The site was purchased by John Batman, one of the founders of Melbourne, in 1837 at the fledgling settlement's first Crown land sale.

[11][12][1][13][14][15][16][17] The freehold was owned by the Koegh family for 123 years until it was purchased by Marcel Gilbert in 1979.

It was purchased for 850 guineas by Dr Thomas Fitzgerald of Lonsdale Street in Melbourne.

After being hung in the National Gallery of Victoria for three weeks in 1883, it was withdrawn from exhibition because of the uproar created especially by the Presbyterian Assembly.

It was bought for the Young and Jackson Hotel in 1908 for 800 pounds,[1] and was damaged in 1943 by an American serviceman who threw a glass of beer at it.