Skellatar House: 1900 to present day
Edward was an alderman at Muswellbrook for 22 years, and Mayor for six terms (1875-1901). He was the first president of Wybong Shire Council, a magistrate, and First Lieutenant in the Muswellbrook Corps of NSW Volunteer Infantry. On his death in 1926 his only son inherited the estate.
Edward Bowman (1840-1926), first owner of Skellatar House
Edward Hunter Bowman, born in the house, established a dairy on the property, as well as grazing sheep and cattle. In the early 1930s he purchased his first racehorse, “Archcullen”, in England, and became a prominent personality in the world of horse racing. He established a racecourse on the property, now the Skellatar Park Racecourse owned by Muswellbrook Race Club.
Social events, even back then, went hand in hand with the horse fraternity, and as the president of the Upper Hunter Amateur Race Club, Muswellbrook Jockey Club and Polo Club, he entertained in style. A ballroom wing, now a dedicated billiard room, was constructed around this era to entertain the country gentry.
Click on the key to see more of Skellatar House as it is now:
The Skellatar House ballroom , now a billiard room
Hunter Bowman died in 1952 and the property was subdivided into a number of parcels. Skellatar Homestead and the surrounding 650 acres were purchased by the Catholic Church at an auction. The parish priest renamed this portion “Mount Providence”, a name which still survives as the retirement home on Tindale St., near Skellatar House. In 1953 St Mary’s High School for Girls was established in the homestead, with an enrolment of 18 pupils under the tuition of the Sisters of Mercy.
In the 1960s the demands of the school curriculum called for such additions as a science block (now a garage and workshop) and in 1968 most of the pupils were transferred to St Catherine’s High School at Singleton and the school was forced to close.
The Catholic Church remained the owner, using the building for various purposes, including a temporary chapel for Mass, and a classroom for infant students of St James until the new school was completed nearby on part of the original estate. Many local residents have fond memories of their school days at Skellatar House, either attending for their education, ballet classes or pre-school play groups.
The house has now been privately owned since 1997, as a family home. The main rooms boast seven marble fireplaces and 14ft ceilings, and there are wide architraves and skirtings and an imposing main staircase, all of Australian red cedar. 
The Taylors have adapted for wine storage the original underground cellar with brick floor, accessed down well-trodden timber stairs from what is now a laundry room. Wide verandahs surround both storeys on all sides, and there are extensive outbuildings, external security lights and internal security and communication systems.
The kitchen has been tastefully modernised to today’s standards and the adjoining butler’s pantry, with cedar-lined ceiling and timber floor, is used for informal meals. The stately formal dining room accommodates a ten-seater dining table and various sideboards with ease, and diners can choose to retire to the formal drawing room or the cosy informal sitting room. The ground floor also boasts a book-lined library and a stately ballroom with an impressive stone fireplace. A small powder room completes the downstairs facilities.
The formal dining room at Skellatar House
