The Young and the Restless | Histories and breweries

Built in 1842, this uniquely designed homestead is the oldest homestead in country Victoria and was built by Hamilton Hume (of Hume and Hovell fame) for his widowed sister-in-law, Elizabeth Hume, and her nine children.

Elizabeth’s husband, John Hume, had been shot and killed by the Whitton Gang bushrangers while helping a neighbour.

In the wake of his death, the free-settling Hume family, who had never accepted Elizabeth because she had been born to a convict, who had fallen pregnant with her during her journey on the ship to Australia, told her she was no longer welcome on the Hume property.

Luckily John’s older brother Hamilton had taken pity on Elizabeth and built her this home in which to live with her six daughters and three sons.

The home was built to suit the climate and to keep the family safe during potential attacks from bushrangers and First Nations tribes.

We started our self-guided tour in the cook’s kitchen, a building separate to the main homestead to avoid attracting rodents and insects into the house or having the entire place burn down in the event of a kitchen fire.

We were told at check-in this was one of the three areas of the homestead said to be home to its resident ghosts.

Even without being told that, there was an eeriness about this building, which for me is what I feel at many historical places.

I find the atmosphere slightly unnerving and in my head I feel if I breathe too deeply I’ll inhale the spirits of people who have long before passed and take them home with me.

It’s the way antiquated implements and décor are still in place, as if time stood still and dust came to settle on everything abandoned in the exact places they were used for the last time, without anyone knowing at the time it would be the last time.

The floorboards groaned under foot as we entered the main home itself, passing by its 40cm-thick walls, made of clay-fired brick.

The house has a central octagonal room, known as ‘the fortress room’, off which all other rooms lead.

The fortress room is named such as it offers 360-degree views out the windows of each adjoining room to the surrounding property to see if there were attackers approaching from any angle.

Each of the children’s rooms had some loose floorboards that could be easily lifted, providing a quick escape down to the cellar (also said to be haunted) in the event of an attack.

Since-patched walls once sported holes so that gun barrels could be trained out of them and directed at approaching antagonists.

Every room here is filled with history: interesting tales of the original brand of home schooling; stories of tragic deaths; antiques to look at; and audio on loop to listen to if reading isn’t your thing.

You could walk through this place 99 times and still see something on your hundredth you hadn’t seen before.

There’s plenty more to the story of Elizabeth Hume’s family and their homestead, but if you’re like my children, you can only take so much listening to it before you walk away as though your mother wasn’t still trying to get you to share her wonderment.

So, we advanced to the delightful brewery and café on site for lunch instead — because if nothing else excites teenage boys, at least delicious food does.

And if nothing else can stop my eyes from rolling at their waning interest in what was a gripping historical tale, at least delicious locally brewed beverages do.

Here I was introduced to the most delicious cider I’ve ever tasted (no exaggeration), a lemon-lime variety called Quinn’s Poison.

Byramine Homestead & Brewery’s beers and ciders are small-batch products and only available at its Burramine location, but I can tell you it’s well worth the drive to get some.

You can also grab a bottle of the famous Cobram Creme, which the barman proudly told me “tastes like Bailey’s, but half the price”.

I might not have managed to bring home any spirits from the cellar I’d breathed in (thank goodness), but I did manage to bring home a much more welcome liqueur.