- Queensland-born Christina Kent and her partner Francis bought a five-acre property in Tasmania and set out to build a real-life fairytale castle
- Over 22 years, the couple have largely built the 27-room castle themselves using 100,000 bricks
- Now standing 17 metres tall, Castle Phoenix has become a local attraction
Here Christina Kent tells her own story in her own words
Gazing at the small cottage outside Geeveston, Tas, we knew we’d struck gold. Sitting on a flat green block, it came with an apple tree orchard.
‘It’s perfect,’ my partner Francis, then 32, said.
‘It’s like we’re in Eden,’ I laughed.
‘What would you do with the land?’ the agent asked.
‘We’re going to build a castle,’ Francis smiled.
I grew up in Mackay, Qld, and I’d been working there, teaching an art lesson to a motel owner, when she’d introduced me to Francis. As Francis spoke about his work as a tiler and sculptor, he let me in on his dream.
‘I’ve never been to Disneyland, but I fell in love with the castle and want to build one,’ he told me.
We clicked instantly. Within just three weeks we were engaged.
Two years later, we were visiting my niece Kristina in Tassie when we spotted the five-acre block for sale for just over $200,000. Renting out my house in Mackay, we moved to the cottage.
Francis’ imagination ran wild. He came up with designs for a modern fairytale castle with majestic turrets, and we hired a draftsman to draw up the plans.
‘It’s not high enough– higher!’ we urged him.
We got council approval for the build, sold my house, and got a small loan.
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Still, we’d need to do practically all the construction ourselves. And with 27 rooms, it was a big job! So we bought a tractor, thousands of clay house bricks, and hundreds of blue tiles for the turrets.
In January 2010 we started the sculpture garden. Then in October, an excavator dug down to the tough bedrock and we cleared the land by hand.
As we laid the first brick I could scarcely believe we were starting on our dream.
To pay for the build, Francis took on tiling jobs with me helping.
After work and on weekends we began to build the castle. Concealed from the road, no-one knew what we were doing as it started to take shape.
We built a round ball-shaped cellar – when you whisper or hum the sound reflects back at you. And there’s a subterranean room with a tree sculpture based on our maple tree in the centre, with handmade real-sized leaves.
Determined the castle would be survive earthquake, flood and fire – and last forever – we filled the walls with steel and concrete.
And we sunk piping into the floors for heating.
After four years building the basement, the castle walls began to emerge.
We battled the hard work, money worries, and some health issues, but we were supported by Francis’ mum, Hope, and sister, Veronica.
‘This is truly amazing,’ Veronica said, as she and Hope helped with mosaics.
In 2012 I started a Facebook page.
‘What shall we call the castle?’ we pondered.
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Then we hit on Castle Phoenix – to depict our dream rising from the ashes of our various setbacks.
As the castle took shape we were enthralled.
We’ve handcrafted thousands of ceramic flowers and Francis attached them in the foyer. Hundreds of blooms spread from floor to ceiling, bringing the garden inside.
As years passed by and the castle grew ever higher, people from the local community were amazed.
‘This is incredible,’ neighbours said. ‘Can we help out?’
Our wonderful friends Val, Dennis and Malyn, along with Francis’ mum Hope, now in her 90s, worked on mosaics for the sculpture garden. And we added vibrant plants such as lilac, wisteria, waratahs, daffodils and more.
Instead of painting the castle, we use bright mosaic tiles for splashes of colour, and we’ve also added a fairytale Rapunzel-style balcony.
Our three cats, Lauchie, Maki and Bubby, love touring the castle and gardens on leads.
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There’s even a lake full of platypus, ducks, egrets, cormorants, and many other birds – and a moat.
In 2023 Francis started to build the incredible conical castle rooftops.
Soon people from as far Germany, the US and UK heard about the castle and came asking for tours.
‘We’re crazy,’ Francis laughed as we proudly showed people around .
Now, the castle stands 17 metres tall, on top of the basement which is three metres deep.
It’s made from 100,000 bricks cut in 300,000 pieces, and so far three of the eight turrets are complete. At 600 tonnes already, it’ll last forever and be totally unique.
Francis is now tiling the outside of the castle and next year we’re hoping to get the windows in.
As for what will happen to it when we’re gone – we plan to leave it to the public to enjoy.
We said we’d get married when the castle was finished – that was 22 years ago! Lucky I like long engagements!
It’s a labour of love and a living artwork.
But the castle has become my dream too, and brought Francis and me even closer together.
I’m so proud of what we’ve built. It’s a fairytale dream come true.
Visit Castle Phoenix on Facebook and Instagram.
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