In 1849, Robert Campbell died and the executors of the estate sold the property, comprising the house and land, to Gibbes for about A£1,400. On 27 December 1851, Gibbes, who was contemplating a departure from the Customs Service at the age of 64, sold the property to James Lindsay Travers, a merchant of Macquarie Place, Sydney, for £1,533. (Gibbes subsequently changed his mind about leaving his position as head of the NSW Customs Department; instead, he leased Greycliffe House at Shark Beach, Vaucluse, from the Wentworth family and remained in Sydney for the better part of eight years, eventually retiring to Yarralumla homestead, now the official Canberra residence of the Governor-General of Australia, in 1859.)