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1st feb - This afternoon i went to Vaucluse House at Vaucluse Bay. This is half an hour from the city along the harbour. It is another house on my travel through time ticket. it is another house from the 1800.s and was lived in my the Wentworth family. This a one floor house with a big garden. Now there is 10hectares with the house, although orignally there was 206. It isnt as grand as Elizabeth house and feels a bit more countrish. There wasnt many plaques or information to read on the house. There was some orginal furniture in the house. There were some stables and a little 'farm' which had a few hens and goats in!!! The origanl driveway now has a road cut through it although the rest has been saved. The view to the bay is now covered by trees
Friday 2nd - I caught the rivercat down paramatta river to Paramatta. This took around 1 hour and was part of the harbouri hadnt been down before. The river got very narrow and mangroves lined the river. At Paramatta i walked down to Elizabeth Farm. (nothing to do with Elizabeth house) and another place on my travel through time ticket. it was built late 1700s for the Macarthur family. It is one of the oldest european buildings in OZ still survivng. It also has the oldest surving roof of any european house in Oz. After a dvd introducing me to the house and family i was able to walk around all the house. All the furniture are replicas of the furniture that was in this house. This meant that i could touch everything and sit down on all the chairs. there are no ropes cornering off areas. There were copies of letters that the family sent each other over the years that were in the rooms that i read. This was a nice house, and as it was an old farm it was more of a country house than a house to show off like Elizabeth House. There are nice verandahs around the outside and a nice garden. The rest of the area/farm was sold off. After the Macarthur family left another family lived there until the 1960s which is why there is no furniture and why it is still surviving. After i was finished here i walked back to the ferry terminal to wait for the 2.30 ferry but it was cancelled so instead of waiting for the 4pm, i hda to catch the train back to the city. As i had a daytripper ticket i wanted to make the most of the ticket so i caught the ferry over to Manly. It was sunny now after a cold and drizzly morning. I walked around Manly for a bit then caught the bus back to my flat.
Saturday 3rd - This morning i went to Government House which is in the Botanic gardens near the Opera House. It is the last place on my travel through time ticket that i can visit. (admission is free anyway!!) I had to take a guided tour around the house. It is actually the 2rd governemnt house built and was designed by the same man that designed Windor castle and GOvenment House looks like a castle. It has a big entrance and a grand hallway with portraits of all the past governers. The present governer doesnt live here but still uses it for meetings and dinners etc. We were only able to look around the ground floor. This included a very large study, the hallways, the dining room, drawing room, and ball room. The rooms are very grand and large and very nice!! The dining room and ballroom are painted very grand with painting on the walls. The ballroom has two grand pianos. From the ballroom u can walk outside to the verandahs and the awesome garden with views back along the harbour and the garden and fountains.
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