Now known as Eskleigh, Scone is an incredible property situated in Perth. It was first known for having a water race that ran a mill; known as Scone Mill or Ritchie's mill. It was then purchased by William Gibson, who bred award winning Merino sheep (and published a book accoridngly). During the Second World War, it was donated for benevolent purposes. 

 

Mr David Gibson received his grant at Pleasant Banks, Evandale, in Macquarie's time, and it was about the same time or a little earlier that Captain John Ritchie, who had come out with Macquarie's own regiment, the 73rd, received the grant at Perth, called "Scone", now part of the Eskleigh Home property.

Reference: Rait, B. 1971 'Perth and its story', Advance Publicity Co, Hobart. 

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One of these [buildings] which you can see splendidly from the bridge is Eskleigh now a home for crippled and incurable folk, but which, under its old name of Scone, was the palatial home of Mr. William Gibson. Some rooms were by an artist brought specially from Europe, whose work visitors may still see in the foyer, having lost little of its freshness over the years. The house was built in 1870 to the design of H. Conway in the Italian style. It was one of the first places in the country to be lit with electricity generates by a water-driven dynamo, thus anticipating the great hydro-electric development by some thirty years.

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on the estate a very fine collection of trees brought by Gibson from many parts of the world, which includes cedar, spruce larch and wellingtonia to mention only a few. Originally granted to Captain John Ritchie in 1809 by Macquarie, the property passed to a brother, Thomas Ritchie, who erected a mill there with a long race which, passing beneath the bridge, ended at the large mill-wheel some distance beyond the present house. One writer tells of the creak of the wheel, the murmur of the stream and the cooing of white pigeons, recreating a scene that would make many an exiled Englishman long for his native land. But this peaceful idyll was shuttered more than once; first of all when the bridge work collapsed in 1840 and choked the race. Then a decade or so later the rickety old mill (so pleasantly depicted by Mrs Meredith) was washed away in the same flood that partially destroyed the bridge. Then, a few days after William Gibson purchased the place in 1867, the new mill was burnt to the ground. Today, the pumping plant humming busily in its shed is all that disturbs this lovely haven for the maimed and helpless, with its old-world garden and sunny walks. You can sit under the great oak – is there a finer in the whole island? – and muse that he who planted these stately groves spreading their boughs above the mellow walls did not live to see the beauty he created.

Reference: Stancombe, G & Ratcliff, E. 1968 'Highway in Van Dieman's Land', Halstead Press, Sydney, pp 206-207.

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Perhaps the best known property of Perth is Scone, part of which is now the Eskleigh Home. It was built for Mr W. Gibson, M.L.C., a descendant of the original David Gibson, in 1867. It is claimed to have been the first country house in Tasmania to be lit with electricity. It was noted for its Merino stud. Scone, as previously mentioned, was granted to Captain John Ritchie of the 73rd Regiment about 1810. Gibson's home of the sixties, which still stands, was designed by Mr H. Conway of Launceston, in European and Italian style. 

Reference: Rait, B. 1971 'Perth and its story', Advance Publicity Co, Hobart. 

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