Houses Of Colonial Sydney NEW BOOKS REVIEWED - - - - Conducted by Clive Turnbull
Houses of Colonial Sydney
SOME HOUSES & PEOPLE OF NEW SOUTH WALES, by G. Nesta Griffiths (Sydney: Urc Smith)
The shelves in an Australian library which ought to be labelled Memoirs & Social History are mostly blank. Only in recent years has there been any attempt to tell us about the people, apart from governors & politicians, who made the Australia we live in.
SOME Houses & People of New South Wales?" very entertaining, one of the gaps. It Is Australia's story, with a small "s" certainly, disregarding most of the economic background, but it does provide a vast amount of information about the people who built Sydney's best known houses, from the days of the Macarthurs onward, & it's illustrated with a valuable series of photographs of dwellings as they used to be & are now. Written with knowledge, & sympathy, this Is an amiable round-up by an author to whom the ramifications of the Sydney families are an open book, in terms which all of them would certainly approve.
There's nothing discreditable about anyone's great-grandfather. To readers who know the houses & the descendants of the people described the book will obviously have a special appeal. Others may regard It as the groundwork for an historical study — Miss Griffiths supplies the facts: you may supply your own interpretation.
The houses photographed Illustrate the decline in taste which we should expect. The simple forms of the Georgian colonists gave place to the sometimes grotesoue ostentation of the later Victorian ace. One's fear that some of the more charming houses may be pulled down is balanced by a hope that some of the others will. Notable & gracious houses here shewn include Camden Park, Elizabeth Bay House a groundless survivor amid architectural parvenus. Tusculum, Glenrock & Fassy. There are some harmless equivalents of Toorak Renals. The' horrible examples one forbears to mention: they are plain to see.
Of all these dwellings' ElizabethBay Bay House is probably the most familiar as in its latter-day status as a rooming house, it has harbored many birds of passage. As Miss Griffiths points out there are probably hundreds of people in Sydney today to whom the name Macleay means a street on Pott's Point, though there are still a few who can remember Elizabeth Bay House before it was shorn of its glories.
Alexander Macleay was appointed Colonial Secretary in the twenties of last, century, & was later granted 54 acres at Elizabeth Bay. "a mile & a half from Sydney," for the purpose of erecting a family house & cultivating a garden — he had been secretary of the Lutheran Society. The house was completed in the 1830's, & the garden included all or what is now known as Elizabeth Bay to the western frontage of Rushcutter's Bay. Even in the forties it had become "one of the most perfect places I ever saw in my life." according to a visitor — the house "like a nobleman's palace." Macleay planted flowers & trees from "every climate, from Rio to the West, & East Tndies. China, & even England." from the Cape & from New Zealand. Both Macleay & the son who succeeded him were great patrons of learning &, indeed, everything agreeable, & entertained everyone of consequence from John Gould, of bird celebrity, to T. H. Huxley.
The celebrated staircase at Elizabeth Bay House, Sydney, now a forlorn reminder of colonial grandeur in a suburb of lowering pais. In 1915 the garden was greatly reduced. This century the house was occupied by various families, & In 1927 the estate was cut up & sold, the house for £14.000. the land for £150 a foot, a total of £57.509. "As the high ltde of progress Inps around what remains of this beautiful house." says Miss Griffiths, "It stands a pathetic relic surrounded by great blocks of flats. The gracious bow windows with their slightly curved/glass still 'retain a few original panes. The lovely panelling, the door frames, & those immense & capacious cellars remain to give some idea of Its past magnificence. but the glory of the garden Is only a memory. "In the hall at the old house the beautiful cantilever staircase soars upward in a gradual curve like the flower of an arum lily." Sydney has not been kind to these charming old houses. Burdekin House, Macquarle Street completed In 1811 for Thomas Burdekin — the river is named after his son — was demolished "in the cause of progress in the carlv nineteen-thirties." Of another estate we read "the lovely park overlooking the Parramatta River, bounded by the Duck River & Hacking's Creek Is now bordered- by the Homebush Abattoirs & Carnarvon Golf Links." It was nice while it lasted. C.T.
The Original Villas Of DarlinghurstIn the late 1820s Governor Ralph Darling selected the ridge then called Woolloomooloo Hill (soon Darlinghurst, associated with Eliza Darling) for a belt of gentlemens villas overlooking the town. Between about 1828 and 1831 he issued roughly seventeen grants of eight to ten acres, mainly to senior officials and favoured free settlers.Conditions were strict: plans needed approval; each allotment was limited to a single substantial residence (commonly to a stated minimum value); houses were to face the town where practicable and sit in landscaped grounds - a deliberate display of colonial respectability on the eastern skyline. Among the houses raised on those grants were places still remembered in street and suburb names - Craigend (Sir Thomas Mitchell), Barham (Edward Deas Thomson), Springfield, Rosebank, Orwell, Tusculum, Rockwall, Grantham, Brougham, Kellett and others. Most were demolished from the 1890s onward for terraces and flats; only a handful survive (including Barham within SCEGGS Darlinghurst, and Tusculum and Rockwall on the Potts Point ridge). Elizabeth Bay House (Macleay) sits in the same villa landscape story though on its own closely related estate narrative. Images and notes here collect the vanished and surviving original villas of the Hill - treat named houses as a set, and cross-check demolition dates before hard captions.
Transcription (Map, compiled by Norman Selfe, 1906, with handwritten library note)
POTT'S POINT AND DARLING POINT SYDNEY WITH THE ORIGINAL CROWN GRANTS AND EARLY HISTORIC MANSIONS
Compiled by NORMAN SELFE MEMB INST C.E. 1906. To illustrate a Paper read before the AUSTRALIAN HISTORICAL SOCIETY by Mr ARTHUR DOWLING on 25th Septr. 1906.
[Map: the land grants and houses from Woolloomooloo Bay to Rushcutter's Bay and Darling Point, each grant marked with the grantee's name and acreage (e.g. J. Wylde 11 ac., A. Macleay, T. West, J. Palmer).]
[Handwritten note below the map:] The land grants shown in this map date back to the earliest times of the settlement since they include that of the Commissary-General John Palmer at Woolloomooloo, received in 1793. The map was compiled by Mr. Norman Selfe the well known engineer (see also nos. 7 & 156). It illustrates a paper read before the Historical Society in 1906 by Mr. James Arthur Dowling, grandson of Sir James Dowling, Chief Justice, who received in 1831 the grant shown at the corner of William and Forbes Streets. Mr. Dowling's paper can be seen in the Journal of the Historical Society, vol. 2 (with supp. in vol. 13)
It's Really Hard To Imagine What It was like in Kings Cross & Potts Point 150 years Ago, when Darlinghurst & Potts Point Were being built literally from the ground up. Every Time I walk through that area I try to imagine where the Houses had been, & what they looked like, & property Boundaries & the way the topography of the land is now.
There is very little left, next to nothing actually of the Grand Structures that used to be there, from stables, cottages, servants quarters, and carriageways.
In the early days the area had been named "Henrietta Town", named after Governor Macquarie's wifes First Name. The First House Of Note Was "Craigend" Fronting Upper William St South, now Wollcott St, built by Sir Thomas Mitchell, Surveryor General .
Just behind "Craigend" was the last of old Darlinghurst Windmills, known as Hynde's Windmill. Originally there were 3, one near the goal, 2 were made of wood & required Manual labour but the third was mechanical.
Across Upper William St at its junction with Darlinghurst Rd, formerly Woolloomooloo Rd, was the property of the Hon Richard Jones MC known as "Merchant Jones" which extended into, & along Darlinghurst Rd. The property was built on a portion of land 3 acres 2 rods & 8 perches in extent, formerly granted on 19th October 1831 to Mr S.A. Perry. The land extending between it & Roslyn Hall was afterwards the site of Alberto Terrace, built & owned by John Solomon. Next going east was a grant dated 23rd September 1839, of 4 acres 2 rods & 24 Perches, to Thomas McQuoid mentioned before.
"Kellett House" was built on it by Sir Stuart Alexander Donaldson, the first Premier in 1856 under Responsible Government; he lived there for some years & it was afterwards owned by Mr W.F. Buchanon, who pulled down the house, & built a terrace there known as "Bayswater Terrace"
Then there came "Sevenoaks" & "Eaton" where Mr Edward Knox, & afterwards Captain Martindale, then occupied by Mr Edward Fosberty, the late Inspector General of Police
On the opposite side of Princes Road (Off Bayswater Road) & in front of "Sevenoaks" which also had a frontage to that road, were 2 cottages, one known as "Lara" was occupied by Mr James Norton - Solicitor, before he went to Double Bay. The other house was pulled down & it has been occupied by Lady Dowling, when she vacated "Brougham Lodge" on the death of Sir James Dowling, & after her Sir Henry Parkes & Mr W.H. Piddington.
Then to the east of Upper William St North came 2 cottages next to "Eaton" with an old fashioned wooden pump at the bottom of the private road between them, belonging to Mr T.W. Smart. Then there was Vacant Land round & along the gate of Roslyn Hall, owned by Mr Thomas Barker; he built the house, Mr Ambrose Hallen being the architect, living there for a time. St Canice Roman Catholic Church Stands on the site of the exit gate of the property
"It is hardly Visible to the eye from the South Head Road, being surrounded by Advertisement Boardings. Opposite was West's Bush, densely timbered, where the black used to camp.
Just to the north of "Craigend" is "Goderich Lodge" which was built & lived in by Mr T McQuoid, the then Sheriff in the 1830's until he died in 1841. The Bishop of Sydney (Dr William Grant Broughton was also a tenant, also Mr S.A. Perryu, the Deputy Surveyor General, Mr William Carr Solicitor in 1848, Mr Charles Scott - Ironmonger, & Mr Frederick Tooth Sold it to Captain Charles Smith of the firm Mcdonald Smith & Co, & was occupied by his widow. At one time its gardens extended to the Junction of Upper William Street (North) now Bayswater Road, & Upper William Street (South) where the Warahtah Hotel is now. Subsequently "Waratah" was built next to & on the East side of "Goderich Lodge"
Just a little below these to the east was a later built house, owned by Mr John Williams, the Crown Solicitor, now "Kurragheen"; next thereto was "Hillside" now the site of a large building to be used as dwelling flats, & next to that was a small cottage...
Behind "Hillside" was a house in which the Late Mr Justice Hargrave resided. The land on which it was built was a portion of 70 Acres grantred on 30th May 1844 to Mr T West. Roslyn St had not been formed but the Southern boundary of the property ran along to the Junction of Macleay St with the site of its present junction with Rosyln St, close there were 2 Windmills owned by Mr T Barker.
The "Roslyn Hall" property fronted Macleay St, & the second iron lattice entrance gate at the entrance was in Darlinghurst Rd, nearly opposite "Springfield".The house was a large well built mansion, with a spiral iron staircase to the upper storey; the rooms were large, with a bath fixed in most of the bedrooms level with the floor, so that one had to step down, not up, to get into it.
"Roslyn Hall" was one of the gayest houses of the time. The land extended on the South East to the site of St Canince Church, taking in Roslyn Gardens & Roslyn Road to the East, & on the north "Barnclueth" now called "Kinneil" & part of Elizabeth Bay Road.
To the north is "Chevverals" on part of the Macleay grant, next came a large substantial cottage or low built house at the corner of Macleay Street.
Transcription (Sydney Morning Herald, Saturday 23 July 1938, page 13)
SPACIOUS DAYS OF LONG AGO. New Flats for Old Mansions. A LEGACY OF ILL.
By W. G. B. Cassidy.
Almost daily references appear in the newspapers to inconvenient and narrow streets at King's Cross, Potts Point, and Elizabeth Bay. Eighty or ninety years ago allotments in this district were measured, not by frontages of so many feet, but in acres.
On them stood mansions which almost without exception were white. Their green venetian blinds protected the french polish and brocade within from the colonial sun. Grounds were laid out as gardens with broad lawns and plantations not only of native trees and shrubs, but of exotic flowers, vines, and fruit trees. One early writer called it the "west end" of Sydney, and added that, as might have been expected in the Antipodes, it lay to the east of the town.
A visiting missioner commented on the "splendour and haughtiness behind the thick walls of these secure and comfortable dwellings." Tallest of the buildings then was Craigend Mill, one of several that stood along the ridge of the Woolloomooloo (Darlinghurst) Hill. Built of stone, it was nearly ninety feet high.
In these mansions with their broad pleasure grounds, orchards, and rabbit warrens one finds the cause of the "haphazard planning" and "piecemeal ubdivision [sic]" which are now troubling our City Council. As land became more valuable the owners gradually sold portions of their estates. Invariably the original mansion was left standing and surrounded with narrow streets or lanes to provide access to it and to make the greatest possible amount of frontages for subdivision purposes.
Most helpful in tracing what has happened is a plan in the Mitchell Library, dated about 1856, of allotments at Potts Point. It shows roads, original grants of land, some subdivisions and sites of the homes. North of Bayswater Road were 25 houses. Of these eight at least are still standing, and four have been demolished only recently. Of those four, Roslyn Hall, Larbert Lodge, and Granthamville (Dangar Castle) are being replaced by many flats, and Orwell by a theatre. The eight are Springfield, Tusculum, Rockwall, Tarmons, Barncleuth (Kinneil), Maranamah, Cheverells, and Elizabeth Bay House.
The Macleay Estate.
Barncleuth, Maranamah and Cheverells were built on portions of the Macleay Estate. The story of this property is [illegible] good illustration of the process of change from mansion and garden to flatland. It was given to Alexander Macleay, Colonial Secretary, by a formal grant dated Ocober [sic] 19, 1831, although possession of it had been permit[illegible] to him earlier than that. Its approximate boundaries were, on the north what [illegible] now the northern boundary of Jenner, on the west Macleay Street, on the south Barncleuth Square, and a line produced from it to the original high water mark of Rushcutter Bay, and from that point along the shores back to Jenner.
Thoroughly characteristic of the times was the description of this as being fifty-four acres, when in fact, as a later survey disclosed, it was fifty-six acres thirty-seven perches. Macleay was learned in natural science. Horticulture, it was anticipated, would benefit from his knowledge and experiments. Within a short time he built Elizabeth Bay House, and made about it a garden in which flourished the trees and shrubs already growing there as well as others from every possible part of the world. Visitors were enthusiastic about the "little paradise." The great lawn in front of the house alone, it is said, cost £3,000 to make. Most pleasingly remote touch, however, was that Mr. Macleay did not go to live in his house until he had retired from his official position in the town!
His entrance gates were at the end of the "private road past the new gaol"—Woolloomooloo or Windmill Road, now Darlinghurst Road. From the gate to the house was a carriageway which later became Elizabeth Bay Road and Onslow Avenue. The stables stood near the present Holdsworth Avenue.
Spacious Days.
In 1841, Macleay sold a number of allotments along Macleay Street and along the carriage way. Barncleuth (Kinneil), Cheverells, Maranamah, Greenknowe, Larbert Lodge, and two small houses were built. The first three are still standing, although with considerable renovations and additions. Kinneil's grounds are not as spacious as they were once. Originally, they extended to Barncleuth Square. Later, when the boundary had been moved further north, Amos Lane was formed. It provided access to the coach-house and kitchen yard. Incidentally, by a description in 1891, the grounds at the rear comprised "stable and fowl yards, cow paddock, playground, with swings and several picturesque walks and shrubberies."
Greenknowe stood in a large block of land facing Macleay Street. When it was demolished about 20 years ago and the land subdivided, Greenknowe Avenue was formed. Similarly, after the recent sale of the Larbert Estate Larbert Avenue was formed. Both are short dead-end streets, serving only the allotments of the subdivisions for which they were made.
Subdivision of another part of the Macleay Estate took place in 1875, owing, as Sir George Macleay put it, to the taxation imposed by Parkes on large estates with purpose of "bursting them up." The drive to the stables was extended towards Macleay Point, so completing Elizabeth Bay Road. Rushcutter Bay Road (Roslyn Gardens) and Ithaca Avenue were formed. From time to time, other portions of the estate were built upon. Onslow and Billyard Avenues were formed. The last remaining portion of the estate was sold in 1927. An extension of Onslow Avenue encircled the house and isolated it from what was left of the garden.
Austerely classic Tusculum still has a fragment of its garden. The property had frontages to Manning, Tusculum, and Hughes Streets when sold about 1927. Dignified Rockwall, honoured by Hardy Wilson with a sketch in his "Old Colonial Architecture," seems to be hiding in shame between Rockwall Crescent and Rockwall Place. Behind the walls of St. Vincent's Convent is Tarmons, once the home of Sir Maurice C'Connell [sic], commander of the forces.
The Pepper Pot.
Granthamville (Dangar Castle) was pulled down last year. The original home, Caleb Castle, was built by Caleb Wilson on four and a half acres of land bought from Mr. Judge Advocate Wylde. Irreverent people, looking at the towers, named it The Pepper Pot. It was almost wholly rebuilt after it had passed into possession of the Dangar family.
About its site is a curious tangle of unsatisfactory streets. How did McDonald Street, McDonald Lane and Grantham Lane come to be as they are? If one takes a modern map and draws a line from Woolloomooloo Bay to Elizabeth Bay, across the end of Macleay Street, making it parallel with St. Neot Avenue, one realises the answer. That line is the southern boundary of the land granted to Mr. Judge Advocate Wylde. Grantham Lane and McDonald Street touch it. Obviously, the explanation is that Grantham Street, Grantham Lane, and St. Neot Avenue were made for subdivisions of the Granthamville property, and lay wholly within its boundaries. No thought was taken of anything outside. McDonald Street and McDonald Lane were made similarly for subdivision of the next grant. It is an explanation that applies to many streets on the Woolloomooloo Heights.
Spacious Days Of Long Ago - New Flats For Old Mansions - A Legacy of Ill - Sydney Morning Herald - Saturday 23rd July 1938 - Page 13
- Specific Houses Mentioned in Article are -
- Craigend Mill - Built of Stone - 90ft High - DEMOLISHED
- "Roslyn Hall" - DEMOLISHED
- "Larbert Lodge" @ Larbert Avenue - DEMOLISHED
- "Grantham" - DEMOLISHED 1937
- "Springfield Lodge" - DEMOLISHED
- "Tusculum" -
- "Rockwall" -
- "Tarmons" - Part Of The Catholic School - Home of Sir Maurice O'Connell
- "Barnclueth" (Kinniel) - DEMOLISHED - Made A Multi Level Carpark
- "Maranamah" - DEMOLISHED - King Cross Park - Fitzroy Gardens
- "Cheverells" - DEMOLISHED
* Elizabeth Bay House - The Entrance Gates To The Private Carriageway Stood At The Start Of Elizabeth Bay Road & Onslow Avenue. The Stables Were Located At Holdsworth Avenue
* Jenner House -
- "Greenknowe" - DEMOLISHED - Made Greenknowe Avenue
- "Orwell House" - DEMOLISHED - Made Orwell Street
This cottage was purchased and considerably added to & converted into a house by Mr Sparke, who named it "Maranamah", & his family lived there for a time. Located at 64 Macelay Street.
Fitzroy Gardens wasn't always a public Space & Park. There used to be 3 Exlusively Beautiful Homes on the land.
"Maramanah" was built in the 1840's for the shipping Merchant Deloitte. The house was then sold to Anna Challis.....
From There it went through many owners, including the Hollander Family Who featured in Robin Dalton's 1965 Memoir Aunts Up The Cross"
During the Second World War, "Maranamah" became a recreational centre for the USA Navy & then a Royal Navy Canteen. When the War was over, several returned Servicemen & their families Squatted in the 20 Room Mansion, demanding they be allowed to live in it. There was a lack of Post War Housing, & the Community supported them but the Mood Changed when it was alleged that Communist Party Meetings were taking Place inside.
"Maranamah" was taken over by the City Of Sydney, & operated as a Hostel until the Mansion & its Grounds were added to The Parcel of land from which Fitzroy Gardens was created and demolished in 1954.
"Cairo" - 81 Macleay Street The Ikon building - formerly the Chevron Hotel - may have a Special Place in Potts Point History, but it actually stands On the Site of A Plush hotel & Guesthouse named "Cairo". Featuring 2 Lawn Tennis Courts & a large Garden. "Cairo" Started its life as a Mansion Called "Prestonville" & Only became a Hotel in 1911.
In 1929 Mrs JJ Copeman sold "Cairo" at 81 Macleay Street for 45,000 Pounds to Mr LH Hinks. It was his intention to build a Big Block Of Flats on the site. It Was Widely Regarded As one Of The Most Beautiful Buildings in Kings Cross, until it was Knocked Down in 1959 to Make Way For A Block Of Flats.
"Barnclueth" adjoining "Roslyn Hall" was occupied by Mr John Brown, Senior Partner of Brown & Co, wine & spirit merchants & afterwards Mr Hernry Moore, the Agent for P&O company, when the Steamers of the company only arrived once a month, & fired a gun off Fort Denison to announce their arrival. It was later purchased by Mr Amos, the Contractor, & added to & modernised, & is now called "Kinneil" & utilised as a boarding house
Following down Macleay Street, next to the house occupied Mr Hodgson, the land was vacant until arriving at "Greenknowe", also on portion of the Macleay Grant, the residence of Mr John Gilchrist the Senior Partnert of Gilchrist, Watt & Co & it was ultimately purchased
Next came two smaller dwellings, & then "Larbert Lodge" which was built & tenanted by Mr C.D. Riddell, the Colonial Treasurer.
Next to this property was a stone rubble wall, the western boundary of the Macleay Grant, down to the centre of Potts Point, where "Chatsworth": was built in later days by the Hon C J Roberts. This Wall was erected by William Sharp Mackey, a son of Alexander Macleay. He was a recluse & a naturalist. He had the credit of having loose bloodhounds about the property as a safeguard against thieves & marauders, but I think this was only meant for a scare. He always guarded the beach on Elizabeth Bay, & wouldn't allow anyone to land there, or even anchor a boat there. The Macleay property was 54 Acres in extent, & was granted to Mr Alexander Macleay By Governor Darling in 1828, who in despatch to the Right Honourable William Huskinsson, dated 128th March 1828 stated: - "The land granted to Mr Macelay at Elizabeth Bay, a mile & a half from Sydney, was for the purpose of erecting a family house & cultivating a garden. Mr Macleays knowledge as a Horticulturalist is likely to prove beneficial to the Colony. He has already spent a considerable sum on the improvement & cultivation of his grounds, & in erecting a stable & offices preparatory to building a house, which it is his intention shortly to commence, From the manner in which he has entered into this undertaking & scale on which he has commenced to settle & stock the land he has received for agricultural purposes ( the usual grant of 2,500 acres), he will, no doubt, prove an important acquisition to the Colony in this respect alone, the Capital which he has already vested in stock & is still continuing to expand, being considerable." The Grant took in all Elizabeth Bay & the Western Frontage of Rushcutter's Bay, as far as the Eastern boundary of "Roslyn Hall". It was approached by Elizabeth Bay Rd, as at present. The house was the present "Elizabeth Bay House", another good speccimen of the family mansion. The frontage to Macleay Street, from the corner of Elizabeth Bay Rd to "Chatsworth" was later built upon. The rest of the estate, with the exception of Elizabeth bay House, & grounds, was later divided into numerous building allotment by Mr Alexander Macleay's Son, the late Sir George Macleay, & let on long building leases, on which the present residence & villas were erected. The formal Grant was dated 19th October 1831. Elizabeth Point was so named by Governor Macquarie after his wife's Second Name. The Native name was "Yarrandabby" A large portion of land near ther extreme Potts Point, 11 Acres in extent, was originally granted to Mr Judge Adviocate John Wylde on the 1st November 1822 (who was the last Judge Advocate, & for a short time a Judge of the Supreme Court under the Charter of 1823) who delayed fuilfilling the conditions of the grant, for Governor Darling in the above despatch of 26th March 1828 states :- "The Allotment bearing Judge Wyldes name was granted to that Gentleman by Governor Macquarie several years sincce, & still remains unimproved. I propose writing to inform the Judge that it will be resumed by the Government unless the conditions of the grant are speedily fulfilled. " However, he ultimately fulfilled the conditions. he subsequently converyed 6 & a half acres of it to Mr J.H. Potts, who was one of the early officers of the Bank Of New South Wales, hence the Name Potts Point. It was also called Point Campbell in a survery by Governor Phillip in 1792. The native name was "Carrageen" The street from the end of Macleay Street opposite "Grantham" is called Wylde Street, evidently after the judge. On the North Side of this street, built on this land, were the present "Bellevue", "Clarens","Creelwood", "Clifford","Tarana", some of which have been rebuilt or added to or renamed, including the site of Mr W.R. Halls modern "Wildfell", & opposite thereto "Bomerah", belonging to the McQuade family, a few years ago occupied by the Admiral on the station. Then the property "Cintra" & "Campbell lodge" (a portion of the same grant) of Mr J F Hilly, the architect, & opposite this was "Grantham Ville" built on the remaining four & half acres of John Wyldes Grant. This land, on which the house was erected, became, through the purchase from the Judge, the property of Mr Caleb Wilson, the fatheer of Felix Wilson, a defendant in the celebrated Newtown Ejectment Suit of "Devine v Wilson" he Built the first house on the property, which he called "Caleb Castle" & by reason of its turrets, it was also known as the "Pepper Pot", & afterwards as "Grantham Ville"; it subsequently became the property of Mr F Parbury. It then passed into the hands of the Late Mr Henry Dangar, & it is now owned by his son the Hon H.C. Dangar M.L.C, who almost wholly rebuilt it in 1870, and changed the name to "Grantham" Immediately Opposite "Grantham Ville" was "Clarens" before mentioned, which was in 1847 purchased by Mr George Richard Griffiths, father of Mr F.C Griffiths who came out to Sydney as the General Manager of the Bank Of Australasia, & after resigning this appointment he conducted a Merchants business in Sydney under the style Of Griffiths, Graham & Co. He sold out when he went to England in 1853. Later this property was occupied by Sir James Martin, the Chief Justice, & is now under the name of "Wilga", owned & occupied by Dr Faithful.
On the West side Of Macleay Street, next to "Grantham" came Dr Douglas's Grant of 8 Acres & 9 Perches on the 19th October 1831. He afterwards sold it 22nd September 1832 to Colonel Shadforth, Who built "Adelaide Cottage" on it. The land extended from Macleay Street down to the waters of Woolloomooloo Bay. The whole property came later into the possession of Mr J.H. Challis (Manager for Messrs Flower, Salting & Co, who gave it with another property as a magnificent Bequest, valued at 250,000 Pounds to the University of Sydney. For some time after his deatth it was occupied by Mr MacDonald, of MacDonald Smith & Co.
When you look at the list of names of these Houses & Properties, it really shows just how many things have been demolished in Sydney - Potts Point especially.
Not much has been saved at all. What a shame... Some of those houses and Properties and Frontages could've been Integrated into the new buildings, but no thought was ever put to that. it was all about just bulldozing them over.
We can be thankful for the protests and Green Bans in the 1970's when they were going to fully destroy "The Rocks" - "Woolloomooloo" and "Victoria Street". There was even talk of Destroying The Queen Victoria Building to make way for a Carpark for the Sydney Council.
Elizabeth Bay House Would've Matched Vaucluse House had the grounds and waterfront had been kept
There are just so many things that could've been integrated and maintained, it really just shows a lack of vision and greed of the time. Properties like Craigend, Roslyn Hall, Larbert Lodge, Greenknowe, Goderich Lodge, Springfield Lodge, Grantham,, Maranamah, Orwell House shoul'dve kept and maintained. There could've been so many uses for those original
"… most of the things I do are imaginative and … have a touch of fantasy in them, which I prefer."
[Body text of the panel too small/blurred to read — illegible]
Elizabeth Bay House was built between 1835 & 1839 In the Regency Architectural Style & was originally surrounded by a 22 Hectare garden, in what was then the Fashionable Suburb of Woolloomooloo Hill.
The rooms, Sweeping staircase and lavish furnishings reveal the tastes of its original owner Alexander Macleay. The one time Colonial Secretary Of New South Wales, had magnificent gardens Expressed his passion for the natural world. By the 1840's a downturn in the economy
Alexander macleay arrived in Sydney from England in January 1826, with his wife Eliza, 9 of 10 surviving children, and his extensive entomological collection. At the time he possessed the finest and most Extensive collection of any private individual in England.
Architect John Verge produced a design for a splendid "Marine Villa" in the Greek Revival Style which was at its peak of trend.
A Nearby grotto with accompnaying stone walls & steps, plus several trees, are all that remain of the original extensive Gardens. It helf Macleays considerable native and exotic Plant Collection, an orchard & kitchen garden.
The main axis of the house is aligned with the Winter Solstice.
For the remainder of the 19th Century & well into the 20th Century Elizabeth Bay House had a Chequered history, With the property being subdivided, the gardens were reduced to a small fragment. The house became home for a succession of tenants inclusing many artists.
In 1961 the National trust started to list and publicise important histporic places and Elizabeth bay house was One of the first 50 names.
in 1977 the house was extensively restored and refurbished. Initially so it could become the offical residence of the Lord Mayor of Sydney, it later became one of the first properties acquired by the Historic Houses trust.
Transcription:
TO · BE · ERECTED · AT · ALEXANDRIA, FOR · THE HONOURABLE Alexander MACLEAY.
SCALE · 4 · FEET · TO · AN · INCH ·
J. VERGE · ARCHITECT
Elizabeth Bay House was an allotment of 54 Acres granted to Alexander Macleay in 1828. It Is 1 of only 5 remaining homes from the original 17 Darlinghurst Villas that were the first buildings to be deceloped on Woolloomooloo Hill also known as Darlinghurst in the 1830's
But it is only 1 of 3 that survive in their original condition without serious modifications.
These Include
- Barham (1833) inside the grounds of SCEGGS - Tusculum (1831-1835) On Manning St Potts Pt
The Other 2
Telford Lodge (1831)
- Rockwall (1837)
Are Barely recognisable & have been extensively modified or partially demolished
The greatest thing about Elizabeth Bay House today is that it's owned by the Historic Houses Trust & is open to the public.
Scottish born Macleay was a passionate and extravagent man who spent liberally on landscaping his homes and his entomological collections of which his main interest was of moths & butterflies. in 1795 he had Entered the British Civil Service as Chief Clerk of the War Office and was later Secretary Of the Transport Board, but when the board was disbanded in 1818 he was out of work
With mounting bills for his homes in Westminster & Surrey, which were undergoing landscaping improvements- as well as his big spends for his entomological collection and Investment Losses, he began borrowing from his eldest son William.
But in 1925, his former colleagues rallied and secured him the Australian post, which came with a 2000 pound Salary and Official Residence that was initally rent free.
Macleay arrived in Sydney in 1826 with his wife & daughters (of a total of 17 Children) but he was so enamoured by the place he eventually persuaded other family members to join them, including his son William & Grandchildren Arthur & Georgina Onslow, who were the children of his Indian based daughter & son in law Ross & Arthur Onslow
In those days Macleays bug collection was recognised at the largest in Private Possession. He brought it with him to Australia & it possibly had pride of place in his library which at the time was the largest room in an Australian home, reflecting the importance Macleay placed his books & natural history Collections.
With 54 Acres of Bushland at his disposal, Macleay immediately began establishing a Botanic Garden of imported plants in compliment with the native Vegetation, & the green space became wuite an attraction with its rustic bridges, terrace walls and grottoes.
Today only 1 section of garden remains just across the road at the front of the house and is known as Arthur Mcelhone Reserve. There is also only 1 Grotto left if you know where to look - about 100 metres south of the house down Onlsow Avenue, and follow the public path between the flats Eltham & Tradewinds.
The design of the house was as equally celebrated as its gardens and harbour views. The enormous two storey Greek Revival Villa with Cellar, was designed by John Verge & was considered one of the most Extravagent Constructions of the day, with costs totalling around 10,000 Pounds.
Plans for the house were developed in 1832 but construction was delayed until 1835, & the house wasn't completed until 1839
The villa design means the rooms are arranged around the central column or Stair hall and allowed for Architectural experimentation with shaped interior spaces.
But with all the love and passion Macleay dedicated to the development of Elizabeth Bay House and its garden, he wasn't able to enjoy it for long. in 1817 Governor Richard Bourke forced Macleay to retire from his position, losing his 2000 Pound salary. In the 1840's, when the economy crashed in the new colony of Sydney, macleay found himself further in debt. In late 1844 the house was mortgaged as Macleays debt to his son William reached 18,195 pounds
The Macleays were forced to sell off furniture to settle some of the debts and in 1846 William took over the Elizabeth Bay House Mortgage and assumed control of the estate.
After less than 6 Years in his Grand unfinished house, Macleay then moved to his country property, Brownlow Hill near camden. Macleay died in 1848 at Tivoli, The Rose Bay Home of his daughter and son in Law.
William Macleay moved into the house in 1845 & lived there alone for 20 years. But lacking the easthetic sensibility of his father, gave no thought to completing the building.
William sounds like a curious character, and during his time at Elizabeth Bay House, the residence was closed to all but the small circle of scientists and Colonial intellectuals with whom he associated. The Boundary of the estate was marked with signs warning potential Trespassers of Guard Dogs.
William died in 1865 and the house was inherited by his brother George, who remained in London. George subdivided the Estate and sold off lots on 99 Year Leases, he sibdivided again only leaving 18 acres. In 1882 Another subdivision was made and there was only 3 Acres of Garden around the house.
George And William's Cousin, William John Macleay, and his wife Susan, were tenants of the house from 1865 to 1903. Susan was the daughter of Edward Deas Thomson, Alexander Macleays Successor as Colonial Secretary, who owned another one of the original Villas - Barham
William John was also a keen Entomologist and had taken over the care of Macleay's Vast collection, building the Macleay museum on an area that is now the lowere corner of Ithaca Road & Bilyard Avenue. William john donated the Collection to the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney in 1888 and was Knighted for his Generosity. He died in 1891.
From 1891 to 1911 was owned by James William Macarthur Onslow, Great Grandchild of Alexander Macleay. Because George Was based in London the house had been quite neglected, as Macarthur Onslow Embarked ona maintenance program, which included new plumbing, the introduction of gas lighting, 2 new bathrooms, a Servants bell and a new portico.
From 1903 Macarthur Onlsow leased the house to a leather merchant George Michaelis. In 1911 Michaelis purchsed the house for 800 pounds, becoming the first owner who was not from the Macleay family. He stayed at the house with his wife and 3 children until 1926, when he sold it to retailer Sir Sydney Snow.
Snow's shop was on the corner of Pitt St & Liverpool St, and paid 40,000 Pounds before on selling it to Elizabeth Bay estates Limited for 60,000 Pounds.
The final Subdivision of the Estate took place in 1927 with 16 lots put up for auction. 5 lots were sold and were no doubt developed into apartments that exist today. The remaining 11 lots were sold in 1934 and the late 1940's, when more apartment buildings were developed.
The actual house failed to sell at auction in 1927, and thats when the Squatters moved in . This period when the Charm School Artists occupied the house . Artists that lived at the house up until 1935 included Donald Friend, Rex Juilius, Wallace Thornin, who held wild parties in the decaying mansion.
In 1935 Elizabeth Bay Estates leased the property to a Mr and Mrs Hall, and a Mrs L Minnett who renovated and redecorated the house as a venue for fashionable receptions.
In 1940, Evangiline Olga Murray, wife of realtor James Daniel Murray purchased the house and immediately began renovating the house into 15 Apartments, which was carried out Sympatheticallu and without damage to the original fabric of the house.
In 1959 the house was declared an historic building whose preservation was essential for reasons of historic and architectural interest under the County of Cumberland Planning Ordinance.
When Mrs Murray died in 1963, the Cumberland County Council purchased the house and the following year when the council was abolished, it became the responsibility of the State Planning Authority.
The Authority Commissioned the repair works to the roof, dome & Portico and in 1973 dedicated $275,000 to the buildings restoration but the costs rose to $750,000
In 1977 the house opened to the Public and in 1981, along with Vaucluse House - became one of the first properties acquired by the Historic Houses Trust
Daily Telegraph - Thursday 30 September 1926, page 10
HISTORIC HOME SOLD ELIZABETH BAY HOUSE
One of the finest historic homes in Australia. "Elizabeth Bay House," Onslow Avenue Elizabeth Bay; was sold -yesterday for £42,500 to a'well-known city business man. . The vendor was Colonel Geo. Mlchaelis. managing director of M'Murtries, Ltd. "Elizabeth Bay House" was built, in 1828 by Alexander Macleay, then Colonial.- Secretary, he having : obtained a grant of .54 acres of ground on the foreshores - of Elizabeth Bay. Here he devoted a great deal of time and money, to the study & -classification of fauna & flora, & the property, was-famous- for its collection of flowers & shrubs from all over the world. The home was built by convicts, & underneath the dwelling are-two large cellars, now subdivided into- several rooms, where the convicts were quartered." The house is constructed entirely of 'Stone, & it is understood that it cost over- £10,000 to build. That sum represented a very large amount of money nearly 100 years ago. . . "Elizabeth Bay House" was occupied, by the Macleay family until 1903. The present' occupants. Col. Mlchaelis & his family, have lived there for over 20 years, & the previous resident was Colonel Onslow. In 1875 the extensive grounds were subdivided into streets & avenues, which form: portion of the suburbs, Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rushcutters Bay and; part of Darlinghurst.. The original property extended from the shores of Elizabeth and Rushcutters Bays to William St Darlinghurst.
PLAN shewing the situation OF THE ALLOTMENTS FOR SALE at DARLINGHURST ELIZABETH BAY the Property of ALEXR. McLEAY ESQRE. BY MR. S. LYONS.
[Landholders and buildings:] J. C. Brown Esq. · F. Parbury Esq. · Col. Shadforth · H. C. Sempill Esq. · Sir M. O'Connell · The Bishop of Australia · Griffiths Esqre. · [?J. H.] Grose Esq. · E. Hallen Esq. · Sir James Dowling · Hon. R. Jones M.C. · T. Barker Esqre. · T. McQuoid Esqre. · Mr. O. West's Property · Alexr. McLeay Esqre. · Mr. McLeay's Garden · Stables
Sir T. L. Mitchell's new Road to S. Head Darling's Point Double Bay &c.
NOTE Lots 2 to 24 inclusive are 60 feet by 120 ft. " 27 " 33 do — do — do " 34 " 44 — — 100 wide.
Edward J. W. Knapp [signature] Land Surveyor
SCALE OF CHAINS W. Nicholas Litho. Bridge St.
[Lot numbers 1–44 on the plan are not transcribed.]
ELIZABETH BAY ESTATE. DARLINGHURST For Sale by MESSRS. RICHARDSON & WRENCH. Allan & Wigley Lithog.
ELIZABETH BAY
RUSHCUTTERS BAY
Horse's Hd. Point
Sandy Beach
MACLEAY STREET
WYLDE ST
ELIZABETH BAY ROAD
RUSHCUTTERS BAY
ROSLYN STREET · ROSLYN ALLOTMENTS · Princes St. · UPPER WILLIAM STREET NORTH To Darling Point · From Sydney
[Estate and owners:] A — CONTENTS 18 Ac. 0r. 0p. · Mansion · Orchard · Orangery · J. Thompson · LARBERT LODGE Conveyed to Elwin now E. T. Lamb · GREENKNOWE · Conveyed to Gilchrist now W. Lamb · Conveyed to Gilchrist · Conveyed to Mitchell · Conveyed to Deloitte · Conveyed to J. Brown now H. Moore · Conveyed to Barker · John Williams · Lot 61: To be sold with adjoining Lot
N.B. The Lots are staked out with numbered pegs and the Lines cleared.
For further particulars see Large Plan.
F. H. Reuss. Architect & Surveyor 134 Pitt Street Sydney
[Library mark:] F 875
[Lot numbers 1–62, with their areas and frontages, are not transcribed.]
Presenting the Residence and 15 Allotments of SYDNEY'S GREATEST RESIDENTIAL SUBDIVISION by Public Auction Sale on the Ground, SATURDAY, 17 SEPT., 1927 at 3 p.m.
Auctioneers in conjunction: STANTON & SON LIMITED, STANTON HOUSE, 133 PITT STREET, SYDNEY RICHARDSON & WRENCH LTD. 92 PITT STREET :: :: SYDNEY
"We may build more splendid habitations, fill our rooms with paintings and with sculptures, but we cannot buy with gold the old associations."
IN Sydney it is but seldom that occasion to acquire a coveted and old-time belonging may be taken by the hand. The flowers of ancient sanctities most often continue in the possession of their owners: a home that is an oratorio of memories is apt to remain as an integral part of the family Estate. The golden opportunity to acquire ground, dignified by wisdom, or patriotism in the days that were, is rare indeed; but who amongst us does not feel the beauty and sublimity of such associations, which, "like the stretched metre of an antique song," fling their ancient splendours round us?
It may well be that no home has played a nobler or more exigent part in the history of New South Wales than Elizabeth Bay House, or, as it is sometimes called, Macleay House.
It has been said that there is no sentiment in business, but, like most generalizations, this is at best merely a half truth. In Macleay House "The very marrow of tradition's shown; And all that history, much that fiction weaves" around the solid angularity of the facts which time so surely dissipates to shining ether.
Elizabeth Bay House is beautiful for situation: its position on the foreshore of our wondrous harbour is of preponent and unparalleled attractiveness. Nearly a century ago it was well and wisely chosen as the fit and proper situation for Sydney's most beautiful home.
For well nigh a century this home has been privately owned, but now, at long last, Elizabeth Bay House, with its magnificent grounds, rich with the spoils of time, is to be cut up and sold to the highest bidder.
The moment is most opportune. Development, of late, in the neighbourhood of King's Cross and Macleay Street has been phenomenal, and investors and home-builders are avid for freehold land in these areas.
The Auctioneers feel that they are indeed privileged in being entrusted with the sale of an Estate so eminently desirable and so rich in history as Elizabeth Bay House.
"History is the witness of the times, the torch of truth, the life of memory, the messenger of antiquity."
THE history of Elizabeth Bay is necessarily the history of the Macleay family, and, incidentally, the history of early Sydney and its Social and Political activities. Its earliest associations concern themselves with the Hon. Alexander Macleay, who, in 1825, was appointed in England by the Earl of Bathurst to fill the position of Colonial Secretary of New South Wales, which position he held until 1837.
In his office as Colonial Secretary Mr. Alexander Macleay had perhaps more public work to do than the Governor of those days. When seventy-seven years of age he was elected Speaker of the first Representative Legislative Council of New South Wales. To Mr. Macleay and five other gentlemen, George IV. granted a Charter for the purpose of forming a Linnean Society to study the flora of the young Colony, of which Society he was for many years the Honorary Secretary. He devoted much time to scientific and intellectual pursuits, and at all times spared no effort tending to the advancement of learning in this new country. The foundation of the free Public Library was laid by him in 1843.
For the Australian Linnean Society, Mr. Macleay built that fine brick Hall which is on part of the original Estate, and which now stands at the corner of Billyard Avenue. Portraits of Sir George Macleay and Sir William Macleay are in the Society's Rooms.
The Macleay property was originally 54 acres in extent, and was granted to Mr. Alexander Macleay by Governor Darling, in 1828. It was given for the purpose of erecting a family house, and the cultivation of a
garden, as it was thought that Mr. Macleay's knowledge as a botanist and horticulturist was likely to prove beneficial to the Colony.
Mr. Macleay brought out with him seeds and plants from England and Rio Janeiro. The seed and plant book, retained by the Macleay family, serves to indicate the intense interest taken by the owners in the development of the Elizabeth Bay grounds. The records contain an almost interminable list of rare species of bulbs and plants from almost every corner of the world. The separate entries from 1836 to 1853 total over 3,800, and include seeds and plants received from England, Madeira, Mauritius, Calcutta, Madras, China, Java, The East Indies, Brazil, Bolivia, Chili, Valparaiso, Tahiti, The Sandwich Islands, the Society Islands, The Cape of Good Hope, Van Dieman's Land, and Norfolk Island.
These records are of interest as contributions to the early horticultural annals of New South Wales. It is of interest to note that at this period, 1837, the Botanic Gardens in Sydney were first opened to the public.
When Mr. Alexander Macleay designed and built Elizabeth Bay House he evidently had in mind the storage of his collection of natural history specimens, for there is ample room for a private museum (such as afterwards existed) and the spacious library has accommodation for the many thousand books which he possessed, most of which have been placed in the Sydney University.
An early description of the Macleay Estate, Elizabeth Bay, is given in a letter written by Mr. Robert Lowe in 1842. He writes:—
"A few days ago I saw one of the most perfect places I ever saw in my life. It belongs to Mr. W. S. Macleay. The drive to the house is cut through rocks covered with splendid shrubs and flowers, and here and there are immense primeval trees. The house is built of white stucco, and looks like a Nobleman's place. In the garden are the plants of every climate from Rio to the East Indies, China and England; bulbs from the Cape, and beautiful roses are to be seen; oranges, lemons, citrons, and guavas are in full bloom, while there is even a beautiful collection of plants from New Zealand."
The Hon. Alexander Macleay died in 1848, and his eldest son, William Sharp Macleay, who came to Australia in 1839, took over the care of his father's collections and library at Elizabeth Bay, residing there until his death in 1865. Sir George Macleay, a younger son, then inherited the property. Mr. William Macleay (afterwards Sir William), a nephew of the Hon. Alexander Macleay, lived at Elizabeth Bay House until 1891, and Lady Macleay resided there for some years after his death. On the death of Sir George Macleay the property was willed to Colonel Onslow.
Although the heavy taxation of property by Sir Henry Parkes resulted in the subdivision of part of the large Estate, Elizabeth Bay House, surrounded by spacious gardens, was left intact. The formation, however, of such new streets as Ithaca Avenue, Billyard Avenue and Onslow Avenue, resulted in the outlying portion of the original garden being cut off from the house grounds. This section was subdivided, and let on long leases in 1875. In the meantime, as soon as circumstances permitted, Sir William Macleay became the tenant on a long lease of the house and some of the allotments bounded by Ithaca Road and Billyard Avenue. His oc-
cupancy of the house lasted until his death, in December, 1891, and Lady Macleay continued until her death in August, 1903. From these records it will be seen that, with the exception of one year (when the house was sublet furnished during Lady Macleay's absence in England after Sir William Macleay's death), the old house was continuously in occupation by members of the family from 1837 to 1903.
No house is more picturesque nor more reminescent of the English type of architecture of the period than Elizabeth Bay House. It is estimated that the Hon. Alexander Macleay expended not less than £10,000 on the property, and his successful gardening exploits are said to have given a marked stimulus to ornamental gardens in Sydney.
The lawn, immediately surrounded by the fine carriage drive fronting the residence, is said to have cost originally £3000 to make, and contained every specimen of Cape bulb that could be collected.
A strong wall of solid rock protected the gardens, the steps and the terraces cut in the natural rock, and overgrown with rare plants from every part of the world. The original Estate has been so much curtailed that where there were formerly acres of lovely garden grounds, villas and terraces now stand; but there still remains sufficient to tell of the past glories of the Elizabeth Bay House which once stood out solitary amidst virginal forest land. Incidentally, it is of historical interest to note that Darlinghurst and Woolloomooloo, about the year 1822, were called Henrietta-town, and constituted a reserve set apart for the blacks. The name was adopted by Governor Macquarie. Similarly, he used the name Elizabeth (for Elizabeth Bay) in honour of his wife, whose christian names were Henrietta Elizabeth.
[Aerial photograph, printed sideways, with numbered keys]
Key to aerial view of Potts Point, Elizabeth Bay, and Kings Cross Darlinghurst. 1. Kings Cross 2. Hampton Court 3. Kingsclere 4. Macleay Street 5. Potts Point 6. The Property
ELIZABETH Bay House stands to-day as a proud monument to the men who selected the material, designed the work, and built the home. Externally the residence is in Georgian style—the embellishments consisting of fine cornice, a pediment and moulded architraves to windows, and although the verandah is carried along three sides of the building, the absence of the usual pitched roof gives it a foreign appearance. Evidently a verandah did at one time exist there, for it is shown in pencil sketches belonging to Mr. J. J. Fletcher; and the painting by Conrad Martens, in the National Art Gallery, Sydney, shows a verandah to the front and a central balcony with an entablature and pediment supported by four columns.
It has been characteristic of many British Statesmen to possess a home worthy of their position and attainments, and it is this spirit which has added so much of dignity and charm to the domestic architecture of Great Britain. Elizabeth Bay House is a worthy representative of the Georgian period. It is recorded that all the stone was quarried on the site of the building, and the whole of the stonework even to-day is in an excellent state of preservation.
The fine Central Hall is of the type favoured by English architects and builders, and has a cantilevered staircase and wreathed handrail. The support is entirely derived from the curvature, and the arches and openings are fine examples of circular work.
The openings in the building are of considerable size. The main openings being approximately 12 feet high and 5 feet wide. The house, in a solid rectangular block, has an extreme frontage of bout 100 feet and a depth of about 75 feet. So extensive was the accommodation in its first design that very few additions have been required by succeeding generations of occupants.
The large flagged verandahs, uncovered except where the great Portico forms a stately entrance, extend round three sides of the house, and are fully 20 feet wide. The great square entrance reception hall, with massive
An Estate of distinction and charm. An ideal environment. Picturesque surroundings. Unsurpassed Harbour Views. A few sites only — distinctive exclusive. Most suitable for the most exacting. An Old World atmosphere yielding to the appeal of to-day.
FOR AUCTION SALE on the Ground, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 1927, at 3 p.m.
cedar fittings and huge doors is in the custom of the early homesteads of similar type.
The great brass lock and huge key for the front door are not unlike those used in mediaeval castles. It reminds one, also, of the huge lock on the door of Dr. Johnson's house in Gough Square, quite near the historical Cheshire Cheese. Dr. Johnson's house has been bought and presented to the nation by Mr. Cecil Harmsworth.
The windows are protected from without by heavy solid cedar louvred shutters. Such shutters provided the special protection deemed necessary in those days, and at the same time allowed ample ventilation throughout the residence.
The reception hall already referred to is about 24 feet by 24 feet, and is so beautifully proportioned with regard to the height and size of the openings that its spaciousness is not in evidence. The staircase hall is surmounted with a fine dome set on a panelled coving and supported by a mullioned window. Externally the dome forms a pleasing finish to the building, relieving the severity of the straight sky-line. This staircase hall forms a central feature from and around which the rooms and corridors of the house radiate. The entrance and staircase hall are flagged with sandstone, and there are nearly 200 cast iron decorative balusters imported from England. Each of the main bedrooms is accompanied by a dressing-room. The drawing-room and dining-room are each 34 feet x 24 feet; the mantelpieces are of black marble, and the open fireplace is in keeping with the dignity of the room. The woodwork is chiefly of cedar, and the walls of the building have a thickness of 18 ins. in parts, and in certain sections of even 3 feet. The sitting-room behind the dining-room has for its prominent feature an antique effect produced by the marble mantel and grate. The ball-room is about 46 feet x 27 feet. This was fitted up and used as a Library in Sir William Macleay's time, and the book-cases are all in cedar. The books have been dispersed, some removed to the Linnean Society's Library, some to the Sydney University, and some to England.
Although the residence to-day may be deemed more commodious than present residential requirements necessitate, its accommodation is such as to permit of convenient adaptation for other purposes.
Off the vestibule entrance hall on the ground floor are the billiard room, library, reception-rooms, main dining-room, whilst the numerous bedrooms off the collonade and upper landing are spacious and conveniently arranged. The rooms are free from awkward angles, and lend themselves to subdivision. In addition, there are bathrooms, storerooms, and extensive accommodation in cellar section.
From the front of the residence one has a most perfect view of the Harbour, including both North and South Heads, with the verdant little Clark Island in the middle distance.
The approach to the grounds of Elizabeth Bay House is one of the most desirable in Sydney. The convenience from city by a short tram ride to William Street is all that could be desired, and the property is also situated within easy walking distance along Darlinghurst Road to Elizabeth Bay Road, and thence to Onslow Avenue.
This route includes most of the principal Flat Buildings in this centre of Sydney, and Onslow Avenue itself is practically a private thoroughfare leading direct to Elizabeth Bay House, and the new roadway through the Estate is a continuation of it. On its Harbour side boundary the approach is given by Billyard Avenue leading from Ithaca Road. On this charming avenue are built many of Sydney's most distinctive water frontage residences.
Similarly, Macleay Street has become one of the leading Apartment Avenues of Sydney. One may say, therefore, that, from the standpoint of Residential selectness, nothing better could be desired than the Elizabeth Bay House Estate.
The Residence is admittedly larger than is ordinarily required at the present day for a private home, but it is obvious that such a fine property should have many uses. In this regard it may be suggested that a convenient alteration of the property into flats might be made, or otherwise the existing building could be adapted as a Private Hotel.
MUCH has already been said in regard to the botanical feature of the Elizabeth Bay House grounds. These, in some sort, must now disappear as the result of the present subdivision. The former tennis courts and front gardens have now been subdivided so that they will face the new Avenue and Billyard Avenue frontage. These blocks are level, have direct approach, and obtain an unrivalled outlook over the Harbour. The rear and side blocks are in terrace formation, and extend towards the properties fronting Macleay Street. The allotments are very suitable in area for either private homes or for the type of flats now so much in vogue in this centre.
Virtually every allotment will have a view over the Bay and Harbour. All that is beautiful shall abide, and the panorama looking over Elizabeth Bay towards the Heads, is of a singular beauty, whose colour schemes are as various as the dreams of poets. As Keats has so happily phrased it in Endymion— A thing of beauty is a joy for ever; Its loveliness increases; it will never Pass into nothingness.
The Harbour is a perennial feasting presence, garmented in the allure of the light from its own beauty. The beauty of the scene, as the eye travels over the water towards the Heads, is of God's handwriting, and its daily contemplation must diffuse through the inmost soul a soothing and subtle joy, by which the heart's anxious and aching cares are softly smiled away.
Of recent years large properties suitable for subdivision—so far as the City and main Eastern Suburbs are concerned—have been very few. The most famous that can be readily called to mind are Cranbrook, at Rose Bay, and the Quiraing Estate at Edgecliff. The Cranbrook property was formerly State Government House, and its subdivision has now provided sites for some of the finest homes in this district; at the same time allowing the original residence with its immediate grounds to be used for a Grammar School.
Quiraing Estate comprised practically an island block with frontages to Trelawney Street, Edgecliff Road, and Fullerton Street. So greatly was land in demand in this centre of Edgecliff that the sites then offered were purchased at very satisfactory figures, and the whole of the Estate has since been built upon, and is regarded as the finest and most recherche residential part of Sydney.
Elizabeth Bay Estate proffers all the attractiveness of the two Estates referred to, with the further advantage that the lots are superlatively suitable for the erection upon them of Apartment Buildings.
[Photograph caption:] Harbour View from the Residence.
In the history of Sydney's Real Estate no centre has been more rapid in transformation and in rise of values than King's Cross, Darlinghurst, extending to Elizabeth Bay. The interchange of properties has recorded figures that have bewildered many experienced speculators in Real Estate.
This remarkable development is not a transitory one, but is due to the very reasons that have stabilised and influenced Real Estate in other similar centres of the world. No centre could be more peculiarly adapted for high-class flats and apartment buildings in Sydney than Darlinghurst and Elizabeth Bay.
King's Cross is perhaps the apex of the movement so obvious in the whole district, As a junction of motor 'bus, tram and motor traffic, the activity of seven thoroughfares converges upon it. This is the main trading centre of the Darlinghurst territory, and the changes over the short period of even two years (commencing with the transformation of the well-known "Alberto Terrace" property) have been more than remarkable.
Bayswater Road, close by, receives the traffic leading to Rose Bay, and on this thoroughfare, as well as on the branch roads leading from it, many residential establishments and apartment blocks are built. Many of the latest apartment buildings are to be seen in Springfield Avenue, Macleay Street, Onslow Avenue, and Elizabeth Bay Road, and their importance may be gauged by the sales of such buildings recorded during recent months at figures exceeding £75,000, for certain individual buildings.
In the minds of those experienced in such matters this centre of Sydney is the most logical for the purpose of the present trend of development, and compares more than favourably with other centres in London and New York adapted for apartment localities. It is also a fact that the modern flat buildings in the King's Cross-Elizabeth Bay area are readily tenanted at rentals ranging from £3/3/- to £5/5/- per week for the moderate sized flat, and many apartments are rented at from £6/6/- to £10/10/- per week, where the accommodation and appointments conform with modern requirements.
Page Seventeen
[Pencilled library mark at foot, partly cut off: [illegible]]
[Lots and areas:] 1 — 5026 sq ft 2 — 5082 sq ft 3 — 8315 sq ft 4 — 7617 sq ft 5 — 6766 sq ft 6 — 10426 sq ft 7 — 7681 sq ft 8 — 6700 sq ft 9 — 4939 sq ft 10 — 5037 sq ft 11 — 7333 sq ft 12 — 6795 sq ft 13 — 6787 sq ft 14 — 4276 sq ft 15 — 5758 sq ft 16 — ELIZABETH BAY HOUSE — 13106 sq ft
Cowdery & Cowdery [signature] Licensed Surveyors
Note - All dimensions subject to Deposited Plan
[Boundary bearings and dimensions are not transcribed.]
will be offered by Public Auction on the ground on Saturday, 17 Sept. 1927 · 3 p.m.
TERMS OF SALE The RESIDENCE: 25% deposit and the balance repayable over 3 yrs. at 6% The ALLOTMENTS: 15% deposit and balance in equal quarterly instalments extending over 3 years with interest at 6% TORRENS TITLE
Auctioneers in conjunction: STANTON & SON LIMITED STANTON HOUSE, 133 PITT STREET, SYDNEY RICHARDSON & WRENCH LTD. 92 PITT STREET ::: SYDNEY
Built 1835–1839 Architects John Verge & John Bibb (British plan attrib.) · Standing — Museums of History NSW house museum
On the northern edge of Woolloomooloo Hill, Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay planted a private botanic garden on fifty-four acres of harbour rock and bush, then raised what contemporaries called the finest house in the colony. The oval saloon still soars. The planned Doric colonnade never arrived. The acres became a suburb. The house became flats, a squat, a reception venue — and, after one of Australia’s first scholarly restorations, a public museum. Ambition, insects, bankruptcy, and a staircase like an arum lily: welcome to Elizabeth Bay House.
At a glance
Address: 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay NSW 2011
Built: plans from 1832; constructed 1835–1839; occupied 1839
Architect: John Verge and John Bibb supervising; SHR notes an unknown British designer / imported scheme Verge modified; builder James Hume
Style: Greek Revival / Colonial Regency villa — severe unfinished exterior; celebrated oval domed saloon and cantilevered stair
Original owner: Alexander McLeay / Macleay (Colonial Secretary of NSW), with wife Eliza
Estate: c.54 acres (22 ha) grant by Governor Darling; internationally famous gardens
Heritage: NSW State Heritage Register #00006; grotto & works SHR #00116
Current use: Museums of History NSW house museum; free entry; events hire
Site & setting
The Aboriginal name recorded for Elizabeth Bay is Gurrajin. This was Cadigal Country on Sydney Harbour and, under Governor Macquarie, the site of Elizabeth Town, a fishing settlement associated with Bungaree’s group. Soon after Macleay arrived as Colonial Secretary in January 1826, Governor Darling granted him about fifty-four acres with commanding harbour views.
Macleay did not clear-fell and start again. With assigned convict labour and gardener Robert Henderson, he kept indigenous trees, cut picturesque walks, and layered in a private botanic garden of walls, grottoes, ponds, gravel paths, Cape bulbs, and fruit from half the globe. The Sydney Gazette (May 1831) sang the transformation; Joseph Hooker in 1841 called it a “botanist’s paradise.”
Subdivision from the 1840s onward carved the estate into the suburb we know. Onslow Avenue sliced the famous front lawn; Billyard Avenue edged what became Arthur McElhone Reserve (landscape architect Ilmar Berzins, 1948–50). Today the villa sits tight among flats, looking north to a fragment of garden and the harbour beyond. The grotto and stone walls survive as rare fabric of that early landscape.
Timeline
c.1815–1820s – Macquarie’s Elizabeth Town Aboriginal settlement at Gurrajin / Elizabeth Bay; bay named for Elizabeth Macquarie.
24 Jun 1767 – Alexander McLeay born Ross-shire, Scotland.
1794–1825 – Linnean Society secretary; FRS 1809; amasses leading private insect collection.
14 Jun 1825 – Appointed Colonial Secretary; arrives Sydney January 1826 with Eliza, daughters, library and collection.
c.1826 – Granted about 54 acres at Elizabeth Bay; begins estate works.
1826–1830s – Garden laid out; Deas Thomson helps engineer walks; Verge ledger entries for garden structures 1833; grotto/walls c.1832–35.
1832 – Villa plans in hand; construction delayed.
1835–1839 – House built by James Hume; Verge & Bibb; occupied 1839. Intended Doric colonnade never completed.
2 Jan 1837 – McLeay quits Colonial Secretary’s office under Bourke; loss of salary deepens debt.
1839 – William Sharp Macleay joins family in Sydney; furnishings ordered in London.
1840s – Depression; subdivision fails; library and furniture sold; drawing-room pieces go to Government House in 1845.
1845 – William Sharp takes over debts and house; Alexander and Eliza withdraw to Brownlow Hill.
18 Jul 1848 – Alexander dies at Tivoli, Rose Bay, after a carriage accident.
1845–1865 – William Sharp lives largely alone; scientific salon; dies 1865; estate to brother George.
1865–1903 – George subdivides and leases house to Sir William John Macleay and Susan; collections grow; Macleay Museum at University of Sydney endowed in the 1880s–89.
1875, 1882 – Further subdivisions; garden shrinks.
1891+ – House passes to James William Macarthur-Onslow; maintenance and 1890s portico/balcony works.
1903–1926 – Leased then sold to George (Col.) Michaelis; first non-Macleay owner.
Sep 1926 – Sold for £42,500; final land sales 1927; kitchen wing demolished; artists squat through Depression.
1935 – Renovated as fashionable reception house; celebrity weddings.
1941 – Converted to fifteen flats; Donald Friend among artist residents.
1948–50 – Arthur McElhone Reserve created on former front lawn.
1961–63 – Early National Trust listing; Cumberland County Council purchases house.
1972–76 – Scholarly restoration; first intended as Lord Mayor’s residence, then public museum.
1977 – Opened to the public.
1981 – Among first properties of Historic Houses Trust of NSW; now Museums of History NSW.
2 Apr 1999 – Entered on NSW State Heritage Register (#00006).
Architecture & interiors
Elizabeth Bay House is a two-storey Greek Revival villa on a centralised Palladian plan — square vestibule opening into an oval, domed saloon where a cantilevered Marulan sandstone stair rises to an arcaded gallery under a lantern. Cedar joinery, blackbutt floors, Grecian architraves, laurel-wreath plasterwork and imitation-bronze cast-iron balusters made its reputation.
The exterior is another story. Soft Sydney sandstone under sand paint; blind windows for symmetry; a light iron-and-wood portico that was not part of the 1830s design. The house was meant to wear a single-storey Doric colonnade on three sides — the sort Conrad Martens painted into existence. Money ran out; the colonnade never rose; the façade stayed severe. The small portico arrived only in the Macarthur-Onslow years. Service wings and stables are gone; the kitchen wing was sacrificed in the 1927 carve-up. Cellars remain under the house. Museum interiors today interpret 1839–1845 through inventories, paint scrapes and furniture trails.
People & anecdotes
Alexander McLeay / Macleay was Colonial Secretary, Linnean secretary, Fellow of the Royal Society, and a collector whose insect cabinets were said to be unmatched in private hands in England. He worked twelve-hour days for Darling, fought Bourke over education and exclusivism, lost office in 1837, took the Speakership in the 1840s, and still found time for bulbs, botanic-garden politics and a harbour showpiece he could not afford. ADB files him as McLeay; the Australian family settled on Macleay.
Eliza Macleay ran the household through the rise and fall. William Sharp Macleay — Cambridge scholar, pre-Darwinian theorist and recluse — paid debts, sold drawing-room glories, posted dog-warning signs and kept the house as a scientific salon until 1865. Cousin Sir William John Macleay and Susan turned the collections into a public legacy: the Macleay Museum at the University of Sydney. Through daughter Rosa’s Onslow marriage, the house later brushed the Macarthur-Onslow world of Camden Park.
No Mitchell owner belongs in this story — only the Mitchell Library, which holds the plant and seed books.
What stands today
Elizabeth Bay House stands, and unlike many on this blog it is a working house museum.
Visit: 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay — Museums of History NSW. Free entry; usually open Sundays and Mondays 10am–4pm (see mhnsw.au/visit-us/elizabeth-bay-house/).
Walk the reduced curtilage and cross Onslow Avenue into Arthur McElhone Reserve for the harbour outlook and lawn fragment.
Seek the grotto remnant, taking care with private property boundaries.
Pair with Vaucluse House and the Verge survivors Tusculum and Rockwall.
Ten Things About Elizabeth Bay House, and More Old Views
Elizabeth Bay House, built in the 1830s for Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay, is among Sydney’s finest surviving Regency / Greek Revival houses. Its once-extensive gardens were subdivided, yet the white-stone villa remains a landmark of Elizabeth Bay. This post gathers historic views of the house together with notes on Macleay, architect John Verge, and later conservation.
10 things you may not have known about Elizabeth Bay House
1. It was built between 1835 and 1839 in the Regency architectural style and was originally surrounded by a 22-hectare garden in what was then the fashionable suburb of Woolloomooloo Hill. The area has evolved into the densely populated suburb of Elizabeth Bay.
2. The rooms, sweeping staircase and lavish furnishings reveal the tastes of its original owner, Alexander Macleay, the one-time Colonial Secretary of New South Wales. Magnificent gardens expressed his passion for the natural world, but the downturn of the 1840s ushered him towards financial ruin.
3. Macleay arrived in Sydney from England in January 1826 with his wife, Eliza, nine of ten surviving children, and his extensive entomological collection. At the time, he possessed the finest and most extensive collection of any private individual in England.
4. Architect John Verge produced a design for a splendid “marine villa” in the Greek Revival style, which was at its peak of popularity then.
5. A nearby grotto with accompanying stone walls and steps, plus several trees, are all that remain of the original extensive garden. It held Macleay’s considerable native and exotic plant collection, an orchard and kitchen garden.
6. The main axis of the house is aligned with the winter solstice. Though no documents are known to discuss this feature, it is not likely to be an accident.
7. For the remainder of the 19th century and well into the 20th century, Elizabeth Bay House had a chequered history, with the property being subdivided. The gardens were reduced to a small fragment. The house became home for a succession of tenants, including many artists.
8. In 1961 the National Trust started to list and publicise important historic places. Elizabeth Bay House was one of the first 50 places named.
9. In 1977 the house was extensively restored and refurbished, initially so it could become the official residence of the Lord Mayor of Sydney. Later Elizabeth Bay House became one of the first properties acquired by the Historic Houses Trust.
10. The property was used as the setting for a Jessica Mauboy music video in 2010.
More on Elizabeth Bay House
Estate: c.54 acres (22 ha) grant by Governor Darling; gardens internationally famous; suburb of Elizabeth Bay takes its street pattern from the subdivisions
Heritage: NSW State Heritage Register #00006 (house, 2 April 1999); grotto & works SHR #00116; former Register of the National Estate; early National Trust listing
Fate / current use: Standing — Museums of History NSW house museum (Historic Houses Trust / Sydney Living Museums lineage); free entry; events hire
Site & setting
The Aboriginal name recorded for Elizabeth Bay is Gurrajin (official dual name with the European placename). This was Cadigal Country on Sydney Harbour — fishing ground, contact landscape, and, under Governor Macquarie, the site of Elizabeth Town: bark huts and a fishing settlement associated with Bungaree’s group (c.1815–1820s), downslope toward today’s Beare Park. Governor Brisbane later eyed the bay for an asylum. Instead, soon after Alexander Macleay arrived as Colonial Secretary in January 1826, Governor Darling granted him about fifty-four acres with commanding harbour views — a grant that drew heated newspaper comment for alienating public land.
1794–1825 – Fellow then secretary of the Linnean Society of London; FRS 1809; amasses leading private insect collection.
c.1826 – Granted ~54 acres at Elizabeth Bay; begins estate works (exact deed year sometimes given as 1828 in secondary sources).
1839 – William Sharp Macleay joins family in Sydney; reviews finances; drawing-room furnishings ordered in London.
1840s – Depression; 1841 subdivision attempt fails to sell; library and furniture sold; drawing-room pieces go to new Government House (1845).
1845 – William Sharp takes over debts and house; Alexander & Eliza withdraw bitterly to Brownlow Hill.
1865–1903 – George subdivides and leases house to Sir William John Macleay & Susan (daughter of Edward Deas Thomson of Barham); collections grow; Macleay Museum at University of Sydney endowed (1880s–89); Susan remains to 1903.
1891+ – After George’s death, house passes (via Onslow line under W.S. will) to James William Macarthur-Onslow; maintenance including plumbing, gas, bathrooms — and 1890s portico / balcony works (SHR: balcony 1892; Mansfield association for portico).
1903–1926 – Leased then sold to leather merchant George (Col.) Michaelis; first non-Macleay owner (purchase commonly dated 1911).
Sep 1926 – Sold for £42,500 (Daily Telegraph 30 Sep 1926); Sir Sydney Snow / Elizabeth Bay Estates Ltd era; final land sales 1927; kitchen wing demolished for access road; house fails to sell; artists squat through Depression.
1935 – Renovated as fashionable reception house (Hall / Minnett); celebrity weddings (e.g. Madge Elliott & Cyril Ritchard era noted by MHNSW).
1941 – Converted to fifteen flats (sympathetic conversion noted in heritage literature); Donald Friend among artist residents.
1961 – Early National Trust listing wave.
1963 – Cumberland County Council purchases house; essential repairs.
1972–76 – State Planning Authority / Fisher Lucas (Clive Lucas) scholarly restoration — first intended as Lord Mayor’s residence, then public museum.
1981 – Among first properties of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (with Vaucluse House); later branded Sydney Living Museums; now Museums of History NSW.
Today – House museum; free entry; Sunday–Monday opening; events and weddings by arrangement.
Architecture & interiors
Elizabeth Bay House is a two-storey Greek Revival villa on a centralised Palladian plan — square vestibule opening into an oval, domed saloon where a cantilevered Marulan sandstone stair rises to an arcaded gallery under a lantern. Cedar joinery, blackbutt floors, Grecian architraves, laurel-wreath plasterwork, imitation-bronze cast-iron balusters: this is the interior that made the house’s reputation. ADB Verge called the hall one of the richest and most spatially dramatic interiors in early Australian colonial architecture.
The exterior is another story. Soft Sydney sandstone under sand paint; blind windows for symmetry; a light iron-and-wood portico that was not part of the 1830s design. The house was meant to wear a single-storey Doric colonnade on three sides — the sort Conrad Martens painted into existence, and the sort Verge built at The Vineyard for Hannibal Macarthur. Money ran out; the colonnade never rose; the façade stayed severe. That incompleteness is not a romantic myth — it is fabric fact, and SHR significance turns on it. The small portico arrived only in the Macarthur-Onslow years, when open French windows otherwise dropped toward a sheer edge.
Service wings and stables are gone (kitchen wing sacrificed in the 1927 carve-up). Cellars remain under the house — two unconnected wings in the SHR description — though the 1920s press tales of convicts “quartered” there are colour rather than evidence. Assigned convict labour built the estate; that much is documented.
The State Heritage Register gives the design to an unknown British designer or imported scheme, realised under Verge and Bibb and built by James Hume, rather than to Verge alone. The interior has been loosely compared to Henry Holland’s Carlton House for the Prince Regent.
Winter-solstice sunrise bisecting the house front-to-back is a documented observational effect (Malone / Sydney Living Museums), but no contemporary document has yet been found that proves it was intentional.
Museum interiors today interpret 1839–1845: inventories, paint scrapes, and furniture trails (including pieces sold to Government House) guide the refurnishing.
People & anecdotes
Twentieth-century chapters are pure Sydney scrapbook: Michaelis family life within walking distance of the Great Synagogue; Snow and the Estates company (Leslie Wilkinson among shareholders); Charm School artists camping in a decaying mansion; reception-house glamour; fifteen flats without gutting the fabric; then the conservation rescue that helped invent the Historic Houses Trust.
What stands today / how to see it
Visit: 7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay — Museums of History NSW. Free entry; typically open Sundays and Mondays 10am–4pm — see mhnsw.au/visit-us/elizabeth-bay-house/. Pre-book tickets online when advised.
Seek the grotto remnant (public path territory near Onslow / flats — take care; private property boundaries matter).
Pair with Vaucluse House (fellow early HHT museum) and the Verge survivors Tusculum and Rockwall.
Remember Gurrajin / Elizabeth Town: Beare Park interpretation speaks to the Aboriginal settlement that preceded the grant.
Sources & further reading
Herald book review of Nesta Griffiths, 25 June 1949 (clip on this blog): https://historicsydneymansionsmanorshouses.blogspot.com/2026/06/houses-of-colonial-sydney.html
NSW State Heritage Register — Elizabeth Bay House (SHR 00006): https://apps.environment.nsw.gov.au/dpcheritageapp/ViewHeritageItemDetails.aspx?ID=5045185
NSW State Heritage Register — Elizabeth Bay House Grotto Site and works (SHR 00116)
Museums of History NSW — Elizabeth Bay House: https://mhnsw.au/visit-us/elizabeth-bay-house/
Dictionary of Sydney — Elizabeth Bay House: https://dictionaryofsydney.org/building/elizabeth_bay_house
ADB — Alexander McLeay: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/mcleay-alexander-2413
ADB — John Verge: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/verge-john-2757
Scott Carlin, Elizabeth Bay House: a history and guide, Historic Houses Trust of NSW, 2000
Joy Hughes, Macleay entries, Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens, 2002
State Library of NSW, Villas of Darlinghurst exhibition catalogue, 2002
Sydney Barani — Elizabeth Town: https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/elizabeth-town/
Daily Telegraph, 30 September 1926, “Historic Home Sold” (clipping on existing blog post)
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