11 September 2019

Black Swan restaurant and cottage in Binalong harks back to the Cobb & Co years

| Glynis Quinlan
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The Black Swan is on the market in Binalong and provides a piece of Australian colonial architecture dating back to 1847. All photos supplied by Ray White Rural Canberra/Yass.

A piece of Australian colonial architecture which provided accommodation for stagecoach passengers during the Cobb & Co years is on the market in the historic town of Binalong less than an hour’s drive from Canberra.

‘The Black Swan’ at 25 Stephens Street is for sale for $740,000 and includes a main restaurant building built in 1847 and a separate three-bedroom cottage which has been recently renovated. It sits on a 2,023 square metre site.

The restaurant building was once known as the ‘Swan Inn’ and was built primarily of pise (rammed earth) and hand-hewn hardwoods with exposed beams crafted using an adze. The building also featured original hand-crafted glass windows with the majority of them still in place.

The building currently features a central dining room with three private dining rooms (‘the Nook’, ‘the Snug’ and ‘the Cobb & Co Room’) all of which were originally used as accommodation during the Cobb & Co years which began around 1854.

The restaurant building has three open fireplaces, a slow combustion fireplace and three separate reverse cycle air-conditioning units servicing the main dining room/bar area and two of the private dining rooms.

The restaurant is supported by a fully-functional commercial kitchen which includes a full stainless steel fit out, industrial dishwasher, reverse cycle air-conditioning, large cool room, a built-in lowline fridge, gas stovetop, commercial oven, gas barbecue grill, a separate pantry and a service/storage room between the kitchen and restaurant.

There is also a bar with a sink and lowline fridge, a separate external cool room, several storerooms, a wine store and a separate male/female toilet block.

Near the rear of the restaurant is a fully-renovated art studio/workshop/office which features raked ceilings and a slow combustion wood stove.

The cottage was built around 30 years ago and is kept separate from the restaurant by a privacy screening.

In the past year, the cottage has been substantially renovated with fresh paint, a new bathroom and a new kitchen.

It includes a large open-plan living area with newly-installed laminate floating timber flooring, a large master bedroom with built in robes, and an entertainer’s kitchen with a large island bench. The cottage has verandahs at both the front and the rear.

Listing agent George Southwell of Ray White Rural Canberra/Yass said that The Black Swan presents potential owners with numerous options such as using the property to provide boutique accommodation, or as a restaurant, bar or a mixture of both, or to convert it into an expansive private home.

He said the property is steeped in history and there are not too many places in regional Australia as recognisable as ‘The Black Swan’.

To find out more please contact Mr Southwell on 0429 838 345 or Dominic Johns on 0455 777 644 or click here.

The home is next open for inspection on Saturday, January 19 from 12:30 pm to 1:15 pm.

Original Article published by Glynis Quinlan on the RiotACT.

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