Brucedale Cottage, Peel review: Fireside tales of early heroes

This gracious retreat has an eventful past but its contemporary tranquillity is better than therapy, writes Anna Anderson.

EARLY spring is a fine time to chase the chill over the Blue Mountains to Peel, where a farm gate and cattle grid at the turnoff to Brucedale Cottage suggest this property is no weekend folly.

A collection of sheds, utes, machinery and a pair of cattle dogs confirm our arrival at a working farm, albeit one with a fine Georgian residence. Brucedale is the Australian ancestral home of our hosts, David and Suzie Suttor. The undulating landscape of 1133 hectares is crowned by a handsome 1837-built homestead and alongside, its 1864-built guest cottage - our weekend getaway stay.

We dusty up our R.M. Williams boots and crunch along the gravel driveway. A feeble afternoon sun coaxes the temperature to 9 degrees but inside, the cottage is cosy thanks to a well-stocked slow-combustion fire.

My travel companion, Mr Pernickety, Fault-Finder Extraordinaire, does his white-glove thing while I delight in the architecture and charm of each room: a north-facing sitting room overlooking the garden and hills beyond, mini country-style kitchen, a well-appointed modern bathroom and a comfortable main bedroom with french doors to the verandah. When I find the pretty twin bedroom, I momentarily regret not bringing the teens but quickly recover my senses; it must be all the fresh air.

Mr P is trying his hardest to find fault; he settles on a repetitive electric click outside in a hayloft. It could be a deal breaker if you have a penchant for sleeping in barns.

We brew tea, plonk ourselves in deckchairs on the verandah and take in the view and silence. After about 10 minutes of unapplied meditation, I wonder whether I could claim a weekend at Brucedale Cottage on Medicare as I favourably compare Brucedale's tariff with the cost of a session on a shrink's sofa.

An eruption of cockatoos from one of the property's towering gums signals a visit from the Suttors. They've come to show us how to fuel the fire and we ask about family history. There's a collection of letters, diary entries, documents, drawings and photographs covering the history from botanist George Suttor's home on the banks of the Thames in the 1700s to his journey as a courier for Sir Joseph Banks to the "new" settlement.

Exquisitely scribed letters by Suttor describe the journey with his young family on HMS Porpoise, his reward of a land grant in Baulkham Hills, his petitions for more land out west and his arrival in Peel in 1823. The correspondence covers his support of Governor William Bligh during the Rum Rebellion and notes his respect for the indigenous landowners. There's also a video - it becomes our evening entertainment. The excellent SBS documentary First Australians confirms the significance of the Suttor family in the early history of the settlement and their amicable relationship with the original landowners, the Wiradjuri.