Rosebud was built circa 1866 in thriving Ginninderra Village by Mark Southwell - who was working for the large Irish Shumack family at the time. Three seamstresses - the McDonald sisters - used the new building for a tailoring shop, but just as it is today, the cheaper mass-produced garments from Sydney gradually drove them out of business.    

The bustling village sought official proclamation as a village, as it was built on land owned by pastoralist Crace, which meant that home and business owners didn't own the land their houses and shops were built on - making it impossible to sell or will the asset - but settlers were bitterly disappointed when the Government Surveyor, who duly arrived, enthused and guaranteed proclamation, apparently accidentally ratified a nearby unoccupied, proposed site at Hall Creek, two miles north instead, which had been surveyed on the way home.

In light of this setback, and with little hope that the bureaucratic mess would be able to be sorted out in any reasonable timescale the decision was made to dismantle and transport it to George and Isabelle's Round Hill/Weetangera district land grant.  They named their holding Rosebud Apiary, raised their family here, and developed honey, dairy and fruit enterprises.  A kitchen cottage was built beside Rosebud and a slab dairy house and slab shelter completed the outbuildings. The honey room’ was established in the second shelter, now called Bell's Cottage, and it was from the honey enterprise that the home and business was named Rosebud Apiary. 

The farm was gifted to George and Isabelle's daughter Jean, after her marriage to Jack Bell in the 1920s.

The farm was purchased in the late 1930s by descendants of pioneer families, Donald and Thelma Tully (nee Cameron). The couple had met and played tennis on the court, fallen in love, and later married and built their home (now number 4 Skinner St) there.  Thelma and Jean Bell played cricket together.  Thelma died tragically in 1957, leaving Donald with two small sons to raise alone.  Donald died in 1981, bequeathing the farm to his sons Evan and Maurice Tully. Maurice had managed the farm for several years before that.  The Tullys always referred to the old cottage as Rosebud, and I had the honour of naming the second cottage Bell’s Cottage, in memory of Jean, Jack and their children.

Fifth-generation Canberran Maurice Tully and his wife Maureen became the owners of the farm, including Rosebud, through the settlement of the Estate of his father.  

The first four of their children have lived in the cottage, and the younger daughters may perhaps do so too one day... as has Maurice’s nephew ...  the history continues...

© Maureen Tully 2012