The book "Longerenong Homestead : 150 years and beyond : 1862-2012" was launched in Murtoa with an exhibition of art and photography by Susan Devlin.
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| The foundation stone |
In 1844, the land was first settled by Dugald McPherson and William Taylor, and in 1848 subdivided into Ashens (McPherson) and Longerenong (Taylor), then in 1856 it was leased to the Wilson brothers (Alexander, Charles, John & Samuel) who had been in occupation. Various Wilsons held the property until 1874 when the licence was transferred to Austin & Bullivant. The pastoral licence was cancelled in 1884. Other families with long associations with Longerenong were the Delahuntys who bought the estate in 1924, it was then purchased by the Gregorys in 1920 who held it until 2002. Longerenong is currently owned by Donna Bourke and Ian Pausacker.
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| The stained glass above the staircase |
It was Samuel Wilson who had the grand homestead built in 1862. There is Australian cedar throughout, a slate roof, marble floor tiles and fireplaces. The grand divided staircase of carved cedar is surmounted by a stained glass skylight which has a coat of arms with the kangaroo and emu back-to-back.
The book covers both the Longernong homestead and pastoral run, as well as the township of Longerenong. It contains a variety of information about the homestead from the floor plan and diary excerpts, to flood & drought, and entries from Davey's Longerenong Store book. It is interesting to see photographs of the history of changes to homestead through the years (the earliest is from 1863).
