COTTAGE industry

An 1840s heritage-listed weatherboard with a story to tell ignited property developer Linda Gregoriou's passion for authenticity.

- Judy Pascoe

Linda Gregoriou is a purist when it comes to architecture and design. She values authenticity, believing strongly that a sense of place should be the priority in deciding how we live.

As a property developer, urbanist, geographer, documentary writer, author and more, she wears many hats, but none is more satisfying than homeowner of an 1840s heritage-listed weatherboard in Windsor, northwest of Sydney, where her authentic approach to decorating is thoroughly refreshing.

Her ethos is to keep it simple, reuse and recycle, maintaining existing features and remaining true to the home’s origins and history. “I’m quite hardcore,” she confesses. “The architecture and sense of place give you all the cues you need if you are prepared to listen.”

When Linda purchased the house and its attendant c1806 split-slab barn seven years ago, she was captivated by the history of the property and the area. Despite the fact that the cottage lacked a bathroom, she snapped it up after it had been on the market for only a few days.

“I was looking for something within a two-hour radius of Sydney that was not the Southern Highlands,” she says. “It had to be a Georgian or historic property in a historic area. Windsor has a very interesting colonial history, and the Hawkesbury region is known as the food bowl of NSW, so I knew the soil would be good and I could make a garden.”