Port Macquarie is one of Australia's oldest European settlements (1821). Close to the town centre is one of its few remaining 19th Century buildings - Roto House. Roto is a verandahed late Victorian country house, preserved within the parkland setting of the Macquarie Nature Reserve, an area shared with the Port Macquarie Koala Hospital. The valuable work of the Koala Preservation Society has continued within the Reserve since 1973. Many of the original trees, both native and exotic, are still standing nearby, adding considerably to the atmosphere. Roto and its surroundings within the 12-hectare Reserve have been conserved as an example of the house of the pioneering Flynn family in a district of outstanding natural features and historic significance. The property was purchased by the National Parks and Wildlife Service and gazetted in 1970, as an addition to the Macquarie Nature Reserve which had been proclaimed in 1966. When conservation began in 1980 the building was basically sound, but the verandahs were in a serious state of decay. Work proceeded intermittently, but carefully, until late in 1982 when the building was opened to the public as a NPWS District Office and Information Centre. The significance of Roto is that it is the main component of an almost fully documented household and collection of buildings of an eminent townsman and his family in a rural situation at the end of the nineteenth century. The NPWS office moved to the town centre in 1997, but the building is assured of a future as an interpretive and educational resource. Many of the rooms are replete with furnishings appropriate to the period and the home is open to the public from 10.00 am - 4.00 pm on weekdays and 9.00 am to Noon on weekends. History Site developed by Chuff
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