Robert Lowe, an Oxford graduate and a member of the English Bar, arrived in Sydney from England on the ship 'Aden' in 1842 with his wife Georgiana. He had introductions to Governor Gipps who was a distant relative of his wife.

Lowe, who had a promising career in England, had come to Australia for his health. The choice of a seaside residence was a curious one, as he was an albino. His skin and hair were both white and he wore a pair of curious-looking goggles to protect his eyes against glare. This is possibly why the bay window in the dining room at Bronte House is fitted with unique sets of adjustable upper and lower shutters to control direct light.

Mrs. Lowe was much taken with her seaside cottage where she and her husband entertained the intellectual elite of the colony. In one of her letters home she wrote:

"We have a little estate of 42 acres, four miles from Sydney on the sea; it is lovely beyond conception. We have given only 420 pounds for it."

An accomplished artist and horsewoman, Georgiana was a keen horticulturist and took particular interest in the garden at Bronte House, which is mentioned in several of her letters home. She established a thriving vegetable garden on land above the house and was often to be seen taking her produce to Sydney for sale. In almost all of her surviving correspondence with relatives in England, she describes the pleasure she took in making her garden. Writing to her mother-in-law in October 1847, she notes:

"I am in the garden all day and quite delight in cultivating our place. My brother John has sent me a large collection of the new annuals and vegetables. I shall have great pleasure in watching them. ...I have just been planting seeds that were collected on Dr. Leichardt’s (sic) expedition. A gentleman who accompanied him gave me a few seeds of each new flower and tree discovered. I intend to make drawings of our new place."

And make them she did. The State Library of New South Wales has Georgiana Lowe’s sketchbook containing some 26 highly accomplished watercolour drawings including a number of the house and its surroundings. One of these provides clear evidence that the specimen of giant bamboo, Bambusa balcoa, in front of the house dates from her time and may well have been planted by her. Two magnificent pines on the northern side of the property, an Araucaria columnaris (also known as Araucaria cookii) and Araucaria heterophylla, were also probably planted in the garden’s earliest days and a Norfolk island pine originally grew in the centre of the circular lawn. The current fine specimen is a replacement.

However, there is no evidence that any other elements of the current planting date from Mrs. Lowe’s time here, although it is tempting to speculate that the Lophostemon conferta or brush box on the edge of the gully to the north of the house may have begun life as one of those seeds gathered on Leichhardt’s expedition.

In 1849, the Lowes returned to England. Robert had had a stormy career as a lawyer and politician and he left the colony "the object of almost universal animosity." However his health was much improved and he subsequently became Chancellor of the Exchequer and was later elevated to the peerage as Viscount Sherbrooke. Neither he nor his lively wife ever returned to Australia, although both spoke warmly of their years at Nelson Bay.

After the Lowes
The Lowes sold Bronte House to G.A.Lloyd, an auctioneer, merchant and Colonial Treasurer for 1300 pounds. Lloyd owned it for only a few months before selling it for 2000 pounds to one J.Lublin who then sold again to the superintendent of the Bank of Australasia, J.J.Falconer. In 1861 the entire estate of 57 acres was once again put up for auction in 15 lots, Lot 1 being the house and 'upwards of 17 acres.' The buyer was J.B.Holdsworth, a hardware and ironmonger magnate, who paid 4750 pounds for it. Sub-division meant the extension of the original road (which terminated in the circular drive of the house) down to the beach. Before he died, Holdsworth added the second storey to the wing abutting what became Bronte Road.

The period of rapid change in ownership came to an end in 1862 when Holdsworth's son sold the property to Stanley Ebsworth. Members of the Ebsworth family, many of whom were woolbrokers, owned and lived in the building for over six decades until 1948 when Austin Ebsworth, a bachelor, sold it to Waverley Council who acquired it as part of an exercise to consolidate the valley leading to Bronte Beach as public parkland.

By 1980 the house, then in use as a venue for weddings and parties, had fallen into disrepair and had suffered a number of insensitive alterations. Although its exterior form remained largely unchanged since the Holdsworth occupancy, the interior had been altered beyond recognition.

Uncertain about what to do with a property that was clearly too small to open as a conventional house museum, Waverley Municipal Council embarked on a far-sighted and ambitious plan to lease it to a person or persons willing to pay the cost of the extensive repairs. Tenders were called and on January 31, 1983, Bronte House was let to an Englishman, Christopher Selmes, who undertook to spend a minimum of two hundred thousand dollars on the house (Waverley Council had already spent some money on repairs to roof) and duly did so. Restoration work was carried out under the supervision of the conservation architect, Clive Lucas. Selmes also furnished the main rooms of the house with antiques as required under conditions of lease.
Leo Schofield assumed responsibility for Bronte House in November of 1994. Since that date he undertook further extensive restoration including complete re-roofing and a total refurbishment of the garden.
The current lesees assumed responsibility for Bronte House in January 2004 and are maintaining the gardens in the manner that has been developed over the last eight years.