During 2002 and 2003 Aberdoon House was restored to its appearance in the 1890s when this area of Rouse Hill was a very busy village, half way between Parramatta and Windsor. Within a few short years, the popularity of the new Railway and the building of the Meat Works in Riverstone saw a decline in Rouse Hill as a village centre. It took almost another 100 years for Rouse Hill to become a vibrant community once again, with Aberdoon House and the new Rouse Hill Community Centre playing an important part in that activity.
The land on which Aberdoon House presently stands is now only 3.9 acres (1.54 hectares), a fraction of the original 50 acres granted to Thomas Clower, an emancipist, in January 1818. The adjoining property of 35 acres was granted also on that date to former convict William Harvey. Clower, Harvey and Thomas Kelly were next-door neighbours and had all worked for the Reverend Samuel Marsden on government projects in and around Parramatta as stonemasons. They also worked at Rouse Hill House and on the Vinegar Hill Tollhouse / Toll Bar for Richard Rouse, previously said to be opposite Rouse Hill House, but by 1833 stood just south of Second Ponds Creek on the boundary of the Clower and McGrath grants. It is probably their work at Rouse Hill House and on the Tollhouse that first alerted them to the opportunity to request a grant in this area.
