Rare convict-built property in Leumeah industrial estate for sale
Tucked away in an industrial street in Leumeah sits Hollylea House, one of the oldest properties in the south-western Macarthur region of Sydney.
The state heritage-listed building, which is for sale, was built by convicts 190 years ago and was once home to a local MP.
Between 1816-1821 a convict named William Ray built the Plough Inn on his 60 acres of land, which he then sold to another convict, Nathaniel Boon.
Boon then built Hollylea House in 1829 as the homestead on the same property, which ended up being larger and grander than the original inn.
As an homage to his triplet sons he changed the name of the inn, which is still standing today on a separate title, to the Three Brothers Inn.
The property changed hands several more times and was bought in 1884 by the MP at the time, John Davies.
Davies was instrumental in having a railway station built, which he controversially named Hollylea before changing it to Leumeah after two years of local opposition.
Marie Holmes from the Campbelltown and Airds Historical Society, said the inn on the property was the first of a number built in the Campbelltown area, which was then known as Aird.
“You had inns right from the beginning on Campbelltown Road, which was the main road to Sydney. That’s why the inns did so well then, and there were many,” she said.
“These are very, very early buildings. At that time there weren’t any other structures around there, it was mostly farmland until the 20th century.”
Hollylea House has lived a number of lives over the centuries; 15 years as a school, then a homestead and, most recently, hosting an accounting firm and then a tutoring business.
“It used to have a ballroom which would have been used for social functions, but sadly that’s been demolished,” Ms Holmes said.
“One of the more recent owners had a poultry farm and then a dairy farm and a set of the sheds burnt down, when the land size was much bigger. It’s certainly been a home to a number of people.”
The property is not currently tenanted and has six consultancy rooms across two floors. It had recently been renovated and sits on 170 square metres.
Lachlan Veld, of LJ Hooker Commercial Macarthur, who is selling the property with his colleague Darren Zammit, said it had been receiving interest from owner-operators.
“A lot of buyers as well as owners are happy about the election results, so everyone’s got a new fire in them and is confident that the market’s going to go up. Inquiries have definitely picked up in the area and market confidence has increased,” he said.
“With commercial property, a lot of our buyers are government and NDIS organisations. A lot of them were waiting for confirmation that they would actually have funding going into the financial year, so it really did slow down for a while.”
