Canberra restores its heritage: Blundells Cottage to reopen

The 1860s cottage was home to tenant workers on the Duntroon Estate, with enough room to maintain farm animals and grow crops for produce. The home is one of Canberra's last pieces of evidence from early white settlement.

During the closure, half of the cottage's foundations were stabilised through excavating the ground soil, with holes being drilled into the bedrock and filled with concrete before being joined by a new beam.

National Capital Authority education and outreach coordinator, Roslyn Hull, said it will be first time the public has been able to learn about the cottage and the families who lived there.

"The story here is so exciting because it is the very first time we are going to give you an idea of some of the snapshots of life in the cottage," she said.

Chief executive Malcolm Snow said further development stages were planned.

"At the moment, in stage 1 of a program of improvements, we want to make rectifications and restorations to both of the structures and also to the site itself by sourcing new in-house materials to help give people a better understanding of the living conditions of the families," he said.

Stage 2 will see the nearby slab shed turned into a public display space for the cottage.

"Inside the slab hut we'll be interpreting a new display which will give the public a firsthand experience and look at what happened around the house and activities which took place".

Improvements will also be made to enhance the visitor's experience at the cottage, a small piece of Canberra's large history.

"We have a master plan for the wider area which involves improvements to the parking and the cottage garden, which will improve the experience for particularly school children and large amounts of people who from time to time will visit the cottage," Mr Snow said.