The ruins also include the remains of servants' cottages, an estate-workers' village, a farm that supplied the house with food, a brickmaking site and a boathouse by the lake.

[2] In 1830 the couple came to Port Macquarie and Archibald was granted 2568 acres and was awarded contracts to supply the surrounding convict population with food.

He bought sheep and cattle stations all over northern New South Wales, among them Yarrows on the Hastings, Brimbine and Innestown on the Manning, Waterloo, Innes Creek, Kentucky and Beardy Plains.

The gentlemen then dismounted and handed us out of the carriage, and we passed along a broad, winding walk, bordered with ornamental shrubs and monthly roses, through which glimpses of the lake were to be seen.

Beds of various shapes and sizes, well filled with flowers, and well-kept walks met the gaze, and a very pretty latticed summer-house attracted my notice.

A gentleman rang the doorbell, and a liveried butler appeared, and we entered a fine, spacious hall, hung with pictures of a sporting character.

Opposite was another fine bed and dressing- room, which were occupied by the Governor and his wife (Sir Charles and Lady Mary Fitzroy) during their visit.

From the east end of the passage a door led into the courtyard, which was bricked, and in which the kitchen (a two-storied building) stood at the back of the house.

However, his main occupation seems to be a farmer as she says that “in the fields grew oats and lucerne for hay also maize and Indian corn, Bruce having the charge or oversight of all.

He continued playing the bagpipes and his obituary mentions that he was known “as one of the best pipers in the colony.”[12] The vast majority of the servants at Lake Innes house were convicts.

The vegetation of the area consists of sclerophyll forest on the drier ground, with tea-tree and casuarina on the swamps and reed beds around the lake margins.

[34] Very little above-ground evidence of Lake Innes House's once renowned garden appears on site today although layout, paths, etc., may well survive below the ground surface and its cover.

Close to the house to one side are two enormous clumps of giant bamboo (Bambusa balcooa), a common feature of gardens of this ambition and scale at the time, certainly amongst notables such as the Macarthur family, Governors etc.

Adjacent to the courtyard behind were the kitchen, accommodation for male visitors (the bachelors hall), servants quarters, laundry store, wine cellar, dairy and the underground cistern that provided the household water supply.

[34] Adjoining the house to the north east and connected to it by a common wall with the servants' quarters and associated facilities is the stables complex.

(The Archaeology of Lake Innes House, National Parks and Wildlife Service)[34] The construction of the house and stables would have used large quantities of various types of wood: for roof framing, shingles, flooring, skirting boards, fireplace-surrounds, window and door frames, the window and doors themselves, verandas, stairs and so on, but very little has survived on the site.

Apart from some illegal digging by fossickers and past researchers on the site, the archeological resource is substantially intact in many areas as demonstrated by the first excavations in 1999.

Its key role in the early development of a region in NSW is made poignant by the evocative ruined remains of a surprisingly large establishment and the existence of detailed contemporary records (Boswell) of day-to-day activities during its decline.

It contains an extensive archaeological resource for the study of Australian architecture, gardening, farming history and early 19th-century domestic arrangements.

In its growth and planning it testifies to the confidence and aspirations of those who became quickly rich on Government resources during the 1830s and in its swift decline and ruin it symbolises the sudden demise of this class as a result of the 1840s economic recession (Clive Lucas & Partners, 1987)[34] Lake Innes Estate is of state cultural significance for its natural and cultural values.

[34] The combination of written and physical evidence related to Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal occupation of the site make the Lake Innes Estate an outstanding research resource.

The major themes relate to Aboriginal occupation, history and land tenure; the local environment and the impact of human settlement; convictism and the rise of the middle classes in nineteenth century Australia; expansion and exploration at the edge of European settlement through commerce, pastoralism and agriculture; and the development of townships such as Port Macquarie in the north coast region of NSW.

[34][35] Lake Innes House ruins and environs was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

It is directly associated with Major Archibald Innes who was a prominent entrepreneur in NSW during the 1830s and 1840s and the owner of a very large pastorally based empire.

He was one of the largest and wealthiest landholders in NSW comparable to John Jamieson, Henry Dangar, Richard Jones and William Lawson.

[34] The establishment of the Lake Innes Estate represents the rise of the landed upper and middle classes in NSW towards the end of the period of convict transportation.

The place has been a historical site in the minds of people of the Port Macquarie area and others interested in Australian history for the past 100 years.

The place is a unique resource for the study of Australian architecture, gardening, farming history and early 19th century domestic arrangements.

The place contains roads which are good examples of convict built civil engineering works to survive unaltered in NSW.

The house has the rare remains of an early attached bathroom and boiler room which had hot and cold water services and possibly a sewage system.