Terragong
WHAT
Colonial Georgian
WHERE
Jamberoo
WHEN
1858
Terragong House was built in 1858 as a gentleman's country residence by The Hon. John Marks MLA, MLC and the property was farmed with paid labour. When John returned to live in his Sydney property ('Glenrock' at Edgecliff, now Fiona House at Ascham School), he leased Terragong to his brother Samuel, who continued in the same vein and resided for 30 years on the property, running it as a dairy farm.
Upon Samuel's retirement to Sydney, his only son Ernest John Marks acquired the property for the sum of one thousand pounds from Mrs Elizabeth Preston Marks, his aunt and John's widow. As the property was entailed it could only be owned by a male Marks in direct line of inheritance, so the transfer of ownership was referred through the Equity Court.
At this time, the Holz family was employed to work the farm and Ernest Marks directed his activities and concentrated his attentions on stock market investing. In turn, the property was willed in equal proportions to Ernest Marks' three sons (Brian, Eric and Cedric), all of whom spent their entire lives living on and farming the property. Following the death of Eric in 1974, his brothers carried on with the help of Cedric's sons, Gary and Wayne.
In 2014, after ownership by seven generations of the Marks family, Darryl Gordon and Simon Milner purchased Terragong and a new chapter in its history commenced.
Read more about the history of Terragong, information provided by the current owners.
