[1] Returning to Australia in 1826 he married Charlotte Waring, the governess of Hannibal Macarthur's children, and applied to the Colonial Secretary for more land (1200 acres), which he received, and then proceeded to build Oldbury in 1828.

[2] James Atkinson died in 1834, "a gentleman of considerable literary attainments and as a practical agriculturist second to none in the colony" wrote the Sydney Gazette.

About a year later two captured bushrangers from Jack Donohoe’s gang confessed to the robbery at Oldbury and Governor Bourke had Champley, Yates and Shelvey brought back to Sydney and pardoned.

[2] According to Sir Roger Therry one of the captured bushrangers, William Webber, before his execution, told James Atkinson where he had hidden the goods stolen in the Olbury robbery.

Always delicate, she spent her youth writing and collecting and drawing animals and botanical specimens near her homes - first at Oldbury and later at "Kurrajong" (Fernhurst) in the Blue Mountains and on the South Coast of NSW.

A keen horse rider, she would set out on horseback to gain access to deep gullies and high ridges.

Botanist of Victoria, Director of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne), who named a species of mistletoe, Atkinsonia ligustrina after her.

Xanthosia atkinsoniana, Erechtites atkinsoniae (now Senecio bipinnatisectus) and the heath Epacris calvertiana also carry her names.

Always interested in horticulture, he won a medal at the 1862 International Exhibition in London for his entry on the possible commercial cultivation of native flax.

[7][1] Her regular popular natural history columns in the "Sydney Morning Herald" were re-published by Victor Crittenden in two volumes through his Mulini Press in 1978 as "A Voice from the Country" (the pseudonym Atkinson used for the articles - it was not common for authors to sign their work in those days) and as "Excursions from Berrima and a Trip to Manaro and Molonglo in the 1870s", which was articles about her travels and botanical searches on the Southern Tablelands of NSW.

'Tom Hellicar's Children' paints a picture of childhood in the Berrima district and recalled her own memories of life at Oldbury.

They are dispossessed of their idealistic home as Louisa was when her father died and the whole family fled from their brutal alcoholic stepfather.

Ferdinand von Muller, with whom she had corresponded on botany over the years, had sent the book to Germany to have the illustrations engraved by experts.

[1] Following James Atkinson's death in 1834, his executors decided to lease the property and sell the stock, providing his widow an income to allow her to live in Sydney.

[12] A program in recent years of rejuvenation, replanting and revival of laid hawthorn hedges on the farm has been implemented.

[3][1] The historic group consists of the Oldbury house, the garden, service yards and outbuildings and the surrounding farming property.

[1] Surrounding paddocks are edged with hawthorn hedges, many of these re-laid in recent years in the traditional English / European manner, cutting their trunks almost through, laying vertical trunks and branches down horizontally or on an angle, pinning these to vertical stakes and encouraging coppicing shoots from the base, to keep the hedges stock-proof and dense right to the base[1] Oldbury Creek winds through the property, crossing Oldbury Road which is unsealed.

Some old and tall Monterey pines (Pinus radiata) to the house's southwest frame the garden and shelter it from westerly winds (strong in this area).

This comprises a stone cottage and outbuildings, with garden and surrounded by protective Monterey pines and hawthorn hedging.

The roof has a single pitch with a longer slope at the rear, covering rooms in which the floor level is lower than those in front of the house.

The wide entrance hall with a timber, cantilevered stair, beneath which a door with a semi-circular fanlight leads to the rear of the house, is particularly fine.

In the living room, to the left of the hall on entering, is a cedar fireplace of unusual design and good craftsmanship.

[1] From the gates (modern) a short straight section of drive leads into a large circular carriage loop.

[1] The garden was sheltered on the west by a border planting of old and tall Monterey pines (Pinus radiata); however, all but one has been removed in recent years.

Otherwise apart from the many old elms on the garden's edges, the road and paddocks, some very old shrubs, such as common lilac (Syringa vulgaris cv.

[3][1] Under the elms at the front gate and drive thousands of European bluebells (Endymion non-scriptus) have been planted for their blue spring flowers.

[1] To the northeast of the dam and house garden a new 5 acre arboretum with a loop walk has been created since 2013, in converted farm paddocks.

A pinetum (collection of pine species), native garden, firepit and lookout on the top of the spur to the north-east have been added.

The significance of the site is further enhanced by its large and attractively landscaped grounds – which include numerous mature early 19th century trees – and through its association with James and Caroline Louisa Atkinson.

There is no planting of special interest [15][1] Oldbury Farm was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.