Karksen Gardens

Karksen Gardens is an Australian-Icelandic lifestyle TV show, which first aired in 2013.

History
Kjartan Ólandensson moved to Australia from Iceland in 2003, and began looking for a house. After a family gathering brought him to the New England region, Ólandensson saw a glimpse of the old Karksen Estate. After further investigating the site, Ólandensson determined that the site was state-owned, and he offered to buy it for 1.7 million dollars in 2004.

The offer was accepted in January 2005. Ólandensson then began to salvaging the property from ruin. In a call to his friend Hoff Andersen (in Sweden at the time), Andersen suggested making a lifestyle TV show out of the repairs.

Ólandensson submitted a proposition to several Australian media companies, and his idea was accepted by Seven Media. Andersen moved to Armidale, Australia in August 2005 to write and produce the show. Ólandensson's friend David Kairns, offered to direct and write the show.

The pilot episode was filmed in January 2006, and was greatly successful. Another 40 episodes were filmed across 2006 and 2007, with the pilot episode airing in Iceland and Australia in February.

12 seasons, each of forty episodes, were made between 2007 and 2018. A spin-off series Karksen Gardens: Renovation covered the renovation and repair of the manor house, with three seasons between 2015 and 2018.

Season 13, the final season, began filming in mid-2018. 17 extra episodes were required to end the series, hence the season had 57 episodes. The final episode aired in December 2019, and featured a tour of the completed estate.