Convict-era house used as the hospital in TV show A Country Practice is on the market

The agents said it was only the eighth time in almost two centuries it has been on the market and are expecting it to sell for between $2 million and $3 million.

Built in 1828, the house was a location shoot for the long-running Channel 7 series A Country Practice, from 1981-1993, which at its height was said to have been watched by half Australia’s population.

Several buildings around nearby Pitt Town, including the Bird in Hand Inn were used in filming. Molly’s house was at Maraylya, Windsor High was the local high school and the Country Practice clinic was in North Street, Windsor.

Dr Terence Elliott (Shane Porteous) and matron Marta Kurtesz (Helen Scott) outside Clare House. Photo: Supplied

Last year, the building that was the Wandin Valley police station in Johnston Street, Pitt Town, was sold too.

When Clare House sold a decade ago, it had been owned by the O’Briens for nearly 30 years.

Gazette journalist Shannon Tonkin talked to Ron and Trish O’Brien at the time. They said a man appeared on their doorstep in 1981 and said he was doing a story about nursing in the bush.

“In less than six weeks, we had film crews here,” Mrs O’Brien said.

“They only ever took footage of the outside of our house, but we had our fair share of actors and actresses on the property. They’d be here all day filming for hours, and when you saw it on TV there’d only be five or six seconds of our house, but it was great to see it on the screen.”

Brendan Jones (Shane Withington) and Dr Simon Bowen (Grant Dodwell) from the TV series. Photo: Supplied

Mrs O’Brien said many visitors wanted to see ‘inside the Wandin Valley Hospital’.

“Contrary to popular belief, it never was a hospital, it’s always been a home, but we’d have plenty of people knocking at the door asking to see inside,” she said.

The actor who played the show’s character Brendan Jones, Shane Withington, came to Thompson Square in Windsor in December last year to support the local action group CAWB’s fight against the new Windsor Bridge plans.

Clare House was built of convict brick on Andrew Thompson’s estate, after whom Thompson Square is named, about 1828.

A scene from the show. The Oakville house was only ever used as the facade of the Wandin Valley hospital. Photo: Supplied

Now on one hectare of land, the house also has a dressage arena and new stables with wash bay and kitchen and bathroom facilities. It’s listed with Hamish Rogers Realty.

It will be auctioned on site at 11am on Saturday, September 30, unless sold before.

This story originally appeared in the Hawkesbury Gazette.