Stephen Nicholls, Property Journalist
First published 24 Oct 2026, 5:00am
‘Polly want a cracker?’ 720 Vale Rd, Orton Park was on the market for the second time in its 193-year history.
An unusual historic mansion in the country, built by an ancestor of the family behind Australia’s oldest real estate brand, has sold for about the same price as a one-bedroom apartment in inner Sydney.
The 1832 Georgian heritage-listed six-bedroom homestead ‘Rainham’, on more than 32ha at 720 Vale Rd, Orton Park , five minutes from the centre of Bathurst, fetched $1.6m via Raine & Horne Bathurst agent Grant Maskill-Dowton.
The property, one of the oldest in Bathurst, was built for Captain Thomas Raine, a pioneering merchant, explorer and pastoralist, had been on the market for more than a year. It had a $1.8m guide in February.
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It’s sold, after more than a year on the market. “It looks like it’s abandoned, but it’s actually overly cared for in that we left it alone,” vendor Suzy Miller told the ABC at the time of it being listed.
They left the interiors pretty much as they found them.
It was only the second time in the homestead’s 193-year history that it had gone up for sale.
Captain Raine was the grandfather of Raine & Horne co-founder Thomas Raine Jr and great-great-grandfather of Angus Raine, Executive Chairman of the Raine & Horne Group.
No surprise then that Grant Maskill-Dowton, Director of Raine & Horne Bathurst, had the job of selling it.
He isn’t joking, either, when he says in a press release announcing Thursday’s sale: “Rainham is not your everyday rural property.”
“Not your everyday rural property.”
Vendors musician Richard Miller and his flautist wife Suzy, approaching 80, bought it for $500,000 in 2012 according to records, and have left the house pretty much as it was.
“I think it worries some people that we haven’t done a restoration,” Mrs Miller told the ABC .
“It looks like it’s abandoned, but actually it’s overly cared for in that we left it alone.
“It can be a little bit tricky for people to understand what we’re trying to achieve.”
The original lino was crumbling at the edges of the kitchen floor and wallpaper had been stripped back to their Georgian-era calcimine paints.
The couple bought the property for $500k in 2012, records show.
The home was built with convict labour in 1832 and Raine lived their with his wife, Fanny, and their 10 children.
It’s understood that some are buried on the property.
Raine was reportedly treated as a hero upon reaching Sydney when, at the age of 18, he guided a ship through the Great Barrier Reef and he established the area’s first flour mill and dairy while at Rainham.
However, he eventually returned to Sydney with Depression and died in the inner west, where he’s buried in Newtown cemetery.
Mrs Miller told the ABC: “I think he was eventually beaten by the climate and the death of some of his family.”
The Raine family owned Rainham until 1854. It was later bought by the Boyd and Richardson families, who held it until 2012, when it was sold on their behalf by Raine & Horne Bathurst to Mr and Mrs Miller.
The new owners may make a few “additional improvements”, the sales agent said.
Mr Maskill-Dowton said Rainham generated more inquiries than any other property he had marketed in the past two years.
He said the eventual purchasers lived locally and intended to relocate their Highland cattle stud to Rainham and preserve the property’s heritage character.
“They may undertake some additional improvements, but they don’t want to change the character of the property,” he said.
“They intend to continue the work Richard and Suzy have started.”
The property exchanged and settled on the same day, indicating a cash purchase.
Angus Raine, who visited Rainham at the invitation of Mr and Mrs Miller, said the sale was particularly meaningful for his family.
“It’s extraordinary to think that a home built by my great-great-grandfather almost 200 years ago is still standing today and appealing to so many buyers,” he said.
“Rainham is an important part of our family’s history and the early development of Bathurst. It’s wonderful to see it begin another chapter.”
He continued: “Walking around the property, which remains largely unchanged since my great-great-grandfather built it, I felt as though I was walking in his boots, especially when climbing the original staircase. It was quite a surreal experience.”
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