Close to where I took the photo above is the site of this original Mesopotamia homestead, erected in 1861 by Charles Butler. Butler named the station ‘Mesopotamia’ and it was here that he planned his celebrated novel, Erewhon. Butler’s cob hut was furnished with a piano, on which he played Bach fugues. He informed his aunt, “My sitting room is hung with pictures I had at Cambridge and I have more books than I can read. Butler sold out in 1864, doubling his money, and returned to England.