The property, on the Dunedoo side of Birriwa, has a long and rich history and often attracts visitors who remember visiting the house as children.

Mrs Salvat said she wanted to use a new website being established at www.birriwahomestead.org to collect the stories surrounding the homestead, the balls it hosted and the families who lived or worked there.

Mrs Salvat said she wanted to create an opportunity for families with connections to the house to reach each other and share stories that could otherwise be lost.

“We’re just beginning a journey of rediscovering the history,” she said.

The website is under development, and currently consists of a form that can be used to submit stories to be published on the website, or to ask to be alerted when the site launches.

“It’s a very democratic website. Everyone owns their own intellectual property,” Mrs Salvat said.

“The purpose is really to act as a library - a 21st Century library.”

She said a house was bricks and mortar, but at the same time, it contained a subtle energy left by the people who had lived there or developed a connection with the place.

The Salvats have owned Birriwa Homestead for 15 years, and maintained and restored it while living in Sydney before moving there permanently in 2009.

They are often visited by descendants of the families who owned the house in the past - the Lanes, Cowards, Lowes and McMasters - including a 90-year-old woman who remembered playing in the garden as a very small child.

The property was opened on Monday for the dedication of a memorial garden surrounding the grave of Senior Constable John Ward, who was shot by a bushranger at Birriwa in 1865.

As well as police and descendents of Senior Constable Ward, guests included people who were raised at the homestead, a former Birriwa jackaroo, and a neighbour whose family had lived on the next property for three generations.

The memorial garden includes infant graves alongside the grave of Senior Constable Ward, and others that are unidentified as the stones and crosses have been washed away.

Mrs Salvat said working with the police on the project had been a wonderful experience.

“They were very respectful and incredibly well-mannered,” she said.

“This has been a beautiful journey for me and my husband over the last 12 months.”

Mr Salvat said the memorial garden made the grave site more approachable for members of the public who wouldn’t like to intrude on a private residence, while the planned website would allow visitors to read about the memorial before visiting. 

Mrs Salvat plans to invite people with relatives buried at Birriwa Homestead to visit the property in autumn to plant trees that can bear plaques naming the people interred there.