Butmaroo Station

Three thousand acres of working sheep and cattle country outside Bungendore, thirty minutes from Canberra. The name comes from an Aboriginal word meaning 'deep creek' — the waterway still winds through the property. Europeans arrived in the 1820s, the Harrison family held it from 1910, and by 1909 the district was freezing a million and a half rabbits a year. The current owners have been restoring the original workers' buildings since 2011: Stockman's Cottage, The Rabbiter's, Harrison's Hut — each named for the history it carries. Walk down to the creek, sit by one of the dams, watch the sheep. More buildings coming as the restoration continues.