page_title: Binnawee Homestead
section_title: Description
hierarchical_section_title: Binnawee Homestead / Description
caption_attribution_description: English: Binnawee Homestead: Binnawee Outbuildings
context_page_description: Binnawee Homestead is a heritage-listed disused homestead at 111 Lester's Lane, Mudgee, Mid-Western Regional Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1850 to 1900. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 9 June 2009.
context_section_description: Binnawee Homestead is located on part of a crown grant of 976 acres (395 ha) on Macdonald's Creek at Cullenbone, several kilometres north-west of Mudgee, across the Parishes of Munna and Piambong in the County of Wellington. Although the property is operated as a working farm, the curtilage of this listing closely surrounds the group of mid-19th century buildings, of which the focal point is the historic Binnawee Homestead.
  Homestead
  Thought to have been constructed c. 1855, the homestead building is substantial but unpretentious. Its Georgian style owes much to earlier Australian vernacular design and it was most likely designed by the builder or copied from a pattern book.
  Facing south-east with front and rear elevations of five bays, the house is a compact rectangle with a deceptively asymmetrical exterior. The fenestration of the front elevation is balanced, but at the rear the windows on both the lower and upper levels are irregularly placed to accommodate the off-centre stair. Consequently, the two rooms on the south-western corner on both the ground and first floors are relatively small.
  The light red bricks are, for the most part, in good condition. The south-eastern elevation is in Flemish bond, while the rear and two sides are in colonial or garden wall bond. All windows and doors feature flat gauged arches with tuck pointing.
  The steeply pitched hipped roof, which retains the original shingles under the unpainted corrugated iron, is pierced by two tall, corbelled brick chimneys servicing five fireplaces. A timber-floored verandah, 1.8 metres (5.9 ft) deep, surrounds the ground floor, while its concave profile roof is supported by flat, stop-chamfered timber columns. On the ground floor of the front elevation two sets of shuttered French doors flank each side of the central front door. All windows are six-pane sashes and featured shutters, although the windows at the front are slightly larger than those on the rear and sides. Many windows retain the original glazing and feature the remains of stencilled floral patterns.
  The impressive double front doors, capped by a three-paned stencilled fanlight are painted red on the exterior. Each door features a single panel with heavy bolection mouldings and a semi-circular headed top. Stained and lacquered on the interior, each door has two panels with a semi-circular headed top on the upper panel. Both the front and rear doors have substantial drawback rimlocks.
  Although the house is relatively small there is a distinction between the principal rooms at the front and secondary rooms at the rear on both floors. Although the skirtings are a standard size throughout, architraves and doors are smaller in the four rear rooms. Ceiling height is a uniform 2.88 metres (9.4 ft) metres.
  Downstairs, the front rooms were used by the Lesters as a dining room and a living room, although previously the living room had been the principal bedroom. The dining room features an elaborate wallpaper and frieze, while the substantial cornice in the dining room, picked out in several tones, is possibly a later installation. The study and the breakfast room occupy the two smaller rooms at the rear, with the breakfast room featuring a particularly fine Edwardian frieze of alpine scenery.
  The stair is narrow and steep, starting in a spiral ninety-degree turn, with a straight flight to a landing and a short return flight to the upper landing. The squared balusters, handrail and turned newels are typical of a mid-Victorian stair. The fretwork on the side of the steps and the panelling underneath the stair are the only two instances of ornamentation in what is a relatively austere interior.
  Of the four rooms upstairs, the bedroom in the eastern corner, over the living room, is the largest room in the house and was originally the upstairs parlour. With windows facing the south-east and north-east, this room is well lit and has expansive views. Bruce and Mabel Lester created a small lobby on the south-western end of this room by erecting a partition wall, so as to give greater privacy to the two front
caption: One of the outbuildings
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