The items of six generations of a family’s history will be offered for sale at the stately mansion of Boree Cabonne, near Orange, on Sunday, October 29.
Sold a year ago, it is time for Andy and Tina McGeoch to empty the home.
“I’m really, really sad to sell it,” says Tina (nee Machattie Smith, or Mac Smith).
“The kids say they had the best years of their lives here.”
In six generations Andy and Tina have been the longest custodians of the home.
It’s place in Australia’s history is rare, Major Sir Thomas Livingston Mitchell launched three of his four expeditions from the house, even beginning his foray to Mackay, North Queensland, from the homestead.
John Smith, who ordered the place built, arrived in Australia in 1836.
Coming from a “strong position” he carried a letter of introduction to NSW’s governor, Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Bourke and made his first selection at “Gamboola” just outside of Molong.
A cautious man, rather than paying for carriage to Bathurst from Sydney, he walked. By 1855 land under his control was carrying 30,000 sheep, all sheared by hand.
To this day paintings and family photographs hang on the walls.
It is an overwhelming process to create order as auctioneers catalogue and price the contents of the home’s interior, particularly as Andy and Tina prepare for their youngest son Nicholas’s wedding on one of the lawns this Saturday.
“I’d always hoped one of my children would get married on the property,” said Tina.
The objects to be offered for sale, almost 700 of them, include an Aucher Paris upright piano manufactured for the Paling Bros and a pair of William IV fire screens decorated with royal standard.
The list goes on, a set of 19th century dinner gongs, ivory billiard balls, a Norman Carter painting of Lancelot Machattie Smith, prints of Wellington and Blucher meeting after the Battle of Waterloo and the death of Lord Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar, both from the original wall paintings at the Palace of Westminster.
Viewings in situ of everything on offer are on Friday and Saturday October 27 and 28 from 10am to 5pm with the auction beginning at 10am Sunday.
The auction will be handled by Sydney brokers Mossgreen and also conducted online.
A full catalogue is available at Mossgreen’s website.
Andy and Tina will initially lease in Orange with a view to eventually moving to a house in Sydney.
The Maple-Brown family, Sydney, has bought Boree Cabonne.