Werribee Park Mansion

This vast Italianate mansion sits amid formal gardens on the western outskirts of Melbourne, built in the 1870s for the pastoralist Chirnside family from the profits of their wool empire. Its sixty rooms, grand staircase and ornate reception halls reflect the confidence of colonial squatting wealth. The surrounding estate includes rose gardens, a grotto and parklands, and later served as a Catholic seminary. Now a heritage attraction, the house is furnished to interpret nineteenth-century station life.