The rich history of iconic Emu Bottom Homestead in Sunbury

HIT TV series, Grand Prix legends, working colonial farm, mega-festivals and even a Hitler connection — there’s been an amazing history at Sunbury’s Emu Bottom Homestead. Now, it’s for sale.

Emu Bottom Homestead in 1936.

HEDLEY and Janet Elliot have had 50 years to contemplate the courage and adventure of founding Sunbury resident George Evans.

In 1836, Mr Evans built the original Emu Bottom Homestead which the Elliots came to own in 1969.

Mr Evans was the original settler in the area and European contact with the indigenous inhabitants would have been minimal to that point. “He was 51 when he came here, there was no army, no police and, to our knowledge, he had no troubles with the indigenous people here,” Mr Elliot said.

DEVELOPERS MAKE PLAY FOR EMU BOTTOM HOMESTEAD

“With no real rights as a squatter, it is difficult to imagine today what sort of undertaking he was taking on.”

George Evans built Emu Bottom Homestead in 1836.

At 58, Mr Evans married 18-year-old Anne Holden, having six children with her. All grew up at Emu Bottom.

A keen historian, Mr Elliot has been an active member of the Foundation Day Committee, which acknowledges George Evans as the founder of Melbourne.

Emu Bottom Homestead is the oldest existing farmhouse constructed by settlers in Victoria.

When the Elliots bought the property in 1968 for $120,000, it had become known as Green Gully.

While Harry Webb owned the property, it was occupied and run by Esme Stringer, from a rabbiting family.

The Elliots headed off interest from Zara Bate, then widow of the late Prime Minister Harold Holt, for the property.

Beautiful Emu Bottom Homestead today.

The Elliots used architects John and Phyll Murphy to help them restore the property.

Removing crude cement rendering, they uncovered original stone beneath, one of several original features recovered.

Public interest in the restored colonial hub was intense when it first reopened in 1970. Governor Sir Rohan Delacombe performed the opening and soon visitors, many schoolchildren, averaged 90,000 a year.

The Elliots chose to establish “a working colonial farm” rather than a museum and the venture involved workers such as a blacksmith and a woolshed kitchen.

Gus Mercurio starred in Cash and Company and Tandarra, both shot at Emu Bottom Homestead.

The colonial setting they created, which had included a relocated woolshed from Sandford, proved tantalising for film and television settings — the long-running hit series Cash and Company and follow-up series Tandarra were among productions shot there in the 1970s.

The couple’s business evolved into hospitality, especially functions. They worked tirelessly on the business, even opening their famous woolshed kitchen in October 1980, hours after much of the homestead was damaged by fire.

Juan Manuel Fangio once visited Emu Bottom Homestead.

Mr Elliot described that period as a little “like a circus”.

“It was very exciting — you never knew who was going to turn up,” he said.

“We had a hospitality product Taste of Australia which had horsemen cracking whips, someone doing bird calls, a boomerang thrower and an axeman — we even had a hitchhiker who’d be part of the act — he was an actor on his way to Sunbury who’d be picked up by a bus with these tourists in it.

“One time we had (formula 1 legend) Juan Manuel Fangio turn up, we had Stirling Moss, we had the silver Arrow owned by Hitler on display here,” he said.

Mr Elliot, 80, and Mrs Elliot, 76, are taking a well-earned break.

Hedley and Janet Elliot at Emu Bottom Homsetead. Picture: Rob Leeson