Doncaster House: 1840s convent turned guesthouse listed for $4.95m
- Owner: Gabriele Borscz
- The property: Restored country guesthouse
- Address: 1 Park Lane, Braidwood, NSW
- Price guide: $4.95 million
Not too long ago, a lady named Margaret knocked on the door of Doncaster House and introduced herself to the owner, Gabriele Borscz.
Well into her 90s and just back from travelling around Europe, Margaret was looking to revisit the place where she and her sister and boarded for two years during the Second World War.
Doncaster House, now operating as a handsome guesthouse, was built in 1840 as Braidwood’s first grand hotel and served as the centre of the area’s social life for many decades, before being converted into a convent and boarding school.
The property had become a safe haven for youngsters evacuated from Sydney amid fears of invasion, with many residing there for extended periods, enduring crowded quarters and makeshift accommodation.
“Margaret said the nuns were quite harsh,” Borscz says, but a visit to a much cheerier version of the Doncaster, and a small glass of sherry, helped her to put the past behind her.
“She was so happy,” Borscz says. “She said, ‘I can let go now.’”
Doncaster House has been the maker of memories for many Australians, including Borscz and her three children.
In 2006, Borscz was living overseas but looking for a home base back in Australia.
After exhausting options up and down the east coast, she suddenly thought, “What about Braidwood? Why don’t we look at that?”
“I was always fond of Braidwood,” Borscz says. “I’m a Canberra girl and I used to do day trips out there because I found it really exciting in my old Vauxhall Victor 1959.”
Within a matter of days, she was the somewhat nervous new owner of a historic two-storey guesthouse in the middle of town.
“It was bought on a whim, I hadn’t even seen it,” she says.
On her first visit, with three small children in tow, Borscz says she almost cried.
“It had minimal garden – it was unstructured and rambling,” she says. “When I walked into the house, it was relatively dark because it was more like a gentleman’s quarters; it had lost all its femininity. And I thought, ‘What have we done?’”
As someone who had studied interior design, interior architecture and fashion design, Borscz knew she couldn’t live with such a masculine palette.
Thankfully, the building was in excellent condition, so Borscz was able to take up residence in the ground-floor manager’s quarters and slowly make over the interiors.
“Because the children were little, we all slept in one big, king-sized bed,” she says.
“We had guests coming and going, with bookings every weekend. It was a really lovely time, actually.”
Borscz says the biggest challenge during the renovation was pulling up the carpet and stripping away the underlay glued to the floorboards.
“My son and I literally scraped and scraped and scraped for months and found this beautiful Oregon flooring,” she says. “We stripped that back and it came up beautifully.”
Other heritage details include high ceilings, original timber panelling, ornate fireplaces and a grand staircase. Both traditional and modern chandeliers add character and shimmering light to the formal living spaces.
“You walk in now and it’s a welcoming, gentle experience,” Borscz says. “It’s got an elegant country vibe to it.”
Doncaster House features seven guest suites, a self-contained manager’s wing and a commercial-grade kitchen.
There’s also a chapel with French doors set within Gothic arches leading out to the garden, making the venue popular for weddings.
Landscape designer Peter Fudge was engaged to help bring new life to the grounds, introducing parterre gardens, stone walling and avenues of pear trees.
Borscz’s favourite space is the rose garden, created to commemorate her mother.
Borscz says Braidwood is home to a warm and welcoming community, and a town that continues to gentrify while retaining the history that led it to be the first listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.
The new owners can continue to run The Doncaster as a guesthouse, or repurpose it as a prestigious family residence, brilliantly located in the centre of town.
“Everything’s in walking distance from The Doncaster,” Borscz says.
“You can go out for dinner, and you don’t have to drive, it’s a beautiful walk across the park to either pub, and now there are quite a few restaurants and cafes to choose from.
“You can meet people and play boules in the park, which is a really lovely thing to do, or go for a swim down in the Mongarlowe River on a hot day. It’s like living in a small European village where you’ve got everything.”
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