Following the departure of the Mackenzie family from Bundanon in 1926 the ‘Bundanon Farm’ was leased to tenant farmers for the next 40 years. Bundanon was finally sold out of the Mackenzie family in 1967 to Jim Lawrence for $23,000. Alan Warren, with his wife Joan and young family stayed on as the tenant farmers until the property was again sold in 1968 to Sandra and Tony McGrath and Frank McDonald for $56,000.
Henry Family
In response to an advertisement in the Shoalhaven Telegraph on 24 Nov 1926 Bundanon was leased by George and Florence Henry. The buildings in use at this time included carpenters and blacksmiths sheds, laundry, workshop, stables, buggy shed and a dairy and bails. To the west of the sandstone homestead stood the smoke house and produce store, apparently also used as Dr Mackenzie’s surgery. Later it became the school room for the Henry children and others from nearby properties. The Henry family stayed until 1934.
Martin Family
John Martin and his son Fred Martin, along with his wife Marie, ran the property between 1935 and 1945. Fred and Marie’s daughter, Annette, was born at the property in 1941, they lived in what we now call the Musicians’ Cottage, but was then the Manager’s Cottage. Tom Davis Snr leased the property for one year before and one year after the Martin family.
Scott Family
The Scott family purchased the stock and plant on the property paying some £400 rent per annum to the Mackenzies. With the assistance of sons Don, Bill and Robert, Alf Scott introduced extensive crops for feed for cattle. In the 1950s the Scotts bought stock and plant at Eearie, setting up eldest son Don on the property. In 1958 the Scott family sold stock and plant to Neil Boomer from Kangaroo Valley, who was soon replaced by the Warren family.
Warren Family
Harry and Lorna Warren with their two teenage sons Harry Jnr and Alan, and youngest daughter Lyn, moved to Bundanon in 1958. Elder daughter Judith did not live at Bundanon but often visited. The Warren family continued to run the dairy, milking by hand twice a day and sending the milk to town for processing via the punt across the Shoalhaven River. Both teenage boys met and married local women and stayed on the property, in time starting their own families. By mid-1960s there were three generations of the Warren family living at Bundanon.
In 1967 Bundanon was sold to Jim Lawrence by Colin Mackenzie. The Warren family stayed on for another year after sale.
