History

Rouse Hill estate

Prepared by the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

Rouse Hill estate is a wonderful historic property which archives the lives, tastes and fortunes of an Australian pastoral family over six generations. Explore the 19 th century farm outbuildings, paddocks, gardens and the rich collection of objects, overlaid with later additions and conserved intact as an essentially undisturbed record of the family’s long history.

At the heart of the property lies a Georgian sandstone dwelling built between 1813 and 1818 by convict labourers assigned to the enterprising free settler, Richard Rouse.

Richard Rouse (1774-1852) was the son of an Oxfordshire cabinet maker and shop-keeper and arrived to the new Australian colony in 1801. He prospered quickly and by 1805 was the Superintendent of Public Works and convicts at Parramatta.

In this role he supervised the building of additions to Government House, Parramatta and it is possible that these works influenced Rouse to build a bigger house than he first itended, adding larger, longer rooms behind the front range.

He sited his new house prominently, and possibly with an eye to its possible use as an inn, on the hilltop adjacent to the toll house (also built by him) on the Parramatta to Windsor Turnpike. Rouse Hill always overlooked the busy Windsor Road and it was from here that Rouse and his descendants oversaw their distant pastoral and agricultural interests, rather than the estate itself being the focus of those interests.

For more information on Rouse Hill estate contact the Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

Blacktown's History