[14] By the 1830s the vast majority of the harbour fronting land east of Darling Point was held by a small number of landholders, being principally the Cooper and Wentworth families, while at Double Bay, a government village had been reserved.

Robert Tooth, Edwin's eldest son, returned to Sydney to join the family brewery in 1863, after having spent his formative years in England and completing his education at Eton.

In Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth's personal life, his stature in colonial society had grown through entering the Parliament of New South Wales in 1880, representing the seat of Monaro in the Legislative Assembly.

Morrell's design for Swifts drew on Sydney's Government House in matters such as sandstone masonry façades, castellations and tower, the long arcade and porte-cochère.

It was built at a time when servants were mandatory in any household of social status, with cook, kitchen and house maids, butler and footmen, and the management of the grounds and stables required gardeners, coachmen, and grooms.

There is also record of Mr Tooth holidaying at Aldourie Castle, a 7,000 acre estate on the southern banks of Loch Ness in Inverness, Scotland in the summer and autumn months of 1891.

Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth was invited to contest one of the northern seats in the United Kingdom's House of Commons in the early 1890s[33] and seems to have used Swifts as a base during his frequent visits back to Sydney.

In January 1896, a burglary was committed at Swifts when thieves prised open one of the windows next to the main entrance[34] and took property, including jewellery and other portable items to the value of £40.

[44] Following settlement of the Supreme Court of New South Wales legal action, in February 1926 Arnold Resch (then 46 years old) married 21-year-old Tottie (née Dennis) in a private ("doors locked") service at St Marks Church, Darling Point,[45] which was followed by a reception at the Astor apartments in Macquarie Street.

[47] In August 1929, an unknown assailant (believed to have been a disgruntled Resch's employee opposing the brewery merger) set off dynamite at part of the wall surrounding Swifts.

The incident attracted widespread press attention, with the Daily Telegraph reporting it as an "Attempt to Blow Up Darling Point Home – Terrific Explosion Tears Hole in Wall Round Edmund Resch's Mansion".

In February, the brothers appeared in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, before Chief Justice Harvey, to divide their father's estate and to determine the future ownership of Swifts.

[50] Following the German occupation of the Channel Islands from 30 June 1940, although an Australian citizen Arnold Resch was removed from his family and the Jersey home that he had acquired, being a grand chateau on 22 acres with orchard and gardens,[51] and was repatriated to Germany where it is believed he died in 1942.

During this period the house continued to feature prominently in pop culture with Women's Weekly running the occasional article of the intimate jottings of tennis parties and balls at the "castle-like home of Mrs Edmund Resch, Darling Point".

[56] Following the outbreak of the Second World War, based on information from unnamed sources Edmund Resch Jnr was investigated and secretly monitored by Australian Military Police Intelligence.

On 26 September 1942 parts of the house were officially opened as The Swifts Rest Centre by the Minister for Labor and Social Services, Mr Hamilton Knight, with a staff of twenty carers including three trained nurses.

Edmund Resch Jr died at Swifts in November 1963 and left a personal fortune of £6.5 million, at that time being the largest estate ever lodged for probate in Australia.

Resch's final testament effectively preserved Swifts and its grounds from demolition and subdivision at a time when most grand houses in Darling Point were being demolished for high-rise home unit developments.

In 1967, Vera Le Cras, the daughter of Arnold and Tottie Resch, undertook a protracted legal battle in the Supreme Court of New South Wales, and later before the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London, to (unsuccessfully) argue that Edmund Resch Jr's bequest of two-thirds of the residuary estate to the Sisters of Charity to build a private hospital (St Vincent's Private Hospital) was not a valid charitable gift, and the estate should therefore have passed to her as next of kin.

In 1986 the property was transferred for a reputed $9 million from the Roman Catholic Church to Minjar Holdings Pty Ltd, the family company of horse trainer and investor Carl Spies.

Drawing on the expertise of builders and decorators skilled in traditional techniques, the restoration of Swifts, undertaken between 1997 and 2012, was probably the largest and most expensive of its type for private family use in Sydney.

This was due in part to the high rate of survival of evidence for the decorative paint finishes under the twentieth century accretions and the photographic record of the principal rooms made around 1900.

Dr Moran and his wife Penelope (née Dunbar) were married in 1998 at St Mark's Church, Darling Point, with their reception held in the then partly renovated Swifts' grounds and ballroom.

[1] Swifts is significant as a unique Australian translation of a Gothic or Old English style upper-middle class country house of the late nineteenth century picturesquely perched at the tip of Darling Point on Sydney Harbour.

The house is impressive for its scale and use of sandstone masonry in the Gothic or Old English style of architecture, planning and decorative embellishments and is one of the grandest castellated mansions in New South Wales.

[2][3] Swifts demonstrated a unique phase in Australia's colonial history with the rise of an upper-middle class, exemplified by Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth, whose wealth was generated through brewing as well as agriculture, commerce and industry.

The large original 1880s arch stained glass window, situated above the main staircase and believed to be the work of Lyon, Cottier & Co Sydney, has also been fully restored.

In an article on "Society Doings in Sydney", dated 6 September 1902 from The Australasian Newspaper, there is a description of the home as follows: "Swifts is a handsome mansion with towers, situated at the end of Darling Point.

[70] Out of a total of eleven new organs constructed by Fincham & Hobday during the 19th century, this is one of only three instruments by the Adelaide firm to survive intact, retaining its original mechanical key and stop actions, pipework, casework with carved detail and attached console.

Swifts is of State significance as a unique ensemble of late-Victorian house and extensive landscaped ground, complete with statuary, balustrade terrace wall, stairs, paths, mature trees that, in their picturesque setting within the foreshores of Sydney harbour, epitomises the development of "taste" in nineteenth century colonial New South Wales.