[1] The original Vaucluse House was built by Sir Henry Brown Hayes, who had been transported to New South Wales in 1802 for kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy Irish banker.

Naming the property after the village of Vaucluse in the south of France, he built a small cottage and in 1803 set about transforming his "mere waste of land", building two huts and outbuildings, clearing 20 hectares (50 acres) for agricultural uses and planting several thousand fruit trees.

[1] On 27 August 1827 William Charles Wentworth who, together with Gregory Blaxland and Lt.William Lawson, was an explorer of the Blue Mountains, and a barrister, author and co-editor, and publisher of The Australian newspaper, purchased the 16-hectare (40-acre) estate from Captain John Piper.

He continued to assist his father with his business activities, combining farming interests with sandalwood trading in the South Pacific, before returning to England in 1816 to study law at Cambridge University.

Wentworth and his wife Sarah Cox moved to the estate with their growing family in 1828, carrying out major building and ground works through 25 years of occupancy.

[1] By the 1830s the Wentworth family had made many visible improvements at Vaucluse, including turrets on the house, a sandstone stable in 1829 by architect George Cookney, a large kitchen wing and convict barracks.

[5][1] Conrad Martens' 1840 sketch from Vaucluse Bay shows a clear view to the residence and what appears to be a well-established climber (possibly Wisteria sinensis) over the verandah.

To the west is a dense grove of trees (possibly native) and a large Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria heterophylla) 25–30 years old and probably planted in the pre-1827 period.

[7][1] Vaucluse House and its furnishings were clearly intended to provide the correct social surroundings for Wentworth and his wife's immediate family of seven daughters and three sons.

Vaucluse House was never completed due to factors which included the 1840s depression and Wentworth's intentions for a full facade, bedroom additions and formal entrance are unrealised.

The democrats and radicals accused him of attempting to create a "bunyip aristocracy" that gave voting rights to the wealthy land owners and squatter class in the colony.

The 1854–56 lease agreement to John Hosking required him to keep "the park, gardens, orangeries, vineyard and buildings, fencing, hedges, ditches, gates, bridges, stiles, rails, poles, posts and drains in good and sufficient order".

This was based on a study of the site's history, contemporary documentation such as paintings, sketches, family papers, photographs, and research on 19th century garden practises in Australia.

[9][1] Several 20th century mature palms from front garden (public reserve) near the "approach road" (drive) and sandstone piers were removed, sold for replanting, c. 1996[14] to recover a partial view from the house to Vaucluse Bay—this included some casuarinas.

[15][1] From 1999 under the direction of curatorial adviser Dr James Broadbent and head gardener Dave Gray prepared a conservation policy for a small plot of land adjacent to the house's kitchen wing.

It was decided to reinstate a kitchen garden there using heritage seeds imported from the Henry Doubleday Research Association in the UK via quarantine (basing it on varieties of vegetable and fruit that were available in the era of the Wentworths' occupation of the estate—1827–1853.

[1] Property staff undertook research to find out whether vegetable seeds from the era were available in Australia and if there were any references to preferred varieties at Vaucluse House estate.

[19][1] In winter 2016 the drawing room refurbishment got underway—what is considered to be one of the finest surviving colonial interiors in Australia - design and create new window furnishings, re-upholster the furniture including 5 Wentworth-provenanced chairs using authentic sources, traditional methods and trades.

[1] Plant material in the parkland "estate" outside the estate fencing includes major trees of camphor laurel (Cinnamomum camphora), Chinese elm (Ulmus parvifolia)(several), brush box (Lophostemon confertus)(this species lines the driveway in the grounds' north-east and lines Olola Avenue's edge), cheese tree (Glochidion ferdinandi), two clumps of ornamental bamboo (Arundinaria sp./cv.

), near the Vaucluse Bay beach a clump of giant bamboo (Bambusa balcooa), Hill's figs (Ficus microphylla 'Hillii'), golden Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa 'Aurea'), stone pine (Pinus pinea), Monterey pine (Pinus radiata)(specimen is dead), paperbarks (Melaleuca quinquenervia)(several north of the creek), London plane (Platanus x acerifolia)(several), black bean (Castanospermum australe), lilly pilly (Syzygium sp.

Developed by influential Scottish-born landscape designer John Claudius (J.C.) Loudon, the popular style was a response, in part, to the flood of exotic plants available to Victorian era gardeners.

Displayed as geographically and aesthetically distinct "specimens" to emphasise differences in foliage, flowers and form, the plants on show at Vaucluse House are examples of a period defined by prosperous ports, imperial politics, seafaring trade networks and exciting scientific discovery.

In August 1787, Captain Phillip stocked up on cotton, coffee, cocoa, prickly pear (Opuntia ficus-indica) and other crops of economic and agricultural importance from the Portuguese settlement, all intended for future new penal colony in Sydney.

Ornamental plants from South America were cultivated in the colony from the earliest years, as trading ships continued to ply the Rio-Cape Town-Port Jackson route.

Examples include blue ginger (Dichorisandra thrysiflora), Brazilian plume flower (Justicia carnea), floss flower (Ageratum/ Eupatorium), flame creeper (Pyrostegia venusta), Mexican viper (Maurandya barclayana), sandpaper vine /purple wreath (Petraea volubilis), violet church (Iochroma cyanea), tree fuchsia, (F.arborescens), dahlias, snail vine (Phaesolus caracola), marvel-of-Peru (Mirabilis jalapa), heliotrope/cherry pie (Heliotropum peruvianum).

Cape Town, with its famous central garden established by the Dutch East India Company, was final port-of-call for most ships plying the Indian Ocean route from Britain to NSW.

Despite difficulties of access, well-connected NSW gardeners were able to introduce Chinese plants early - either from England or directly from trading ports of Canton (Guangzhou), where foreign merchants were permitted from the mid-18th century, and the Portuguese outpost of Macao.

Chinese plants in the garden include shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet), plume poppy, Macleaya cordata (named after Alexander Macleay, colonial secretary of New South Wales from the 1820s-30s, and gardener at Elizabeth Bay House),[27] Camellia japonica cv.s, azaleas (Rhododendron indicum cv's), Cherokee rose (Rosa laevigata), Wisteria sinensis, (introduced into Sydney by Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay)[27] orange jessamine / sweet box (Murraya paniculata), confederate rose (Hibiscus mutabilis), butterfly bush (Buddleja davidii), fried egg plant (Gordonia axillaris) and "Safrano" rose, (R.

[34][1] A large early Victorian garden and shrubbery, laid out to compliment a gothic revival house belonging to the family of the important colonial pioneer and politician W. C.

[1] The Vaucluse Site is significant because it is an example of a designed "Picturesque" landscape, including fountain and shrubbery, of the colonial period belonging to a prominent colonial family; it contains remnants and features of a "gardened site" begun in 1804 and shows the development of gardening styles, taste and necessity over fifty years; and it has strong association with the Wentworth family such as the Mausoleum and Greycliffe House.