Bronte House today looks much as it must have in 1845 when Robert and Georgiana Lowe moved in. Following extensive restoration work on the house itself, the garden at Bronte House was completely overhauled. A plan for re-planting was devised in the early 1980s by Australia’s most respected authority on historic houses and gardens, Dr. James Broadbent. Some elements of his plan were implemented but in an attempt to achieve instant privacy, lessees removed historically appropriate trees and replaced them with others far less suitable but faster growing. This process has been reversed.

Combined with poor maintenance, this ad hoc approach resulted in a garden that was seriously neglected, wildly overgrown and almost completely shaded so that any new growth was dramatically restricted. Weed infestation of the site was extensive and the historic rock garden on the ocean front of the property was almost completely buried under a mountain of invasive plants. The original late Victorian mounded rockery, complete with weathered rocks and coral gathered from the nearby shore, was uncovered and the lower part of the garden has now largely been cleared, restored and re-planted.

Also uncovered was a circular fountain of 1886, which had been filled with earth and planted with ailing arum lilies. It too has been restored.
A stand of poorly grown Ficus hillii along the southern boundary to Bronte Road was removed and replaced, in accordance with the original Broadbent plan, with eighteen advanced Acmena smithii, the native lilly pilly.

Many of the plants used in the current scheme have been selected for their suitability to coastal conditions, indifference to sandy soil and resistance to salt winds. The final form of the garden will evolve over coming years and many refinements remain to be made, but dramatic changes are unlikely to the rockery or to the northern gully where the bank has been planted with three and a half thousand clivias shaded by a median canopy of Cyathea cooperi, Phoenix canariensis and sixteen notable specimens of the dwarf date palm, Phoenix roebelenii.

Furnishings
Bronte House is not a museum. Originally built as a family house it has reverted to that use. There has been no attempt at 'historical accuracy' in the furnishings as no evidence exists of the way the house was originally fitted up, although photographs taken during the Ebsworth occupancy show pressed metal ceilings and typical Edwardian furniture. However, antiques of the period are to be seen in the main rooms and the sitting room has been hung with wallpaper from the mid 1840s, printed from original wood blocks.
A model of Bronte House as it looked before the road was driven through to the beach is also on display in the house.
Bronte House is owned by Waverley Municipal Council and is privately occupied under a lease agreement whereby responsibility for maintenance rests with the lessee. It is open to the public six times a year.