Vaucluse House

Sydney’s last remaining 19th-century harbourside estate, Vaucluse House (1828) is an imposing, turreted specimen of Gothic Australiana set among 10 hectares of lush gardens. Decorated with beautiful European period pieces including Bohemian glass, heavy oak ‘Jacobethan’ furniture and Meissen china, the house offers visitors a rare glimpse into early (albeit privileged) colonial life in Sydney. Vaucluse House was built and occupied from 1827 to 1862 by William Charles Wentworth, his wife, Sarah, and their children. The son of a convict mother, Wentworth became a barrister and co-wrote the first NSW colonial constitution, but was outcast from high society because of his democratic leanings. He held the ‘outrageous’ view that Australian-born colonials were the equals of the English, and that political and legal rights should be extended to emancipists (freed convicts). Wentworth was also an intrepid explorer, crossing the Blue Mountains with Blaxland and Lawson in 1831 (the first white fellas to do so).