Despite the modern furniture throughout the residence, the house was built over 130 years ago and has changed little in that time.
It was the southern hemisphere's first marine biological research station, led by a maverick Russian scientist and explorer, Nikolai Nikolaevich Miklouho-Maclay.
He came to Australia in 1878, after travelling through much of south- east Asia and the Pacific. He did most of his work in Papua New Guinea, but his main legacy is the marine research station at Camp Cove.
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He had to convince the government to give him 300 pounds and raised another 300 pounds within the scientific community.
Miklouho- Maclay married the daughter of the NSW premier Sir John Robertson but after only a few years in Sydney, they returned to Russia, where he was considered a hero.
He died a few years after that but his legacy lives on in Sydney.
