A New Chapter for Edwina Bartholomew and Neil Varcoe
Edwina Bartholomew, a well-known face on Sunrise, has always been associated with her vibrant personality and dedication to her work. However, her recent ventures have taken her in a completely new direction. After an ambitious plan to transform an historic guest house in the NSW Central West into a boutique hotel, she and her husband, Neil Varcoe, have embarked on another exciting journey – as cafe owners.
In a candid Instagram video shared on March 22, Edwina revealed that she and Neil had purchased the village coffee shop, marking the next step in their entrepreneurial endeavors. The couple, who had previously separated geographically so that Neil could focus on renovating their Carcoar hotel, Saltash Farm, in 2023, have now added a cafe to their portfolio.
“It’s super, super exciting. It’s going to be all local produce,” Edwina said in the clip, which was filmed in the red-painted interior of the new Village Grocer. The couple wasted no time in starting their latest venture, welcoming their first customers just two weeks after announcing the cafe’s purchase.
“This is the beginning of @saltash__farm and we couldn’t be more excited,” Edwina shared in a post to Instagram, which caught the attention of her colleagues on Channel 7. The Morning Show co-host Larry Emdur quipped, “This is so fantastic!!! Do you sell petrol,” referencing the fuel crisis currently impacting the world economy. Meanwhile, Kyle Gillies commented, “Amazing!! Open for business. Congrats,” and Sunrise weather presenter Sam Mac added, “It’s like ‘we bought a zoo’, but it’s a cafe. So cool.”
After a successful first day’s trading, Edwina took to social media again to share how she and her husband had been “blown by the community support.” She wrote, “The town was buzzing. All the shops heaving. The pub packed,” and mentioned that Neil had spent time manning the cafe till on the first day of trading. “See you for breakfast tomorrow*,” she continued, before clarifying that she wouldn’t be there because she “has breakfast on Mondays with Sunrise of course.”
In her latest column for Country Style, Edwina opened up more on the couple’s decision to open a cafe. “We know it’s not possible to build a project like our hotel in isolation. It only works if it’s built with and for the community that it sits within,” she explained. “The town’s shops need to thrive, and the main street needs buzz. People need a reason to turn off the highway, and sometimes a good coffee and a sandwich is a good start.”
The Sunrise star admitted that she and Neil “feel a bit mad,” but they had taken inspiration from the town of New Norfolk in Tasmania, which has become a tourist destination in its own right.
Certainly, the couple’s new chapter comes at the right time – a year and a half on from Edwina’s announcement, live on Sunrise, that she was suffering from chronic myeloid leukaemia, a blood and bone marrow cancer. Following specialist help and daily medication, the traces of leukaemia in Edwina’s body are “almost undetectable,” and the star now works more flexibly – from the office and at home, with the support of Channel 7.
She and Neil may have had little experience in renovation, but they are – quite literally – building their dream. “We have learnt a lot about heritage restrictions, septic systems, power poles and small-town politics,” Edwina told Country Style in January 2026. “We have also fallen even more in love with the town we will all eventually call home.”
