Historic Sydney Mansions, Manors, Villas & Houses : Annandale House - Sunday Times

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, a schoolyard gate story, and Salmon’s Sunday Times pages.

At a glance

Site: South Annandale Estate — near present Parramatta Road / Johnston Street intersection (DoS coordinates; Stanmore / Annandale edge — Macaulay / Albany / Darley / Percival vicinity in local notes)
Built: 1799 for George Johnston & Esther (Abrahams) (Dictionary of Sydney)
Demolished: 1905 (DoS; Australian Town and Country Journal 19 Apr 1905 “now being demolished”; Salmon 18 Aug 1907 = ~two years later)
Estate name: Annandale after Annan, Dumfriesshire
Owners (DoS): 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 (Salmon)

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.

Aboriginal Country: Wangal / Cadigal corridor of the Parramatta Road — acknowledge at publish.

Timeline

1788 – George Johnston arrives First Fleet (Lady Penrhyn / marine officer career — ADB for service detail).
c.1799 – Annandale House built (DoS).
26 Jan 1808 – Rum Rebellion / Bligh deposition — Johnston’s central role; later court-martial; returns to farm life (Salmon + ADB).
3 Jan 1823 – Eldest son’s death context in period press; George Johnston dies 5 Jan 1823 (ADB — correct Salmon’s “1826”).
1829–82 – Commander Robert Johnston at the mansion (DoS ownership; Salmon: d. 1882 aged 90).
1877–1905 – John Young (contractor / mayor) ownership of estate for subdivision (DoS).
1878 – Family vault cleared to Waverley (Salmon).
Apr 1905 – House being demolished (Town and Country Journal).
18 Aug 1907 – Mary Salmon, “Some Historic Houses of N.S.W. II — Annandale House,” Sunday Times (live post text).

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.

No standing fabric of the house. Secondary local history: gates of the farm preserved at Annandale Public School on Johnston Street — verify on site / council interpretation before strong claim.

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 — Sunday Times historic-houses series; primary colour for this post (compare her Clovelly / other Salmon pastes on this blog).

Gallery placeholder note

Do not invent historic photo URLs — keep existing live-post images; captions and sequence guidance below for the merge pass.

Keep live “Old Annandale House” image; add Trove plates from 19 Apr 1905 Town and Country Journal:

1. Front of the house (last photographs).

2. Avenue of Norfolk Island pines (destroyed with subdivision).

3. Family vault (Greenway memorial stone ordered by Macquarie — Salmon; design attribution soft-check).

4. Annandale Public School gates today (if confirmed).

5. Johnston Street looking to Parramatta Road — site reading.

What stands today

The house does not stand. South Annandale / Stanmore–Annandale streets cover the farm. Look for commemorative gates at Annandale Public School and the Johnston toponyms (Johnston Street, Johnstons Creek, Johnstons Bay). Read Salmon on Trove beside the live paste.

Sources & further reading

Dictionary of Sydney — Annandale House: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/annandale_house (1799–1905)
Mary Salmon, “Annandale House,” Sunday Times, 18 Aug 1907, p.4 (live post)
“Annandale House—An Historic Residence, Now Being Demolished,” Australian Town and Country Journal, 19 Apr 1905 (Trove)
ADB — George Johnston; Esther Abrahams
Wikipedia — Annandale Farm / Annandale, NSW (gates at school — secondary)
Live blog post: https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/06/annandale-house.html