Historic Canberra homestead stirs up nostalgia

Tea Gardens is one of Canberra’s oldest homes — in one of its newest suburbs.

Not many properties can claim to have been a 19th-century homestead and a riding school, and contain jarrah timber reclaimed from Parliament House.

Built from local red brick in the 1860s, Tea Gardens originally stood on a 320‑acre estate.

This historic home, one of Canberra’s oldest, now occupies a 2,037sqm block at 10 Yirawala Street, Ngunnawal in Gungahlin, one of the city’s newest districts.

Over roughly 165 years, it’s seen many chapters.

European settler Anthony Rolfe, who arrived in 1849 and helped shape early agriculture in the region, established Tea Gardens as a farm that remained in the Rolfe family for nearly a century.

In the 1950s, new owners extended the home and used some of the original bricks to create a feature wall. In the 1970s and 80s,it became a riding school before suburbia closed in. During renovations in the 1990s, the Parliament House floorboards were laid.

After falling into disrepair, the home was sold as a deceased estate in 2020 to Tim Hubbard and Jessika Ahlgren and their blended family of four children.

The couple loved Tea Garden’s history, charm and its surprisingly modest price point — snapping it up for $950,000.

“We needed something big enough for our family of six. We realised we would need to renovate somewhere so we rolled the sleeves up and got to work,” Mr Hubbard said.

Tea Gardens turned out to be a perfect fit, with its generous layout and double brick construction offering both space and quiet for the large family.

And over the past five years, they’ve transformed Tea Gardens once again.

“It’s probably looking better than it has in a long time,” said Mr Hubbard. “We’ve spent years on the garden, and it’s finally blossoming. And it’ll only get better as the trees mature.”

Blending modern style with historic charm, the wide house opens to a bright white sunroom lined with black tessellated tiles. It flows into a cedar-clad family living and dining area, a granite kitchen with Velux skylights, and a cosy lounge with fireplace connecting to a sitting room complete with a brass‑and‑crystal‑lined bar.

There are five elegant bedrooms with restored sash windows, the master with dressing rooms and an ensuite. There’s also an office with separate entry and a media room, once a meat room, which adds to the character.

Mr Hubbard loves so many aspects of the home.

“The master bedroom has a beautiful bay window that the sun pours into. My partner adores the copper bath, and the lounge room and bar room in the old part of the house are lovely places to sit.”

Outside, multiple terraces overlook manicured gardens, the golf course and mountain vistas. Steps lead down to sweeping lawns with more than 70 new trees, a fruit orchard, vegetable and flower gardens, a Japanese garden and water feature.

There’s also an outdoor hydrotherapy spa, a sandstone firepit, an oversized outdoor chessboard and a handcrafted wooden swing engraved with ‘Tea Gardens’.

The couple are selling to find a multigenerational home that can also accommodate Ms Ahlgren’s mum.

Agent Eva Bono at HIVE Property says the listing has stirred plenty of nostalgia among locals.

“I had a couple of people come through who remembered it as the old horse riding school,” she said.

“From the street it’s deceiving — when you walk in, it feels like a country retreat. You forget you’re in Canberra. Walking through the gardens, I felt like Alice in Wonderland. The house is private, peaceful, and has a beautiful outlook.”

With a price guide of over $2m, Ms Bono says she’s receiving plenty of interest from buyers.

Others are simply visiting for the memories. Mr Hubbard said he’s had people connected to the property turn up at his door.

“They’d say, ‘we used to live here, can we have a look?’

“One was the nephew of a past owner, and another was a granddaughter descendant of Anthony Rolfe, the original settler, who brought the full family history with her.

“That was pretty cool.”

The post Historic Canberra homestead stirs up nostalgia appeared first on realestate.com.au.