Henry Kemmis was born in Ireland of landed gentry and came out to South Australia with his wife and children in 1839. He acquired the land grant two sections at Yankalilla in 1841 and 1842 and came down to the district. He and his family lived at first in a Manning house, while the stone house was being built.

Kemmis' wife died in 1848, and in 1851 he remarried, to Isabella Daglish. Henry and Isabella left the district in the 1850s and Kemmis sold his property to his son-in-law John Wordsworth Heathcote, who completed the house. Kemmis went to Tasmania, where he ran Campbelltown Grammar School. Later, in conjunction with the Anglican Bishop of Bathurst, he founded and was the first headmaster of All Saints College Bathurst.

Manna Farm got its name from the abundance of Manna gums that grew in the vicinity. The tower was added to the building about 1900 and the roofline was altered later.

This site is on private property.