His face was on the first $100 note, a crater of the moon is named after him, and now his property is for sale for the first time in 170 years.
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John Tebbutt’s Observatory and Peninsula House, built in 1844, is an iconic complex on three hectares on the fringe of Windsor township. The three-hectare property has another famous historic connection – before it was bought by John Tebbutt’s father, it had been leased by Reverend Samuel Marsden.
John Tebbutt was a true Hawkesbury citizen, born at Windsor in 1834. His teacher was an amateur astronomist. He inherited this Windsor property in 1870 according to the Australian Dictionary of Biography.
He is noted for observing comets and in 1862 knocked back the position of government astronomer. He built his own wooden observatory on the property in 1863, which does not survive.
He observed and noted comets, eclipses and transits of Jupiter’s satellites over many years. In 1864 he built the round observatory out of brick, with the square observatory next to it in 1879. In 1888 he bought the telescope currently in place.
In 1873 he became a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, London, and in 1895 he became first president of the NSW branch of the British Astronomical Association. He also published 371 papers in academic journals.
The Dicitionary of Biography said “when the British Association for the Advancement of Science met in Sydney in 1914, the astronomers visited him at Windsor”.
He died at the end of 1916 and was buried at St Matthew’s Anglican Church. His estate was valued at £69,364.
The five-bedroom Peninsula house is flanked by a manager’s cottage, three large colorbond sheds, an original stable complex and a 100-seat function centre, as well as the observatories.
Agent Teena Dwight said the property was suitable for a function centre, restaurant, guest house or business centre, subject to council approval.
