* Rural

FORTY-five years ago this week, the then Australian cross- country ski champion William Kater met a Swiss girl Rosemarie, also an ardent skier.

Within a short time they were married.

They spent their life together at historic Swatchfield, regarded as one of the best rural properties in NSW.

Now approaching their 70s, they have reluctantly decided to sell, putting the 1027ha property on the market for $4.2 million.

It is the first time since 1936 that the property has been on the market. Swatchfield has only had three owners since it was first settled in the mid-1820s.

Three hours’ drive from Sydney on the western side of the Blue Mountains, Swatchfield is not only regarded as a fine agricultural holding but is remarkably picturesque, scattered with stands of trees and sparked in autumn with the yellow glow of poplars.

The first owners of Swatchfield, the Stevensons, were renowned for the quality of their Clydesdales, which were sold in Dubbo and were one of the bases of the Australian wheat industry prior to mechanisation.

Descendants of the Stevensons can still be found around Dubbo.

“They bred very good Clydesdales,” says William Kater. “The country has the heart in it to breed good constitutioned animals.”

William Kater was only two when his father bought Swatchfield in 1936.

He says he remembers his father’s determined search for a good quality property. “He had the choice of everything, looked at many and picked Swatchfield,” Mr Kater recalls.

It was purchased from the Hackney family, large land owners in the Bathurst Oberon district who had acquired the property during World War I.

And it was William’s father Henry who built the Kenneth McConnell- designed five bedroom country homestead. McConnell was the architect of choice for thesquattocracy during the 1920s and 1930s.

It boasts a formal sitting and dining room and a large provincial style manor hall with central stone fireplace. These days it’s all centrally heated.

“It is a beautiful homey home,” Kater says. “We both love it, it is absolutely charming. That’s what makes the heart bleed, to leave it.”

The homestead is set in an English garden with mature oaks, elms, birches, poplars, sweeping lawns and attractive stone walls and hedges.

Swatchfield also boasts some of the best trout fishing close to Sydney, with the district’s best fishing hole only minutes from the homestead.

The Kater family have always bred egelabra or Spanish merino sheep, and there is a flock on the property.

Mrs Kater has also bred pure white South Suffolk sheep. The traditional South Suffolk has a black face, ears and feet, but the Katers have bred the black out of them, the only such flock in the country.

The lack of black makes the sheep more effective for wool production on top of their traditional role as prime lambs.

There is also a herd of “very good Vern-blood Hereford cattle” on the property, acclimatised and well suited to the country.

All the animals are available for sale.

Although Mr Kater has been running the property on his own — he says it can be run quite effectively by one 70-year-old gentleman such as himself — there is ample accommodation if a manager is required.

There is a four-bedroom manager’s residence and two other cottages, including a stone cottage dating back to 1863.

“It is a wonderful place, it should make someone who wants to buy it very happy,” says Mr Kater sadly.

When pressed as to why he is selling something that obviously brings him so much pleasure, he says, “I don’t know how old you are or how you feel at your age, but I’m nearly 70 and …” He doesn’t finish the sentence. He doesn’t have to.