Darling House

Joseph Farris, a Dawes Point boat builder and publican, built this two-storey Georgian sandstone house in 1842, on the site of his own quarry — the convict-cut blocks came directly from underfoot. It was one of the few free-standing residences in The Rocks then and remains so. Rosaleen Norton, the Witch of Kings Cross, lived here as a boarding-house resident in the early 1900s. Bought at auction in 2016 from the NSW housing department for $7.7 million and restored 2016–2018 with a Welsh slate roof and Kelly Ross Design interiors that take Elizabeth Farris's nineteenth-century aviary as the brief — each of the seven suites is themed after a bird. Listed on the State Heritage Register since 1999. Whole-estate bookings only.