took four-and-a-half years to make the bricks and another three years to stick them together," Chris said.
"Frances was much better at feeding me than making bricks.
"We got lots of friends to help and my parents became quite enthusiastic about it, and friends of theirs would come up and help, but when it came to mixing the mud and making the bricks, it was better to do it singly."
Using soil sourced from the property, finding equipment that could handle the sticky clay mix to produce the bricks eventually led the couple to a shop in Sydney selling second-hand industrial food mixers.
Instead of an expensive stainless steel model, they bought an old cast iron Italian paddle salami mixer for $250.
Rigged to a tractor, the mixer powered through the clay while Chris worked around his nursing shifts at Allandale Hospital to turn out the bricks.
A full day's work on his own without any breakdowns produced between 45 to 60 bricks.
"I realised after I'd made three bricks that this is going to take a lot of effort, which it did," he said.
While finishing the main house, the couple spent five years living in a studio lined with 600 mud bricks and welcomed two daughters, Janneke and Nina.
"We were just babies at that time," Nina said.
"Could you imagine? It would have been so hard to stay focused."
After four-and-a-half years, the final brick was laid and the family finally moved into the house in June 1984.
"It may have taken seven years to build but at that pace, I didn't have to borrow any money, so it was $10,000 to the lock-up stage," Chris said.
"If you think about it, seven years hard labour is probably better than 30 years hard labour when you pay someone else to build your house.
"I used to say it was dirt cheap to build," he said, laughing.
Using salvaged materials also kept costs down.
Every inch of the home tells a story through the recycled materials, including slate from an old church and plate glass windows saved from the Dee Why ferry.
"They are teak frame and quarter-inch plate glass, so they're kookaburra-proof," Chris said.
"Just about everything in the house has been somewhere else.
"The big timbers in the house came from a bridge that collapsed in Deasys Road - that went into the door frames and other things.
"In those days, there were a lot of businesses that sold secondhand materials, and they were a lot cheaper and usually a lot better than new things."
Chris - who has a new exhibition opening at Cessnock Art Gallery on October 3 - and Frances' artistic skill is everywhere around the home.
In the living room, a sculptural chandelier handmade by Chris features repurposed brake light bulbs.
Out by the in-ground pool, a concrete seating area is wrapped in Gaudi-inspired mosaics hand-laid by Frances.
"The pool area was very much our mum's favourite areas," Nina said.
"She spent so much time doing those beautiful mosaics that were inspired by Gaudi's Park Guell in Barcelona."
Around the Hunter Valley, Chris and Frances have created recognisable art works including the magpie at Gartelmann Wines, Kurri Kurri's famous 4.5-metre kookaburra sculpture in Kurri Kurri and three of the town's murals are all works done by Chris.
Growing up at Crowtrap, Nina and Janneke never felt their home was anything out of the ordinary.
Before listing the property for sale, the sisters created a short video to share the story behind Crowtrap.
Less than a week since posting it to social media, the reel has racked up 1.8 million views.
"For us, it was just a normal house. We didn't know any different," Nina said.
"We didn't realise how special it was until we became adults and moved to Sydney, and then we would bring our friends there and they would go 'Oh my gosh, this place is insane, wow'.
"Seeing it through other people's eyes and seeing it through a different lens helped us start to realise what we grew up in was really special."
