At that time everyone including the National Trust of Australia (NSW) thought 'Captain Bunker's Cottage' was the kitchen block. A subdivision had been done to isolate this building. Clive Lucas determined, on close building inspection, that it was the building next door that contained the house built by Eber Bunker in the second decade of the 19th century and not the building earmarked in 1973 for conservation. The kitchen block was later proved to have been built 1865, some 30 years after Bunker's death.
