HISTORY
One of the Blue Mountains´ most significant heritage properties, the Chalet Fontanelle stands on the Blue Mountains escarpment where in 1836 Charles Darwin chronicled his vision of the majestic Wentworth Falls plunging 1,500 feet into the Jamison Valley. A view he wonderfully described as "a grand bay or gulf thickly covered with forest, and showing headland behind headland as on a bold sea-coast - quite novel, and extremely magnificent."
The Chalet Fontanelle was built for the Reverend Stephen Childe and family of North Sydney in 1898 as a country summer house. It was home to his son Vere Gordon Childe, one of the world´s most famous and eminent prehistorians.
The house was designed in Swiss alpine chalet style by the noted architect of the day, Edward Jeffreson Jackson, the architect who introduced the red tile roof to Sydney. The dry stone garden walls were completed by Paul Sorensen, one of Australia´s best known garden designers.