“We have owned it for a long time,” Mrs [Cecil Bull] said. “I’ll be sad to sell it, but these things happen.” Windradene is on the market through L.J. Hooker at Shellharbour for $700,000. This includes offices built at the side of the main house.

It could perhaps relate to Windradene, also spelt Windradyne, a leader of the Wiradjuri people who was captured in 1825 near Bathurst after leading a vigorous fight against the invading Europeans.

Principal agent at L.J. Hooker in Shellharbour, Wayne Kelly, said a potential buyer might well be someone looking for a holiday location with a hobby investment of running a bed and breakfast.

WINDRADENE at Shellharbour in NSW has had many incarnations since it was built by local businessmen as a holiday house to let in the 1870s.

Now the five-bedroom house on the main street is a bed and breakfast.

A hundred kilometres south of Sydney and surrounded by spreading housing estates, Shellharbour remains an attractive holiday destination.

A bustling port in the 1830s, the village retains an old-world charm, with fishermen still throwing a line off the breakwater while children play in the foreshore park.

Clare and Cecil Bull bought Windradene in 1973, when it had been condemned and was inhabited by hippies.

“It was a mess, it really was,” Mrs Bull said.

Originally the Bulls turned the house into offices and for a period lived at the back with their young family.

In the mid-1990s Mrs Bull got the idea to turn the building into a bed and breakfast.

She devoted herself for 18 months to transforming it into the cosy dwelling it is today, negotiating the re-development through thecouncil.

“It was my project,” she said. “It was something I wanted to do for myself. It is interesting to run a bed and breakfast.

“You meet all sorts of nice people. We get a pretty good clientele and can get fairly busy. Windradene is in an excellent position. It’s a walk to beaches, golf, the harbour, the pool. It is a very nice place.”

Now in their retirement years, they have been forced to sell for personal reasons.

“We have owned it for a long time,” Mrs Bull said. “I’ll be sad to sell it, but these things happen.” Windradene is on the market through L.J. Hooker at Shellharbour for $700,000. This includes offices built at the side of the main house.

The name Windradene was on the title deeds. Neither the owners nor anyone else seems to know for certain its origins.

It could perhaps relate to Windradene, also spelt Windradyne, a leader of the Wiradjuri people who was captured in 1825 near Bathurst after leading a vigorous fight against the invading Europeans.

Principal agent at L.J. Hooker in Shellharbour, Wayne Kelly, said a potential buyer might well be someone looking for a holiday location with a hobby investment of running a bed and breakfast.

He said there were very few bed and breakfasts on this stretch of the NSW south coast, and they rarely came up for sale. He said thego-ahead nature of the area might also attract investors.

There are plans to encourage al fresco dining in the main street, a beautification scheme and proposals for a 350-berth marina.

Whether all these plans could ruin the atmosphere of the historic village is a moot point. Chances are the buyer will be from Sydney.

“A lot of people commute to Sydney from here,” Mr Kelly said. “In the past 12 months 75 per cent of my business is people relocating from the city’s western and south-western suburbs. They just want to get out of Sydney.”

Watching the peaceful scenes of Shellharbour at the end of the day, the teenagers hanging out at the local milkbar while the last of the fishermen make their way into the protection of the harbour, it’s easy to understand why.