F E AT U R E
house covers 14,000 square feet and all the water pipes are 100 years old. The current Longwood was built in 1906 (after the original wooden one burnt down) and the oldest building on the site is the 1850s cottage where the builders of the original homestead lived while they constructed it. My parents have spent a couple of decades carefully restoring Longwood and the other historic buildings. I don’t remember the hard work – I was too busy having a marvellous time. My early memories of living at Longwood include climbing up and down the fire escapes, exploring the bush and playing epic games of hide and seek. My best hiding place was the top shelf of the upstairs linen cupboard. I can’t tell you my second best spot because I still use it. We climbed trees, built precarious forts and raced around on a quad bike sans helmets. The best winter pastime was sliding down the stairs in sleeping bags. Looking back at the adventures we had, it’s incredible that I’ve never needed stitches or had a broken a bone. And apart from a mild concussion, sustained during a particularly fast slide down the stairs, our friends were mostly okay too.
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