Kirribilli House – 111 Kirribilli Avenue – Kirribilli – NSW

Kirribilli House – 111 Kirribilli Avenue – Kirribilli – NSW

Victorian Rustic Gothic marine villa · Built c.1854–1858 for Adolph Feez · Standing — Sydney residence of the Prime Minister · Commonwealth Heritage List

Same Cammeraygal point as Admiralty House, one gate along — and a completely different silhouette. Kirribilli House is the twin-gabled Gothic cottage ornée that somehow became the Prime Minister’s Sydney base: steep slate roofs, traceried bargeboards, lawns to the harbour, and a 1920 public campaign that stopped a five-lot subdivision. The Lodge in Canberra is still the principal official home; this is the harbour stage.

At a glance

• Address: 111 Kirribilli Avenue, Kirribilli NSW 2061
• Traditional Custodians: Cammeraygal (Cammeraygul) people; point name rendered Ciar Billie / Kiarabilli — good fishing” (Australiana Fund)
• Built: land purchased 1854 by merchant Adolph / Adolf Frederick Feez (£200); house standing by 1858 (CHL); Australiana Fund dates the Gothic house to 1854 and notes Feez called it Sophienberg
• Style: Victorian Rustic Gothic — steeply pitched slate gables, traceried bargeboards, verandahs east and south, castellated bay, attics/dormers (CHL)
• Heritage: Commonwealth Heritage List Place ID 105451, listed 15 July 2004; gardens separately valued / nominated in heritage literature
• Public save: 1920 Commonwealth resumption after A.W. Allen’s proposed five-lot subdivision; campaign figures include Dr Mary Booth OBE, Maj-Gen Sir Granville Ryrie, Sydney Smith (CHL)
• Official use: set aside 1956 for PM when in Sydney + overseas guests of the Commonwealth; in use from 1957 after restoration
• Fate / current use: Standing — Prime Minister’s Sydney residence; occasional public Open Days

Site & setting

Kirribilli Point’s eastern tip land sliced from the Wotonga / Admiralty House grounds in the 1850s. CHL stresses rarity: a Gothic harbourside house that still keeps its setting, with grassed banks, sandstone outcrops, paths and stairs to the water, and the ruin of a sandstone boat harbour / bathing pool (1850s fabric; reconstructed 1968, later collapsed — CHL condition note). The grounds complement Admiralty House’s garden as one landscaped northern harbour face.

Views run to Fort Denison, the Opera House, Circular Quay and the Bridge — the postcard that makes every ferry passenger a heritage tourist.

Timeline

• Cammeraygal Country – Point name tradition “good fishing”.
• 1854 Merchant Adolph Feez buys ~1 acre tip for 200; builds twin-gabled Gothic house (Sophienberg per Australiana Fund).
• 1858 – Sold to Esther Hughes for 3000 (CHL) — house then extant.
• 1871 Mrs Hughes gifts to daughter Esther, wife of James Taylor (Commissary-General of Ordnance); Taylors enlarge house — nearly doubled by 1880s, still in Gothic sympathy (CHL).
• 1890s – Known as Kirribilli House; later declared “so old and dilapidated” it should be sold (Australiana Fund quotation).
• 1919 – Sydney solicitor Arthur Wigram Allen purchases; early 1920 proposes five-lot subdivision.
• 1920 – Public outcry; Commonwealth under Prime Minister W.M. Hughes resumes the property. Allen = last private owner.
• 1920s – Used with Admiralty House for Governor-General’s household (often staff occupancy).
• 1930–1953 – Leased to private tenants (including Commander Karl Erik Oom, RAN — Australiana Fund).
• 1956–57 – Set aside for Prime Minister + overseas guests; restoration by Fowell, Mansfield and Maclurcan; garden redesign by Professor E.G. Waterhouse; first overseas guest November 1957 (Japanese PM).
• 1957–present – Sydney accommodation for Australian Prime Ministers.
• 15 July 2004 – Commonwealth Heritage List.

Architecture & interiors

CHL description (condensed, no invention): single-storey with attics; steep slate gables and traceried bargeboards; stone walling (painted / partly rendered ashlar imitation) plus some painted brick; multi-pane windows; shutters to French doors; tall chimneys with twin terracotta pots; verandahs to east and south; castellated bay; entrance porch with toplight.

Interiors extensively altered, but CHL still notes possible lath-and-plaster ceilings in places; red-and-white marble chimney pieces (1850s–60s); some 1850s and 1880s flooring and cornices; cedar stair partly 1880s; some 1920s skirtings. Outbuildings include a 1920s brick garage. 1957 works added West Court stone wall/steps and driveway / carriage loop (angophoras noted).

People & anecdotes

Adolph Feez — merchant builder; German heritage echoed in the Sophienberg name (Australiana Fund).

Hughes / Taylor families — mid-Victorian enlargement and society occupation; Terry-family descent connections appear in Australiana Fund narrative (Samuel Terry wealth) — keep secondary claims modest.

Arthur Wigram Allen — last private owner; prolific photographer whose albums also document Carrara / Strickland House (cross-link). His subdivision plan triggered the 1920 save-the-point campaign — a rare early harbourside open-space win.

Prime Ministers since 1957 — the house’s modern fame. Official hospitality list (royals, US Presidents, Mandela, etc.) is Australiana Fund colour — cite as Fund narrative, not as a complete diplomatic register.

What stands today

Kirribilli House stands as the Prime Minister’s Sydney residence. Not a casual tourist site — watch for announced Open Days. The Lodge (Canberra) remains the traditional principal official residence.

What you can do:

• Ferry past the point; photograph from public water or foreshore only.
• Read with Admiralty House
• Australiana Fund collection notes explain furniture and art on loan inside — useful colour without inventing inventories.

Mr Ward and Kirribilli House

When Mr E. J. Ward used to rise in the House of Representatives to ask the Prime Minister a question about the cost of running Kirribilli House, fellow parliamentarians would smile. Kirribilli House, the Commonwealth’s official lodging for distinguished guests, was something of a King Charles’ head with the Labor member for East Sydney. Why, Mr Ward would ask, couldn’t visiting VIPs, and the Prime Minister when he was in Sydney, stay at Admiralty House next door on Kirribilli Point?

On the orders of Prime Minister Menzies the old dwelling was renovated and refurnished in 1957 at a cost of £61,608, which only gave Mr Ward more reason to ask. Now the member for East Sydney’s voice is heard no more, and Kirribilli House, in immaculate gardens, gazes on the harbour from under its Gothic gable brows, undisturbed by Canberra’s hostilities.

The seven-bedroom house was built by Adolphus Feez in about 1855, on 1 acre 23 perches of land bought for £200. Six later owners enjoyed it until 1919, when rumour said the land was to be subdivided. Public agitation for the place to be preserved led the Prime Minister of the day, W. M. Hughes, to direct that Kirribilli House and grounds be resumed by the Commonwealth. For about the next decade the old house was used by the Governor-General and his staff.

Sources & further reading

• Australian Heritage Database — Kirribilli House CHL 105451: https://environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=105451
• Australiana Fund — Prime Minister residences (The Lodge & Kirribilli House): https://www.theaustralianafund.org.au/prime-minister
• Dictionary of Sydney — Kirribilli place entry: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/kirribilli
• Clive Lucas & Partners — Kirribilli House conservation analysis (1986) cited in CHL bibliography
• Philip Cox & Partners Kirribilli House Master Plan (1981) cited in CHL bibliography
• Grace Karskens — Kirribilli House bathing pool brief report (1986) cited in CHL bibliography
• Official PM site: https://www.pm.gov.au
• Trove — “Kirribilli House” + 1920 subdivision / Mary Booth
• Cross-read: Admiralty House CHL 105398 / 105399

Related on this blog

• Admiralty House (Wotonga) Kirribilli (this batch — immediate neighbour)
• Carabella House – North Sydney (search Carabella)
• Strickland House / Carrara (this batch — another Arthur Wigram Allen chapter)
• Holtermann Mansion – Lavender Bay (North Shore context)