The licence to graze Warrock Homestead was taken up by George Robertson in 1843. With a depression which gripping the region at the time, Robertson took up the “right of station” for only 300 pounds, a price which included 2,500 sheep, a team of bullocks and all improvements. Warrock consisted of 11,696 acres of land, an area which was reduced to a mere 2,000 acres by the 1950s, after the land was compulsorily acquired for closer settlement.
The original cottage was constructed during George’s first year on the station and set the pattern for construction of the homestead over the following eighteen years. A cabinet maker by trade, George Robertson’s showed extraordinary attention to detail in the construction of the buildings which grace the property. The buildings, in the Gothic revival style, feature hand sawn timbers from Tasmania, hand split blackwood shingles and studs and rafters from locally grown red and manna gum. The hand-made bricks were made from clay taken from the nearby Glenelg River. The gables and finials on all the buildings, were handcrafted by Robertson on a treadle lathe, which is still in the property’s workshop. Of the forty original structures on the property, 33 have been classified “A” by the National Trust and a successful restoration project was carried out in 1995, which saw many of the structures repainted.
Robertson married his cousin, Mary, in 1852, but with no children the property was willed to his nephew, George Robertson Patterson. Warrock remained in the Patterson family up until 1992, when Gavin and Carroll Larkins purchased the property. Warrock has been open to the public (admission fee) since that time.