Bendooley Estate

Enjoy wine tastings at the Cellar Door by the vineyard. Be in absolute awe of the grand estate’s extraordinary history.

More than two centuries ago, Bendooley Estate was part of a large tract of land granted into private ownership by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. This original legacy can be still seen today: the grand Georgian homestead built from convict-hewn stone, the stately European trees and the magnificent cool-climate gardens across the private grounds.

Originally, the land was granted to Sir William Henry Moore who later passed the Estate on to his sister, Anne, on her marriage to William Cordeaux in 1818. Cordeaux went on to become the Deputy Assistant Commissioner General for the colony of New South Wales. Bendooley Estate remained in the Cordeaux family until 1919, when it was sold to Sir James Murdock, who planted the avenue of European trees that still line the Estate’s entrance today.

Almost sixty years would pass, before a fifth-generation antiquarian-book-dealer, Leo Berkelouw, enters our story. With a thriving book business in Sydney that required larger quarters, he purchased the property. He relocated his family and books to Bendooley Estate and so began the inception of the Berkelouw Book Barn.