Blundells Cottage

Blundells Cottage is a six-roomed stone cottage on the north shore of Lake Burley Giffin, built by George P. Campbell in about 1858 for his ploughman, William Ginn (1821-1904), on the original Molonglo River floodplain.  Ginn and his family lived there until 1874, and then Flora and George Blundell occupied it until about 1933.  A couple called Harry (1885-1942) and Alice Oldfield (1888-1958) moved there in 1933.  After Alice’s death, the cottage was going to be pulled down but Sir William Holford (1907-75), a British architect involved in the development of Canberra’s planning, suggested it be kept as a museum.

Its displays give an insight into the lives of the families who lived there,  and their experiences on the Limestone Plains from the colonial period to the time when Canberra was selected as the site for the Federal Capital and during the construction of modern Canberra.  Therefore, the museum tells the whole 20th-century story of the cottage and is an important site to understand Canberra’s heritage.  Since 2005 it has been on the Commonwealth Heritage List.