The story of this place
Vaucluse House was home to William Charles Wentworth, explorer, journalist, and one of Australia's most influential colonial figures. Wentworth co-discovered the first route across the Blue Mountains in 1813, opening western New South Wales to settlement. His newspaper, The Australian, was the colony's first independent paper, and he campaigned relentlessly for self-government and trial by jury. At Vaucluse, he built a Gothic Revival mansion with 26 hectares of gardens, now a museum showing how the colonial elite lived. Wentworth also founded Australia's first public library—the State Library of NSW—with his bequest.