Tongy, the Baillieu family homestead burnt
The Victorian-era country mansion, Tongy that has housed generations of well-heeled pastoralists through 180 years, has been burnt down.
The homestead and 4637ha station is just 5km north of the tiny village of Uarbry, which lost five of its 11 homes in the recent blaze.
Set on the banks of the Talbragar River, the homestead overlooked some of the state’s best black soil plains for crops and cattle farming.
Marshall Baillieu, chief executive of investment bank Rothschild Australia bought the property from family members for almost $20 million two years ago.
The estate agent who sold the property Richard Royle said residents had lost their homes, and also lost their businesses.
The Victorian sandstone home had an elegant wraparound veranda and stately central corridor that had featured in a number of films.
It was in 1825 the former convict Richard Fitzgerald was granted freehold title over the property by NSW governor.
Fitzgerald had acted as an overseer of the colony’s early farms.
Until the weekend, sitting at the homestead’s front doorstep was a 150-year old doormat — which was still used everyday and still carried the initials and crest of Fitzgerald.
The Baillieu family bought the property in 1923 from Fitzgerald's five grand daughters.
Tongy was resold in 2015 within the family after it was offered widely to other investors.
