Kippilaw, 180-year-old NSW colonial homestead, listed

Kippilaw, the Breadalbane homestead well known to anyone with an interest in NSW colonial history, has been listed for sale. 

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Meares & Associates, the rural property specialists,  are expecting a $6 million-plus sale for the Goulburn district holding.

Its history stretches back 180 years to when James Chisolm and his wife, Elizabeth, moved to the NSW southern tablelands district, taking up a grant of 1,280 acres (518 hectares) given to her as a marriage portion from Governor Ralph Darling , a custom begun by Governor Lachlan Macquarie for settlers on their marriage.

Elizabeth named their 1837 Georgian residence after her birthplace in Scotland, Kippilaw, near Melrose Abbey.

Its meaning comes from "Kippi" which is Pictish for "little", and "law", which is Saxon for "hill". The homestead became a meeting place and party house for visiting friends. Mary Durack, in her seminal Australian pioneering history Kings In Grass Castles, devoted several pages to the generosity of the Chisolms at Kippilaw.

The restored house, with views of the Wollondilly River and gardens in the Italian manner, has been listed through Meares & Associates agent Chris Meares.

He oversaw the last sale when in 1997 Janet and Graham Webb sold the farm to businessman Robert Rich and wife Helen in 1997 for about $2.6 million.

Kippilaw is a viable working farm with 400 acres (about 160 hectares) of quality breeding and fattening country, which have been well fertilised and pasture improved over the years. It grazes and fattens 160 cattle on the pastured acres, supplemented by winter grazing crops.

“Kippilaw has always been regarded as one of the outstanding rural holdings in southern New South Wales,"  Meares says.

“While markets may be fickle in present times it is the quality assets which remain hard to find and therefore difficult to procure.

"The sale of Kippilaw is an example of one of the prize holdings within a 2¼ hour radius of Sydney being offered for sale this year,” he says.

Kippilaw's interior photos, next page

The Kippilaw homestead is a two-storey, six-bedroom stone house comprising four separate wings with a central courtyard.

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It was built from locally convict quarried stone with crafted cedar joinery.

It comes with the Old Kippilaw School House.

The Kippilaw gardens comes with oak trees line as old as the house that line the driveway.

It's described as an easy care garden with its in-ground computerised irrigation system from the Wollondilly River and backup bore.

The gardens comes with tennis court and nearby in ground swimming pool with small pool house.

There's the sunken garden built by one of the Chisholm boys during WWI and the historic rose garden, supplemented by carpets of daffodils, jonquils, iris, peonies and roses with a spectacular wisteria and rose archway.