Cooma Cottage is a heritage-listed former farm and tuberculosis sanatorium and now house museum and historic site in the Southern Tablelands region of New South Wales in Australia.

It has a variety of significant natural and built elements, including an example of an early tree called the Picconia, a relative of the olive and rare in Australia, which is almost extinct in its native Canary Islands.

[1] The original cottage was quite refined: an archetypal colonial bungalow of diminutive scale, it formed the opposite front to the entrance and faced north over the Yass River.

The timber cottage had been built by the Anglo-Irish O'Brien brothers, pastoralists of note, and was the home of Cornelius, while Henry lived to its west at the still-surviving Duoro.

[1] Hume was to live at Cooma Cottage for the rest of his life and it was he who added some 20 rooms to the house in fits and starts over, at least, the next 20 years.

While the whole eventually came together as a Palladian composition centred on the portico it was, in fact, a conglomerate mess of uncomfortable rooms, meanly lit and with a plan which depended almost entirely on going outside in the cruel winters of the Yass plains.

Except for the handsome stables block, thought to be designed by the Goulburn architect James Sinclair, nothing Hume built could be described as fine.

Hume and his wife were childless and presumably made use of the original O'Brien rooms with their pretty north-facing verandah and elegant French casements, almost like bookcase doors, opening onto it.

[7][1] The National Trust of Australia (NSW) began conservation works in 1971 by replacing the roof and repairing the "Shepherds Cottage" for use by Jack Bourke who was moved out of the house.

The original O'Brien house had been shingled, as had some of the Hume additions, but by about 1860 the whole was sheeted in the patent iron tiles made in England by Morewood & Rogers.

In 1975 the brickwork was repaired, the front of the original timber cottage was underpinned and levelled so that at least the French doors into the verandah could open.

[1] By the end of 1979 the interior of the O'Brien house had been repaired, the fine cedar joinery made good and the garden restored to a plan by James Broadbent.

[15] This was one of 13 historic properties included in 'A Gift to the Nation, sponsored solely by AMATIL Ltd.[6][1] Shutters were reconstructed, the rest of the interiors conserved and wallpapers reproduced for several of the rooms.

[15][1] The National Trust's policy for the grounds has been to conserve the cottage's setting within its extensive 100 acres, and to protect the existing visual links with other rural properties established along the Yass River.

[13][1] In 2008–09, the shepherd's cottage was upgraded with funding from the NSW Department of Planning and donations from the National Trust Women's Committee.

The immediate landscape is virtually unchanged since the 19th century although fast-developing Yass spreads nearby and busy roads have started to intrude.

[1] The Trust's policy for the grounds has been to conserve the cottage's setting within its extensive 100 acres, and to protect the existing visual links with other rural properties established along the Yass River.

The floors throughout the northern and central sections of the house are timber with the exception of two small pantry rooms which flank the rear hall.

This was carried out under a National Estate Grants Program and documented in the report: Cooma Cottage Yass NSW- Record of Restoration Work 1970–1981 by Clive Lucas & Partners Pty Ltd.[1] 1988: Major conservation works were undertaken[1] 2008: restoration and upgrading of Shepherd's cottage, the rental income of which will support the property.

[21][1] The original O'Briens house had been shingled, as had some of the Hume additions, but by about 1860 the whole was sheeted in the patent iron tiles made in England by Morewood and Rogers..

By the end of 1979 the interior of the O'Brien house had been repaired, the fine cedar joinery made good and the garden restored to a plan devised by James Broadbent.

The house remains within its original unspoilt historic curtilage and retains visual links, and is integral with the adjacent landscape and early properties.

[1] The relative intactness of form and interior spaces make the buildings a rare survival of colonial architecture in Australia.

[1] Both the immediate vicinity and the original 100 acre property are unspoiled by substantial later development and provide a compatible and potentially appropriate setting for the homestead group.

[1] The early part of the house and the land have associations of regional significance with the O'Brien family, who were important pioneer pastoralists of the area.

The place is the focus of an important historical landscape demonstrating the complex relationship of family and social connections and of the discovery and development of the area and its communications.

The place is significant through its association with European inland exploration and settlement of Southern NSW, particularly in its links with the 1824 overland journey of Hume and Hovell and later as the site of an important local crossing of the Yass river which developed into the major road south to Victoria (the Great Southern Road, now the Hume Highway).

[1] The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales.

The house remains within its original unspoiled historic curtilage and retains integral visual links with its surrounding landscape, the river and hills beyond, and early properties.

The garden contains east of the homestead a Picconia species, a tree which is a relative of the olive, rare in Australia, and almost extinct in its native Canary Islands.