The First Estate

This is a walking tour of the first private estate in colonial Sydney.

The new colony at Sydney was a chaotic open-air prison. Lieutenant-Governor George Johnston tried to bring order to the anarchy by quelling the Irish convict riots as well as arresting the cantankerous Governor William Bligh.

His farm at Annandale covered over 300 acres and was worked by convicts and his family held onto it —tooth and nail— for over a century.

This walking tour looks at how his fairly dysfunctional family eventually —grudgingly– sold off the land to a variety of people who built houses ranging from modest to grandiose.

This is a walk in a 2 km loop commencing and concluding on the northern side of Stanmore Railway Station.