In the meantime, as a journalist and parliamentary reporter like his father, he was connected with The Times, The Morning Chronicle, The Sun and The Mirror, and in 1834 was London correspondent for The Australian, using the initials "W.R.".

He assisted Dodd in compiling the Parliamentary Pocket Companion, and was associated with Colonel Thomas Perronet Thompson in the early anti-Corn Law movement.

John Dunmore Lang described him as "a barrister of superior abilities" In July 1846 Windeyer and Robert Lowe appeared for the defendant in Attorney-General v. Brown, concerning the right of the Crown to grant the Australian Agricultural Company (the AA Co.) the sole right to mine coal near Newcastle.

The arguments for the defendants failed, but enabled Windeyer to array much legal and historical learning in support of the political view that the lands of the colony should be in the control of the colonists, not in the grant of the Crown.

Vast sums of money were spent, especially on draining extensive swamp lands in the vicinity of Graham's Town, building a homestead at Tomago and on other improvements, but with little return.

[1] Lewis' private commissions show a dependence on published sources, identified in recent years by architectural historian James Broadbent.

Their plants are probably adapted from the British architect William Wilkins' design for "Oxberton House", Nottinghamshire, as published by George Richardson in the "New Vitruvius Britannicus" (1802–08).

Believing that the current depression was aggravated by a decrease of currency in circulation, and a lack of confidence and credit, he proposed a solution based on the Prussian Pfandbrief scheme as outlined by Thomas Holt before a select committee: the government was to give credit in the form of pledge certificates, or Pfandbriefe, on the security of land.

[2] Windeyer's main interest in economic matters was directed at effective supervision and control by the council of revenue and expenditure.

He, with Lang, Lowe and William Bland, led a "constitutional" party who sought to secure control of the land revenue for the colonial legislature.

It was not as an advocate of squatting interests, but rather because of his insistence on what he asserted was correct constitutional doctrine, that he became a member of the committee of the Pastoral Association.

In the Legislative Council he worked hard for what he believed were the interests of the colony and after each session he made a point of touring his electorate to give an account of his stewardship.

[5][2] Windeyer at Tomago ran cattle, horses and pigs, tried growing sugar-cane and wheat, and in 1846 with Reynolds, president of the local agricultural society, he imported the colony's first reaping machine from South Australia.

[7] The house formed the nucleus of what was, in the mid-19th century, a vast agricultural estate and the country residence of one of the nation's leading politico-legal figures.

[4] Ill from overwork, financial worries and some internal disease, Windeyer died on a holiday near Launceston,[4] 2 December 1847, when his role was far from completed.

His widow, a woman of remarkable character and determination, was enabled by money received from her family to retain a part of Tomago, where she lived, devoting herself to the prudent management of the property, the welfare of her infant son and local affairs.

[10] Her interest in the property is thought to have continued after her death, with inexplicable sightings of an elderly woman rocking in her chair on the verandah, and keeping a watchful eye in the cellars.

Photographic and documentary evidence, and the bones of earlier planting strongly suggest that by the early 20th century there was a well developed landscape at Tomago.

[9] The garden retains some venerable trees and other plants, such as stone pines (Pinus pinea), evergreen or Southern magnolia/bull bay (Magnolia grandiflora), giant bamboo (Bambusa balcooa) etc.

[8][2] Tomago House is noted for its fine verandahs looking over pastoral land; underground cellars were completed in time for the 1868 harvest; remnants of the 19th-century pleasure gardens; interiors which reflect the lives and times of a family of status and a social history which spans three generations of one of Australia's most distinguished families.

lemon-scented gums (Corymbia citriodora) on both carriage loops and a large 19th-century mature bull bay / evergreen or Southern magnolia (M.grandiflora) south of the house towards the river terrace.

brush box (Lophostemon confertus), locally-native red ash (Alphitonia excelsa), American sweet gum (Liquidambar styraciflua) trees are also in the grounds.

black bean/native chestnut (Castanospermum australe); tuckeroo (Cupaniopsis anacardioides); corkwood (Endiandra sieberi); bangalay (Eucalyptus botryoides); W.A.

[17][2] Other exotic species include Cape chestnut (Calodendrum capense); Atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica); camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora); Monterey cypress (Hesperocyparis macrocarpa); cockspur coral tree (Erythrina crista-galli); crepe myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica cv.

); Mexican weeping pine (Pinus patula); Eastern cottonwood (Populus deltoides), Lombardy poplar (P.nigra 'Italica'); plum (Prunus domestica cv.

[2] Built by barrister Richard Windeyer, Tomago House formed the nucleus of what was, in the mid-19th century, a vast agricultural estate and the country residence of one of the nation's leading politico-legal figures.

Needle rot (Cyclaneusma and Sphaeropsis fungi spread by windborne spores in spring and warm, humid summers are also a cause of problems.

It was built in a style and to a standard which befitted the social status of the Windeyers in the early years of expansion and development in the colony.

[8][2] Built by Sydney barrister and politician Richard Windeyer, Tomago House formed the nucleus of what was, in the mid-19th century, a vast agricultural estate and the country residence of one of the nation's leading politico-legal figures.

[2] Tomago House is noted for its fine verandahs looking over pastoral land; interiors which reflected the lives and times of a family of status and a social history which spans three generations.