On Charles' untimely death in 1866, aged only 42, he left the property to his two sons Frank and Edward Wittenoom who continued with the Hicks lease. Henry Wittenoom lived in the homestead with the Hicks family until his death in 1884 aged 64. In May 1901 the Western Australian Government bought Gwambygine Locations Z and Y from Charles' son Frank Wittenoom for £7,650 for railway purposes after the opening of the Great Southern Railway. The land was then subdivided into about 60 'homestead' blocks. In 1923, Joseph Hicks junior, who was married to Rosina, purchased a number of these blocks. Joseph Hicks junior put the titles to 519 acres, Lots 33, 34, 35 and Homestead Lot 36 of the Gwambygine Estate, which included the land around the Homestead, in the name of his unmarried daughter Henrietta Maria Hicks. In 1899, Joseph Hicks junior's other daughter Florence married Claude Robert Henry Clifton, a northwest pastoralist. In 1901, Claude Clifton purchased 1,000 acres at Cave Hill. In 1925, Brian Merton Clifton, born in 1902 as the second son of Claude and Florence Clifton, was working on the Gwambygine property. In 1929, Merton, as he was known, married Gwenyth Compton. Merton rented Gwambygine Homestead from his aunt, and they resided there, improving and altering it to their needs. When Henrietta Hicks died in 1952 the Gwambygine property passed to Brian Merton Clifton. In 1973 he converted the landholding back to 550 acres around the old Homestead. Brian Merton Clifton died in 1998, and Gwambygine Homestead was closed. The building has been unoccupied since that time. The original, central, structure of the house is made of rammed earth, a mix of clay, sand and straw, with a mud and lime render. Later additions, including the chimneys, are of fired brick. The walls are mostly 300 mm thick. The Clifton's daughter, Mrs Margaret (Maggie) Venerys now owns the property. After Merton Clifton's death in 1998 the building progressively deteriorated, with termites and water causing extensive damage. In 2004 Western Australian historian Pamela Statham-Drew, and Jacqueline O'Brien, a descendant of the Wittenoom family, began work on a new book on the history of the Wittenooms.