The core part of the current vice-regal structure began life as a double-gabled Victorian-era house, erected in 1891 by grazier Frederick Campbell at what was then the hub of a working sheep station. Previously, the site taken up by Yarralumla house was occupied by an elegant, Georgian-style homestead with shady verandahs on two sides, a shingle-clad roof and rows of French windows replete with shutters. That single-storey homestead had been lived in continuously by the interrelated Murray and Gibbes families from 1837 through to the end of 1881.