Annandale House – near Parramatta Road & Johnston Street – Annandale / Stanmore – NSW
Colonial farmhouse of the Johnston estate · Built 1799 · Demolished 1905
Mary Salmon walked the rubble in 1907 and wrote the suburb’s elegy. Two years earlier the long, low-roofed cottage on the South Annandale hill — bricks from the estate clay, freestone stair, hardwood pillars that had lasted a century — had been pulled down for streets and terraces. Lieutenant-Colonel George Johnston of the First Fleet had named the grant for Annan in Dumfriesshire. The Dictionary of Sydney dates the house 1799 and the demolition 1905. What remains is a street grid, the Johnston street names, and Salmon’s Sunday Times pages.
At a glance
- Site: South Annandale Estate — near present Parramatta Road / Johnston Street intersection
- Built: 1799 for George Johnston & Esther (Abrahams)
- Demolished: 1905
- Estate name: Annandale after Annan, Dumfriesshire
- Owners (Dictionary of Sydney): George Johnston 1799–1823; Esther Abrahams 1823–1829; Robert Johnston 1829–1882; John Young 1877–1905
- Fate: Demolished for residential subdivision; pine avenue destroyed; family vault contents moved to Waverley 1878
Site & setting
Johnston’s bush / Annandale grant ran from Parramatta Road toward Johnston’s Bay. The house sat on the hill opposite the end of Johnston Street — visible for miles, Salmon says, “little below Government House in social prestige” in early literature. Outbuildings made a mini-township: bakery, smithy, wheelwright, mill, store, slaughter-yard, deep cellars. One large tree was left on the rise when Salmon wrote; she urged the municipality to keep it.
Timeline
- 1788 – George Johnston arrives First Fleet in the Lady Penrhyn with the marines.
- c.1799 – Annandale House built.
- 26 Jan 1808 – Rum Rebellion / Bligh deposition — Johnston’s central role; later court-martial; returns to farm life.
- 5 Jan 1823 – George Johnston dies (ADB; Salmon says 1826).
- 1829–82 – Commander Robert Johnston at the mansion; Salmon says he died in 1882 aged 90.
- 1877–1905 – John Young (contractor / mayor) owns the estate for subdivision.
- 1878 – Family vault cleared to Waverley.
- Apr 1905 – House being demolished (Australian Town and Country Journal, 19 Apr 1905).
- 18 Aug 1907 – Mary Salmon’s article “Annandale House” appears in the Sunday Times.
Architecture & interiors
Salmon’s eyewitness of the remnant: “merely a well-built cottage” of superior semi-country type — wide verandah, freestone stair, hardwood pillars and hall posts “in perfect preservation after a full century,” small quaint red convict-era bricks made on the estate from Camperdown clay. Imposing silhouette came from extensive out-premises more than from the main cottage. Cellars under the floors; strong-rooms with stone and iron. Popular “dungeon” and hanging-tree tales — Salmon herself marks them unauthenticated.
None of the house survives.
People & anecdotes
George Johnston — marine officer; Castle Hill 1804; Bligh 1808; model farm after return from Britain. Esther Abrahams — convict partner / wife; First Fleet. Robert Johnston — naval career (Cadiz, Washington, New Orleans per Salmon); explorer of Cox / Warragamba; declined early Legislative Assembly seat. John Young — buys for the suburban estate that erased the farm. Mary Salmon — wrote the 1907 Sunday Times article on the house, transcribed below.
What stands today
The house is gone. Streets in South Annandale and Stanmore now cover the farm. The Johnston name lives on in Johnston Street, Johnstons Creek and Johnstons Bay.
Pictures
The 1907 Sunday Times Article
This is a transcription of Mary Salmon's article "II.— Annandale House", written for the Sunday Times (Sydney) and published on Sunday 18 August 1907, page 4. The article was part of her series on old Sydney houses. Annandale House was the Johnston family's home near today's Parramatta Road and Johnston Street. It was built in 1799 and demolished in 1905, according to the Dictionary of Sydney.
II.— Annandale House
(Written for the 'Sunday Times' by MARY SALMON.)
It is just two years last April since old Annandale House was demolished, & the outbuildings, together with the long, low-roofed cottage forming the main building, ceased to exist. No one, outside of a lover of antiquities, would have mourned the destruction of what had long been comparatively useless, & the streets & terraces of houses now forming a greater part of two suburbs are practically of far greater benefit to the district than was the remnant of the family mansion of the Johnstons, & the garden & pasture grounds. But it is of interest to the rising generation to know the genesis of their suburb, the local history of which belongs to the very earliest story of the founding of Australia as part of the British Empire.
Annandale got its name from the town in Dumfriesshire, North Britain, where Lieut.-Col. Johnston, eldest son of a captain in the King's Own Regiment of foot, was born, March 19, 1764. The Colonel may be said to have always been a fighter, for he entered the army at twelve, & at fourteen seized the colors of the dying standard-bearer at Bunker's Hill, & bore them in triumph off the field. His father being killed in battle, the Duke of Northumberland became his guardian, & there may be seen in the National Art Gallery the silver cup which the Duke presented to his ward in acknowledgment of his bravery, it being given, with other historic trophies, by Mrs. Fanny Johnston to the State. After being an officer against the French in the East Indies, Capt.-Lieut. Johnston CAME WITH THE FIRST FLEET, to Australia, & was aide-de-camp to the first two Governors, Phillip & Hunter ; but it was his services at the Castle Hill rising of convicts which gave him his greatest kudos, which was rewarded, by a grant of 400 acres along what was then described as the 'desolate and rocky headlands' of North Shore and Mosman. He also received another 2000 acres at the Cowpasture (Camden), and it was at Thursley Park, in that district, where his daughter, Mrs. Blanch Weslin, died in 1904 at the extraordinary age of 98. South Annandale, where the house was built, became his about 1804, with 146 acres of forest land, and a little later a further grant of North Annandale was given, down to what is known as Johnston's Bay. A considerable part of this was afterwards sold to Mr. John Young, the contractor, by Commander Johnston, son of the original grantee.
The picture in this issue — probably the last one taken before the demolition — shows the main building, which was merely a well-built cottage of a type common for superior semi-country residences a hundred years ago. A wide verandah was reached by aflight of freestone stairs, the hardwood pillars supporting the roof and in the large entrance hall being in perfect preservation after a full century of wear and tear. The bricks had been made on the estate, and were of the small, quaint, red type, which distinguished those made by convicts of the day. The clay was from the local seam, unexhausted even now near Camperdown, where the pottery still uses it.
But it was the extensive out-premises which gave the establishment on the hill SO IMPOSING AN APPEARANCE, for there were at one time a considerable number of soldiers stationed on the estate, as well as many convict laborers. It will be remembered that such stations as Annandale were miniature townships complete in themselves. There everything necessary for keeping a number of people was provided, including a slaughter-yard and butchery, a bakery, smithy, and a wheelwright's shop. A mill for grinding corn was also needed, and a store where rations could be given out. Under the entire flooring were huge cellars, capable of holding provisions for half an army. Popular tradition declared THERE WERE ALSO DUNGEONS, where numbers of re-convicted prisoners, who had perpetrated local crimes, had been kept in durance. But these statements are totally unauthenticated by any records, and are of the same degree of truth that the oft-repeated story was that men had been continually hanged on the pine trees, which formed a beautiful avenue, shady and delightful, on a warm Summer day, but gruesome & appalling if but one of the many tales had been true. The strong-rooms, guarded by stone walls & iron bars, were absolutely necessary in the early days, when provisions were scarce, & when currency was in liquor, equally, if not more so, than in coin. Under all the old houses of any size were these cellars, where firearms, strong drink, & the like were stored.
Only one large tree now remains of all the beautiful garden, shrubbery, vineyard, & orangery, of which so many notices are made in early literature, when Colonel Johnston's house ranked little below Government House in social prestige. The 'great Annandale Ball' was an important society function, when SEDAN CHAIRS AS VEHICLES are first mentioned in use in Sydney, & when the magnificence of illuminations were seen for miles round by the few settlers of the district. Under the overhanging roof of one of the square red-brick buildings was a large bell, which was used to call out the farm laborers at 6 o'clock a.m. (there were no eight hours for labor then), & it might, until the late 'seventies, be heard clanging at different hours during the day.
As was customary on estates, the family vault was in a retired part of the spacious ground, & when the historic head of the family (Lieut.-Col. George Johnston) passed away in 1826, Governor Macquarie ordered his own architect, Greenaway, to design a suitable memorial stone as a mark of sympathy with the family. In 1878 the contents of the family vault were removed to Waverley.
Soldiers Versus Civilians
The troubles of Governor Bligh's time are now distant just one century, for it was exactly 100 years ago that the commotion was raised against the liquor traffic, which brought about the rebellion of January 26, 1808, the deportation of Bligh, & the upsetting of civil rule. The military class in N.S. Wales at that time influenced society very greatly. Writers favorable to the N.S. Wales Corps praise their gallant deeds, their devotion to the advancement of colonial interests. Detractors say that from the time the corps was called into existence by Grose, they were meddlesome in their interference, commercially, judicially, and politically.
It was to Col. Johnston and the corps that Governor Bligh appealed when he found matters coming to a head with his disaffected official subordinates, but the Colonel sent word by messenger that he was too ill to leave his house at Annandale, or even to write, which was his way of telling the Governor 'he might go to the d___l for him.' History tells us all about the only rebellion of repute in the State, & the defeat, ultimately, of the military. Since then, no dangerous militia has ever interfered with the safety of the Governor or the peace of the citizens.
It was when Col. Johnston returned from Britain a cashiered & bitterly disappointed man that his real usefulness as a private citizen was chiefly shown. He took up 'Annandale' as a life work, & soon turned it into a model farm. As a stock-raiser, he had few equals, & his efforts were assisted by his great friend, the Duke of Northumberland, who sent him, from time to time, PRESENTS OF CATTLE AND HORSES, agricultural implements, seeds, & any helps to improve his large estate. That he was severe & arbitrary to his dependents literature states, but the many stories circulated about him & his treatment of assigned servants were the fault, rather, of the 'system' than of the individual. That military discipline even prevailed in his domestic circles, stories told by his relatives state, but it was the fashion when good old King George ruled, for the strong to oppress, & the weak to go to the wall.
The Colonel's eldest son was killed while riding in 1823, & the second, Commander Robert Johnston, born in Sydney, 1792, who took over the old family mansion, & died in 1882, at the age of 90, was a worthy son of an intrepid father. He was in the bombardment of Cadiz, was present at the taking of Washington, at the blockade of Baltimore, & the attack upon New Orleans. When peace was declared in 1816, he came back to Sydney to live permanently. As an explorer, he had note, having traced the Cox & Warrangamba Rivers to their sources. He took the 'Queen Charlotte' to South Africa for grain when supplies in the young colony ran short. Like his father, he became an ardent farmer in later years, &, though offered a seat in the first Legislative Assembly, took no interest in politics.
There is but one tree standing on the summit of the rise where Annandale House only lately stood, and it has been suggested that the municipality should carefully conserve that relic of the past, as all else locally connected with the original owners of the great estate has now become a memory only.
Notes on the article
- Salmon says Colonel Johnston died in 1826. The Australian Dictionary of Biography gives his death as 5 January 1823.
- Salmon spells the architect "Greenaway". It was Francis Greenway, and the ADB says Johnston was buried in the Greenway-designed family vault at Annandale.
- Salmon says the Castle Hill rising earned Johnston a grant of 400 acres on the North Shore and Mosman. The ADB says King gave him 2000 acres at Cabramatta for his part in putting down the 1804 rising.
- Salmon says Johnston was born in the town of Annandale. The ADB has him born on 19 March 1764 at Annandale, Dumfriesshire, so the date agrees. The ADB doesn't mention Bunker's Hill.
- The ADB says Johnston's eldest son George was killed while riding in the Cowpastures, which matches Salmon's account, and that Johnston's first grant was the 100-acre Annandale Farm in 1793.
- The Dictionary of Sydney lists the owners as George Johnston (1799–1823), Esther Abrahams (1823–1829), Robert Johnston (1829–1882) and John Young (1877–1905).
Sources
- Mary Salmon, "II.— Annandale House", Sunday Times (Sydney), Sunday 18 August 1907, page 4 (Trove).
- Dictionary of Sydney, "Annandale House"
- A. T. Yarwood, "Johnston, George (1764–1823)", Australian Dictionary of Biography
- "Annandale House—An Historic Residence, Now Being Demolished", Australian Town and Country Journal, 19 April 1905 (Trove).
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