More than 2,400 history buffs and locals travelled to O'Connell to visit arguably the most historically significant property in the Central West, Macquarie, for a rare opportunity to view a colonial icon.
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With a fascinating timeline spanning more than 200 years, Macquarie is not only the first farm, but is believed to be the oldest occupied dwelling on the western side of the Great Dividing Range.
Donations collected as entry fees and via a barbeque (run by the Rotary Club of Bathurst East and St Vincents de Paul - Bathurst Central Council) raised more than $35,000 which St Vincents de Paul will distribute to farming families.
Bruce Buchanan of St Vincents de Paul said these funds will go towards drought relief for families.
"Lots of charities supporting drought relief channel their funds towards the farm, we're focused on family," Mr Buchanan said.
"It will go towards expenses like electricity, rates, rent, fuel in the family car, food, school fees and household water costs.
"In excess of $2million has already been distributed by St Vincents de Paul in this programme."
Ray White Emms Mooney were the major sponsors of the Macquarie open days, with director Pat Bird saying the home is the most significant in the district.
"In 200 years, only three families have held the farm that explorer William Lawson was first granted as a reward for his role in finding a route over the rugged Blue Mountains in 1813 and thus enabling the fledgling colony to expand," Mr Bird said.
Owners of Macquarie, Paul and Bonny Hennessy, said the generosity of the attendees was heartwarming.
"We're delighted the funds are going to be distributed to local farmers," Mr Hennessy said.
"St Vincents de Paul were wonderful - they couldn't have been better.
"Not only are they managing the distribution of funds, they did a lot of preparatory work before the open days, they were there supporting us during the event and even turned up for the clean up."
Lawson, along with his fellow explorers Gregory Blaxland and William Charles Wentworth, were each offered 1,000 acres as reward by Governor Lachlan Macquarie.
Lawson chose the current site of Macquarie and by 1815 had 100 cows on his new farm - earning it the title of the first farm west of the Blue Mountains.
Situated on the Fish River between the hamlet of O'Connell and the city of Bathurst, the Macquarie homestead and convict barracks were completed by 1824 and are still very much intact today.
"The homestead is a Georgian farmhouse built in the early Australian colonial tradition with wide verandahs, low doorways leading off the hall and thick brick walls up to 500mm," Mr Bird said.
