Historic Westham, Ian Kiernan's 1830 Bathurst district farmstay, listed

Historic Westham, the 1830 Bathurst district property meticulously restored by the well known pioneering environmentalist Ian Kiernan, has been listed for sale at $990,000.

Currently a farmstay accommodation property, the main four bedroom homestead sits on 2.43 hectares.

The property also comes with other accomodation. Its barn is a modern two storey three bedroom house. The restored dairy accommodates a couple with modern kitchen, bathroom and laundry facilities.

Its joinery is a 12 bay facility.

“This is a truly unique opportunity to own a part of local history,” says the Raine & Horne Bathurst agent Lynda Ireland.

The O'Connell Road property built for wheat farmer Thomas West is set between Bathurst and Oberon, an hour's drive west of the Blue Mountains.

Ian Kiernan, best known as the founder of Clean Up Australia, is a builder by trade.

Title Tattle knows Kiernan is very passionate about domestic colonial architecture, starting out with the derelict terraces of the inner Sydney suburb of Darlinghurst around 1971.

The former Australian of the Year bought the rundown property in 2004 and spent 14 months restoring it.

It earnt the award for best rural conservation project under $1 million at the recent 2006 Australia National Trust Heritage Awards.

Kiernan told hospitality industry writer Mark Chipperfield that at first sight in 2004 he doubted that the derelict old house, with its cob walls, deep verandas and tall chimneys, could be saved.

"What I saw," he recalled, "was a wonderful colonial building that was close to collapse."

But rather than demolish and rebuild (the sensible option), Kiernan and a team of artisan tradesman bolstered, patched and teased the old building back to life – adding a modern kitchen, bathroom and laundry facilities.

Title Tattle recalls that in 2006 Kiernan toyed with the notion of seeking investors to buy into the property offering a 50% stake through Meares & Associates at $450,000 which did not eventuate to conclusion.

John West and his brother Thomas settled on the Macquarie Plains taking up a land grant, they called Westham and it remains as part of the Westham Farmhouse to this day.

The house measured 30 feet by 15 feet, with 6 yellow box timbers, each one foot square, as framework for the earth walls facing North and South. Hardwood slab walls were built on the east and west facades.

The West family proved to be successful grain growers and descendant Joseph West was described as “the most extensive wheat grower in the Bathurst district”.