Historic vice regal Throsby Park offered by NSW Historic Houses Trust as Southern Highlands leasehold

Historic vice regal Throsby Park offered by NSW Historic Houses Trust as Southern Highlands leasehold
Jonathan ChancellorDecember 7, 2020

Throsby Park, one of Australia's most significant homesteads, has finally become available for long-term leasehold in the NSW Southern Highlands.

It is a 74 hectare Sutton Forest estate, just one kilometres east of Moss Vale, with colonial Georgian homestead, the 1834 Throsby Park.

The 27 room house comes with beautiful Australian red cedar joinery, polished hardwood floors along with the charming entry with fluted pilasters. 

Its large bay windows frame country views.  Conceived as a cottage orné or picturesque verandahed bungalow, it was probably to the design of colonial architect, Mortimer Lewis

The estate comes with other historic buildings including stables, piggery, mill, barn, chapel and tennis pavilion. 

Throsby Park House has undergone a sympathetic restoration including reinforcing the roof, underpinning, repairs and rewiring.

It is best known for its riding school which was established in 1934 and run by Del Throsby for many decades until her death in 2006. There were five generations of Throsby's living there through the years.

Undoubtedly one of Australia's oldest and most picturesque country mansions, Throsby Park was built on 1,000 hectares of land granted to Dr Charles Throsby by governor Lachlan Macquarie in 1819, reputedly the earliest land grant outside the County of Cumberland. Throsby had no children and lived in a weatherboard cottage on the holding. The current homestead was built by his nephew, Charles (1798-1854) whose wife, Elizabeth Broughton resulted in 17 children and many descendants.

Throsby Park homestead was also leased to notable tenants, establishing the Southern Highlands as a prestigious holiday destination. In 1868 the Earl of Belmore, and Governor of NSW (1868-72) took it as a summer retreat for his wife, Lady Belmore who found the Sydney summers oppressive. In 1872 the homestead was leased to Frederick Barker, Archbishop of Sydney and then the Fairfax publishing family in 1891.

The property was the subject of an 1836 painting by distinguished 19th century artist Conrad Martens which was picked up by the philanthropic Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection

View of Throsby Park by Conrad Martens, c1836. Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Sydney Living Museums L2005/7

Of course the Southern Highlands has always been closely associated with the English landscape. It was Governor Lachlan Macquarie who noted in 1820 that the Throsby Park district was particularly beautiful and rich, "resembling a fine extensive pleasure ground in England".

The long mooted leasehold offering will involved a requirement for continued restoration work implementing a 100 plus page conservation manual compliance.

The Historic Houses Trust has engaged agents, Ken Jacobs and Darren Curtis at Christies International on the 40 year leasehold offering. Apparently the costs of upkeep were steadily growing, so continuing as a house museum, was no longer an viable option.

The Historic Houses Trust became the owner of Throsby Park in 2010, after it was transferred from the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which owned the site since 1975. It is a true trophy home listing.

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Back in 2008 Glenfield, the Georgian colonial residence at Casula deemed to be the most important Sydney metropolitan house surviving from the Macquarie era, was put up for lease by the Historic Houses Trust.

Dr Charles Throsby, the naval surgeon on the Coromandel, magistrate member of the Legislative Council and explorer, had built the house in 1817, naming it after his birthplace near Leicester in England.

On his death in 1828, the convict-built residence was left to his nephew Charles Throsby, who was responsible for building the 1834 Throsby Park residence in the Southern Highlands.

Glenfield remained in the family until the 1920s, when it was sold to the Leacock family.

The restored 14-room residence with lawn tennis court, orchard, privy, two-storey stables and a former dairy, is on 1.3 hectares on Leacock Lane.

It was something of a miracle that it survived at all, given the long vacant house was under threat from damage, vandalism, theft and termites.

At a cost of about $1.8 million, it has been restored on a reduced holding since being bought in 2002 for $1.8 million from the Leacocks when it was on 5.5 hectares. It's location hampered the offering's worthy pedigree.

Despite it's initial 2008 offering with a variable long-term lease basis with a single up-front payment, it took many years before its actual sale because of understandable buyer hesitation towards leasehold heritage.

It finally sold as freehold for $1.225 million last year to the French family.

Jonathan Chancellor

Jonathan Chancellor is one of Australia's most respected property journalists, having been at the top of the game since the early 1980s. Jonathan co-founded the property industry website Property Observer and has written for national and international publications.

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