Weemala – Home of Incurables – Ryde – NSW

 

Weemala - Home Of Incurables - Ryde - New South Wales

Weemala – Home of Incurables – Ryde – NSW

Sir Henry Moses mansion · Sold for Susan Schardt’s NSW Home for Incurables · Opened 10 April 1907 · Later Royal Ryde Homes / Royal Rehab lineage · House altered and site redeveloped

Weemala was a Ryde hill mansion before it became one of Sydney’s defining care institutions. Philanthropist Susan Schardt’s Home for Incurables outgrew its first city refuge; Sir Henry Moses offered Weemala at half valuation; the new home opened here on 10 April 1907. The name then travelled with Royal Ryde Homes / Royal Rehab. Original residential fabric was heavily altered in the institutional century and later apartment redevelopment — keep mansion, hospital and modern site as separate layers.

At a glance

• Location: Ryde / former Weemala estate (ADB: mansion on about 42 acres / 17 ha at Ryde when offered)
• Private mansion phase: home of Sir Henry Moses (ADB Schardt biography)
• Institutional founders: Susan Katherina Schardt (1872–1934) — NSW Home for Incurables / earlier city homes from 1900 (ADB)
• Transfer: Moses offers Weemala at half the auctioneer’s valuation of £7,000 (ADB); other donors including Hugh Dixson and Walter Hall circles
• Opening on this site: 10 April 1907 — accommodation for about 65 patients (ADB)
• Later names: NSW Home for Incurables → Royal Ryde Homes / Royal Rehab institutional lineage (agency histories)
• Fate: mansion/institutional fabric heavily altered; site chapters include later hospital buildings and residential redevelopment — do not describe a pristine 1880s house as standing

Site & setting

Elevated Ryde estate large enough (ADB ~42 acres at offer) to reboot a statewide “incurables” home after the first city building was condemned (ADB: by 1906). Cooks/Parramatta River ridge geography; Aboriginal Country: Wallumedegal / Ryde river clans — acknowledge at publish. Later hospital and apartment landscapes overwrite the Moses garden reading.

Timeline

• 1900 – Schardt’s city home for destitute invalids opens (ADB; earlier Commonwealth Home naming variants in agency histories).
• By 1906 – First home condemned after housing ~50 inmates (ADB).
• 1 Jun 1906 context – Public meeting pathway; Sir Henry Moses offers Weemala at half £7,000 valuation (ADB).
• 10 Apr 1907 – New Home for Incurables officially opened at Weemala; ~65 patients (ADB).
• 1907–1934 – Schardt fundraising lectures across NSW; dies at Ryde in the institution she founded, 9 Oct 1934 (ADB).
• 20th century – Expansion as Royal Ryde Homes / rehabilitation lineage (Royal Rehab group histories; Ryde local history “Places” notes).
• Later alterations / redevelopment – Institutional rebuilding and eventual apartment chapters on parts of the estate (local/press notes — verify dates before hard captions).
• Today – Name survives in institutional memory and Blue Plaques / ADB biography; Moses mansion fabric is not a simple standing house museum.

Architecture & interiors

Private mansion scale implied by acreage and patient conversion; detailed 1880s room schedules were not secured in this pass — prefer historic photographs already on the live post and any Ryde Local Studies measured notes over invention. Institutional wards, laundries and later hospital blocks are a different architecture again; caption by phase.

People & anecdotes

Susan Schardt — Queanbeyan-born founder; Methodist networks; relentless country lecturer with companion Beatrice Ricketts; raised tens of thousands of pounds for incurables’ and cancer care (ADB). Sir Henry Moses — offered the Ryde mansion that made the 1907 reboot possible. Governors Rawson / philanthropists Dixson, Hall and others appear in the ADB subscription story. Read “incurables” language as historical institutional vocabulary.

What stands today

Treat Weemala as an institutional estate story, not a intact Moses drawing-room tour. Parts of the broader rehabilitation campus lineage continued on Ryde land; apartment redevelopment has claimed mansion/hospital layers. Use live historic photos as the mansion/early-home record; verify any claim that specific 1907 rooms survive before stating fabric survival.

Sources & further reading

• Australian Dictionary of Biography — Susan Katherina Schardt: https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/schardt-susan-katherina-8352
• NSW Blue Plaques — Susan Schardt (Environment & Heritage)
• City of Ryde — 150 Years / Places (Weemala / Home of Incurables notes)
• Royal Rehab Group — institutional history pages (name lineage)
• Trove — search: Weemala Ryde; Home for Incurables Ryde; “Henry Moses” Weemala; Susan Schardt

Related on this blog

• Other Ryde / Hunter’s Hill river-ridge mansions as published
• Sydney philanthropic institution houses (different sites) — keep names distinct

Preserve live historic photographs; add ADB/Ryde Local Studies images with captions and credits.

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“Lauriston” - Ryde

 “Lauriston”  Bowden Street & Victoria Road - Ryde - New South Wales  

“Lauriston” was built in the 1880’s  by James Johnson And Phillipina Shuttleworth and was located on the corner of Bowden Street And Victoria Road, Ryde. 

James, an Architect, was related to Albert Bond, the Architect Of Choice for Anthony Horderns. 

The interior was ornately decorated and it had a ballroom reputed to be, the most beautiful around Sydney. 

James turned the grounds into a bird sanctuary. In 1916 the property was subdivided and “Lauriston” was sold to Alfred and Jane Gorrie. Their Daughter Irex, a Dancing [Note: the post breaks off here. City of Ryde continues: Irex, a dancing teacher, conducted lessons in the ballroom “with a special class for married folk”. The house fell into disrepair after World War II when it was turned into flats, and was demolished in 1959; a motel now stands on the site.] 

At a glance

• Location: corner of Bowden Street and Victoria Road, (West) Ryde
• Built: 1880s for James Johnson (architect) and Philippina Shuttleworth
• Features: ornately decorated interiors; a ballroom “reputed to be the most beautiful around Sydney”; grounds made a bird sanctuary
• Later: subdivided 1916 and sold to Alfred and Jane Gorrie; their daughter Irex ran dancing classes in the ballroom; flats after World War II
• Fate: demolished 1959; site now the Metro Motor Inn

Sources

• City of Ryde – Demolished Houses of the Parramatta River
• City of Ryde – 150 Years: Places

More on Lauriston

Merged from the 2024 post “Lauriston – Corner Bowden Street & Victoria Road – Ryde – NSW”.

• Traditional Custodians: Wallumedegal / Wallumattagal people of the Eora Nation (Ryde area).
• 1930: a photograph of the Victoria Road / Bowden Street intersection, taken during tram-track works, shows Lauriston on the right (Ryde Library, City of Ryde “Progress” page).
• On the demolition in 1959 the Sydney Morning Herald wrote: “every week brings news of the dismantling of another gracious old Sydney home. One more to fall beneath the wrecker’s sledgehammer is Lauriston.” The Leader added: “its gracious day is nearly over.” A Shuttleworth daughter recalled: “I remember the years when it was cool, shady, graceful, lovely. Its ballroom was a joy…” (quoted by City of Ryde).
• Not to be confused with the different Lauriston still standing at 49 The Boulevarde, Strathfield (now part of Santa Sabina / Santa Maria del Monte).

Further sources

• City of Ryde – Demolished Houses of the Parramatta River: https://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-and-Family-History/Historic-Ryde/Historic-Buildings/Demolished-Houses-of-the-Parramatta-River
• City of Ryde – 150 Years: Progress (1930 intersection photo): https://www.ryde.nsw.gov.au/Library/Local-and-Family-History/150-Years-of-the-City-of-Ryde/Progress