The Retreat, heritage-listed cottage in Sydney, Australia
The Retreat is a small sandstone cottage built in 1843 and set back from Victoria Road with a front garden. The house contains four rooms and two attic rooms with dormer windows, with a kitchen and bathroom wing added later, and features dressed sandstone walls with wooden floors and metal or plaster ceilings.
The land was granted to James Squire in 1795 and sold to James Shepherd, a former convict, in 1799, who became a major landowner and whose family held the property for many years. The cottage itself was built around 1843, likely by Isaac Shepherd or William Henry, a retired missionary who settled there after his work abroad.
The cottage takes its name from the idea of a modest retreat and reflects how its residents lived simply and close to nature. The small garden with old rose bushes and fruit trees shows how families used their land for daily life and food, connecting home to working the earth.
The cottage sits back from Victoria Road and is easily reached on foot, especially when following local heritage walks and guided tours that include it. The grounds with mature trees provide a quiet setting for exploring and reflecting on life during the 1800s.
The house was possibly built by James Shepherd, a former convict who became the region's largest landholder, or by William Henry, a retired missionary who led one of the first missions to the Pacific. This unlikely connection between criminal justice, Pacific adventure, and later retirement reveals how varied the paths of early settlers could be.
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