It's not every day you plan to bunk down in former vice-regal quarters.
However, immersed in a pea souper fog, we drive straight past the entrance.
Marked - like just about every other country estate within cooee - by a small sign and a tree-lined driveway, finding the entrance to Hillview is no mean feat in bright sunshine, let alone in these trying conditions.
If we'd arrived early-mid last century, we'd have had no problems finding the entrance to this Southern Highland hideaway, mist or nor mist.
From 1890 to 1957, a wrought-iron gate emblazoned with the royal cypher for Queen Victoria greeted official visitors to this exclusive summer retreat for NSW governors. Oh, and there was also a gatehouse, probably with a servant or two swinging a lantern to show the way.
We backtrack and eventually find the driveway, and with the headlights of the yowie-mobile lancing through the thick mist, pull up at our heritage accommodation for the night. It's one of eight cottages, all former staff digs, clustered around the grand two-storey residence where a string of 16 governors regularly visited to escape the rigours of life in Macquarie Street.
Peering through fading light, we can just make out a four-storey tower, complete with a clock that rises imposingly above the car park in the central courtyard. But we'll have to wait until morning to explore more, for the mist suddenly turns to rain. We scamper inside our cottage, where, to the comforting pitter patter of rain on the tin roof, we drift off to sleep.
Thankfully morning breaks early, and we jump out of bed with a spring in our step. And for good reason. Wow! From the top of a hill there are bucolic views in each direction.
One of the most expansive of these vistas is across to Mt Gingenbullen, where, on October 19, 1820, governor Lachlan Macquarie wrote in his journal that the view resembled "a fine extensive pleasure ground in England".
Twenty-two years earlier, John Price, one of the first Europeans to venture in the area, was even more flattering, describing the same view as "one of the finest in the world".
While Price's portrayal may be a tad over the top, more than two centuries on, and the countryside still feels very English. Sheep bleat happily in the green paddocks, and the Medway Rivulet (too quaint to be called a river!) babbles by along Hillview's southern flank.
Every property of this grandeur and scale needs a baron or a lord, and for the last 20-plus years that has been Damien Miller. Although, as he's quick to point out when we meet under the clock in the now sun-drenched courtyard, Miller is under no illusions that it's his property. "I'm merely the custodian, the property belongs to the people of NSW," he states.
It's also clear that rocking a checked shirt with sleeveless puffer jacket, he's not your stock-standard baron either. No aristocratic pomposity here. Miller, who is midway through a long-term lease to maintain Hillview, genuinely cares about conserving "the only vice-regal retreat in NSW still standing" for future generations.
"Some call me the 'fool on the hill' as there is much work to do" he explains. "I often joke it's like [painting] the Sydney Harbour Bridge - it's never-ending but I see it as a positive as there's always something to keep me occupied".
As Miller leads us through the official areas of the original two-storey residence, he rattles off the life stories of the 16 governors who visited here between 1882 and 1957 with all the zest as if they were his own family.
"Lord Carrington (1885-1890) was nicknamed 'Champagne Charlie' due to his penchant for drinking champagne every morning at breakfast," laughs Miller while seated behind the very desk Carrington and other governors would have ploughed through the paperwork that plagued them even on their summer sojourns.
Carrington was succeeded by the impressively named Victor Albert George Child Villiers, 7th Earl of Jersey (1891-1893). "He made very little impression on the colony and his only distinction (apart from his long name) appears to have been his arrival in the colony with a large supply of drinking water and several bathtubs, both of which he had heard were in short supply in NSW," explains Miller as he shows us one of those bathtubs, which now takes pride of place in the cottage named in the Earl's honour.
While he doesn't confess to having a favourite governor, it's clear Miller has a soft spot for Earl Beauchamp (1899-1901) who, "despite admitting when he was given the gig that he didn't even know where the colony of NSW was, brought 100 sea chests of art with him and sponsored Tom Roberts and Henry Lawson to visit London".
More than a century on, Miller has grabbed the artistic baton from Beauchamp and run with it. For as enticing as the accommodation is (think rustic more than luxury), Miller's real passion is art, specifically sculpture. He has cleverly transformed the residence and gardens into a national sculpture hub, featuring dozens of drool-worthy works from many of Australia's best-known sculptors.
"Sculpture is a lovely juxtaposition to the heritage - it's a beautiful marriage," he explains. "Whether you are a connoisseur or a lay person when it comes to sculpture, at Hillview it's very easy to interact with on many levels."
Indeed, it is. Just don't miss the turn-off.
Hillview Heritage Hotel and Sculpture Park is at 7277 Illawarra Highway, Moss Vale. hillviewheritagehotel.com and hillviewsculpture.com
Relics of Hillview's vice-regal days
Dining table: The grand dining room complete with floor-to-ceiling windows and oversized Marulan limestone fireplace was built specifically to accommodate the suite of table and two sideboards that were commissioned to represent Australia's primary and secondary industries at the Chicago World Fair in 1893.
The entrance gates: The parsonage for the Anglican church in Sutton Forest was built on land near Hillview's front gate in 1842. However, shortly after, Lord Augustus Loftus (1879-1885), the first governor to visit Hillview, declared the parsonage an eyesore and it was demolished in 1884. However, the church had the last laugh when, following the sale of Hillview in the late 1950s, its royal gates, deemed inappropriate for a private residence, were removed and re-erected at the Anglican church, along with a plaque detailing the 16 governors who had prayed there.
The case of the missing gatehouse: Lord Loftus also insisted a gatehouse be built at Hillview at which visitors were to present their credentials before proceeding to the main house. However, it was demolished in the mid-1940s under the instructions of Lady Wakehurst who thought it was an eyesore. Ah, the whims of governors and their wives.
Howzat: On Hillview's eastern boundary is a cricket field where the governor's 1st XI played local teams. "It was co-ed and the fellas had to use a pick handle and bowl underarm, so it was quite progressive in that sense," reveals Damien Miller. "They also invented their own rules, like if the ball landed on a cow pad, it was a six." The governor also selected a few ring-ins over the years, including a young Don Bradman who, not surprisingly, led the governor's team to victory more than once.
WHERE IN CANBERRA?
Rating: Medium
Clue: There are traffic lights here now.
How to enter: Email your guess along with your name and address to tym@iinet.net.au. The first correct email sent after 10am, Saturday November 5, wins a double pass to Dendy, the Home of Quality Cinema.
Last week: Congratulations to Peta Gould of Macquarie who was first to recognise last week's photo as "Cascade Waterfall", the water installation located in the forecourt area of the High Court of Australia. Peta just beat, dare I say it, a torrent of other successful entrants, including Gerry Corrigan of McKellar, Penny Jurkiewicz of Wanniassa, and Neil Clarke who was "involved in maintenance work there over the years." My photo was taken a couple of weeks ago during regular maintenance of the much-loved water feature.
So why is the clock in the tower so small?
The circular window in the four-level brick water tower at Hillview was originally designed to include a large clock so that it could be easily read from anywhere in the courtyard and beyond. "However, due to penny pinching at Macquarie Street [home to Government House, the permanent residence of the NSW governor] it never arrived, so a small clock was installed instead," reports Damien Miller, current custodian at Hillview, who has set the clock to permanently read 5.25pm "as the workday is never finished".
According to Miller, that wasn't the only budgetary constraint inflicted on Hillview. "The government didn't provide horses so when General Sir John Northcott (1946-1957) arrived, he had to call the police commissioner to send down some police horses". Apparently, one day Northcott rode past the Sutton Forest Primary School and announced, "Let the kids have the day off". No wonder the locals loved him so much.
CONTACT TIM: Email: tym@iinet.net.au or Twitter: @TimYowie or write c/- The Canberra Times, GPO Box 606, Civic, ACT, 2601
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