Dromana Estate

History of The Tuerong Homestead and Dromana Estate Winery

The Tuerong Homestead is located in Dromana Estate Winery. Established in 1982 at Tuerong Park, Dromana Estate is a prominent winery in the Mornington Peninsula, one of the leading wine regions in Australia.

The history of the land at Tuerong dates back thousands of years as Aboriginal tribes are known to have occupied and travelled in the Mornington Peninsula area. William Thomas, an appointed Assisted Protector of the Aborigines, travelled a great deal with the local Bonurong tribe in the 1830s. He established his own hut and station, naming it ‘Tuerong’ and left a map of the tribe’s routes and camping locations over the Peninsula in 1841.

Tuerong was subsequently home to a number of squatters and then owners once it was surveyed for land sales in the 1850s. Its lush pastures and abundant creeks and springs made it ideal for graziers looking to fatten their cattle or sheep. Tuerong is connected albeit distantly to some colourful events and figures in local history; it is known that grazier John B. Wilson was on Tuerong Park in 1874 when he and his wife Agnes, James Firth and John McCusker were all witnesses in the famed Schnapper Point Murder. The Hon. Thomas Bent, 22nd premier of Victoria, later acquired the property and is thought to have built the late 19th century timber remnants of the Tuerong homestead (now the restaurant and office of Dromana Estate Winery). John Paton of Brighton acquired the property in the 1940s and is thought to have had some success with a racehorse named ‘Tuerong’ in 1949. Following Paton was Mr J. P. Edgar, who made Tuerong a venue for the polo set in the 1950s.

Interestingly, the property was acquired in the 1960s by a descendant of William Thomas, the late Dr John Stubbe. Dr Stubbe, a senior doctor at the Alfred and Royal Women’s hospitals, reared prizewinning cattle on the property for some 30 years.

The house at Tuerong reflects many construction eras, the dominant ones being late nineteenth century and inter-war when the garden to the east and associated terraces and pergolas were attached to the house. Much of the interior reflected the inter-war period or later and little substantial remained from any one period. A nearby weeping elm is thought to be over 100 years old. A farm shed appeared to be from the Edwardian era. To the south of the house was a cemented floor base, being possibly once a consolidated earth floor for an early hut. The Tuerong Homestead is currently run as a cellar door and restaurant inside Dromana Estate Winery.