Golden Vale Homestead

A grand sandstone home surrounded by English-style gardens in the Southern Highlands. Viewing by appointment only.

Witness to almost 150 years of elegant living, Golden Vale Homestead is a magnificent c1870 property set on 200 acres of lush parkland near Sutton Forest, Gundungurra Country.

Golden Vale was home to many owners over the years. The land was first promised to free settler Michael Hogan, who sold Golden Vale to emancipated convict Thomas Wilmot in 1830 for 39 pounds. Edward Carter later purchased Golden Vale from Wilmot in 1857 and built the grand homestead to house his growing family.

Today, the homestead features an extensive collection of furniture and art, as well as outbuildings dating from the nineteenth century, including stables and woolshed.

Highlights

Golden Vale Homestead’s heritage highlights include:

● An elegant two-story sandstone house set in a large English style garden, including oak trees grown from acorns taken from the Windsor Great Park in England
● An extensive and eclectic collection of art works
● A rare example of a fully intact stables last used in the 1930s and a woolshed to explore
● A grand setting on the Medway Rivulet at the foot of Mount Gingenbullen

History

First promised to free settler Michael Hogan in 1822, the land has been owned by people of very diverse backgrounds which reflect the patterns of settlement in the area.

This includes emancipated convict, Thomas Wilmot who purchased the land from Michael Hogan in 1830; Edward Carter who discovered shale oil at nearby Joadja; and Sir Phillip Goldfinch – a member of the NSW colonial patrician King and Cowper families and a founder of the secret counter-revolutionary Old Guard formed during the Lang government. Goldfinch undertook many changes, re-aligning the driveway and lining it with trees, establishing the English style garden, and expanding the stables.

The last owner, The Hon. Geoffrey Keighley OAM was a businessman, politician, pilot and first class cricketer, who was educated at Eton and Oxford.

The property was occupied by Mr and Mrs Keighley from the mid 1980s and was gifted to the National Trust in 2005. Today the house contains an extensive collection of furniture, pictures, documents and objet d’art from the Keighley period; the collection of a couple who had wide interests in travel, sport, gardening, literature and politics, and who cultivated a taste for a gracious lifestyle.