But its heyday was brief. Larnach, who was involved in business and government, had two wives die from natural causes, lost a lot of money, and in 1898 shot himself in parliament over a scandal involving his third wife. The property and chattels were auctioned, and the building went through a succession of uses as a holiday retreat for nuns, a mental hospital, a retreat for shell-shocked sol­diers and accommodation for the signal corps during World War II.