The Wonaruah, who were closely affiliated with the Kamilaroi, occupied the central Hunter Valley area from around Merriwa and the Goulburn River, north to the Paterson.

[1] In 1813, four well-behaved convicts from the Newcastle penal station were provided with small land grants for farming near Paterson's Plains in the lower Hunter.

Smaller farms, generally less than 100 acres, were established around Maitland, Paterson and Singleton based on land grants that were matched to an applicant's income or capital (as recommended by the Bigge Report).

[1] Land around Wambo was desirable, close to the Windsor Road and the fertile valley flats of the Wollombi Brook and Hunter River.

There is no evidence that either grantee had developed the land or built any substantial structures before both grants were sold to James Hale who established the Wambo Estate.

In the 1820s and early 1830s Hale was a contractor to the Colonial Government supplying fresh and salt beef, mutton, flour, maize, firewood and cartage for survey parties departing Windsor.

Hale was possibly influenced in the design of Wambo by the Colonial Architect Francis Greenway whose work he would have encountered through his close relationship with William Cox.

[1] By 1844 James Hale was one of the largest 100 landholders in the colony; an established sheep and cattle grazier and wheat farmer with at least 4 assigned convicts working at Wambo.

[1] In 1857, James Hale died, leaving Wambo and many of his other properties to William Durham, the eldest son of his wife Mary from her first marriage.

The company claimed they would suffer "undue financial hardship" if they had to sacrifice the underlying coal in order to preserve the property, that it was "not rare" and that it was not fit for habitation.

[3][4] In 2012, it was reported that Wambo Coal were looking to find a permanent use for the building, though needing to overcome the challenge of its location within a working mine lease.

[5] In 2013, an oral history project regarding the homestead was undertaken, having been required as a Heritage Council condition of continuing mining works in the vicinity of the house.

The four principal rooms, arranged as pairs either side of an axial central flagged hall, are covered by a low, transverse, hipped roof.

The New House is state significant for its refined design and capacity to demonstrate architectural ambition at an early stage of colonial rural settlement.

Wambo Homestead shows the development of pastoral activities in the Hunter Valley after Commissioner John Bigge's reports to the British Government on the state of the colony and its administration.

[1] Wambo Homestead specifically shows the pattern of selection by residents of Windsor via John Howe's newly established Bulga Road.

It provides evidence of the rise to wealth of James Hale, a former convict and important resident of Windsor who by the mid 1840s had established himself as a successful entrepreneur and one of the 100 largest landholders in the colony.

[1] Wambo Homestead is a rare example which demonstrates the economic development of the Hunter Valley Region from an agricultural base through sheep, cattle and horse breeding to dairying and presently coal mining.

As the creation of the convicted thief, James Hale, Wambo Estate demonstrates the enormous opportunities open to the pioneers of New South Wales.

Within two decades a farm boy serving a seven year prison term had become wealthy and influential in two districts, the Hawkesbury and the Hunter Valley, and one of the colony's largest landholders.

The New House (c. 1847) is state significant for its capacity to demonstrate refined design and architectural ambition at an early stage of colonial settlement through its conception as an architecturally ambitious Regency style villa that was designed to impress as a tasteful, spare, symmetrical grand homestead residence placed to present to the valley floor and ranges to the south.

Wambo Homestead is significant in terms of its distance from Hales place of residence, Windsor, and because of its position in the broadening agricultural enterprises of pioneer settlers.

Further, the development of the Horse Stud infrastructure by the Allen and McDonald partnership provides physical evidence of the social and sporting aspirations of elite residents of Sydney at the turn of the 20th century.

As an archaeological resource the buildings and surrounding grounds provided an opportunity to contribute to the knowledge regarding the expansion of the colony of New South Wales, its agricultural diversification and everyday life on homestead properties from the 1820s till the 1890s.