Elizabeth Farm

Once at the heart of a large estate, Elizabeth Farm was the home of John and Elizabeth Macarthur, and was an important social, political and agricultural centre during the first forty years after the establishment of the colony of New South Wales. Construction of the house commenced in 1793, and it remains the oldest surviving European building in Australia. Remodelled and extended in the 1820s, it is a typical early homestead, a single storey structure with encircling verandahs. The furnishings are largely reproduction, based on detailed research, and reflect the house's appearance and use in the second quarter of the nineteenth century. This simple and deliberately sparse approach allows visitors more access than normally possible in house museums. The house stands within a restored and replanted mid-nineteenth century garden.