A Gallery Of Historic Houses - Beautiful Australia - Australian Woman's Weekly - Wed 14 Oct 1964 - Pg 23

 

Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), Wednesday 14 October 1964, page 23

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A Gallery of Historic Houses

BEAUTIFUL AUSTRALIA

The special section, here & over leaf, features three of the historic homes in the Berrima - Moss Vale district, N.S.W. Built last century, they have earned their place in modern "Beautiful Australia." The houses were inspected
this year by the National Trust.

"WINGECARRIBBEE,"Bowral, home of Mr. & Mrs. John Oxley, was built in 1857 by Mr. Oxley's grandfather, Mr. Henry Molesworth Oxley.
Of corrugated iron & timber, the prefabricated house was im-ported from Italy & took the accompanying team of Italian
workmen two years to build. The family still has the plans used in
the construction.
The house is on a hill over looking the grove of trees where John Oxley, the explorer (the present owner's great-grand-father) built a house of stringy   bark on land granted in 1823.
Pictures in this section by staff photographer Ron Berg.
View along the front verandah to the bushland beyond shows the graceful curved beams supporting the corrugated iron roof. The front door opens into a wide hall in which church services were held before a church was built in the district. Bowral is about 90 miles from Sydney.

"WINGECARRIBBEE" is a landmark in the district, & its ribbed cast-iron parapet, adorned with ornate urns, can be seen for quite a distance. The house is set on a gentle rise amid lovely gardens. At the back of the house the cemented courtyard, now roofed over, is a workroom-verandah-store.
Furnished almost exactly as when the house was built, the drawing room has windows framed by delicate lace curtains & covered with lacetrimmed linen blinds. Most of the delightful Victorian furniture still has the original upholstery. A small upright piano stands in one corner, & at each end of the marble mantelpiece is a charming Dresden figurine.

The entrance to "Oldbury Farm" leads up through green fields past shady clumps of trees to an old-world garden. Informality is the keynote both inside & outside the charming convict-built farmhouse, which has upstairs bedrooms on three levels. The thick interior doors, set in panelled jambs, & the deep-window casements are all of rich cedar.
A heavy cedar door with small window-panes & an enormous lock & key opens off the porch into a roomy entrance hall with elegant cedar staircase. Under the entrance steps is a door leading to a series of cellars where it is thought convict farm laborers used to sleep.
"OLDBURY FARM" TUCK'ED away beneath giant trees at the foot of Mount Ginginbull, "Oldbury Farm," Moss Vale, with its simple Doric portico, is reminiscent of Georgian farmhouses in the north of England.
Built in 1826 by James Atkinson, it was un-tenanted for long periods until the present owner, Mrs. J. MacDonald, undertook its restoration.
The small-paned casement windows are almost at floor level in the bedrooms upstairs. The original kitchen, now a rumpus room, is at one end of the back verandah, separate from the house.
A handsome cedar colonial fireplace in Georgian style frames a hearth of hand-made bricks in the drawing-room, which has been simply furnished in keeping with the architec-ture. The painting of the farmhouse over the fireplace is by Irene Reid. The study off this room has a cedar cupboard built in the wall.

"SUTTON FARM"
ONE of the oldest buildings in the district, "Sutton Farm," Sutton Forest, owned by Mr. & Mrs. B. S. Swift, was built by the Government about 1820 as a coaching inn.
Sunbaked wire-cut bricks, made from clay taken from the creek at the back of the house, were used for the building, which was erected by a team of convicts brought from the stockade at Berrima & camped on the site.
The bricks are now hidden under the cement rendering, although the general exterior appearance is thought to be little changed.
A large wing added to the house was carefully placed at one side so the original appearance from the front would not be spoiled.
INTRIGUING Romeo and Juliet balconies at the sides of
the house which are part of the original design, add a whimsical note to the spacious residence. For many years the house was unoccupied, & although the cedar fire-places were still in place when the house was restored by
Mr Ken Hunter-Kerr, they have since been removed.
"SUTTON FARM," set back from the road behind a curtain of poplars & reached by a sweeping circular drive, was once on the main road. Until 1937 part of bar counter was still in place. These attic windows belong to bedrooms.
MAGNIFICENT cedar staircase (below) was brought from Ireland (it was taken out of a church near Dublin) by a former owner, William B. Dalley, for his home at Manly, "Dolley's Castle." But the trip took so long he had another stair installed there & this one put in at "Sutton."

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