On the way out to Drayton there are signs to Smithfield Homestead in Panda Street. This historic home is now surrounded by ordinary suburbia.
It was designed by the architects J. Marks and Sons and built in 1895 for the grazier and landowner James Taylor. It is by any measure a superb rural residence having been built in stone with wide verandahs and elegant paired timber columns.
The buildings most famous occupant was a successful German industrialist Oscar Flemmich who kept thoroughbred horses and employed a large number of grooms and servants. It is said that when he left the area he shot all his horses and dogs rather than let them go to another owner.
In the 1980s and 1990s it was a restaurant and function centre open to the public (I have it on good authority they did a fine steak). The four-bedroom homestead also features a ballroom, a renovated kitchen, multiple storerooms and a granny flat.
Mr Daniells and his wife Kathleen, son Paul and daughter Melissa called Smithfield Homestead home from 2003-2009. It was on the market for $1.9M in 2009.