The tightly controlled property dates back to one of the original grants of land by Governor Lachlan Macquarie to herdsman George Barber, husband of Isabella Hume, sister of explorer Hamilton Hume.

The seller of this Georgian home of 10 bedrooms and 10 bathrooms with 18 fluted columns to the front was Charles Mendel, a lawyer and business consultant, who bought it in 1984 for $1.6 million and undertook an extensive restoration.

Apparently, Mendel's concerns about family succession plans prompted him to list the Highland Road property, which has stables, a clock tower, two lakes and a boathouse, ravine and waterfall.

"I don't want a situation like Solomon's where you have to make ridiculous suggestions like splitting up the kids," he told the financial press. His children are 16 and one year old.

Its longest owner was West Indies-born businessman John Morris, who was a member of the Legislative Assembly in Camden, New South Wales.

The house - which appeared in a marketing campaign following the launch of the American Express Gold Card in 1966 - is best associated with the late renowned architect Peter Muller and his wife Carol, who ran it as a Hereford cattle farm after purchasing it in 1964.

Retired estate agent Bill Bridges recently recalled over lunch with The Sell that it was his first major listing.

Mueller published a 127-page photographic record of the homestead's initial restoration through Walsh Bay Press in 2010.

Mueller's second-floor Walsh Bay condo sold this month. No sale price was disclosed, but the three-bedroom, two-bathroom flat with 238 square metres of interior space at the northernmost end of the marina had a guide price of $10.5 million.

It was last sold in 2000 for $3.395 million.

According to PropTrack, the median home price in Marulan is $804,000, up 6% in the last 12 months.