Located 35km west of the city center, Werribee Park Estate was once completely surrounded by farmland, but these days suburbia is rapidly encroaching, with housing estates proliferating on this fringe of the city. The setting was very different in the 1840s when Scottish pastoralists Thomas and Andrew Chirnside acquired the land on which they would eventually build a grandiose 60-room Italianate mansion. These were some of the lands on which the Boonwurrung people hunted and fished, with few colonial settlers in the area.
Constructed in the 1870s, Werribee Park Mansion (parks.vic.gov.au; adult/child $13/9) is a vivid reminder of the opulent lifestyles that the early pastoralists enjoyed. The entrance hall leads to a grand staircase, and there's a library, dining room and billiard room to explore. It's all extremely grand, especially considering that the Chirnsides started out as squatters, as did many early 19th-century settlers who took possession of tracts of fertile land that they had no legal claim to.
After touring the house, explore the grounds, which were originally laid out by William Guilfoyle, director of the Melbourne Botanic Gardens. Here you'll find a heritage orchard and the Victoria State Rose Garden, where 5000 roses bloom in stages between October and May. Also within the estate is the Shadowfax Winery (shadowfax.com.au), where from Wednesday to Sunday visitors can enjoy a tasting of its highly regarded wines before settling in for lunch.
