Thank you everyone for your interest - I have received the information I needed offlist. The pre-emptive right was taken out fairly and squarely on the run. Which means Heritage Victoria and The Register of the National Estate have completely mixed up two Grassdales - one near Merino and one at Sale in Gippsland. For RNE, the URLs are too long to paste, go to http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl and just type Grassdale into the place name. There are two, with very similar details. Ditto for the Victorian Heritage Register http://www.heritage.vic.gov.au/page.asp?ID=8 There is only one there, and it places the Western District details on the Sale one. The National Trust has got it right - but probably only because it has almost nothing on there about Grassdale at Sale. http://www.nattrust.com.au/trust_register/search_the_register/grassdale_estate for the Western District http://www.nattrust.com.au/trust_register/search_the_register/grassdale_homestead for the Gippsland one. But at least you get a picture. In passing, you can have a lot of fun with the registers. And, for the record: Grassdale at Sale was built by the King family of Rosedale for Dr Ffloyd Minter Peck (no connection to Coldhams), and since 1862-1864 has been owned by the Maclachlan family. It does not, and never has run sheep. Cheers Linda