thomas barker estate: maryland & lowe’s birling...thomas barker estate: maryland &...

Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowe’s Birling

773-975 The Northern Road, Bringelly, NSW

Conservation Management Plan

prepared for the NSW Department of Planning and Environment

via

Macarthur Developments Pty Ltd

February 2017 REF: 1425: CMP

Issue 07 DRAFT

Tropman & Tropman Architects Architecture Conservation Landscape Interiors Urban Design Interpretation

55 Lower Fort Street Sydney NSW 2000 Phone: (02) 9251 3250 Fax: (02) 9251 6109 Website: www.tropmanarchitects.com.au Email: [email protected]

TROPMAN AUSTRALIA PTY LTD ABN 71 088 542 885 INCORPORATED IN NEW SOUTH WALES Lester Tropman Architects Registration: 3786 John Tropman Architects Registration: 5152

http://www.tropmanarchitects.com.au/

mailto:[email protected]

Tropman & Tropman Architects Conservation Management Plan Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowe’s Birling

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Report Register

The following table is a report register tracking the issues of the Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowe’s Birling Conservation Management Plan prepared by Tropman & Tropman Architects. Tropman & Tropman Architects operate under a quality management system, and this register is in compliance with this system.

Project Ref No.

Issue No.

Description Prepared by

Approved by

Issue To Issue Date

1425:CMP 01 PRELIMINARY DRAFT Conservation Management Plan

Joanne Rogers

Lester Tropman

Lester Tropman Via Email

29th April 2015

1425:CMP 02 DRAFT Conservation Management Plan

Joanne Rogers

Lester Tropman

Lester Tropman Via Email

30th Sept 2015


Joanne Rogers

Nica Javadi

Lester Tropman

Client Via Email

August 2016


Joanne Rogers

Nica Javadi

Lester Tropman

Client Via Email

September 2016


Joanne Rogers

Lester Tropman

Client Via Email

10th

February 2017


Joanne Rogers

Nica Javadi

Lester Tropman

Client Via Email

22nd

February 2017


Joanne Rogers

Nica Javadi

Lester Tropman

Client Via Email

23rd

February 2017


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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Conservation Management Plan for Maryland

This Conservation Management Plan for Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowes Birling has been prepared for the NSW Department of Planning and Environment via Macarthur Developments Pty Ltd. The overall aim of this Conservation Management Plan is to review and update the existing documentation of the property and bring it into a Conservation Management Plan, investigate and analyse the physical evidence available to formulate a statement of cultural significance, and to provide management guidelines to enable this significance to be retained in future use and development.

The main points of this study can be understood by reading the following sections of the report.

Analysis of Documentary and Physical Evidence (Section 4.0)

This study in brief concludes that Maryland and Birling is in fair condition. The physical alterations to the buildings can be understood.

It is critical that any works at the site be documented and implemented in a way that allows for the retention in-situ of the maximum amount of existing significant fabric. .


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Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ..................................................................................................................................... ii 1.0 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1 Brief .................................................................................................................................................. 5 1.2 Study Area ....................................................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................... 6 1.4 Limitations........................................................................................................................................ 6 1.5 Author Identification ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.6 Terminology ..................................................................................................................................... 6 1.7 Previous reports, available information and background material .......................................... 6

2.0 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE – HISTORICAL CONTEXT .............................................................. 17 2.1 INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 17 2.2 More numerous than expected – inland Aborigines of New South Wales ........................... 18 2.3 John Dickson: A Favoured Immigrant ....................................................................................... 21 2.4 Thomas Barker – apprentice engineer to public figure ........................................................... 29 2.5 Thomas Charles Barker Esquire, Maryland, Bringelly 1863-1940 ........................................ 36 2.6 Ninian Alan Thomson – Maryland, company director’s retreat .............................................. 39 2.7 Elizabeth and Annette (Annie) Thomson – dairy farmers of Maryland ................................. 40 2.8 New owners for Maryland 2009-2013........................................................................................ 43 2.9 Select Bibliography....................................................................................................................... 44 2.10 An Extract from Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser Monday 6th July 1840 ........ 46 2.11 1847 Mapping of Dickson’s Holdings ........................................................................................ 47 2.12 Historical information on Birling & Dowdell’s Farm .................................................................. 48

3.0 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE .......................................................................................................................... 51 3.1 Periods of Development .............................................................................................................. 51 3.1.1 Pre European Settlement ............................................................................................................ 51 3.1.2 The Cow Pastures ........................................................................................................................ 51 3.2 Estate Landscape ......................................................................................................................... 56 3.3 Subject Site Setting ...................................................................................................................... 64 3.4 Subject Site – Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland ..................................................................... 68 3.5 Subject Buildings .......................................................................................................................... 75 3.6 Garden & Cultural Landscape .................................................................................................... 93 3.7 Archaeology .................................................................................................................................. 96

4.0 ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTARY AND PHYSICAL EVIDENCE ................................................. 108 4.1 Analysis of Documentary Evidence ........................................................................................ 108 4.2 Analysis of Physical Evidence ................................................................................................. 126 4.3 Comparative Analysis ............................................................................................................... 128

Appendix B Owners of the Maryland Estate and Chronology of Ownership by Rosemary Broomham

Appendix C Plans and Site Cross Sections by Various Surveyors

Appendix D Lowes Creek Maryland Landscape & Visual Analysis by Inspire Urban Design &

Planning.


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1.0 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Brief

This Conservation Management Plan for Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowes Birling has been prepared for the NSW Department of Planning and Environment via Macarthur Developments Pty Ltd. The overall aim of this Conservation Management Plan is to review and update the existing information and prepare a Conservation Management Plan, investigate and analyse the physical evidence available to formulate a statement of cultural significance, and to provide management guidelines to enable this significance to be retained in future use and development.

This report follows the guidelines by Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter and The Conservation Plan by J. S. Kerr.

1.2 Study Area

For the purposes of this report the place, as defined in the Burra Charter, is to be known as the subject site or study area. Refer to figures 1 to 11.

1.2.1 Subject Site

The subject site is located at Lowes Creek The Northern Road, Bringelly. The rezoning covers an area of 517 hectares and is basically rectangular in shape with Lowes Creek running though the middle of the area. Maryland is comprised of Lot 1 of DP 218779 and Lot 29 of DP 872135. It is situated on the western side of The Northern Road and is roughly centrally located between Bringelly Road to the north and Cobbitty Road to the south. The Northern Road forms the majority of the eastern boundary with private properties to the west, south and the remainder of the eastern boundary, and Lowes Creek to the northern boundary of the property. Birling is North of Lowes Creek. Refer to figures 2 & 3 for historical context of Dickson’s land holdings in 1840.

1.2.2 Subject Buildings and Site Elements

Maryland is currently listed as an item of Local heritage significance but is in the process of being listed as a State item. The subject site contains Maryland House, a large single-storey early Colonial style homestead (commenced 1854, completed in 1860). The Maryland Estate contains the following structures and features: • Knoll and slopes used in the past for viticulture, pleasure and productive gardens• Lowes Creek– and other creeks and drainage lines• Bridges and causeways• Alluvial Flats• Dams – 5 in total (pre 1947 and later dams)• Entry drives: former North entry – Nonorrah Bringelly, Liverpool, South Entry – Cobbitty,

Camden (both no longer in use)• Farm tracks/gates- causeways• Paddocks and fencing for agrarian cropping, grazing and livestock management• Spatial arrangement and planning of the estate• Maryland Homestead (c1860) (Item 1)• Kitchen Wing and c1940 addition (c1856, c1940, c1970) (Item 2) (Homestead Outbuildings

Various)• Kitchen Store (c1856) (Item 3) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Meat House Octagonal (c1890) (Item 4) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Laundry (c1856) (Item 5) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) (Item 6)• Stone Guest House Servants (c1880) Stone Guest House Addition (c1970) (Item 7)• Garden Shed (c1920) (Item 34)• Swimming Pool (c1960) (Item 10)


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• Northern Gatehouse c1860,c1970,c1990 ) (Item 104)• Upper Gate House (c1860) (Item 14)• Former Entry Cottage (c1860-1970) (Item 20) and access road to southern boundary gate• Modern Cottage (c1970) (Item 18)• Quarry Sites on low range (Item 103) (abandoned)• Stone Winery, Stone Winery Store and Winery Underground Cistern (Item 8,9 & 33)• Farmyard buildings, shedding and structures (this area links with Birling across the

causeway on Lowes Creek).• Pony Club infrastructure bridges, jumps etc. (not in use)

Birling currently consists of the c1812 Homestead Estate site having archaeological potential, farm buildings, associated with research facilities and a c1937 Homestead used for offices.

• Gentle undulating topography sloping from northern ridge to alluvial flats and LowesCreek. Covered with perennial pasture.

• Prominent spur topography over looking Lowes Creek used for locating/developingc1812 Robert Lowe’s Estate Birling.

• Drainage lines with Dams.• 1837 rural homestead set on northern ridge line with views to Lowes Creek and

Maryland Estate & Villa.• 1937 Stables & c1970’s cottage with outbuildings built over c1812 Birling Homestead

Estate location. Refer to figures 9- 11.• Potential Archaeological remains.• Agricultural shedding from c1950 to 1990 used for animal and veterinary research.• 1990 Cottage adjacent to 1937 House.

1.3 Methodology

The method follows that set out in the NSW Heritage Manual and Assessing Heritage Significance documents provided by the NSW Heritage Branch and is in accordance with the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter and The Conservation Plan by J. S. Kerr.

1.4 Limitations

No intervention to fabric was undertaken.

1.5 Author Identification

TROPMAN & TROPMAN ARCHITECTS: Lester Tropman Director, Heritage Conservation Architect Nica Javadi Project Officer

SUBCONSULTANTS: Joanne Rogers Project Manager (Heritage/Interpretation) Rosemary Broomham Historian/Archaeologist Tony Lowe Historical Archaeological Assessment dated September 2016 Nick Pitt Historical Archaeological Assessment dated September 2016

1.6 Terminology

The terminology used in this report follows the conservation terms as used in the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter.

1.7 Previous reports, available information and background material

This report has been prepared with the use of the following references:


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• Tropman & Tropman Architects, Maryland Estate Preliminary European Heritage Assessment for Curtilage, November 2014

• Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly, Lowes Creek Maryland Part (Precinct), Rezoning, September 2016

• Britten and Morris, Colonial Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain, 2000 • Australia ICOMOS 2000, Australia ICOMOS Charter for the Conservation of Cultural

Significance (The Burra Charter) and Guidelines to the Burra Charter: Cultural Significance, Conservation Policy, and Undertaking Studies and Reports, Australia ICOMOS, ACT.

• Heritage Office 1996, Conservation Management Documents, Heritage Office, Sydney. Revised 2002.

• Heritage Office 2001, Assessing Heritage Significance, Heritage Office, Sydney. • Kerr, James Semple 2000, The Conservation Plan, National Trust of Australia (NSW),

Sydney.

Note: Unless otherwise stated, all images are by the authors and were taken during the course of this study.

Refer also to the Bibliography in Section 2.9 (pg.44-45) of this report.

Figure 1: Contextual location map showing the subject site in relation to Narellan. Google maps.

Not to scale. N

Subject Site


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Figure 2: Plan of John Dickson’s landholdings in the Narellan/Bringelly area advertised for sale in 1840. Study area, scale and MGA aligned north arrow added. SLNSW Z/M2 811.113/1840/1A, digital order no. c012220001. Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly, Lowes Creek Maryland Part (Precinct), Rezoning, September 2016.

Birling c1812

Maryland


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Figure 3: Aerial photo with cadastral lots and other features added. Study area outlined in blue. SIX Maps, NSW Imagery (date taken 04-01-2014),© Land and Property Information (NSW). Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly, Lowes Creek Maryland Part (Precinct), Rezoning, September 2016.


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Figure 4: Map showing Lowes Creek Maryland Precinct shaded in red, with late 19th-century farm property boundaries added. Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly, Lowes Creek Maryland Part (Precinct), Rezoning, September 2016.


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Maryland Homestead

Homestead Building Complex

Farm/Cottage south- west Building Complex

Farm/Dairy north-east Building Complex

Engine Shed and

associated shedding

Figure 5: Buildings at Maryland. SIX Maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au N

Northern Gatehouse (Item 104)

N Figure 5a: Northern Gatehouse former entry drive at Maryland. Google Maps

http://www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au/


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N

Figure 6: Detail of the homestead complex at Maryland. SIX Maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au

Item No.

Legend

1 Maryland Homestead (c1850, c1860, c1940 and c1945) 2 Detached Kitchen (c1856, c1940s, c1970) (Maryland Homestead) 3 Kitchen Store (c1856) (Homestead Outbuildings Various) 4 Meat House Octagonal (c1890) (Homestead Outbuildings Various) 5 Laundry (c1856) (Homestead Outbuildings Various) 6 Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) 7 Stone Guest House (c1880, c1970) 8 Stone Winery (c1860) 9 Stone Winery Store (c1870) 10 Swimming Pool (c1960) 11 Underground Cistern (c1860) 33 Winery Underground Cistern (c1860) 50 Formal Lawn 51 Arrival Lawn 52 Utility Court 53 Recreational Court 101 Vineyard Slopes

52 51

11

33 53 50

10

101



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Figure 7: Detail of the homestead and associated buildings as well as the winery buildings, poultry sheds and amenities sheds and cottages to the south-west of the homestead complex at Maryland. SIX Maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au N

Item No.

Legend

12 Poultry (duck) Shed (c1960) 13 Amenity Shed (c1960) 14 Upper Gate House (c1860) 15 Poultry Shed (c1960) 16 Poultry Shed (c1960) 17 Poultry Shed (c1960) 18 Modern Cottage (c1970) 19 Metal Shed (c1970) 20 Former Entry Cottage (c1860-c1970) 34 Gardener’s Shed 54 Industrial Management Space 102 Track to South Boundary 103 Quarries (not shown on image) 104 Northern Gatehouse

12 101

104 Track to Northern

54 34

13 15 16 17

14

18

19

20

102 & 103 Track to South Boundary and Quarries



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Figure 8: Detail of the dairy/farm building complex to the north-east of the homestead at Maryland. SIX Maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au N

Item No.

Legend Item No.

Legend

21 Early Farm Managers Cottage (c1855 c1860)

28 Early Timber Slab Stables (c1945)

22 Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956)

29 Step up Dairy and Livestock yards (c1970)

23 Cattle Shelter 30 Stables and splayed yards (c1970) 24 Early and Later Milking

Sheds (c1961) 31 Tack Room/Shed (c1970)

25 Machinery Shed (c1900) 32 Hayshed (c1970) 26 Tool Shed (c1965) 60 Horse Management Space, Tree 1 and

Tree 2 27 Stone Stables and Coach

House (c1860) 61 Cattle Management Space

22 21

23 61

25 24 26

27

60 28

29

31

30

32

Tree 2 Tree 1



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Birling c1937 Homestead

Birling c1812 Site

N Figure 9: Birling 2016 Aerial view. Google Maps.www.google.com.au

Figure 10: Birling c1937 Homestead 2016 Aerial view. Google Maps.www.google.com.au N


http://www.google.com.au/



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N

Figure 11: Detail of Birling c1812 Site with a number modern buildings including 1937 Stables now abandoned. 2016 Aerial view from Google Maps.www.google.com.au



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2.0 DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE – HISTORICAL CONTEXT

This section was prepared by Rosemary Broomham, consultant historian/archaeologist, during the course of this study.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

Figure 12: Maryland is on The Northern Road [Route 18] about half-way between Narellan and Luddenham. Google Maps N

The property called Maryland is a remnant of a 3,000 acre grant that Governor Macquarie issued to John Dickson, an engineer who emigrated to New South Wales in 1813. Dickson’s land occupied a prominent position, east of Cobbitty in the Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland. It was surrounded by several other large grants to men who were regarded as settlers of the ‘superior class’.

Perhaps because of its position high above The Northern Road and the land surrounding it, perhaps because of its simple colonial style, Maryland homestead has been perceived as a fabled place by several writers through the years but few understood its heritage. Having written many stories about significant houses, G. Nesta Griffiths provided this description of Maryland in 1956.

Maryland stands high on its hill, overlooking the lovely sloping country around Bringelly and Cobbitty. To the north lie Wallacia and Mulgoa on the road to Penrith. To the south the rich pastures of Camden, all historic ground. A charming gatehouse of slightly later date than the old house guards the entrance to a steep drive where grand old trees give shade and shelter.’1

Nesta Griffiths presented a romantic view of Maryland’s history that has confused later researchers. She believed that the grantee John Dickson had given his daughter Joanna ‘part

1 G. Nesta Griffiths, Maryland, Bringelly, 4-page typed MS signed ‘G. Nesta Griffiths June 1956’, SLNSW

Maryland


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of his Bringelly farm up on the hill henceforth known as Maryland’ as a wedding gift. However, Joanna, was not John Dickson’s daughter, but his niece and she did not receive a gift of land when she married his former apprentice, Thomas Barker in 1823.

Another enduring source of confusion has been the idea that John Dickson’s homestead on Nonorrah was on the same site where Maryland was built in the late 1850s and that the later house had part of the of the Nonorrah homestead within its walls. Several factors made this impossible.

The first was the construction of The Northern Road, shown on some early maps as ‘The Great North Road’ or ‘North Road’. This road was made some time between ca. 1826, when a surveyor drew a map titled ‘Parts of the Districts of Bringelly, Minto and Cook’, and 1834 when the map of the Cobbitty District was made. [See Figure 12]. This road divided John Dickson’s grant so that the site of Nonorrah homestead was on the eastern side of the road and the site of Maryland was on the western side.

The second major impediment to the idea that Thomas Barker built Maryland on the remains of Nonorrah (also spelt ‘Nonorah’ and ‘Nonnorrah’) homestead was that Thomas Barker did not ever own the site of Nonorrah.

A third misunderstanding was that while Thomas Barker was one of the trustees of Dickson’s assets after he left New South Wales and returned to England, Barker never lived on Nonorrah as a manager or in any other capacity. Any supervision or maintenance he organised for the property was done from Sydney.

A fourth problem has been created by some researchers relying on second-hand versions of information rather than the primary sources. This is particularly noticeable in relation to the information gleaned from David Lindsay Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837. As this publication is a selection of letters rather than a diary, it is difficult to discern the time and place of Waugh’s scattered comments about particular properties and even more confusing second hand.

An additional problem with these letters is that those extracts published in local newspapers may not be exactly identical to those released in book form.

This history of Maryland aims to avoid conjecture by relying on primary sources wherever possible, and, in particular, through a careful study of the relevant land title records.

2.2 More numerous than expected – inland Aborigines of New South Wales

The Europeans called the Aborigines who lived near Maryland the Cowpastures tribe; they were also identified as Dharawal, a description based on their language. Their territory covered an area between Botany Bay and the Shoalhaven River and they travelled widely in the south- western regions of the counties of Cumberland and Camden. Further inland were the Dharug people whose area covered land from the Hawkesbury River to places as far west as the mountains and south to Camden and Picton.2

James Cook’s belief, that most Aboriginal people lived near the coast because they depended on a seafood diet, was proved wrong as soon as early European exploration parties moved away from Sydney Cove. They discovered that inland Aborigines lived on small animals such as possums, ‘vegetable roots and native fruit seeds and berries, with mullet, eel and kangaroo as supplements’.3

2 Carol Liston, Campbelltown. The Bicentennial History, Council of the City of Campbelltown with Allen & Unwin Australia, Pty Ltd, North Sydney, 1988, p 1 3 Robert Murray and Kate White, Dharug to Dungaree. The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Harreen Publishing Company with the City of Penrith,1988, p 20


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From the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the official policy towards the indigenous people was conflicted. Although Governor Phillip had been advised to treat the original inhabitants with amity and kindness, as early as the third year of European occupation, he sent a punitive expedition to kill ten aborigines in revenge for the murder of his gamekeeper.4 Another Aborigine, Coleby, identified the warrior Pemulwy as the culprit and Phillip chose Watkin Tench to lead a party of soldiers to the land around the head of Botany Bay where Pemulwy was believed to live. Tench was able to persuade Phillip to lower the number of Aborigines captured or killed from ten to six. However, on two expeditions, he and his men were unable to find any Aboriginals at all.5

Settlers in the Parramatta area shot Pemulwy in 1802 but his son Tedbury continued his father’s war against the European invaders in 1805 and again in 1809 when Young Bundle helped him terrorise settlers near the Cook and Georges Rivers. Lieutenant governors and governors from 1790 vacillated between fleeting sympathy for Aborigines and ordering settlers to arm themselves and fire on them. Macquarie, who arrived in 1810, tried to encourage Aborigines to settle on land like Europeans but they were loath to do so.

2.2.1 The Cowpastures Frontier

Europeans first entered the district known as the Cowpastures in 1795 when Aboriginals reported finding a herd of cattle there. These animals bred from the five that escaped from Farm Cove in 1788. By the time they were located, the herd had grown to 61 animals grazing on the south-west bank of the Nepean River. Aboriginal people knew the place as Baragil or Baragal but Governor Hunter called it the Cowpastures. Captain Waterhouse described it in a letter to John Macarthur in 1804.

After crossing the Nepean to the foot of what is called the Blue Mountains I am at a loss to describe the face of the country other than as a beautiful park, totally divested of underwood, interspersed with plains, with rich, luxuriant grass; but for want of burning off, rank, except where recently burnt. This is the part where the cattle that have strayed are constantly fed – of course, their own selection...it appears that some meadows bordering on the banks of the Nepean River are evidently at times overflowed from the river; but it is not very common and cannot be done without sufficient time to drive away any stock if common attention is paid.6

The area appealed to Europeans because there was little undergrowth to discourage the lush grasses that made it ideal for grazing cattle on the flats and possibly sheep on the hills towards the Razorback Range. Governors Hunter, King and Bligh ruled against European settlement on the Cowpastures, which was south-west of the Nepean River and outside the County of Cumberland. Even the north-eastern bank of the Nepean, opposite Cowpastures was deliberately kept from aspiring settlers, perhaps because of its remoteness.

Having withdrawn a number of grants by Lt Governors Foveaux and Paterson when he restored order after the New South Wales Corps coup against Governor Bligh, Macquarie had James Meehan survey the Cook District (later Cook Parish) in the County of Cumberland opposite the Cowpastures to prepare it for settlement. Some of the grants he made there were of modest size but most were generous.

4 Captain Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, Library of Australian History, 1979 edition, pp 209-16 5 Ibid, pp 209-214 6 Cited in Robert Murray, Kate White, Dharug and Dungaree: The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Hargreen Publishing Company with Council of the City of Penrith, North Melbourne, 1988, p 183


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Figure 13: The settlements identified on John Booth’s map of the settlements in New South Wales in 1810, were A Northern Boundaries. B Liberty Plains, C Banks Town, D Parramatta, E Ground reserved for Government Purposes (four reserves), F Concord, G Petersham, H Bulanaming I Sydney, K Hunters Hill, L Eastern Farms, M Field of Mars, N Ponds, O Toongabbie, P Prospect, Q Dundas [?], R Richmond Hill, S Green Hills, T Phillip, U Nelson, V Castle Hill and W illegible. The roughly shaped rectangles on the upper left side of the map on the Cowpasture Plains were the two grants to Macarthur and one to his friend Davidson. Most of the land north of the river was vacant. SLNSW

2.2.2 Conflict on the Southern Frontier

From 1814 a drought led to serious violence in the more remote southern parts of the County of Cumberland. Lack of their traditional food brought Aborigines from the south coast and Gandangara from the mountains to raid the settlers’ crops. In Appin, three members of the Veteran Company militia fired on natives who were taking corn. The Aborigines retaliated. Too wounded to flee from their spears one militia man was abandoned and his body was found later without one of its hands. The Europeans avenged this death with unmitigated violence, murdering a woman and two children in their sleep and mutilating their bodies. These acts brought more Aboriginal retaliation. The following day they killed Mrs Macarthur’s Camden stock keepers. More aggressive than the local Dharawal, Aborigines from Jervis Bay and the mountains gathered in the Cowpastures in late May. It was rumoured that they no longer feared guns and would kill all white people. Two servants speared to death at Broughton’s farm at Appin in June, and the murder of James Daley’s children at Bringelly in July, lent credence to that rumour.7 A party led by two Campbelltown men failed to capture the culprits.

In 1816 Aboriginal raiders killed four of G. T. Palmer’s men and three of Mrs Macarthur’s servants. A large party of farmers armed with muskets, pistols, pitchforks and pikes approached the Aborigines at Camden but were forced to flee when spears and stones rained down on them. The deaths of five more whites from Aboriginal attacks made Macquarie plan severe reprisals. He ordered soldiers to arrest all Aborigines in the southern districts. In April Lieutenant Dawes and the soldiers sent to capture Cowpastures Aborigines fired on them as they tried to flee, killing an unspecified number and leading to the capture an innocent boy.

7 Carol Liston, op cit, pp 19-20


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Governor Macquarie sent Captain James Wallis to Airds and Appin with armed soldiers. In this war, Macquarie did not distinguish between the friendly and non-friendly Aborigines but some settlers actively protected their Dharawal friends. Their attitude enraged Wallis who had fruitlessly led his force to Minto, only to find that the person calling for help was no longer there. He then turned back to Appin and found the Aboriginal camp at Broughton’s farm abandoned.8

A child’s cry was heard in the bush, Wallis formed his men into a line and pushed through the thick bush towards a deep rocky gorge. Dogs barked in alarm and the soldiers started to shoot. It was moonlight and the soldiers could see figures bounding from rock to rock. Some Aborigines were shot, some met their death by rushing in despair over the cliffs. Two women and three children were all who remained ‘to whom death would not be a blessing’. Fourteen had died.9

Some bodies were hauled up the cliff and hung from trees on Broughton’s farm as a warning to others. Some were never recovered. The captured women and children were taken to Liverpool. As Carol Liston states in her history of Campbelltown, ‘The Appin massacre is traditionally remembered as the annihilation of the Aboriginal people of Campbelltown’.10

Wallis continued to search fruitlessly for Aborigines along the Georges River. He then joined other contingents at Narellan and they marched together to the Wingecarribee district. They spent another month patrolling but failed to find any of the wanted Aboriginals. Macquarie then issued a proclamation in May 1816 forbidding ‘gatherings of armed Aborigines within one mile of farms and villages.

After the frontier conflict of 1816 the Dharawal stayed in the Cowpastures under the protection of the Macarthurs. The family maintained friendly contact with them. They had surveyor James Meehan mark out some land at Camden Park for any who wished to live there. This action allowed a form of tribal life to continue and corroborees were held there and at Denham Court when other Aborigines visited.11

2.3 John Dickson: A Favoured Immigrant

John Dickson was a Scottish engineer who trained with his father John, who may have worked with the famous engineers Watt and Rennie. Born in 1774, he obtained his first patent for ‘steam engines, pumps and other hydraulic machines in 1798’ and gained a second for his design of ‘a stop cock’ for steam ten years later. 12

Dickson’s application to settle in New South Wales was received enthusiastically by the Colonial Office which recommended him to Governor Macquarie in advance of his arrival. Lord Goulburn wrote in November 1812, ‘Mr Dickson is possessed of considerable property and is an excellent engineer and millwright’. He instructed Macquarie to grant Dickson land in town and in the interior ‘and allow him all the privileges and encouragement which have usually been given to settlers of a superior class’, an order duplicated by Goulburn’s Under-Secretary the following April.13 Dickson’s steam engine from his factory in Southwark travelled to Sydney ahead of him in the Fortune.14

Macquarie reported Dickson’s arrival in the convict transport Earl Spencer on 9 October 1813 and wrote in more detail in 1814, about granting Dickson of ‘a liberal portion of land, namely three thousand acres...and ten government men on the stores’ for 18 months (see Figure 15).

8 Appin Airds and Minto are south of Cook Parish. See Figure 11 9 Carol Liston, op cit, pp 22-3 10 Ibid, p 23 11 Ibid 12 G. P. Walsh, ‘Dickson , John (1774-1843)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) Vol 1, p 306 13 Goulburn to Macquarie, 23 November 1812, HRA I, 7, p 677; Goulburn’s Under Secretary to Macquarie, 6 April 1813, HRA I, 7, pp 699-700 14 Goulburn to Macquarie, 23 November 1812, HRA I, 7, p 677


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Macquarie also presented Dickson with ‘a most convenient and eligible situation in the Town of Sydney’ for his mills, steam engine and other machinery.15 The 15 acre site for the mill was west of Sussex Street, on the waterfront at the southern end of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour); a stream ran through it from Surry Hills. It included Dixon Street, the centre of present-day Chinatown. The grant was registered on 20 June 1816.16

Dickson’s prompt construction of flour and timber mills on his land persuaded Macquarie that the engineer was ‘a great acquisition to the colony’ because of his ‘considerable capital’, ‘enterprising spirit’ and ‘persevering industry’.17 An ‘impressive early industrial complex with its own wharf’, the mill was documented in Harper’s Survey of Sydney ca. 1823.18 However, by 1828 Dickson’s enterprise was struggling to become viable, leading him to engage in soap- making on a large scale in partnership with John Mackie. They used ‘soda’ extracted from mangroves around Sydney and Botany Bay. This short-lived partnership also established a brewery near the flour mill but broke up in 1829, the year that Dickson obtained a mortgage from Richard Jones, President of the Bank of New South Wales. Dickson added to his mill in 1831 but advertised the whole complex for sale in July 1833.19

2.3.1 Nonorrah, John Dickson’s country estate

Dickson named his land in the Parish of Cook, Nonorrah and with the help of his convict labourers, promptly cleared some of the land. Apparently he ran a stud there. The Sydney Gazette advertised a Stallion ‘Contractor’ at John Dickson’s Farm Nonorrah available to mares at £3 per time and 5 shillings to the groom on Thursday, 18 September 1823.

The 1828 census listed Dickson’s properties as 17,000 acres of land in the Counties of Cumberland and Argyle including 15,000 acres cleared and 300 cultivated. Among the County of Cumberland properties he acquired were Netherbyres, Orielton, Moorfield and Eastwood, which together formed a diagonal line from Bringelly Road in the north to beyond Cobbitty Road in the south. At that time he owned 3000 cattle and 2000 sheep.20 However, the problems with his steam mills are reflected in the ‘Unlimited Mortgage’ he established to borrow £2,066. 5sh. 2p at 10 per cent per annum from Richard Jones on 1 April 1829 using all his landholdings as security – the 15a 3r 4p in Cockle Bay; Nonorrah Farm in the District of Cook; 500 ac in Bankstown; and Scotland Island, Pitt Water.21

By the early 1830s, the situation had worsened. Dickson ordered the sale of 600 Red Devon dairy cows, 50 heifers aged two to three years, twenty Red Devon bulls and fifteen ‘excellent horses’ on Friday and Saturday 7 and 8 February 1834.22 That, together with the divestment of his industrial assets and land in town signalled his return to England in 1834. Before doing so, he appointed three friends Thomas Barker, George Muckle, and Alexander Berry and his brother James Dickson, to sell and dispose of his real estate and effects ‘to pay his just debts and maintain and educate’ the three sons and four daughters from his relationship with his housekeeper, Susannah Martin.23 He revoked this trust on 14 August 1838 and entrusted the disposal of his Cowpasture Properties to Matthew Dysart Hunter the following day. Dickson made his home in Brook Street, Holborn, London where he died on 23 May 1843.24

15 Macquarie to Bathurst, 1814, HRA I, 8, p 159 16 PA 14468, LPI 17 Macquarie to Bathurst, 1814, HRA I, 8, p 159 18 Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’, September 2002, p.2 19 Darling to Huskisson, 18 April 1828, HRA I, p 128 20 G. P. Walsh, op cit 21 PA 14468, Old System No 169 Bk F, LPI 22 Sydney Herald, 20 January 1834; Sydney Gazette advertised a further sale of 800 dairy cows, heifers, bulls and steers of the Durham breed on 7 September 1837, Trove Newspapers 23 PA 14468, Old System No 430 Bk H 24 G. P. Walsh, op cit; Sale Dickson to M. D. Hunter 15 August 1838; Dickson appointed son-in-laws W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore Power of Attorney


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Figure 14: This map showing the extent of European settlement by 1820 is from Manning Clark’s History of Australia Volume 1. It shows the Cowpastures southwest of the Nepean River in the new County of Camden. Dickson’s Nonorrah was in Cook Parish on the other side of the river west of South Creek. Minto, Airds and Appin where most of the southern frontier war was fought are the most southerly parishes in the County of Cumberland.


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Figure 15: Dickson’s (Dixon’s) 3000 acre estate Nonorrah, in the centre of this map of Cobbitty District in 1834, is only matched in size by Alexander Riley’s Raby. The Cobbitty District later became Cook Parish, Co Cumberland. SLNSW N


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Figure 16: This plan of the Cowpasture Estates advertised the sale of land that John Dickson owned in the Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland before he left the colony. On his abrupt departure from New South Wales, Dickson gave Power of Attorney to four friends – Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle and Alexander Berry – to sell the estates. He later transferred the land to his agent M. D. Hunter. With the roads marked red, this plan records the official subdivision of Dickson’s land in Cook. SLNSW N


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Approximate location of subject estate

Figure 17: In this 1847 version of the Plan of the Cowpasture Estates, the numbers show the allotments remaining after Moorfield and Orielton had been sold. However, the configuration of the Nonorrah Lots 6 to 10 is incorrect. SLNSW N


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Figure 18: In this detail of the Plan of the Cowpasture Estates from 1840, the site of Nonorrah homestead is clearly shown in Lot 1, on the eastern side of The Northern Road. Lot 7, the site of Barker’s Maryland, is on the western side. SLNSW N

2.3.2 Sale of Cowpasture Estates 1840 – 1854

A survey of John Dickson’s properties having been completed by 1840, Hunter attempted to sell all the farms he owned in the Parish of Cook on 16 July that year. For sale purposes the land was titled ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates, the property of M. D. Hunter, Esqr’ and the properties offered were Orielton, Nonorrah, Moorfield, Eastwood etc’.25 Orielton and Nonorrah were divided into smaller allotments to encourage buyers.

Sales were difficult to make as 1840 marked the beginning of a severe depression in New South Wales. However, Stephenson Atkin Bryant purchased the 87-acre property Moorfield and the 365-acre Lot 1 of Nonorrah, which had the homestead on it, taking out a mortgage of £2000 with Matthew Hunter on 13 July 1842, the purchase being confirmed on 28 July.26 A detailed description of Lot 1 accompanied the sale notices.

This 365-acre allotment ‘well-watered by South Creek and Lowes Creek’ contained Nonorrah homestead – ‘a substantial verandahed Cottage, containing six rooms, excellent hall, butler’s pantry, detached kitchen, brick-built store secure with iron-bound windows, dairy, cheese house, with several lever presses’. The land comprised eight cleared paddocks but also boasted ‘extensive and excellent stabling sufficient for sixteen horses, coach house, pig styes, commodious sheds for various purposes, stock and milking yards, men’s house [with] shingled roof...and an orchard of about 2½ acres.27

25 Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser 16 July 1840, Trove Newspapers 26 PA 14468, Old System No 439 Bk 2; PA 14468, Old System No 438 Bk 2 27 Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July 1840

Approximate location of Birling Homestead c1812 Approximate location of

Maryland Homestead constructed in c1860

Location of Nonorrah Homestead


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Hunter and Bryant sold Moorfield to William Carr on 9 August and Hunter alone sold Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Nonorrah to Henry Clay Burnell on 27 August 1853. By that time, Bryant who had purchased Lot 1 earlier, owed M. D. Hunter £4,500 on his mortgage, which he was unable to pay.28

Figure 19: Lots 1 to 5 as marked on the plan of the Cowpasture Estates as sold to H. C. Burnell in 1853. No 160 Book 28 LPI N

Sarah Lowe, having inherited the adjacent farm Birling after the death of her husband Robert, purchased Lots 6 and 7 of Nonorrah on 31 July 1842, relying on a mortgage of £1,753 plus interest to secure the 674-acre property.29 The description of these allotments was as follows.

Immediately opposite the estate of Mrs. Lowe...lot six contains more than a mile frontage to the Great North Road [The Northern Road], and comprises in all three hundred and forty acres – all girdled, and bounded on the north by Lowes Creek to the extent of half a mile; lot 7 contains three hundred and thirty- three and a half acres, nearly all girdled, and possessing three quarters of a mile frontage to Lowe’s Creek; the views from this particular spot are admirable; it also contains a valley of rich dark soil.30

On 7 July 1854 M. D. Hunter, now in Scotland, sold Lots 6 and 7 to Thomas Barker for £1,600, an action which suggests that Sarah Lowe’s mortgage had been foreclosed.31

A 40-acre grant made to Michael Dowdell by Governor Macquarie on 25 August 1812 was surrounded on three sides by Lot 6 of the Cowpastures Estate. This land had been bequeathed to Elisa Cordelia Walker, the married daughter of the Reverend Rowland Hassall whose small property Coventry was a little to the east on the northern side of Lowes Creek. Dowdell’s farm had passed down to Elisa’s son, Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker who sold it to Thomas Barker on 17 December 1855.32 With its elevated knoll and extensive views, Lot 7 became the site of Thomas Barker’s ‘summit model’ homestead Maryland.

28 PA 14468, Old System No 911 Bk 27; PA 14468, Old System No 160, Bk 28 29 PA 14468 and associated Old System Files 30 The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July1840, Trove Newspapers 31 PA 14468 and associated Old System Files 32 Refer to Appendix, Table 1 part 4



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Figure 20: This detail, part of the plan of Lots 6 and 7 Cowpasture Estates, was attached to the conveyance from M. D. Hunter to Thomas Barker on 7 July 1854. However, it seems that the scale may be approximate. PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34, LPI N

2.4 Thomas Barker – apprentice engineer to public figure

Thomas Barker was an engineer, manufacturer, grazier and philanthropist. Born in 1799, he was orphaned at the age of nine, but his guardian organised his education at private schools before arranging his apprenticeship with the engineer John Dickson. He was sixteen when he came to New South Wales with Dickson on the Earl Spencer in 1813.

By his late twenties, Barker was regarded as a highly skilled engineer and millwright. With his partner John Smith, he erected two windmills near Elizabeth Point (later Darlinghurst) in 1826 on a grant he obtained there. A decade later he built his house Roslyn Hall on another grant of 16 acres of land nearby. Designed by the architect Ambrose Hallen, this grand villa was said to be ‘more like a palace’. He lived there with his first wife, John Dickson’s niece Joanna who he married in 1823 but there were no children from that marriage which ended when she died in 1851.

In 1828 Barker purchased Cooper and Levey’s steam flour mill next door to his Sussex Street house. The following year he purchased additional land to the west of his town properties, where Bathurst Street met the shore of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour).33 In 1831 he consolidated his freehold and leases there in a grant of more than 8 acres. Hoping to retire, he leased his mill to the partnership of his brother James Barker and Ambrose Hallen while he visited England and Europe. However, Barker and Hallen were early casualties of the severe 1840s depression so Thomas Barker had to resume control on his return in 1842. While the mill was in receivership David Lanarch purchased its assets for the low price of £25,000. The money was used to invest in new stock for the mills but three months later Lanarch entered a partnership with Thomas Barker.34

Like many others at this time, Barker created a residential subdivision of some of his land but, unable to sell many of the Sussex Street allotments, he partnered John Walker to use one of

33 G. P. Walsh, Barker, Thomas (1799-1875), ADB Vol 1, pp 57-8 34 Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’ from their ‘Cross City Tunnel Assessment’, September 2002, pp 8-9



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the mills for manufacturing tweed cloth. In 1848 he settled a five year lease with John Walker but, not long after making the agreement, he withdrew it. That was the year when his joint operation of the flour mill with Lanarch ended and he began another with his brother James.35 However, ‘they leased the cloth mill to Malcolm Macintyre Campbell in June 1859 and the flour mill to their nephews George William Barker and William Craddock Barker in 1860’.36 Eight years later, Thomas and James Barker ‘sold both their mills to their lessees’ and retired from milling altogether.37

In his description of Maryland, James Broadbent makes the point that Thomas Barker made a fortune in the early 1830s but, having done so, he spent his later years in serving the community. He ‘earned a reputation for his honesty and reliability in business matters and became a respected figure in public affairs’.38

Thomas Barker was one of the first to promote railways in New South Wales, sharing the cost of a survey for a line from Sydney to Goulburn by Thomas Woore. He was director and president of the Sydney Railway Company and became an honorary commissioner of railways after the New South Wales government assumed control in 1855. He held leading positions in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney and the Royal Exchange and was trustee for the Savings Bank of New South Wales. He was a magistrate from 1834 and a warden for the Sydney Council from 1843. He acted as secretary for the committee petitioning the Queen for a new Constitution, was a member of the Legislative Council from 1853-1856 and represented the counties of Gloucester and Macquarie in the Legislative Assembly from 1856-7.

Barker had an enduring interest in education. A loyal Presbyterian – he was an elder of St Andrew’s Scots Church and trustee of the Presbyterian Burial Ground, Devonshire Street – he opposed the introduction of the Irish National school system in 1836. Instead, he supported the Denominational School Board, Sydney College, Sydney Grammar School and the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts. He presented a £1,000 scholarship in Mathematics to the University of Sydney and contributed to a window for the Great Hall. He was trustee for the Sydney Bethel Union; the Destitute Children’s Asylum benefited from his philanthropy, and the Sydney Female Refuge Society received help from him and his wife, Joanna.39

2.4.1 Thomas Barker – mentor to young, single immigrants

Just after John Dickson had left New South Wales, a young Scot who wanted to settle in the colony – David Lindsay Waugh – wrote letters to his family and friends about his experiences. Extracts from these letters, published in the 1830s to encourage enterprising hardworking immigrants to come to New South Wales, have been used to provide information on Nonorrah and related properties.40

Waugh’s letters reveal a deeper sense of charity in Barker’s daily life. Waugh heard about Thomas Barker from an acquaintance he met on a ship from Hobart to Sydney. On his advice he visited Barker in his ‘splendid house on Sussex Street’ and enjoyed his hospitality for several days. He reported that Barker kept ‘a kind of open house for all the respectable young men of the town who were staying in lodgings. I got, through him, most respectable board and lodgings with Mr Bass, shipbuilder, Darling Harbour’.41 It seems that Barker acted a mentor to many young men. Waugh reported that he had been ‘at Mr Barker’s at least once or twice a day by his kind invitation’ and had met politicians such as the Colonial Secretary Alexander

35 Ibid 36 Ibid, p 14 37 Ibid, p 17 38 James Broadbent, ‘Maryland New South Wales’, in Historic Homesteads of Australia, Australian Council of National Trusts, Cassell Australia, 1969-1976, p 70 39 G. P. Walsh, ‘Barker, Thomas (1799-1875)’, ADB Vol 1, pp 57-8; A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799-1875), self published, Ryde NSW, 1985 40 David Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837, John Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1838, p 18, Mitchell Library SLNSW. 41 Ibid, p 16


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Macleay and Colonial Treasurer Campbell Drummond Riddell and Mr Campbell, probably the merchant Robert Campbell.42

Waugh was interested in a career in the law but Barker and his friends advised him to go into the country. Barker, who had the ‘management of the most extensive farms’ said that ‘I might go and live at one of them as long as I liked; and while I should be at no expense, I should have an opportunity of learning the business’. Waugh then spent a month at the Nonorrah homestead but the published extracts offer no details about that property.43

After gaining additional experience at Orielton, near Nonorrah, Barker asked him to go to Mummel in the County of Argyle where he took charge of the harvest of 150 acres (61 ha) of hay and 350 acres (142 ha) of wheat. He told his parents, ‘and here I am at present furnishing stores of fifty men, keeping accounts, &c.’44

Eventually, Waugh accepted a permanent position as overseer at Mummel.

I go for good and all to Mummel, Goulburn Plains, Argyleshire...for the first year,–I am to get £40 and board and washing. The farm is 6,000 acres and has about 4,000 sheep and 1,500 cattle on it. There is another overseer from Ayrshire, with a good salary, –he has been twelve years here. He has, besides, a farm of his own, which he manages with an overseer.45

Waugh reported that he stayed briefly at Orielton in late 1834 before moving to Mummel in the County of Argyle in February 1835. Together with James Dickson (John’s brother), Liverpool flour miller George Muckle, and Alexander Berry Esq, Thomas Barker was a trustee of John Dickson’s colonial assets and shared Power of Attorney. However, in 1838 Dickson revoked that arrangement and gave Power of Attorney to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore. In a sense, Barker did manage Dickson’s farms in the early 1830s but Waugh’s account makes it clear that he did so from Sydney. By stating, ‘according to D. L. Waugh, [Barker] had three most extensive farms including Nonorrah (later Maryland) at the Cowpastures and Mummel on the Goulburn Plains’ in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, G. P Walsh has translated trusteeship into ownership but this claim is not supported by the land title records.46

Thomas Barker did not obtain any part of Nonorrah until 1854 and even then, he was not able to buy the land with the main dwelling on it. Nonorrah homestead, which was on the eastern side of The Northern Road, remained in the possession of the Burnell family until 1906. However, Barker did purchase other land in Cook parish. Oran Park and Netherbyres have his name as owner on a Lands Department map dated 1867. As to the grant in Yass, an 800-acre property called Evandale in Mummel Parish, County of Argyle bears the names of John Dickson original trustees, suggesting that it too belonged to Dickson rather than Thomas Barker.

2.4.2 Maryland, Thomas Barker’s country estate

In July 1854 Thomas Barker purchased Lots 6 and 7 from the Nonorrah Estate plan and Dowdell’s 40-acre farm lay between them. He named his purchase Maryland – possibly after his mother Mary Shuldham (or Schuldham) – and married his second wife Katherine Heath Gray in 1857 while the building was under construction. The couple lived permanently at Maryland before it was finished after Thomas Barker sold Roslyn Hall to Captain Russell from about late 1860 or early 1861.47 Their only child Thomas Charles Barker was born there on 20 September 1863.

42 Ibid; Mr Campbell was probably the merchant Robert Campbell 43 Ibid, p18 ff 44 Waugh, op sit, pp 21-27; Waugh wrote this letter 45 Ibid, p 21 46 G. P. Walsh, op cit, p 58 47 Information on back of Record No 34250, Vertical File, Sydney Living Museums, Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection; Thomas Barker married Katherine Gray in 1857.


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Figure 21: The east-facing verandah of Maryland Homestead looking south showing the flagstones and timber pillars. Photo R. Broomham 2014

The 1847 sale notice described the three hundred and thirty-three and a half acres of Lot 7 as being nearly all girdled, or ringbarked as was customary at that time to kill the unwanted trees and make it easier to fell and burn them. Lot 6 had received similar treatment. However, Lot 7 seems the likely site of the Maryland homestead as it had ‘admirable views’ and a frontage to Lowe’s Creek that was three quarters of a mile long while the valley below had dark rich soil.48

While it is not known what kind of buildings may have been on Lots 6 and 7, given the terms of his grant, it is highly likely that there was a house on Matthew Dowdell’s forty-acre farm and that its land had been cleared and cultivated.

The Maryland homestead is of rubblestone construction, its thick walls rendered and marked to resemble regular ashlar blocks and later painted. Earlier techniques used in construction of the attached kitchen at the western end of the house suggest that this was part of an earlier initial 1854 building as were several utility buildings behind it.49

The homestead is located on a hill or knoll that rises so abruptly once the house and gardens were established, it became a prominent landmark, easily identified from The Northern Road and all the flats below. Its profile is characterised by ‘massed plantings of...araucaria Bidwellis (Bunya Bunya pines)’ whose tops show above the other large trees on the crest of the hill. To create a dense windbreak, they have been planted with ‘pines, cypresses,...camphor (laurels) and lophostemons’.50 Thomas Barker was a keen gardener, obtaining vine cuttings of unusual exotic plants from the Botanic Gardens while building Roslyn Hall in 1832. His friendship with ‘Sydney’s first’ nurseryman, Thomas Shepherd, is indicated by his appointment as trustee to Shepherd’s will.51

The Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar described the scene from the top of the hill in 1870.

We might say ‘That a fairer scene we had ne’er surveyed, when gazing on the vale below’ with its large pool of water, enclosures planted with pines, and cattle peacefully browsing; the mowers cutting hay, the fine, commodious farmyard in the distance, while on the slopes of the hill were vineyards, orchards, kitchen gardens, plantations of ornamental trees, all forming a picture so complete as more likely to be seen on canvas than in reality.52

That publication mentioned dairy cows peacefully browsing near the pool or dam.

48 The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July1840, Trove Newspapers 49 Personal comment, Heritage Architect Lester Tropman 50 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870 51 Writer unknown, source, Len Fox, Old Sydney Windmills, self published, 1978 52 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870


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Figure 22: View of Maryland Homestead and nineteenth century plantings from the flats near the farm buildings below. Photo R Broomham 2014

The ‘garden and vineyards were...surrounded by a strong fence, having two sets of gates’ and Katherine Barker was credited with the decorative plantings round the house and carriage drive.53

[A] neat border under the verandah, plentifully planted with choice dwarf plants of all kinds. On a wall on the northern side of the house, Bougainvillea splendens and spectabilis, Quisquales indica, Mandevillea, cloth of gold roses, Bignonia cherere...were exerting their powers to please the eye.54

There was an area near the homestead, deliberately designed to be wild, and ‘a rambling garden of oaks, olives, araucarias, plumbago hedges, geraniums’ surrounding the house, which includes ‘oxalis deliberately planted by Thomas Barker Snr’.55

2.4.3 Thomas Barker – grazier and wine producer

According to A. K. Weatherburn, Barker began work on Maryland’s vineyard before the house was completed. He was able to consult James and William Macarthur whose family had been tending vineyards and making wine since 1817.56 He was friendly with the Macarthur family as can be seen in James Macarthur’s response to Barker’s toast on Macarthur’s return from England in 1864.

Whilst in Sydney Mr Barker took a high place amongst those who represented the commercial interests of the colony, and since residing in the district he has done much for its advancement by the introduction of valuable stock, by the example of steady industry and by cultivation of a vineyard. In private life he is everything

53 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar 1870 54 Ibid 55 C. Morris & G. Britton/ NSW National Trust, Colonial Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain and Camden, NSW, 2000 56 A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799 to 1875), self published, Ryde, NSW,

1985, p 105


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which we expect to find in a man and a gentleman; as a magistrate he has invariably acted according to the rules of justice.57

Although he ran cattle, Barker was more interested in viticulture. The facilities for producing Maryland wines included extensive cellars with a ‘huge wine press’ and ‘stone storage bins for casks’, together with a plant capable of bottling 120 gallons a day. There is ample proof that his wines were successful as they were sold commercially from 1867 and won prizes. The annual record of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales for 1868-69 lists Thomas Barker as a council member and refers to his production of a Red Hermitage and a Verdeilho [sic] at Maryland. In 1871 he was reported to have invented ‘a simple machine’ for diffusing sulphur in vineyards where powdery mildew or oldium, now known as Uncinula necator, needs to be eradicated.58

In 1862 Thomas Barker conveyed the 700 acre site of Maryland to a trustee, barrister Joshua Frey Josephson and his heirs, to ensure that it belonged to Katherine Heath Barker for her to use as she saw fit – ‘free from debts, control and engagements of Thomas Barker’.59 Thomas Barker died at Maryland on 19 March 1875 and was buried in Newtown cemetery, leaving the property in trust to his widow Katherine Heath Barker on his death.60

Figure 23: This c1854 building is the kitchen on the western end of Thomas Barker’s Maryland Homestead. The construction techniques used to fashion the roof and ceiling are earlier than the remainder of the house but its history is unknown. Photo R. Broomham 2014

2.4.4 Maryland in 1876

There seems to have been some problem with Thomas Barker’s plan for leaving the Maryland Estate to his wife Katherine. On 7 October 1876 the Australian Town and Country Journal published a Preliminary Notice of Sale by the Trustees of the Estate of the late Thomas Barker. It described Maryland as an estate that had been laid out and improved over the past twenty years by the late proprietor to create ‘one of the most charming country retreats’. It listed the improvements.

[A] stone-built mansion of 14 fine rooms with extensive outbuildings, garden, shrubbery and grounds...splendid, well-managed vineyard of about 20 acres in sound good order from which the celebrated Maryland red and white wines are produced and which yields a large annual return, orchard and orangery, massively-built stone wine cellars and other large buildings with perfect plant and appliances for the manufacture of wines, extensive stabling and coach-houses, underground water reservoirs, capable of holding about 10,000 gallons, farmhouse and other premises, paddocks – well-watered grazing and cultivation paddocks, two handsome lodges at the entrances on Bringelly and Cobbitty Roads &c. &c.61

The Sydney Morning Herald published additional information in late November 1876.

57 SMH 20 January 1865, p 7, cited in A. K. Weatherburn, op cit, p 106 58 SMH, 23 August 1871, in report on the Agricultural Society Exhibition 59 PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81 60 PA 14468, Old System No 411 Book 734 61 Australian Town & Country Journal, 7 October 1876 and 4 November 1876


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The whole of the above described buildings are very massively built of stone, and in thorough good order...The vineyards are planted with the choicest vines, now in full bearing, and under the careful skilled management of a German vigneron of long experience. Appliances for storing and bottling are complete. The wines on hand, about 12,000 gallons in wood and bottle, can be taken at a valuation. They are all superior 1872 to 1876 vintage, are in excellent condition, forming a valuable stock of matured wines, while the annual vintage will secure a handsome return on this portion of the estate. These wines have obtained prize medals wherever exhibited, and are favourably known both here and in Europe. The farmhouse and dairy farm, together with the barn &c, are let on lease, with conditions as to supply of produce required by the proprietor.62

In spite of the vigorous advertising campaign, Maryland was not sold in the late 1870s but it has not been possible to discover the reason for the attempted sale, nor why that was not achieved. However, an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald on 6 December 1880 suggests that the need for skilled help in the vineyard may have been a factor.

To Vignerons – Wanted, a thoroughly sober trustworthy MAN, who understands vineyard work and winemaking. For particulars apply Dr Liebius Royal Mint Sydney or Mrs Barker Maryland, Bringelly.

Mrs Barker and her son Thomas Charles Barker stayed at Maryland; the vineyard continued to thrive and both entered wines in shows. Mrs Barker received a mention in the Bordeaux Wine Exhibition of 1882 and her son obtained a ‘first order of merit for red wine at the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition’.63 Insurance helped them recover from a fire in the wine cellar in May 1899 although loss of wines and brandies was assessed at more than £1,200.64

On 21 April 1903 Katherine sold Maryland to her son Thomas Charles Barker. This decision may have arisen from symptoms of the long illness that ended her life. Katherine Heath Barker died peacefully at Maryland on 2 June 1911 at the age of 91.65 As the local paper put it, ‘Although confined to her home for many years, she never failed to help, with her purse, many good causes’. Her funeral was held at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Cobbitty where she was laid to rest in the family vault. 66

62 SMH, 25 November 1876, p 14 63 Australian Town & Country Journal, 28 October 1882; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 April 1889 64 Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 20 May 1899 65 Camden News, Thursday 4 June 1911, p 5 dates death as last Friday; Supreme Court of NSW as 2 June 1911 66 Camden News, Thursday 8 June 1911, p 5


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Figure 24: The Maryland farm buildings can be seen on the river flats below the homestead from the grassy terrace in front of the house. Photo R. Broomham 2014

Figure 25: The Stone Stables & Coach House in the group of farm buildings on the flats below the homestead. Photo R. Broomham 2014

2.5 Thomas Charles Barker Esquire, Maryland, Bringelly 1863-1940

Thomas Charles Barker was twelve when his father died. He followed his father in assuming responsibility for the winemaking activities on Maryland. He also adopted his dutiful attitude to community service, but in a different way. Whereas Thomas Barker was a trained engineer and earned his wealth through industrial investment and management in Sydney and served as a magistrate and a New South Wales parliamentarian, his son Thomas Charles Barker lived the


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life of a country squire. While the father continued as Scots Church Elder and his city trusteeships until the last years of his life, his son stayed within his local area and served it on the Nepean Shire Council.

On 10 November 1887, when he was in his early twenties, Thomas Charles Barker married Emily Macarthur Chisholm, daughter of James Kinghorne Chisholm of Gledswood, Narellan in St John’s Church at Camden.67 This union raised his social status as her father was the grandson of Mary Isabella Macarthur and James Bowman so the marriage linked him to the Macarthur dynasty. Emily’s home Gledswood had shared in the early days of Australian viticulture in which the Macarthurs were leaders. It was also admired for its garden as the Chisholms shared the Macarthurs’ passion for horticulture, an interest that Thomas Barker followed enthusiastically once he had the 15 acres of Roslyn Hall to beautify.68

James K. Chisholm and his wife Isabella Macarthur Bowman (1834-1883) had two sons and four daughters who survived to adulthood. When he died in 1912, James Chisholm bequeathed Gledswood and all its contents to his two spinster daughters Elizabeth Mary and Mary Macarthur Chisholm. The homestead was surrounded by 1,340 ac of land including garden, orchard and pastures. However, he expressed the wish that the property should eventually go to his only grandson James Chisholm Martin, son of Blanche Chisholm and husband Peter Martin.69 His other married daughter, Emily Macarthur and her husband had no children.

Clearly, the Barkers visited Gledswood frequently. In 1899, T. C. Barker even went so far to complain to the Under Secretary and Commissioner for Roads Robert Hickson about the poor state of the road from Narellan (Gledswood) to Bringelly (Maryland). He received a telegram assuring him that ‘liberal provision has been made on the schedule for this road, and instructions will be issued for works to be put in hand at once’.70

In 1906 Thomas Charles Barker was able to realise a long-held dream and purchase Lots 1 to 5 from the Cowpasture Estates plan, where Dickson’s landholdings began and where he built the Nonorrah homestead. Moorfield was also available. These purchases were made possible by the death of H. C. Burnell’s widow Sarah and the sale of the estate that had been held in trust for her during her lifetime. H. C. Burnell’s son, T. C. Burnell, conveyed these two pieces of land to Thomas Charles Barker on 19 July 1906 for the sum of £5,232. The following year Barker received the title for the consolidated properties – the 1,303 acres of the recently purchased allotments and the 87 acres of Moorfield with the 721 acres of Maryland, a total of 2,024 acres excluding roads. On 11 June 1906 he also bought the 294 acre Lot 8 of the Cowpasture Estates that bordered the original Maryland property on the south.71

T. C. Barker first raised a mortgage for these acquisitions from Charles Burnell of Bathurst and the Sydney solicitor Gustav Hugo Liebius but replaced that arrangement with another from the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited in 1913.72 When he increased the size of Maryland’s land in this way, Thomas Charles Barker was 43 years old. Although he sometimes described himself as a grazier, he preferred to lease his pastures for landlord and tenant farmers. In 1913, he resigned his position on the Nepean Shire Council in order to take a ‘tour to the Old Country’. Given the tensions in this, the year before the British declaration of war against Germany in August 1914, the timing may have been inauspicious.73

67 SMH, 12 November 1887 68 Note on Gledswood, Heritage Council of New South Wales, 2008 69 Camden News, 7 November 1912, p 6; familypedia.wiki.com, Isabella Macarthur Bowman 70 Official Correspondence, Public Works Department, Camden News, 10 August 1899 71 CT Vol 1339 Fol 134 72 CT Vol 1840 Fol 53 73 Camden News, 13 February 1913


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NFigure 26: Thomas Charles Barker was twelve when his father died but in 1906 he added Lots 1-5 of the Cowpasture Estates plan and Moorfield to the 721 acre Maryland property. The additional 274 acres was immediately below the 721-acre farm and homestead of Maryland. CT Vol 1840 Fol 53, LPI

T. C. Barker returned to his seat on the Nepean Shire Council in 1916 where he followed the example of his father in adding £35 of his own money to the local main road fund. In March the following year he requested a council lamp near the four mile post on the road to Cobbitty.74 He and his wife Emily continued to live quietly at Maryland, with regular visits to Gledswood. That they enjoyed the help of domestic servants can be seen in Mrs Barker’s advertisements in the local paper in 1920. Her wanted ad in July asked for a general cook and explained that the job did not involve washing or ironing, as Maryland already had a housemaid and a parlour maid. In October she advertised for a girl to be a general help, offering ‘good wages for a suitable person’.75

In December 1934 the Sydney Morning Herald featured ‘A Visit to Maryland’ with photographs of the garden and homestead and some of its treasures. Perhaps it was the reporter who repeated the tale of Dickson’s daughter requesting ‘the pretty hill’ as a wedding gift when she married Thomas Barker Snr. However, the report states that it was Thomas Charles Barker who offered this published version of the family history. He began with his father’s arrival in New South Wales as a young lad in 1814 [sic] and moved directly to his home ‘with his people’ at Roslyn Hall in Darlinghurst standing in its own lovely gardens of 14 acres and built at the

74 Camden News, 16 March 1916, 18 January 1917 75 Camden News, 15 July and 7 October 1920

Lots 1-5


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same time as the spacious neighbour Elizabeth Bay House’.76 He did not mention his father’s engineering skill or his industrial and commercial history. From that beginning, the story of Thomas Barker Snr’s life became more fabulous as Thomas Charles Barker recounted a tale of a journey his father made in 1838 to Asia and Europe in a chartered ship.

From Java to China, he loaded up the good ship with rice and other goods and set sail for Europe. The grand tour was the correct adventure for every Englishman, so plans were made for it but Mr Barker was also a practical Australian with farming ambitions, so he first moored his vessel at Leith and began to prepare for his future career! Cattle, sheep, farming machinery, seeds and provisions were chosen and ordered and Scottish shepherds engaged for their care, and then, his farming mind at rest, Mr Barker travelled and acquired furniture treasures for his future Australian home.77

He then ‘returned to his adopted country and his life at Maryland began’. (Maryland was built in 1858.) According to this report, all of the exotic and beautiful objects so admired by the Herald journalist were still set out as they had been ‘when Mrs Barker came from her own historic old home Gledswood as a bride’ some forty years earlier.78

Thomas Charles Barker died suddenly and unexpectedly on 9 January 1940 at the age of 76. As a Nepean Shire Councillor, ‘his interest in the affairs of the district was unflagging’. He refused to accept the allowance for councillors and made several donations for road maintenance. He was loyal to the local Anglican Church and belonged to the Camden Show Society. He was buried at St Paul’s Cemetery, Cobbitty.79

The fact that the Permanent Trustee Company lodged the Application by Transmission with the Registrar General on 24 July 1940 suggests that Thomas Charles Barker had not made a will. Neither had he discharged his mortgage on the Maryland Estate.80 The Permanent Trustee placed a Caveat forbidding registration of any dealing affecting the Certificates of Title 1840-53 and 1339-134 which Henry John Andrews, who described himself as a grazier from Northmead, and his wife Olive Annie Andrews were purchasing. These titles referred to the 2,024 acres attached to Maryland, consolidated in 1906; and the 274 acres 8 perches of Lot 8 on Hunter’s Cowpasture Estates plan Barker purchased on 11 June 1906. It appears that once the purchase was completed, the Permanent Trustee Company paid the outstanding £2,000 Mortgage which applied to both these titles.

2.6 Ninian Alan Thomson – Maryland, company director’s retreat

On 17 September 1940, one month after their purchase had been finalised, Henry John Andrews and his wife Olive Annie Andrews subdivided the property that Thomas Charles Barker had created. They then sold the 721 acres that remained of the Maryland homestead and farm after main road changes to company director Ninian Alan Thomson. Thomson and his wife Janet (Jetta) Ievers came from ‘Cuppacumbalong’, a property on the Murrumbidgee River, now Tharwa, ACT.81 They had lived in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay since 1923 when Ninian Thomson had taken control of the family business Mauri Brothers & Thomson a merchant firm in Sydney after the death of his father Ninian Miller Thomson. When Thomson bought Maryland it comprised the homestead, garden, winery, and a farm that had been leased to dairy farmers. Thomson wanted to live in the country while running the business in the city.82

World War 2 had been in progress for a little over one year.

76 SMH, 13 December 1838, p 10; Roslyn Hall was built in 1836 77 Ibid 78 Ibid 79 The Biz, Fairfield, 11 January 1940 80 Unfortunately the Application by Transmission was not filmed before it was destroyed. 81 NSW Environment & Heritage, Maryland Draft Listing, p 4 82 Harriet Veitch, ‘Dairy’s crème de la crème on city’s edge, Annie Thomson, 1921-2009’, 17 July 2009, brisbanetimes.com.au


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NFigure 27: This aerial shows Maryland Homestead in 1947. The dark line of trees at the top marks Lowes Creek, the northern boundary of Lot 2 in DP 218779; the double line of scattered trees on the right is The Northern Road which is the eastern boundary. The hill where the homestead is situated is the darker roughly triangular shape on the lower left hand side, the original entrance being by the road that shows as a diagonal white line through the trees at the upper end while the more recent access is the partly visible track looping up to the house from the centre of the lower edge of the image. LPI

In 1942 Ninian Alan Thomson suffered such a severe stroke that he was forced to retire from business. He died of a heart attack after a prolonged illness on 2 May 1952 leaving Maryland to his widow Janet Ievers Thomson of Maryland, Bringelly and his older son Ninian Miller Thomson company director of Toorak, Victoria as joint tenants.83

2.7 Elizabeth and Annette (Annie) Thomson – dairy farmers of Maryland

When their father retired, four years had passed after his second daughter Annette (Annie) had finished the Leaving Certificate at Frensham. As their brothers were working in the city, Annie and her older sister Elizabeth took over Maryland’s farm.84 They joined the Friesian Cattle Club in 1959, established a stud herd and entered some of their animals in local shows. They exhibited at the Sydney Royal Easter Show from 1964.85 It may have been from this time that Annie provided the commentary for the exhibit called ‘Milky Way’. This comprised a portable dairy where milkmaids in old fashioned costumes attended specially chosen docile cows while Annie explained milk production and processing. A comprehensive exhibition of the ‘Milky Way’ in the Lower Town Hall, Sydney drew large crowds in 1955. It was created to celebrate the sale of disease-free bottled milk, encourage people to support the dairy industry and drink more milk. The Thomson sisters took the travelling exhibition to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne,

83 SMH 2 April 1952; CT Vol 5146 Fol 105, LPI 84 Harriet Veitch, op cit; The Southern Mail, 18 January 1958 85 Harriet Veitch, op cit


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Adelaide and Perth. It was permanently installed in the Royal Agricultural Show ground after it moved to Homebush in 1998.86

NFigure 28: This plan of DP 218779 shows the Maryland property subdivision that separated the homestead and its access road in Lot 1 (23a 2r 16p) from the Farm (692 ac) in Lot 2. The Northern Road on the right is of ‘variable width’. CT Vol 5148 Fols 22 and 23, issued 13 November 1963, LPI

Annie and Elizabeth Thomson cut 30 hectares out of the north-eastern corner of their farm land and divided it into three 10 hectare allotments. The subdivision was registered on 24 April 1994. Facing The Northern Road, the small farm lots were watered by a tributary of Lowes Creek. Their sale enabled the sisters to discharge the farm mortgage on 3 December 1997 and buy additional land. A new title was issued on 21 August 1998 for the smaller, 245.8 hectare Maryland Farm (Lot 29) together with an additional 123.3 hectares on the western boundary (Lot 28).87

86 Nepean Times 11 August 1955; The Farmer and Settler, 19 August 1955 87 Deposited Plans and Title information; See Property LPI


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NFigure 29: Deposited Plan DP 836540 dated 1994 shows the subdivision of the Maryland farm (Lot 2 – later Lot 20) that separated three small farm allotments (Lots 21, 22 and 23) on the north-eastern boundary from the Maryland Farm. LPI

Annie Thomson loved horses and riding and helped establish the Cobbitty Pony Club which began in 1960 and held its activities on Maryland for many years. Instructing beginners until 1985, ‘she taught generations of local children to ride’.88

Giving this up, and later having to give up riding, were two of the hardest things and saddest things she had ever faced. Although she did not marry or have children of her own, she loved young people. Nieces and nephews, godchildren, family friends and children of farm workers were frequent visitors to Maryland.89

Under the Thomson sisters’ management, Maryland became a centre of community activity.

Annie and Elizabeth Thomson continued to run the farm through the late twentieth and early twenty-first century. Annie Thomson won multiple awards for her contribution to the dairy industry. She became a life member of the Holstein Friesian Association of Australia in 1988, received a Dairy Industry Merit Award in 1993, became a life member of the dairy industry in 1994, and won the Dairy Research Foundation’s Tetra Pak award and a Royal Agricultural Society contributor’s award in 1997. In 2001 Annie was recognised as a Royal Easter Show Legend.90

88 Ibid 89 Ibid

Indeed, Elizabeth and Annie Thomson ‘were the mainstay of their community’. Known locally as ‘the Girls’, they continued working well into their eighties. In 2004 both sisters were awarded the Medal Order of Australia ‘for their contributions to shows, the dairy industry and the community’. At that time they still kept 120 dairy cows to show on their travels throughout New

90 Harriet Veitch, op cit


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South Wales.91 Elizabeth died in 2006 and Annie died in 2009, leaving nephews and nieces Alan, Anthea, James, Penny and Scott as well as grand and great grand nieces and nephews.

Figure 30: Annie and Elizabeth Thomson on the lawn in front of the Maryland Homestead in 2004. Photo Peter Morris

2.8 New owners for Maryland 2009-2013

When Annie died, the Thomson family hoped they would continue to own and manage Maryland. In November 2012 they lodged a caveat on a contract for its purchase by Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd and Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd. However, on 13 February 2013, Penny and Alan Thomson, director and secretary/director of Maryalan Pty Limited and Winbarra Pty Limited, transferred Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 to Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd and Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd owned by Aitken Lawyers.92

The most recent addition to the farm, Lot 28, was transferred to joint tenants Francesco and Francesca Daniele on 12 February 2013 together with a 20 metre wide easement carved from the southern boundary of Lot 29. Change is coming to Bringelly as Sydney takes more of the territory of the colonial country squires and their descendants.

91 Ibid 92 Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folios LPI


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N

Figure 31: Deposited Plan DP 872135 dated 1999 records the removal of Lots 21, 22, and 23 and the addition of Lot 28 which more than compensated for the loss of the land on the Northern Road. LPI

2.9 Select Bibliography

Primary Sources

Title Search Old System and Primary Application Packet Land & Property Information (LPI)

Maps and Manuscripts Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

Primary Sources –Texts

G. Nesta Griffiths, Maryland, Bringelly, 4-page typed MS signed ‘G. Nesta Griffiths June 1956’, SLNSW

Historical Records of Australia (HRA)

Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870

Record No 34250, Vertical File, Sydney Living Museums, Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection

Watkin Tench, A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson 1788-1791, reprint, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1979

Trove Newspapers National Library of Australia (NLA)

David Lindsay Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837, John Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1838


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Secondary Sources –Texts

James Broadbent, ‘Maryland New South Wales’, in Historic Homesteads of Australia, Australian Council of National Trusts, Cassell Australia, 1969-1976

Carol Liston, Campbelltown. The Bicentennial History, Council of the City of Campbelltown with Allen & Unwin Australia, Pty Ltd, North Sydney, 1988

Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’, September 2002

Environment and Heritage Office, ‘Maryland, Bringelly’ Draft Statement of Significance and related texts

Heritage Council of New South Wales, ‘Gledswood’, 2008

C. Morris & G. Britton/ NSW National Trust, Colonial Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain and Camden, NSW, 2000

Robert Murray and Kate White, Dharug to Dungaree. The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Harreen Publishing Company with the City of Penrith, 1988

Harriet Veitch, ‘Dairy’s crème de la crème on city’s edge, Annie Thomson, 1921-2009’, 17 July 2009, brisbanetimes.com.au

A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799 to 1875), self published, Ryde, NSW

G. P. Walsh, ‘Barker, Thomas (1799-1875)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 1

G. P. Walsh, ‘Dickson, John (1774-1843)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 1

Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser (NSW: 1838-1841), Monday 6th July 1840, Page 4


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2.10 An Extract from Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser Monday 6th July 1840

This article is included for its description of John Dickson’s land holdings in 1840.

“ORIELTON which is bounded on the south east side by the high road to Argyle; on the south- west by Kirkham the beautiful Estate of the late Surveyor General Oxley; on the west and north- west by. The properties of Charles Cowper Esq. and the Rev. Thomas Hassall; and on the north-east by Netherbyres and Harrington Park, the residence of Lieutenant Woore' R. N. this Estate is divided into twenty farms. Varying from thirty to about four hundred and eighty acres, exclusive of the Town allotments in Narellan, almost the whole of which are cleared, stumped, and lit for immediate tillage. The Homestead with Barn, eight horse power thrashing and dressing machine, Cottage, Stables, & c will contain four hundred and eighty one acres, principally cleared and stumped, of strong rich land, being part of the fertile range running through the district. The Town Allotments are laid off opposite to, and in continuation of the Government Township, upon which is erected a Church, School House, Pound, &c., and distant only thirty-five miles from Sydney, an excellent stage, rendering it particularly eligible as a site for small allotments. Nertherbvres is bounded on the south-east by Curtis and Harrington Parks; on the south-west by Orielton; on the west by Denbigh, the Estate of the Rev. Thomas Hues .1; and on the north by Nonorrah. This estate has been divided into ten capacious Farms, of from sixty-five to two hundred and sixty acres each, and consists of gently undulating forest land of excellent quality, lightly timbered, and enclosed with a substantial fence. It is intersected by the great North and Cobbitty Roads, to which each lot possesses six very considerable frontages.

Nonorrah is intersected in the north and south by The Great North Road; on the east side is the homestead to which three hundred and sixty-five acres of cleared and enclosed land (in paddocks) are attached. Upon this Farm is a substantial House, and other necessary improvement have been erected in the cottage style. The adjoining farms on the same side, of the road contain about two hundred acres each, nearly half of which are cleared and enclosed. These Farms have very extensive frontages to the South Creek, on the west side of The Great North Road is the well known "Fat Bullock Paddock", containing about two thousand acre, the greater part of which has been girdled. This fertile tract of land entirely enclosed, and containing an immense proportion of excellent soil, watered by chains of ponds, intersecting it from north to south, it is divided into six splendid properties, and possesses every requisite with regard to scenery, soil, and locality for the establishment of first-rate Homesteads. Moorfield contains ninety-five and a half acres, one beautiful little grant entirely cleared enclosed, and almost surrounded with good water. Eastwood now divided into four suitable Farms. The whole of this grant has been ringed, and is enclosed. Upon each division may be found beautiful sites for the erection of Villas or homesteads.”

“LOT I Consists of the homestead of Nonorrah; it contains three hundred and sixty-five acres, divided into eight convenient paddocks, being all cleared, there is erected upon the "ground a substantial verandahed Cottage, containing six rooms, excellent ball, butler's pantry, detached kitchens, brick-built stores secured with Iron-bound windows, dairy, cheese house, with several lever presses, extensive and excellent stabling sufficient for sixteen horses, coach house, pig styes, commodious sheds for various purposes, stock arid milking yards. Men’s house shingled roof-added to the above, there is also an excellent garden well stocked with choice fruit trees, and occupying about two and a half acres well laid out: this lot is well watered by the South Creek and Lowe's Creek, possessing also a frontage of nearly three quarters of a mile to the Great North Road.”


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“LOTS XI to IV Comprise the well-known Fat Bullock Paddock, immediately opposite the estate of Mrs. Lowe; lot six contains more than a mile frontage to the Great North Road, and comprises in all three hundred and forty-one acres-all girdled and bounded on the north by Lowe's Creek to the extent of half a mile; lot 7 contains three hundred and thirty-three and a half acres, nearly all girdled, and possessing three quarters of a mile frontage to Lowe's Creek ; the views from this particular spot are admirable; It also contains a valley of fine rich dark soil; lot 8 contains two hundred and ninety-two and a half acres of undulating forest land, adjoining the estates of Wentworth and Lowe; lot 9 possesses nearly three quarters of a mile front age to the Great North Road, and contains two hundred and sixty-five and a half acres, entirely girdled; lot 10, three hundred and twenty eight acres mostly girdled, adjoins the estate of the Rev. Thomas Hassall; lot XI comprises three hundred and eighty-five and a half acres, consisting of beautiful undulating forest land, and adjoins the above; four of these farms possess frontages to a reserved road, fifty links wide, leading from the Great North Road. The sale of Nonorrah Estate will be followed by that of MOOREFIELD. This beautiful property containing ninety-five and a half acres will be sold in one lot, is completely cleared and enclosed, and possesses frontage to the reserved road; it is bounded on the east and west sides by well watered creeks. The soil is of the most splendid description, and the situation delight.”

2.11 1847 Mapping of Dickson’s Holdings

Figure 32: Detail of ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates, the property of M.D. Hunter, Esqr., for sale by Mr Lyons on Monday 30th Augt. 1847’. Study area outlined in blue. Note the updated annotations compared with the 1840 map: ‘partly in cultivation’, ‘Good Valley’, ‘Low Range, Good Soil’, ‘Partly cultivated’. NLA MAP Folder 34, LFSP 448.


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2.12 Historical information on Birling & Dowdell’s Farm

Birling was a 1,000 acre grant to Robert Lowe on 25 August 1812. A northern portion of Birling was subdivided from the main parcel of land and sold in 1816. The 40 acre “Dowdell’s Farm” lot was granted to Michael Dowdell, and then purchased by Thomas Barker in 1855 and incorporated in Maryland.

Figure 33: Source Excerpt from Casey & Lowe: Sept 2016: pg.13

2.12.1 Birling

Robert Lowe (1783 - 1832) had arrived in Australia only three months earlier with his wife and two infant sons on the ship Mary on 4th May 1812. The Prime Minister, Robert Jenkinson, the Earl of Liverpool, had given him a letter of introduction claiming him to be a respectable person of good character possessing £1,000 of capital and recommending he receive a generous grant.

By May1813, Robert Lowe was living at “Birling Farm”. “Between November 1817 and March 1818, Robert Lowe engaged in several property transactions. He received a grant of 500 acres immediately to the north of his existing 1,000 acre grant. He then sold this grant to the well- known colonial figure D’Arcy Wentworth, along with 506 acres of west portion of his 1812 1,000 acre grant. Robert Lowe also mortgaged the remaining part of Birling in November 1817. This portion included a number of buildings and other improvements, including a house, barns and stables.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.14).

Robert Lowe became a Justice of the Peace and a magistrate in the District of Bringelly and Cooke in October 1815. Many of the magistrate’s functions were conducted at Birling. Magistrates were responsible for a whole swathe of duties including: implementing Government policies regarding convicts and Aboriginal people; assignment of convicts; tickets of leave; hearing citizen’s legal action disputes; and as a muster point for the Government Muster (early form of a census). Magistrates would have had assistance from local constables and clerks.


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They were not paid as such, but did receive generous land grants and food from the government stores. They usually sat in groups of two known as “the bench” but it would appear Robert Lowe worked individually, given the 24km distance to the next magistrate, Thomas Moore.

“The development of the buildings at Birling is unclear from the earliest historical documents. Unlike other sites, no historic plan of the buildings has been found and the earliest historical image of the property dates to 1843. There is an unsourced claim that the original house burnt down and that a ‘second slab homestead’ was rebuilt in front of the earlier site.

Like most 19th-century homesteads, Birling was home to a small community comprised of the Lowe family and farm workers. Initially these workers were convicts assigned to Robert Lowe. At the time of the November 1814 muster, Robert Lowe employed seven assigned convicts and one free servant. His wife Barbara also lived on the property, presumably with her three children (James, Robert and William). The number of convicts increased over time. The 1822 muster recorded 21 convicts, seven Lowe family members and one other free man. The 1828 Census recorded 11 Lowe family members and 17 others, including 12 convicts. It also recorded a further two households at Birling, that of Robert Smith, Chief Constable, and William Charker, Constable.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.15).

Following Lowe’s death in July 1832, Birling’s time as “Court House, Bringelly” ended. Governor Bourke rearranged the magistrates and formally established Courts of Petty Sessions at Campbelltown and Liverpool in September 1832. The Birling property was bequeathed to Lowe’s second wife, Sarah, and their 6 children.

The Lowe family seemed to have moved to another of their properties across the Blue Mountains for a time, but the length of stay or its permanency is unclear. Historical documentation such as newspaper articles advertising for workers, and the painting by a governess Anne Dadswell (refer Figure 34) would suggest the family was living at Birling. Sarah Lowe died at Birling in 1873.

“In October 1880, Henry Lowe, the youngest son of Robert and Sarah Lowe, died on his way from Bringelly to visit his brother at Castlereagh. This death appears to have precipitated the sale of Birling, as possibly Henry’s death meant that Laura Ann Lowe, the unmarried daughter of Robert and Sarah Lowe, was the only member of the family still living in the homestead. The property was advertised for sale by auction on 22 February 1881, but was not sold at that time, as it was later advertised for private sale in March 1881. The property appears to have been used for grazing sheep at the time, as 300 cross-bred Leicester Sheep were advertised for sale in February 1881. In June 1881, Miss Lowe (presumably Laura Ann Lowe), sister of Mr H. R. Lowe finally moved out of Birling… In September 1881, the property was finally sold to Frederick Barden.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.27).

Frederick Barden then sold the property to Sir Robert Wisdom, politician, in 1884 who appears never to have lived at the site. He died in March 1888 but due to the largess of his estate, Birling was not sold until May 1897, purchased by Charles Thomas Whiteman. Whiteman also never lived on the estate but leased it to dairy farmer Mr D J Morrow and his wife from 1899 until about 1930.

“Between 1930 and 1935 the property at Birling was sold three times, first to Frederick Alton Dunbar, Arthur Hamily Milton Dunbar and Cecil Reginald Dunbar in November 1930, then to Stanley Armstrong Marden in August 1933, and finally to Horace Howard Young in November 1935.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.28).

Young was an independently wealthy horse trainer from Adelaide whose family was long- established and successful in horse racing circles. He constructed a new bungalow, race track and six-box brick stables at Birling c1939. Casey & Lowe state that the new structures seem to have precipitated the demolition of the original homestead and associated buildings. The private racetrack was used for fundraisers in the 1940s.


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Young sold Birling to Lee Cameron Lathrop Murray and his wife Nancy in December 1945. The Murrays lived there until 1949. The property was sold to George Lacey Evans who then sold it to Reginald William Farrell and his wife Una in August 1950 who used the property as their country estate. In 1959 they subdivided the property and sold the northern portion to J M Hargreaves (Pastoral) Pty Ltd. November 1960 saw them sell the remainder of the site to Witten Brothers Limited whose use of the property is unclear.

Clifton Laboratories Pty Ltd (appearing to operate under the name Pfizer Agriculture Research Facility Bringelly) purchased the Birling property in 1966 and constructed the breeding sheds. The property was transferred to Pfizer Agriculture Pty Ltd in 1976 and then sold in 1981. “The property has remained associated with various veterinary research activities up until the present time”. (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.31).

2.12.2 Dowdell’s Farm

Michael Dowdell/ Dowdall (1774-1823) arrived as an Irish convict on the Atlas in October 1802. He received his Ticket of Freedom in 1810, and was granted his 40 acre property in 1812. It does not appear that he ever fulfilled his obligation to cultivate 12 acres of the land within 5 years. Historical records continually describe his as living in the Parramatta district.

“Through an unregistered transaction, whose details have long been lost, Michael Dowdall’s grant passed to the well-known former missionary and prominent Parramatta figure, Rowland Hassall. After Hassall’s death in 1820, ‘Dowdell’s Farm’ was inherited by Eliza Cordelia Hassall, daughter. Other siblings of Eliza also had properties in the area. Eliza Hassall married the Methodist minister the Rev. William Walker on 14 May 1823. Eliza Walker died in 1835 and her husband William in 1855 and the property passed to their son Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker. He then sold the land to Thomas Barker on 17 December 1855.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pp19-20).


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3.0 PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

The physical evidence of the subject site was investigated through non-intrusive observation of the place’s fabric during a number of site visits throughout the course of this study. Unless otherwise stated, all images are by the authors of this report.

3.1 Periods of Development

3.1.1 Pre European Settlement

The natural forest and Aboriginal occupation of the area had evolved to sustainable existence. This was changed with the European settlement of the area as land grants were given following the discovery of the escaped herd of cattle and naming of the district ‘cow pastures’. The topography of the low range of hills and alluvial flats associated with the creeks is evidence of the natural landscape before the arrival of the Europeans.

3.1.2 The Cow Pastures

The early grants in the district saw most of the land taken up by the 1820s for agriculture. The land holders were clearing the open forest for cultivation and grazing. Robert Lowe secured a grant north of Lowes Creek in 1812 and called the place Birling. An 1843 water colour sketch of the place (refer Figure 34) shows an extensive farm complex in this area of Bringelly.

John Dickson, an engineer with a business in Sydney, was granted 3,000 acres on the south side of Lowes Creek. Opposite Robert Lowe’s Birling grant, Dickson’s grant extended east to South Creek. South Creek was a reasonably secure water supply and Dickson sited his cottage on a knoll near the creek. Dickson named this property “Nonorrah Homestead”. Nonorrah consisted of ‘a substantial verandahed Cottage, containing six rooms, excellent hall, butler’s pantry, detached kitchen, brick-built store secure with iron-bound windows, dairy, cheese house, with several lever presses extensive and excellent stabling sufficient for sixteen horses, coach house, pig styes, commodious sheds for various purposes, stock arid milking yards. Men’s house shingled roof-added to the above, there is also an excellent garden well stocked with choice fruit trees, and occupying about two and a half acres well laid out: this lot is well watered by the South Creek and Lowe's Creek, possessing also a frontage of nearly three quarters of a mile to the Great North Road.’

The extensive pastures and cropping paddocks is evidence of this development. The fat bull paddocks were the pastures west of the Northern Road (Lots 6 & 7 – refer Figure 32-33) with the homestead of Nonorrah located to the east of The Northern Road.

3.1.3 Lowe Estate Expansion

In 1833 Dickson appointed Trustees to manage his properties. By 1840 one of the trustees, M.D. Hunter, had drawn up a proposed subdivision for sale of Dickson’s Nonorrah grant and the lands he had acquired.

Lots 6 & 7 of the Dickson estate (refer Figure 32-33) were purchased by Sarah Lowe of Birling in July 1842 (they were later purchased by Thomas Barker in 1854). The 1843 sketch of Birling (refer Figure 34) shows that the knoll on which Maryland Homestead is situated (Lot 7 of the 1840 map shown in Figure 32-33) forms the skyline or backdrop view of the 1843 sketch of Birling (Figure 34). By 1847, Sarah Lowe had commenced the cultivation of the land south of Lowes Creek (later the Maryland property). A crossing of Lowes Creek was established on a direct line from Birling to a low rise landform where the farm buildings of Maryland are today. She may have constructed buildings in the farm building complex. Also at this time Sarah Lowe established the northern driveway entry from The Northern Road across Lot 6 towards the future Maryland farm complex. The above information is from the 1847 Trustee Hunter’s revised plan of subdivision for Dickson’s Cow Pasture estate. Sarah Lowe then handed the land back to the Trustee, Hunter, who sold Lot 6 & 7 of Nonorrah Estate in July 1854 to Thomas Barker.


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The Northern Road entry at the north-east gate house and causeway is evidence of Sarah Lowe’s activities south of Lowes Creek. For further information in regards to Lowe State Expansion refer to Casey and Lowe’s Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly Lowes Creek Maryland Part (precinct), Rezoning.

Figure 34: Birling 1843 by Anne Dadswell, SSV1B/ Brin/ 1

3.1.4 Thomas Barker’s Estate: Maryland

In July 1854 Thomas Barker purchased Lots 6 & 7 from Trustee Hunter and in the following year, he purchased Dowdell’s farm. With his purchase of Lots 6 & 7, Barker obtained the entry drive off the Northern Road leading to the farm building knoll and extensive areas of quality agricultural land for cultivation and grazing.

Barker planned to live here in the Bringelly/Cobbitty district where he could establish a country Estate with a villa homestead, a vineyard and winery. Barker built the villa ‘Maryland’ on the knoll looking north to Birling Estate. The development of the villa Homestead building complex and cottages is evidence of this phase of Maryland Village.

It is suggested that Thomas Barker’s vision and design of siting the single-storeyed, colonnaded villa, named Maryland, follows the design and siting of a temple on the edge of a knoll or a mount. This is, in landscape terms, the summit model. He completed the vision with extensive vineyards on the knolls/slopes that surrounded the villa. This elevated position allowed the villa’s occupants to look out over the farmland, with distant views to Birling and Nonorrah. To complete the link with the flats below, the northern landscaped access driveway was designed like an Italianate alley, lined with tall pines and leading from and winding through the farmlands to the villa on the edge of the mount.

Barker leased the farmlands to tenant farmers as he was passionate about growing his grape vines. He used the slopes of the low ranges and knoll for setting out his vineyards and other gardening pursuits. Vine cuttings probably came from the botanic gardens, Shepherd’s nursery


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and Camden Park. The garden he and his wife established was extensive, leading from west of the villa around the knoll’s slopes to the south gatehouse. Dams were established and, as an engineer, he would have installed equipment to pump and store water at the villa and tanks placed around the house.

Having established 20 acres of vineyards, Thomas Barker also constructed the winery and store, stables and coach house to the south-west slope of the knoll. A fire in 1899 destroyed a significant proportion of the stone cellar and wine stores.

The vineyards on the slopes of Maryland can be seen in the 1880’s photograph of Birling as the skyline element above the Birling homestead. This photograph shows the Bunya Pines (that were planted probably in the 1860’s) as spire forms silhouetted against the skyline. Refer to figures 34-36.

In 1875 Thomas Barker died at Maryland.

Figure 35: SPF/2528 – Family and Homestead Birling, Bringelly c.1880


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Figure 36: SPF/2528 – Family and Homestead Birling, Bringelly c.1880 Close up of the Maryland knoll behind the Birling homestead, showing the vineyard on the slopes of Maryland.

3.1.5 Katherine Barker’s Stewardship from 1875 to 1903

Katherine and her son, Thomas Charles Barker, continued to tend the vineyard and the gardens surrounding the Maryland Homestead. This period was a consolidation of the work and development started by Thomas Barker. Katherine and her son developed the recreational and productive garden to the extent they are today.

In 1903, Katherine Barker conveyed the property to Thomas Charles Barker. Thomas Charles Barker lived at Maryland as a country squire, continuing to develop the vineyard and wine making while tenant farmers used the fields for cultivation and grazing. The vineyard suffered a devastating set back with the vine root insect attack, phylloxera; this insect killed all the vineyards in the cow pastures.

In 1899 a fire in the Wine cellar destroyed some buildings and wine. However the stables next to the winery were saved (these stables appear to have been demolished in the early twentieth century).

The recreational garden, the winery and adapted cellar are evidence of this period.

3.1.6 Thomas Charles Barker’s Stewardship from 1903 to 1940

As the owner of Maryland from 1903, Thomas Charles Barker looked to expand the estate holdings. In 1906 he bought the Nonorrah 1840’s subdivision Lot 1 to 5, thus creating a large land holding extending from Maryland Homestead east across The Northern Road to South Creek. Thomas Charles Barker was community-minded, sitting on the local ‘Municipal Council’ and opening Maryland to visitors. Thomas Charles Barker died in 1940.

The Maryland Estate was maintained in good order as the landscape setting matured. This is the evidence of that period.


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3.1.7 Thomson Family Occupation 1940-2009

Ninian Alan Thomson purchased the once again subdivided property of Maryland totalling 721 acres in 1940. Initially, Ninian and Janet Thomson ran the estate as a rural retreat. Ninian worked in the city and the farm continued to be leased to dairy farmers. With Ninian retiring in 1942 after a major health setback, and with his sons working in the city, it fell to his daughters, Elizabeth and Annette Thomson, to assume responsibility for running the farm. A stud milking herd was established and shedding and yards were constructed. The agricultural development of Maryland can be seen in the historic aerial photographs included in section 4.1 dating from 1947. In the south-east paddocks associated with East Creek are a number of structures and jumps relating to the Cobbitty Pony Clubhouse formerly located on the site.

Anne and Elizabeth were active in the various community groups including the Camden Show Society and The Royal Agricultural Society Easter Show.

The Pony Club’s use of the farmland also influenced conversion of the wine cellar into a large kitchen and dining space as well as the building of stables at the farm building complex and the erection of accommodation facilities around the farm. The Pony Club’s use of the place slowed or stopped with Anne not being able to ride c1985.

The sisters were and continued to be very active in the community. During the later period of their living at Maryland, repairs and maintenance levels were poor. The Homestead, Winery, Farm Buildings and Landscape Gardens suffered from poor levels of maintenance.

The new owners are addressing maintenance issues with extensive works being undertaken to repair, stabilise and reconstruct as necessary Maryland’s fabric.


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3.2 Estate Landscape

3.2.1 Maryland Estate Landscape

Maryland is located on a spire planted knoll within a pastoral setting. The spire planted knoll rises from the broad alluvial flats which are bisected by large bodies of water.

The Estate Landscape is a result of European agricultural practices – firstly the girdling of trees to encourage pasture, followed by grazing and cultivation. The paddocks west of the Northern Road were known as “Fat Bullock Paddock”.

In 1842 to c1847, Sarah Lowe cultivated the alluvial flats and created an entry from the Northern Road towards the Farm Buildings Complex on the ridge opposite Birling Estate.

Thomas Barker made use of the topography for siting his house and using the slopes around the knoll for viticulture, recreational gardens and productive gardens.

The Thomson’s extensive use of the alluvial flats for dairy farming included the construction of large dams for water security and irrigation of crops.

The topography of the place has determined the land use and opportunity for development for primary production – original cropping, grazing, forestry wood collecting, pasture development, dairy farming, and viticulture – and the placement of structures throughout the property.

Early topographic features include: 1. Knoll and slopes2. Lowes Creek and other creeks and drainage lines3. Alluvial flats4. Dams – pre-19475. Entry drives

• North entry – Liverpool• South entry’s – Cobbitty, Camden, Narellan

6. Farm tracks/gates

Later topographic features include: 1. East dam2. West dam3. Paddocks – uses

• West of knoll – range land scrub• North of knoll – Lucerne, night paddocks• East of knoll – original cropping for dairy farming – silage hay

The creek and drainage lines have been utilised for water storage by the building of dams since c1860.

Further extensive earth dams have been added to the site over time in the 1930s, 1950s, 1960s and 1970s across catchment areas or other ephemeral drainage lines leading to the creeks. These water storage structures provided extensive water storage for the agricultural pursuits of the occupants.

The alluvial floodplain, slopes, low hills and broad rounded crests and ridges have been extensively developed for viticulture and with cropping and pasture for dairy farming. Mature eucalypts as individuals and in clumps are scattered across the various landforms. Extensive areas of regrowth/regenerating forest are associated with drainage lines.

There is some regrowth of the native Blackthorn and native grass regrowth as pasture for cattle to feed on around drainage lines of the west creek. African Olive hedging was used around the vineyard & picking garden. However poor maintenance of the Olive has lead to the invasion of too many other spices of plants.


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Figure 37: Zoomed in view of Maryland house located on the spire planted knoll. TTA

Figure 38: Looking east from the south low range towards The Northern Road showing the large body of water bisecting the property. TTA

Maryland’s topography is of landmark quality in the generally undulating landscape. The Lowes Creek line remains a visually important feature in the landscape setting of the Maryland Estate.

On small sections of land where agriculture has not been practised, the native vegetation and fauna have been generally maintained. The riparian zone’s associated alluvial woodland and Cumberland Plain Woodlands provide habitat and refuge. These maintained and regenerating habitats provide aesthetic values to the setting of the place.

A causeway across Lowes Creek links Lowe’s Estate “Birling” with Barker’s Estate “Maryland”. This is an important link for access between the two Estates. The Maryland site contains five dams:

Dam 1 – constructed and modified c1860 - 2015. Refer to Figure 39. Had an engine for pumping

water, a shed and was possibly used to water the garden and house. Note the chain of ponds East Creek.

Dam 2 – c1930s across west creek adjacent to Lowes Creek. Dam wall remains broken out c1956

also bridge and walls and chain of ponds.

Maryland Homestead


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Dam 3 – c1956-2015 appears to catch run off from area of Winery.

Dam 4 – c1940-2015. The first dam across this creek was simply a weir over which the north

access drive traversed. Extensive dam wall across East creek flooding chain of ponds etc.

Dam 5 – c1970-2015. Extensive dam wall across west creek flooding grazing land and chain of

ponds. North of wall ponds/wetlands.

Figures 39 and 40 below show the development of dams on the site from 1947 to present day.

Dam 5

Figure 39: Location of Dams active in 1947. Land and Property Information. N

Dam 2

Dam 3

Dam 4

Dam 1


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Figure 40: Dams located on the Estate c2014. Six maps. N

3.2.2 Birling Estate Landscape

The c1812 & c1937 Birling Homestead s are located on the west side of the Northern Road. The topography is gentle sloping undulating land forms. The property is sloping from the Northern boundary south to Lowes Creek. The c 1812 Homestead complex was located on a south sloping low formed knoll projecting towards Lowes Creek. Water security would be very important for the homestead and farm activities. Either Dams or Lowes Creek provided the place with water.

Birling c1812 Site

Figure 41: Birling 2016 Ariel view. GoogleMaps.www.google.com.au N

Dam 2

Dam 3 Dam 5

Dam 4

Dam 1



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Figure 42: Birling view approaching c1937 house.

Figure 43: Birling view of c1937 house.


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Figure 44: Birling view of dam and knoll.

Figure 45: Birling view of dam and surrounding landscape.


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Figure 46: Birling view of stable yards with the knoll in the distance.

Figure 47: Birling view of garages on site and other buildings.


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Figure 48: Birling view of 1930’s brick stables and surrounds.


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3.3 Subject Site Setting

3.3.1 Setting

The subject site is situated on the western side of The Northern Road and is, at present, generally surrounded by open pasture. A winding, approximately 1.5 kilometre long gravel drive leads from The Northern Road, across the large dam (Dam 4) and through the property up to Maryland House located on a knoll approximately in the centre of the 257 hectare property.

Some sporadic views towards Maryland House are available from certain vantage points around the area, mainly from along The Northern Road. However visibility of the house itself is difficult due to the maturity of dense planting of the knoll upon which the house has been placed, and the single-storey low-lying nature of the house itself. The homestead knoll, with its dense plantings and signal trees, is a visibly dominant feature in the landscape when viewed from certain areas especially along The Northern Road and Birling Estate refer to Figures 41- 48.

Topographically the site is an alluvial flat draining to Lowes Creek. The alluvial plain is surrounded by soft form ridges except for the knoll upon which the main house was constructed. This gave the occupants of the house a broad commanding outlook of the property from an elevated position. The Coach House is sited on the plain below the house knoll to the north-east closer to the creek and has a much less expansive view.

Figure 49: Looking to the homestead knoll from Birling’s Entry Road. It commands a striking presence rising from the flats below. TTA

3.3.1.1 Birling c1812 Homestead Site

The 1929 topographic map shows the location of the early Birling Homestead. The topography of the area supports the view that this is the location of the former Birling Homestead and associated out buildings. The location is on a small spur with ground sloping down on three sides.

Maryland Homestead


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Figure 50: Detail of 1929 ‘Liverpool, New South Wales’, topographic map produced by the Australian Section, Imperial General Staff, with early 20th-century property boundaries and names added. Rezoning area outlined in red. Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, Historical Archaeological Assessment Maryland & Birling, Bringelly, Lowes Creek Maryland Part (Precinct), Rezoning, September 2016.

3.3.2 Views and Vistas

The earliest view line was recorded in 1843 by Anne Dadswell’s water colour sketch of Birling (refer Figure50) which is looking from the northern side of the Birling homestead complex towards the south. The hill in the background that frames the skyline is the knoll on which Maryland was constructed in 1855-60. At the time of the sketch, Sara Lowe is the owner of this knoll in Lots 6 & 7 of the Nonorrah estate. The hill is covered in eucalypts growing on the ‘good soil’.

A c1870 photograph shows a similar view of Birling homestead and the Maryland knoll. In it, the knoll’s northern slopes are cleared and under vines/cultivation, and silhouettes of bunya pines growing on the knoll are visible in the skyline. This is the only photograph found so far of Maryland in the 19th century. This vista, marked 10 on Figure 51 below, is a historic aspect linkingBirling to Maryland.

Maryland was enclosed with Bunya Pines until the Thomson family removed trees in front of the villa and widened the arrival area with fill. This opened up vistas from the homestead looking north-east to the farm building complex and Birling estate. From this homestead front arrival area, views extend towards the north, including Lowes Creek and towards the 1812 Birling homestead site. The 1937 Birling homestead is also visible.

Views and vistas towards Maryland homestead’s knoll are punctuated by the tall Bunya and Hoop Pines which generally surround the villa complex on all sides except for the northern outlook. Principal views of the homestead knoll landscape are from the north-east gatehouse and drive, the southern entry gateway view No.6, the south west view No.7, the western knoll above Dam 5 and the North West view No.1. Refer to Figure 51.


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Figure 51: Site plan of Maryland showing view lines with associated sections, plan provided by Cardno.

3.3.3 Entry Driveways

3.3.3.1 Northern Driveway

Sara Lowe established the first driveway at The Northern Road. This also links with and is opposite the entry to Nonorrah. Thomas Barker established a gothic style gate house in the 1860’s at this entry gateway. The existing painted timber gateway and panels date from the 1890’s. (Construction and fixing methods c1890). Refer to figure 52.

3.3.3.2 Cobbitty Driveway

Thomas Barker was active in the Cobbitty community. A driveway extends along the low range of the hills from Maryland villa past the farm cottage towards Denbigh and Cobbitty. A farm gate exists in the former southern boundary fence near the low range hills quarries.

3.3.3.3 Southern Driveway

The southern entry driveway leading from The Northern Road entry is opposite a track shown on a map of 1929 leading to Gledswood, home of T.C Barker’s wife’s family. Refer to figure 52.


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This southern entry driveway alignment may have varied over time as a number of remnant bridges have been found south of the current bridge spanning East Creek. The entry’s design with winged fence panels and gates appears to date from 1890’s (construction and nail manufacturing) and matches the northern gateway. This upper southern gothic style c1860 gate house controls entry gates for the villa homestead complex and the winery store (and stables) complex.

3.3.3.4 Birling’s Driveway

The entry driveway extends along a ridgeline off the Northern Road west to the c1937 Homestead and then south towards Lowes Creek to the spur landform of the c1812 Homestead.

Figure 52: Driveways of the property, plan provided by Cardno.

Northern Driveway

Southern Driveway

Cobbitty Driveway


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3.4 Subject Site – Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland

3.4.1 Components

The subject site is located at 773-975 The Northern Road, Bringelly. The subject site covers an area of 257 hectares and is basically rectangular in shape with Lowes Creek forming the northern boundary. It is comprised of Lot 1 of DP 218779 and Lot 29 of DP 872135. It is situated on the western side of The Northern Road and is roughly centrally located between Bringelly Road to the north and Cobbitty Road to the south. The Northern Road forms the majority of the eastern boundary with private properties to the west, south and the remainder of the eastern boundary, and Lowes Creek to the northern boundary of the property.

Maryland is listed as an item of Local heritage significance and is currently undergoing listing as an item of State heritage significance. The subject site contains Maryland House, a large single-storey early Colonial style homestead (c1860).

The subject site can be broken down into 3 distinct areas: the homestead knoll; the broad north and east pastoral paddocks; and the western pastoral paddocks (refer Figure 55). The subject site contains the following structures and features.

• Knoll and slopes used in the past for viticulture, pleasure and productive gardens• Lowes Creek– and other creeks and drainage lines• Bridges and causeways• Alluvial Flats• Dams – 5 in total (pre 1947 and later dams)• Entry drives: former North entry – Nonorrah Bringelly, Liverpool, South Entry – Cobbitty,

Camden (both no longer in use)• Farm tracks/gates- causeways• Paddocks and fencing for agrarian cropping, grazing and livestock management• Spatial arrangement and planning of the estate• Maryland Homestead (c1860) (Item 1)• Kitchen Wing and c1940 addition (c1856, c1940, c1970) (Item 2) (Homestead Outbuildings

Various)• Kitchen Store (c1856) (Item 3) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Meat House Octagonal (c1890) (Item 4) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Laundry (c1856) (Item 5) (Homestead Outbuildings Various)• Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) (Item 6)• Stone Guest House Servants (c1880) Stone Guest House Addition (c1970) (Item 7)• Garden Shed (c1920) (Item 34)• Swimming Pool (c1960) (Item 10)• Northern Gatehouse c1860,c1970,c1990 ) (Item 104)• Upper Gate House (c1860) (Item 14)• Former Entry Cottage (c1860-1970) (Item 20) and access road to southern boundary gate• Modern Cottage (c1970) (Item 18)• Quarry Sites on low range (Item 103) (abandoned)• Stone Winery, Stone Winery Store and Winery Underground Cistern (Item 8,9 & 33)• Farmyard buildings, shedding and structures (this area links with Birling across the

causeway on Lowes Creek).• Pony Club infrastructure bridges, jumps etc. (not in use)


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N Figure 53: Aerial photograph showing the subject property comprised of Lot 1 DP 218779 (comprising the homestead, immediate outbuildings and landscaping and current entry drive) and Lot 29 DP 872135. SIX maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au

Figure 54: Aerial showing the area of the Maryland Estate shaded. The property is comprised of 257 hectares of land in total, with the house lot (Lot 1 DP 218779) being 10 hectares. The house is located approximately 1.5km along the current entry drive off The Northern Road. SIX maps www.maps.six.nsw.gov.au

N

Maryland Homestead is located on this lot.



Tropman & Tropman Architects 70 Conservation Management Plan Ref: 1425: CMP Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowe’s Birling February 2017

Figure 55: Site plan of Maryland showing the three broad areas of the site. Base plan by Craig & Rhodes. N

Birling 1937

Birling 1812

NORTHEERN PADDOCKS & FARM COMPLEX EAST CREEK & ALLUVIAL FLATS

WESTERN PADDOCKS

HOMESTEAD LOW RANGE OF HILLS & KNOLL


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3.4.2 Functional relationships within the Estate

Maryland Estate has a functional relationship to its surrounding rural landscape. The Estate’s water security has always been an important factor. The Residence and Coach House buildings were purposely built and sited to be close to Lowes Creek, the Estate’s main water source. Livestock and productive gardens would have been close to a water supply. Historical photographs and aerials show that the estate operated as a whole precinct of functional spaces and buildings. Despite minor changes to garden settings and access ways, the estate had 6 areas of operation: • The main house and front presentation garden • Workers buildings and Farm Sheds • Productive gardens • Cultivated areas for cropping • Grazing pastures • Links to Lowes Creek, Birling Estate and surrounding homesteads such as Gledswood,

Nonorrah, Cobbitty district and Denbigh.

Within the estate there are important functional relationships between: • the main house pleasure gardens, paddock landscape, entry and winery; • the productive/picking garden; • workers buildings and the homestead; • working areas and access roads (north and south); • stables and grazing pastures.

These have been in part retained and the arrangement is still capable of being interpreted.

3.4.3 Entry and Arrival

The current (southern) entry driveway was one of two tracks that lead from The Northern Road into the property. Both tracks appear from aerial photographs of the property to have been equally used to access the property (refer to Figure 168, 1947 aerial). Both of the driveways lead to the homestead with tracks branching off the main drive to the farm and dairy complex (to the north-east of the homestead knoll) or to the buildings to the south-west of the homestead knoll. The northern driveway, installed by Sarah Lowe in 1842, was associated with the Northern Gatehouse on The Northern Road. It took a virtually straight course into the property to and from the building complex area from The Northern Road before turning to travel south and then up the knoll to the homestead, or north to the dairy and farm complex. The northern driveway appears to have stopped being used following the construction of the large dam (Dam 4) over the drainage line to the eastern section of the property in c1960. The aerial photographs clearly show that by the 1980s, use of this drive had ceased. Currently the property is not occupied and is owned by Maryland.

Figure 56: The Northern Gatehouse on The Northern Road looking to the Maryland homestead on the knoll behind. Note the early gate posts. The entry drive was the beginning of the northern straight drive to access the Maryland property in 1842. (Item 104)


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Figure 57: Early gatepost, constructed c1900 Figure 58: Northern Gatehouse. This building has

been altered from its original form. (Item 104)

The southern driveway, installed by Thomas Barker in c1860’s, still provides access to the property today. Gateposts still stand at the entrance to the property on The Northern Road. This driveway takes a gently winding route through the picturesque landscape of the site, traversing the large body of water (Dam 4) to the eastern side of the property before gently climbing and entering the seclusion of the homestead knoll planted with olives and pines. The final climb provides a glimpse of the homestead before reaching the summit where the homestead sits proudly. This southern entry drive has probably been realigned a number of times as physical evidence of three bridges have been found south of the current bridge and track.

Figure 59: Remnant early gatepost to the southern entry drive on The Northern Road. This drive is still in use today.

Figure 60: The southern entry drive gently winds through the picturesque landscape, crossing the large dam (Dam 4) and wending its way to the homestead on the knoll above.


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Figure 61: Bridge across the large dam on the southern driveway.

Figure 62: Bridge south of driveway over east creek.

Figure 63: Remnants of bridge over east creek. Figure 64: Pony Club training jumps. Indicating

previous use of the land.

Figure 65: Large dam (Dam 4) in the eastern section of the property looking to Lowes Creek.

Figure 67: Gate and gatepost to the upper gatehouse (stone) to the south side of the homestead knoll.

Figure 66: Southern driveway continuing towards the knoll.

Figure 68: Seclusion of the driveway with the upper gatehouse on the left.


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The southern entry drive arrives at gated entries to the homestead, Stone Winery and Stables

Figure 69: Upper Gate House southern entry. Figure 70: Winding secluded driveway south east.

Figure 71: Winding secluded driveway. Figure 72: Winding secluded driveway.

Figure 73: Seclusion of the driveway north entry. Figure 74: A glimpse of the homestead north entry.

A third entry extends directly south from the Upper Gatehouse along the low range past the south farm cottage to the southern boundary towards Denbigh and Cobbitty. Thomas Barker had business associations with Cobbitty.


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3.5 Subject Buildings

3.5.1 Homestead Building Complex

3.5.1.1 Maryland Homestead and Detached Kitchen: External

Maryland Homestead is a large, single storey, early Colonial style residence that is rectangular in plan. It is constructed of stone rubble with a stuccoed ashlar finish and painted stone quoins. It has a galvanised iron hipped roof with sandstone Gothic style chimneys. The wrap around large stone-flagged verandah has a skillion roof supported by classical timber verandah posts. The large timber entry door has sidelight and highlight windows. A number of French doors with timber shutters open onto the verandah on all sides. The main residence is connected to the earlier kitchen wing to the rear (west) by an enclosed verandah. The rear of the building opens up onto a paved and concreted courtyard flanked by the former Homestead Outbuildings Workshop, Laundry, and Meat House Octagonal. A swimming pool is located on the southern side of the homestead. Entrance to the Cellar is also located on the south elevation. An early water tank is located beneath the ground of the rear courtyard to the south-west corner of the house.

Figure 75: Maryland homestead east and north (chief) elevations.

Figure 76: Entry door on the north elevation opening with steps leading up from the driveway.

Figure 77: Stone flags to north verandah.


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Figure 78: Front lawn looking to the north elevation and entry to the house. Bunya Pine to the east yard.

Figure 79: Roof looking east showing sandstone chimneys and octagonal skylight over the entry hall.

Figure 80: South elevation and pool. Figure 81: Rear courtyard of the house (looking

east) showing the western elevation. The laundry is located to the right.

Figure 82: Rear verandah (looking north) off the kitchen wing.

Figure 83: Cistern below ground (SW corner of the house) showing the Octagonal Meathouse in the background.


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Figure 84: Existing Floor plan of Maryland Homestead and Cellar TTA.


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3.5.1.2 Maryland Homestead and Detached Kitchen: Internal (Item 1 & 2 on Figure 6)

Internally, Maryland Homestead is typified by large, grand rooms with large stone flags to the entry foyer and hall floor, and timber board or carpet flooring to the bedrooms, reception rooms and kitchen. The main house is typified by thick walls with high skirting boards, timber panelled doors and architraves. Many rooms have decorative ceilings and fireplaces. Joinery appears to be from original (c1860) period. The Cellar has stone walls and floors.

Figure 85: Entry foyer looking north towards the front door.

Figure 87: Entry Foyer looking south showing the octagonal skylight in the ceiling.

Figure 89: Sitting room at the front of the house off the Entry Foyer. This room has a timber board floor and decorative ceiling.

Figure 86: Octagonal skylight in the SE corner of the entry foyer ceiling.

Figure 88: Hallway leading from the Entry Foyer to the Kitchen at the far end. Bedrooms, reception rooms, ironing room and the “silver room” lead off the hallway.

Figure 90: Decorative ceiling to the Sitting Room.


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Figure 91: Fireplace to the Sitting Room. Figure 92: Dining Room.

Figure 93: Dining Room fireplace. Figure 94: Bathroom. C 1940

Figure 95: Typical Figure 96: Typical internal door. Note the timber framed, multi- thickness of the walls. paned double hung

windows.

Figure 97: Ironing Room Figure 98: Looking east with built-in cabinetry. along the hallway from

the covered in walkway between the house and the kitchen. Bathroom is to the right of frame.


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Figure 99: Kitchen looking west (towards the rear courtyard).

Figure 101: Looking east from the Kitchen showing the small courtyard space between the Kitchen and the back of the house.

Figure 103: Fireplace to the Sitting Room off the Kitchen.

Figure 100: North wall of the Kitchen showing the early cooker and chimney.

Figure 102: Sitting Room space to the northern side of the Kitchen.


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3.5.1.3 Kitchen Store (c1856) and Meat House Octagonal (c1890) (Homestead Outbuilds

Various)

Kitchen Store (c1856) and Meat House Octagonal (c1890) are located adjacent each other to the rear (south-west) of the house and are accessed via the rear courtyard. They are of vertical timber board construction with corrugated roof.

Figure 104: Meat House Octagonal ( c1890) ( Item 4 on Figure 6) (Homestead Outbuilds Various) and Kitchen Store( c1856) ( Item 3 on Figure 6) (Homestead Outbuilds Various)

3.5.1.4 Laundry (c1856) (Homestead Outbuilds Various)

The Laundry (c1856) is of brick construction with a concrete floor and corrugated roof located in the rear courtyard. A skillion roof verandah is located on the northern side and connects to the rear verandah off the Kitchen.

Figure 105: Exterior of Laundry showing the north and west elevations. ( Item 5 on Figure 6) The roof framing is constructed from bush poles.

Figure 106: Interior of Laundry looking south. ( Item 5 on Figure 6)


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3.5.1.5 Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860)

This building was constructed in c1860 and is a two-storey timber board structure located to the south of the Kitchen and on the northern side of the rear courtyard. A simple carport is attached to the western elevation.

Figure 107: South elevation of the Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) ( Item 6 on Figure 6) facing the rear courtyard of the house. The building is located on the northern side of the rear courtyard.

Figure 109: Northeast elevation of the Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) ( Item 6 on Figure 6)

Figure 108: North elevation of the Homestead Outbuildings Workshop (c1860) ( Item 6 on Figure 6) showing its proximity to Maryland house to the left of frame.

3.5.1.6 Stone Guest House (c1880, c1970)

The Stone Guest House is a large single storey brick and sandstone structure with corrugated sheet roof located to the west of the Homestead. It was constructed in c1880 with additions in c1970.

Figure 110: Stone Guest House (c1970) east and north elevations. ( Item 7 on Figure 6)

Figure 111: Stone Guest House (c c1880) north elevation showing earlier sandstone structure.


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3.5.1.7 Stone Winery (c1860)

Two-storey sandstone structure with double gabled corrugated sheet roof built into the slope of the land to the west of the House and south of the Guest House. Constructed in c1860, this building is in a state of disrepair with one wall missing (currently being repaired).

Figure 112: Stone Winery (c1860) showing the double gable structure. ( Item 8 on Figure 6)

Figure 114: Stone lintels and sills to vents. Timber double door.

Figure 113: Detail of larger stone quoins to the corners and contrasting rubble stone to the walls.

Figure 115: Missing wall.

Figure 116: Internal roof structure. Figure 117: Internal floor.


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3.5.1.8 Stone Winery Store (c1870) and Winery Underground Cistern (c1860)

The Stone Winery Store is a single storey gable roofed structure located to the south of the House on the lower ground level below the Homestead knoll. The walls show evidence of having been repointed and/or patched at some point. Initially may have been larger and was reduced in size due to a fire. Internally a board partition has been inserted dividing the space roughly in half. A large arched opening is located on the south elevation flanked by window openings (no panes are present). Rectangular vent spaces are located to the tops of the walls. Gable ends have window openings (no panes) and timber doors. A sandstone retaining wall abuts the east elevation. The north elevation is built up against the landform.

Figure 118: Stone Winery Store (c1870) south and east elevations. ( Item 9 on Figure 6)

Figure 120: East elevation gable end openings. Showing state of disrepair of stonework.

Figure 122: Timber shelter structure abutting the west elevation of the Stone Winery Store (c1870) ( Item 9 on Figure 6)

Figure 119: Stone Winery Store (c1870) South elevation. ( Item 9 on Figure 6)

Figure 121: Retaining wall abutting the east elevation. Winery Underground Cistern (c1860) behind retaing wall ( Item 33 on Figure 6)

Figure 123: Stone Winery Store (c1870) Arched opening on the south elevation. ( Item 9 on Figure 6)


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Figure 124: Openings to the right of the arched opening on the south elevation.

Figure 125: Internal north wall showing vents at roof height.

Figure 126: Internal south wall (looing west). Figure 127: Internal looking west to partition wall.

Figure 128: Internal looking west past the partition wall.

Figure 129: Internal looking east back to the partition wall from the western end.


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3.5.1.9 Swimming Pool (c 1960)

The inground concrete swimming pool was constructed in c1960 and is located to the south of the homestead.

Figure 130: Swimming pool (c 1960) looking east. (Item 10 on Figure 6).

3.5.1.10 Underground Cistern

Figure 131: Swimming pool (c 1960) looking to the south elevation of the homestead (Item 10 on Figure 6).

The early cistern is located beneath the concrete to the south-west of the Homestead and in front of the Meat House Octagonal.

Figure 132: Underground Cistern covered with conrete.

3.5.2 Southern Upper Gate House c1860

This gate house provides entry to the homestead knoll and Stone Winery Store.

Figure 129: Upper Gate House (Item 14 on Figure 7).

Figure 130: Upper Gate House extension (Item 14 on Figure 7).


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3.5.3 Poultry Sheds and Farm Cottage c1860, 1970 and south-west building complex

Figure 133: Poultry (Duck) Shed (c1960) east elevation (Item 12 on Figure 7).

Figure 135: Poultry Shed (c1960) (Item 15-17 on Figure 7).

Figure 137: Amenity Shed (c1960) west elevation (Item 13 on Figure 7).

Figure 134: Poultry (Duck) Shed (c1960) east elevation (Item 12 on Figure 7).

Figure 136: Poultry Shed (c1960) close up (Item 17 on Figure 7).

Figure 138: Amenity Shed (c1960) south elevation (Item 13 on Figure 7).


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Figure 139: Modern Cottage (c1970) (Item18 on Figure 7).

Figure 140: Modern Cottage (c1970) (Item18 on Figure 7).

3.5.4 Farm/Dairy north-east building complex

The farm dairy complex consists of various buildings including the following: - Early Farm Managers Cottage (c1855,c1860) - Stone Stables and Coach House (c1860) - Early Timber Slab Stables (c1945) - Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) - Early and Later Milking Sheds (c1961), Machinery Shed (c1900) and Tool Sheds (c1965)

Figure 141: Early Farm Managers Cottage (c1855,c1860) looking north-west showing the rear of the cottage and extension (Item 21 on Figure 8).

Figure 143: Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) north and east elevations (Item 22 on Figure 8).

Figure 142: Chief elevation (east) of the Early Farm Managers Cottage (c1855,c1860) (Item 21 in Figure 8)

Figure 144: Shelter attached to the west elevation of the Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) (Item 22 on Figure 8).


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Figure 145: South and east elevations of the Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) (Item22 on Figure 8).

Figure 147: Interior of the Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) looking east (Item 22 on Figure 8).

Figure 149: North elevation of Early and Later Milking Sheds (c1961)and Machinery Shed (c1900)

Figure 146: Interior of the Early Shed and Feed Stalls (c1956) looking west (Item 22 on Figure 8).

Figure 148: Looking west to Cattle Shelter (Item 23 on Figure 8).

Figure 150: Interior of Early and Later Milking Sheds (c1961), (Item 24 on Figure 8).


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Figure 151: Machinery Shed (c1900) south elevation (Item 25 on Figure 8).

Figure 153: East and north elevations of the Tool Shed (1965 – building 26 on Figure 8) and the Storage Shed (1961 – Item 24 on Figure 8).

Figure 156: Stone Stables and Coach House (c1860) showing the east and north elevations (Item 27 on Figure 8).

Figure 152: South elevations of the Early and Later Milking Sheds (c1961), Machinery Shed (c1900) and Tool Sheds (c1965) (Items 24, 25 and 26 on Figure 8).

Figure 154: Stone Stables and Coach House (c1860) showing the south and west elevations (Item 27 on Figure 8). The west elevation has partially collapsed.

Figure 157: Detail of east elevation of the Stone Stables and Coach House (c1860) (Item 27 on Figure 8).


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Figure 158: Partial north elevation of the Stone Stables and Coach House (c1860) (Item 27 on Figure 8).

Figure 160: West elevation of the Early Timber Slab Stables (c1945) (Item 28 on Figure 8).

Figure 162: Step Up Dairy (c1970) north and east elevations (Item 29 on Figure 8).

Figure 159: Early Timber Slab Stables (c1945) to the left of frame (Item 28 on Figure 8).

Figure 161: Looking south to the Step Up Dairy, Hay Shed and Tack Room/Shed.

Figure 163: Internal image of the Step Up Dairy looking south.


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Figure 164: Yards on the east side of the Step Up Dairy.

Figure 166: Tack Room/Shed ( c1970) (Item 31 on Figure 8).

Figure 165: Looking to the Hayshed, Splayed yards and Stables, and Tack Room. Note the roof of Maryland is visble on the knoll.

Figure 167: Hay Shed ( c1970) (Item 32 on Figure 8).


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3.6 Garden & Cultural Landscape

3.6.1 Establishment

Thomas Barker and his first wife, Joanna (who died in 1851) had established a significant garden at their house called “Roslyn Hall” in Darlinghurst adjacent to Elizabeth Bay House. Barker was growing grapes in this garden from 1832. He obtained vine cuttings from the Botanic Gardens.

Thomas Barker married his second wife, Katherine, in 1857. He had purchased the land at Bringelly in 1854 as a place to retire and develop his passion for viticulture and landscape gardening. The Lot 7 has noted on the subdivision plan “low range of hills and good soils”. The scale of the Eucalypts growing on the knoll is seen in the 1843 sketch of Birling with the future Maryland Knoll framing the skyline.

Thomas Barker’s connection with the Sydney Botanic Gardens, Camden Park and Thomas Shepherd’s nursery would have made it convenient to obtain plant material.

The design and set out of the landscape components show a developed understanding of English landscaping. The aspect, orientation, arrangement and design of the garden in relation to the homestead and topography and making use of the place’s topographical features, created a sublime landscape overlooking the alluvial flats and Lowes Creek. Robert Lowe’s Birling Homestead was a feature in the distance as were the hills and knolls to the north. Nonorrah Homestead to the north-east would have been visible when Maryland was initially developed. Refer to Figure 168-169.

Former vineyards slopes

Early winery

Maryland Homestead

Former gatekeeper’s stone cottage

Southern entry drive still in use today


Northern entry drive and access to farm complex and dairy.

Former pleasure garden

Former tennis court

Former picking gardens

Figure 168: Detail of the homestead knoll from 1947 aerial showing extensive cultivation and plantings. Land and Property Information.

N

1947 Detail


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3.6.2 Vineyards

Thomas Barker would have secured vine cuttings firstly from the Sydney Botanic Gardens, Shepherd’s Nursery and possibly other homesteads of the Cow Pastures such as Camden Park. The grape varieties he grew were Hermitage and Verdelho. The burgundy grapes he had started with were grafted with Shiraz (Hermitage). Barker planted the grapes to the east, north and western slopes of Maryland’s knoll. Refer to Figure 36 of the 1880’s image of Birling with Maryland skyline and Figure 168 Detail of Maryland Homestead knoll.

3.6.3 Garden to the House

Plumbago hedges with extensive overgrowth of African Olives line the entry drive from the upper gate house around the house to the front arrival area.

3.6.4 Recreational Gardening

A wilderness garden with extensive walks and a tennis court was established east of the house down the slopes of the knoll to the alluvial flats. This garden has an access drive leading from the house to the Farm Buildings complex. This drive and garden included extensive plantings of Araucarias, Chinese Elms, Eucalyptus, Oaks and Cypress Pines.

3.6.5 Productive Garden

This garden extended from the recreational wilderness garden along the east slopes of the low range of hills to the upper gatehouse. This was an extensive garden incorporating Orchids, vegetables and flower garden for the main household. Evidence of a Pavilion, paths and water tanks is present within the extremely overgrown garden area. Refer to Figure 168 and 169 below.

Figure 169: The villa complex is closely developed. Six maps

Vineyards

Recreational Garden

Productive Garden


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3.6.6 The Estate Linkages

The Estate is connected to the cultural landscape through various elements. The former northern entry drive was associated with the former lower gatehouse on The Northern Road. It passed through the landscape of grazing paddocks and cropping fields, passing close by the coach house and stable complex before leading on to the house, approaching it through the pleasure gardens. The southern entry drive was a broad, sweeping drive, also leading from The Northern Road, and crossing a drainage line – later to become a large dam – before travelling through grazing paddocks and climbing the hill past the picking gardens before entering the homestead’s garden enclosure. Both of the driveways deliver the traveller to the same point to view the house.

Both driveways appear in the 1947 aerial photograph to have been in equally heavy use (refer Figure 168). The use of the northern driveway began to decline with the major expansion of the dam over the drainage line running from Lowes Creek in c1960 and appears to have stopped altogether by 1980s.

The house was certainly sited and designed to give the occupants extensive views over the land holding in all directions. However, as the olives and pines grew around the house, these views were somewhat closed off until the northern slope was selectively cleared in the 1970s.

3.7 Archaeology

A Historical Archaeological Assessment has been prepared for Maryland by Casey & Lowe 2016. Please refer to this document for detailed information. The site has some areas of archaeological potential. Potential archaeological remains at the site include the following:

3.7.1 General

3.7.1.1 Early land use/site clearing These types of resources would probably have been destroyed by the development of Maryland as a vineyard and working dairy farm.

3.7.1.2 Early Agricultural Pastoral Improvements and Infrastructure As the place has been intensively worked for a long time and over different paddock arrangements and uses, evidence has probably been lost.

3.7.1.3 House, outbuildings and gardens Previous configurations of footings may exist for walls, footings and structures from earlier times. Gardens are typically sensitive to reworking and redesign. Hard landscape elements may exist.

3.7.1.4 Farm/Dairy Complex zone This zone may contain footings and previous surfaces associated with residential and farm management.

3.7.1.5 Driveways Evidence of driveways exist through hard and soft landscape elements. There are many farm tracks throughout the property. Evidence of the former northern driveway may exist however it is noted that the land has been cultivated and drowned by the Dam.

3.7.1.6 Domestic Artefacts Rubbish tips and underfloor areas may remain undisturbed within the House environs.

3.7.2 Maryland

Information from Casey & Lowe’s report details the archaeological potential of the site.


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Generally archaeological potential of the site is linked in and around the homestead, workers accommodation, winery buildings, stables, farm buildings and associated rubbish pits. Extensive cultivation of the site would have impacted on archaeological potential throughout the remainder of the site.

Conclusion:

“The excavation of features related to the occupation of Maryland is likely to enhance the overall archaeological data set of New South Wales. The study area as a whole, the main homestead and the broader estate forms a complex which retains many features dating to the mid 19th century and which is readily interpretable. As a whole, the site would be a fruitful resource for landscape archaeology based approaches, considering questions regarding how the site was used, developed, and how this related to the social relationships between the people who lived on the site.

The standing buildings are expected to have reasonably intact archaeological deposits. Well preserved occupation-related artefact assemblages would have the potential to contribute to a range of research questions, including those relating to class and hierarchy, community and cooperation, material culture and the nature of the lives of women, children and men on the estate, and how ethnic identity shaped the material culture of the many German families living on the site. This material would also complement what is known from urban domestic sites from the same period, and allow for comparisons between urban and rural life.

The potential archaeological features associated with the vineyard, winery, stables and dairy buildings would improve our understanding of these rural industries. Structural remains would enhance our knowledge regarding development of the architectural history of the buildings. It is therefore of State significance. The excavation of features related to the occupation of Maryland is likely to enhance the overall archaeological data set of New South Wales.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: 141)

Figure 170: Casey & Lowe Figure 3.111 showing broad archaeological potential of the Maryland estate.


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Figure 171: Casey & Lowe Figure 3.112 showing Detail plan 1 of the Maryland estate areas of archaeological potential. (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.119)

Figure 172: Casey & Lowe Figure 3.113 Detail plan 2 of the Maryland estate areas of archaeological potential. (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.120)


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3.7.3 Birling

Information from Casey & Lowe’s report details the archaeological potential of the site.

The general – but not exact – location only of the 19th-century structures is known. Therefore the entire spur on which they are thought to have been built is assessed as having moderate to high archaeological potential. Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.111 states that this area may contain the following archaeological remains:

Early to mid 19th-century structural and occupation-related artefact deposits associated with:

o The first farm house built for Robert Lowe, c.1812 o The main Birling homestead (built 1810s? demolished c.1937?) o Probable kitchen, pre-1843 o Probable barn, pre-1843 o Separate cottage (for workers), pre-1843 o Unidentified round building shown on 1843 watercolour o Stables

Possible artefact deposits backfilled into built underground features, such as water cisterns and cesspits.

Ad hoc rubbish pits, often dug in the vicinity of dwellings, typically at the rear of the house.

• Paved areas and other yard features, particularly relating to the use of the site as the magistrate’s house and administrative centre from 1815 to c.1832.

Later additions and modifications to the homestead and surrounding outbuildings, including the adaption of the property for dairy farming.

According to Casey & Lowe’s findings, the remainder of the Birling site has low to no 19th Century or 20th Century archaeological potential.

Conclusion: “The potential archaeological remains of the former homestead and outbuildings would include structures and occupation-related material associated with its use from c.1812 through to the 1930s. The archaeological resource would likely provide information into how early 19th- century hybrid administrative/domestic sites functioned in rural areas at a formative time in the development of New South Wales. Such sites are relatively rare, on account of the limited number of magistrates in the colony at the time. Post 1832 remains are able to provide information about domestic and agricultural buildings. These would complement what is known from urban domestic sites of the same period. Certain occupation-related assemblages at the site also have the possibility of providing information regarding the day-to-day life of the occupants of the house. The potential archaeological remains at Birling are therefore considered to be of State significance. Their archaeological investigation is likely to expand and enhance the overall archaeological data set of New South Wales.” (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.140).


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Figure 173: Casey & Lowe Figure 3.109 showing archaeologically sensitive areas at Birling.

Figure 174: Casey & Lowe Figure 3.110 showing the archaeologically sensitive areas in relation to the Birling estate. (Casey & Lowe: 2016: pg.112).


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3.8 Birling

Birling c1812 Site

N Figure 175: Birling 2016 Aerial view. Google Maps.www.google.com.au

Figure 176: Birling c1937 Homestead 2016 Aerial view. Google Maps.www.google.com.au N





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N

Figure 177: Detail of Birling c1812 Site with a number modern buildings including 1937 Stables now abandoned. 2016 Aerial view from Google Maps.www.google.com.au

Figure 178: Birling c1837 Brick Stables and surrounds.



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Figure 179: Birling c1837 Brick Stables and surrounds, looking south towards Maryland knoll.

Figure 180: View from Birling looking south towards Maryland knoll.


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Figure 181: View from Birling across paddock towards Maryland farm buildings.

Figure 182: Access way linking Maryland to Birling across Lowes Creek.


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Figure 183: Birling c1937 Homestead

Figure 184: Birling c1937 Homestead from entry.


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Figure 185: Birling c1937 Homestead rear view.

Figure 186: Modern Cottage.


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Figure 187: Former farm shed converted to animal research facility.

Figure 188: Modern Shed


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4.0 ANALYSIS OF DOCUMENTARY AND PHYSICAL EVIDENCE

4.1 Analysis of Documentary Evidence

4.1.1 Early Mapping

Analysis of the early Parish maps and subdivision plans indicates that there were no structures located on the Maryland estate prior to its purchase by Thomas Barker in 1854 and subsequent construction of Maryland House in c1860. The homestead that was known as Nonorrah was located on the eastern side of The Northern Road. The 1840, 1847 and 1853 plans all show the location of the Nonorrah Homestead and no buildings on the Maryland property.

Figure 189: Enlargement of the 1840 subdivision plan showing the location of the Nonorrah homestead on the eastern side of The Northern Road. SLNSW

During the course of this study, it was hypothesised that, due to the location and distance from the homestead of the cottage, coach house and stable, dairy, and shedding to the north-east of the homestead, that these structures could have been those associated with the Dowdell portion of land which Thomas Barker purchased in 1855 (refer Figure 17).

In theory, this appeared to make sense – why was the coach house and stable so far from Maryland homestead? Why was there a period cottage so close to the stable? Why were they situated facing the Northern Road and Lowes Creek? It seemed highly plausible given the above questions and following the straight edges that seem to appear in the current aerial photograph in the general vicinity of the buildings that these structures were those associated with the Dowdell allotment and that they were amalgamated into and used as part of the Maryland estate when this parcel of land was purchased in 1855.

N

Approximate site where Maryland house was constructed c1860

Dowdell Property


c1812 Birling


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N

In order to substantiate this educated guess, we prepared an overlay of the present aerial photograph with the 1840 survey. This overlay clearly showed that this hypothesis seemed to be incorrect. The overlay shows that the buildings are clearly located outside of and to the west and south-west of the Dowdell parcel of land and within the confines of the Maryland Estate. (Refer Figure 190 below).

Maryland Homestead

c1812 Birling

Farm building and dairy complex

Dowdell Property

Location of Nonorrah Homestead and Gardens

Figure 190: Overlay of a current aerial photograph with the 1840 survey of the property. Note this overlay shows that the buildings to the north-east of the Maryland homestead were not associated with the Dowdell property. Also note that the Nonorrah Homestead and Gardens were located on the eastern side of The Northern Road. SLNSW – 1840 plan. Google images – current aerial photograph. Overlay by TTA.

Birling Homestead complex is not shown on 19th century mapping however the overlay of the current aerial photograph shows the location of c1812 complex.

Dowdell’s land was granted in 1812 however it appears that from then until his death in 1823, the land was never worked. Dowdell appears to have lived in the Parramatta district at Kissing Point. In 1820, Rowland Hassel has ownership of the land and through family inheritance Rowland Walker became the owner and he sold the land to Thomas Barker in 1855. Refer to Casey and Lowe Heritage Archaeological Assessment section 2.2.

What is known is that Sarah Lowe who bought Lot 6 & 7 of the Nonorrah Estate in 1842 made a new road entry off The Northern Road. This road entry linked to the area that became the Maryland farm building complex. Sarah may have built structures on this low knoll during her ownership from 1842 until 1847 when it was again put up for sale. Thomas Barker bought Lots 6 & 7 from the trustee in 1854. The 1847 plan of this area shows both the entry road and areas of cultivation on Lots 6 & 7.


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Figure 191: Detail of ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates, the property of M.D. Hunter, Esqr., for sale by Mr Lyons on Monday 30th Augt. 1847’. Study area outlined in blue. Note the updated annotations compared with the 1840 map: ‘partly in cultivation’, ‘Good Valley’, ‘Low Range, Good Soil’, ‘Partly cultivated’. NLA MAP Folder 34, LFSP 448.

Note: The subdivision maps Lot numbers are shown incorrectly. Barker’s purchase of Lot 6 includes Lots 6, 7 & 8 and his Lot 7 purchase includes Lots 8 & 9 of the above map.


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N

Figure 192: Thomas Charles Barker expanded his land holding in 1906 with the purchase of the Nonorrah subdivision Lots 1 to 5. The mapping with this purchase shows features of Maryland Estate for the Lots 6 & 7.

Items shown include:

• Maryland Homestead • Upper Gate house and the track leading from Denbigh and Cobbitty • Dam, Shed and Engine (pump) (associated with Dam 1) • Creek Lines • Bridge over east creek near the South Boundary • Fence Lines and Yards • Driveways

Subject Homestead on Lots 6 & 7


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4.1.2 Aerial Photography

Aerial photographs from 1947 to 2015 show the evolving landscape of the Maryland Estate. These aerial photographs give a clear indication of what was happening on and around the Maryland property during this period of time.

The following series of photographs have been focused on the Maryland property. The features and changes to the landscaping of the site have been annotated to show the uses of the landscape immediately surrounding Maryland House, and the changes in the use of these areas as well as the change in the building fabric of the estate over time.

Of particular interest are the driveways to the property. It would appear that both the northern and southern driveways were both equally used to access the property. Both of the driveways lead to the homestead with tracks branching off the main drive to the farm and dairy complex (to the north of the homestead knoll). The northern driveway was associated with the former lower gatehouse on The Northern Road. We would suggest that the northern driveway was more of a back entrance or shortcut for the occupants and more for everyday use, with the southern drive being the grand entrance for visitors and guests. The northern driveway appears to have declined in use following the construction of the large dam over the drainage line to the eastern section of the property in c1960. The aerials clearly show that by the 1980s, use of this drive had ceased. The southern driveway still provides access to the property today.

Figure 193: Detail of 1970 aerial, showing former location of Birling historic homestead and 1930s stables.


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Lowes Creek

Farm building complex and dairy

Former entry and location of Northern Gatehouse

Dams Dam Bridge at creek line

Figure 194: 1947 aerial overview. Land and Property Information.

c1812 Birling Homestead Complex Race Track

Southern entry drive. This entry is still in use today.

Cottage

Southern boundary of the property

N

1947 overview

Dam

Maryland House complex (refer inset enlargement overpage)

Tracks through the property


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Former vineyards slopes

Early winery

Maryland Homestead

Former gatekeeper’s stone cottage

Southern entry drive still in use today

Northern entry drive and access to farm complex and dairy.

Former pleasure garden

Former tennis court

Former picking gardens

Figure 195: 1947 aerial enlarged detail. Land and Property Information.

N

1947 detail


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Lowes Creek

Areas under cultivation

Figure 196: 1956 aerial. Land and Property Information.

Dams Farm building complex and dairy

Tracks through the property Former entry and

location of Northern Gatehouse

Maryland House complex Dams

Cottage


Western and southern boundaries of the property

N

1956 overview


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Farm building complex and dairy

Maryland House complex. Note the addition of the swimming pool and winery buildings (refer inset enlargement overpage)


Remnant Dam wall Lowes Creek


Dams

Tracks through the property

Western and southern boundaries of the property

Cottage N

1961 overview

Former entry and location of Northern Gatehouse

Major new dam construction in addition to existing dams


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North driveway still very clearly in use

Figure 198: 1961 aerial detail. Land and Property Information.

Early Shed and Feed Stalls, Cattle Shelter, Early and Later Milking Sheds, Machinery Shed, Tool Shed and yards. Early Farm Managers

Cottage c1860

Stone Stables and Coach House c1860

Early Timber Slab Stables c1945

South driveway which is still in use today

N

1961 detail

New poultry sheds and amenities constructed c1960 New Stone Winery & Stone Winery Store

Former Entry cottage

Maryland Homestead

New swimming pool

Tennis court no longer used

Pump house and engine. Hayshed


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Very little appears to have changed on the property between 1961 and 1965. Notable changes in the 1965 aerial photograph are the major earthworks to the dam to the front (east) of the property and the addition of a building to the north of the farm building complex.

It would appear that the northern driveway is still in operation at this point in time.

N

1965 overview

Additional building / shed

Major earthworks to increase the size and capacity of the dam



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Figure 200: 1970 aerial, northern section of the property. Refer to following figure for overall image of southern section. Note – aerials could not be stitched together due to angle of photographs. Land and Property Information.

Modern Cottage

New dairy and shedding constructed

New poultry and amenity sheds

Northern entry drive still appears to be in some use

Large dam has been completed and filled

Major earthworks creating large dam

N

1970 Northern property overview


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Figure 201: 1970 aerial, southern section of the property. Refer to previous figure for overall image of northern section. Note – aerials could not be stitched together due to angle of photographs. Land and Property Information.

Increase in cultivated areas to the eastern half of the property

Modern Cottage

This aerial suggests that the southern driveway has become the main entry, though the northern driveway still appears to be in use

N

1970 overview


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Areas still under cultivation in the eastern half of the property

New track around new large dam and leading to and through the western boundary

Northern entry drive still appears to be in use at this time


Substantial clearing of many of the trees and plants to the northern edge of the homestead knoll has been undertaken

New small dam

Property boundaries appear to be more pronounced Waterbody extended

further south towards the driveway

N

1978 overview


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Figure 203: 1982, northern section. Land and Property Information.

Figure 204: 1982 overview aerial (note aerials could not be combined due to skew). Land and Property Information.

No notable changes to the homestead or surrounding gardens or the winery

No notable changes to the farm and dairy complex

Northern entry drive still appears to be in use at this time, though not as heavily traversed as the southern drive

Water levels have diminished in both of the large dams to the western and eastern ends of the property

Water levels have diminished

Southern entry drive

N

1982 overview


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Water levels have increased with water also on the southern side of the entry drive

Figure 205: 1991 overview aerial. Land and Property Information.

Smaller dams still extant

Northern driveway clearly no longer in use for some time

N

1991 overview


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Construction has commenced on further shedding to the north of the farm and dairy complex

No major changes to the building complexes or gardens.

Notable differences in the large dams are the changes in water levels.

A number of areas of the site would appear to be under cultivation.

During the past decade this land was subdivided and sold. Subsequently homes and market gardens were established.

Figure 206: 2002 overview aerial. Land and Property Information.

N

2002 overview


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Figure 207: 2015. Google images.

No major changes to the building complexes or gardens.

Notable differences again in the large dams are the increase in water levels.

N

2015 overview


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4.2 Analysis of Physical Evidence

Much of the documentary evidence of the site can be confirmed through non-intrusive examination of the physical evidence of the place. The major changes that have occurred at the place that are discernible through the physical evidence refer to the original orientation of the homestead to the north, access routes and the evolution of the homestead village.

4.2.1 Aboriginal Occupation

Surveys conducted by the archaeologist and representatives of Aboriginal claimants and land councils revealed occupation by their ancestors. Further work is required in selected areas. Refer Casey & Lowe Archaeologist report. Note indigenous Heritage assessment is being prepared.

4.2.2 Natural Heritage

The Estate has been extensively modified by early European farming practices. Clearing, fencing, cropping, grazing, timber getting, ringbarking of trees etc have revealed the land form which is now covered in pasture. The native flora and fauna of the Estate is modified by fencing, extensive regrowth and ecosystem recovery. Detailed studies are required to assess these areas’ values.

4.2.3 Topography

The site consists of a low range of hills extending north from Denbigh towards Lowe’s Creek. On the 1840’s mapping these northern hills and knoll are labelled ‘good soils’. This good quality soil is suggested in the 1843 watercolour sketch of Birling showing the knoll with an abundant tall forest. The remnants of these trees are growing on the site today.

In the c1870 photograph of Birling looking south, the slopes of the northern knoll can be seen planted with vines.

The “low range of hills” is surrounded by alluvial flats and creek lines to the west, north and east. The west and east creeks have been dammed.

4.2.4 Development of Maryland

Analysis of the existing place and fabric reveals how Lots 6 & 7 became Maryland and how it was used and valued by various occupants: John Dickson 1816 to 1840 for timber gathering and grazing such as the Fat Bullock Paddock; Sarah Lowe 1842 to 1847 for cultivation, agriculture general access from the Northern Road and as a back drop to the presentation of Birling; Thomas Barker and family 1854 to 1940 to create Maryland Village, winery, landscape and gardening; Thomson family 1940 to 2010 for retreat, pasture and dairying.

4.2.5 Low Range Hills

The low range hills, knoll and good soils were used by Thomas Barker to create Maryland Village. This village is a compact arrangement of buildings, courtyards access ways and functions to support his interest in Georgian design gardening, landscape and viticulture.

The village consists of:

• Maryland Homestead c1860 with views to the northern and eastern neighbouring properties. • Kitchen, Living room, Store and Quarters Building c1855 (Homestead Outbuildings Various) • Laundry c1855, Tack Room & Blacksmith Shop c1860 (Homestead Outbuildings Various) • Homestead Outbuildings Workshop c1860 • Former Lawn, Arrival Lawn, Utility Court and Recreational Court1855 to 1870 formed by the

above buildings. • Meat House Octagonal c1880 • Gardener’s Shed c1890


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• Stone Guest House c1870 and extension 1970 • Cistern c1860 • Upper Gate House and Gates c1870 c 1900 • Entry Drive c1855 • Formal entry landscape, recreational and productive gardens. • Driveway leading south from Upper Gate House to Farm Workers Cottage c1870, quarries,

south boundary gate and access to Denbigh Cobbitty. • Winery c1855 to 1870 on the northern slopes of the knoll Thomas barker established his

vineyards and on the west slopes his winery and cellar. On the east slopes he created a formal landscape, wilderness and recreational landscape and productive gardens of orchards, vegetables and flowers for picking.

4.2.6 Eastern Paddocks

East of the low range of hills are alluvial flats that were used for:

• Grazing including gates, fences and cropping paddocks. • Access, northern gatehouse c1870, decorative gates c1900. • Northern Driveway with weir across east creek. • Southern Driveway and gates with bridge across west creek. • Water storage Dam on slopes below productive garden with Farm Shed & Engine (pump)

c1890 • Pony Club activities including jumps c1980 • Large Dam c1961

4.2.7 Western Paddocks

West of the low range of hills are further alluvial flats that were used for:

• Grazing including gates, fences and cropping paddocks. • Special paddocks for growing Lucerne adjacent to Lowes Creek • Dam c1870 on West Creek adjacent to Lowes Creek. • Dam c1860 below winery/vineyard. • Dam c1970 which inundated west creek for huge water storage. • Farm Sheds c1970 for ducks and chickens.

4.2.8 Northern Paddocks

The northern paddocks between the vineyard slopes and Lowes Creek were developed for cropping and farm buildings complex. The area was used for:

• Grazing and Cultivation 1816 to 1847 • Farm Buildings Complex c1855 to 2016 • Farm Managers Cottage c1855 - c1870 • Stone Coach House, Stables and Tack Room c1860 • Slab Timber Stables c1900. • Dairying c1860 to 2010 including pasture, cropping, silage pits, milking shed, feed lot and

bales, machinery shop, timber stalls shelter sheds, haysheds and tack • Stud Dairy Cattle Holsteins (Friesians) c1960- c2000 • Stud beef Cattle (present)


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4.2.9 Birling

The c1812 Birling Homestead became a village during Robert Lowe’s period of occupation especially with his role as a magistrate in 1815 to his death in 1832. The potential archaeological information regarding this period of responsibility as a government agent is significant. 1937 Birling Homestead is a good quality inter war period modern design style residence reflecting rural living at that time.

4.3 Comparative Analysis

4.3.1 Landed Estates

The year 1815 was a significant one. For Britain, it marked the end of the great French War. Britain could now concentrate on expanding her Empire in the long peace which followed. For the first time since 1793, convict transportation could assume large proportions. From 1815 large numbers of convicts arrived and a regular system soon developed, based on the assignment of orderly prisoners to private landholders. A large labour force was becoming available.

Peace also promoted landed settlement. It helped in the expansion of the Sydney settlement over the Blue Mountains and also, after 1820, into the Hunter Valley. It stimulated local officials and merchants to seek large land grants in new areas. Camden was such an area, ready for estate settlement, from 1815.

From this time, grants of considerable size were made to new colonists on the east side of the Nepean. They were often of the customary 2,000 acres or less. To most grantees, they were additional income earners to the owner’s salaries or commercial profits. They never approached the greatness of the Macarthur holdings, but they were important in Camden’s growth.

The estates were a conglomerate of gentlemen’s country residences and working units. With their fine colonial homesteads, they satisfied their owner’s requirements for English gentry status. Their outbuildings promoted production and formed quasi-village structures, again on the English model. In the early days, they made formal villages unnecessary.

Maryland was built by Thomas Barker c1860. Barker was associated with steam mill engineer John Dickson who acquired the 3000 acre Nonorrah- the present Maryland forms a part of the site. The site was used for viticulture, agricultural farming and included the main homestead with several outbuildings.

c1812 Birling and c1860 Maryland became villages with extensive accommodation and primary production development.

The estate has been used as a pastoral station and country house since this time, despite the contraction and expansion of the site. Today, Maryland is one of the few remaining homesteads in the Camden Local Government area. Other comparable homestead groups can be found at Gledswood, Orielton, Denbigh, Harrington Park, Raby, Belgenny Farm and Studley Park.


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4.3.1.1 Gledswood, Camden Valley Way, Catherine Field

The Gledswood estate was an amalgamation of several of the earliest land grants in the Cumberland Basin. The working farm, initially called Buckingham, was started on the land granted to Count Huon de Kerilleau in 1810, with later parcels added by the Chisholms who renamed the estate Gledswood.

Gledswood, whilst a gentleman’s estate, was used as a working farm and was one of the largest in the area.

Gledswood was T.C. Barker’s wife’s family home.

Figure 208: Gledswood Homestead.

4.3.1.2 Orielton, The Northern Road, Narellan

The Orielton Homestead was built on land granted to Lt Edward Lord in 1815. It has had many owners including John Perry who grew wheat and operated a flour mill. During World War II it was occupied by the RAAF attached to Camden Aerodrome.

Figure 209: Orielton Homestead.

4.3.1.3 Denbigh, The Northern Road, Cobbitty

Denbigh was built in 1822 by Charles Hook, a business associate of Robert Campbell and was later purchased by the Reverend Thomas Hassell in 1826 (who also established the first Protestant church services in Kirkham stables that same year). Denbigh can be seen from the north ridge of Orielton. The working farm includes a colonial vernacular homestead and associated farm buildings.

Figure 210: Denbigh Homestead.


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4.3.1.4 Harrington Homestead, Harrington Park, Narellan

Harrington Park was one of several of the earliest land grants in the Cumberland Basin. The 2,000 acre parcel of land was granted to Captain William Douglas Campbell in 1815. Campbell named his estate Harrington Park after his brig, the Harrington. This homestead is thus one of the earliest homesteads in the Cumberland Basin.

Figure 211: Harrington Homestead.

4.3.1.5 Raby, Camden Valley Way, Leppington

Raby was granted to Alexander Riley in 1812 and was named after his mother’s maiden name. Riley moved to England in 1822 and the property was managed by his brother Edward Riley. Of that land, wheat, barley, maize, oats, peas and potatoes were grown and the property held livestock including horses, cattle, sheep and hogs. After Alexander and Edward gave up their direct management, their sons developed and nurtured the prized Saxon Merino sheep on the land. The property was later purchased by the Moore family in 1866 and later transferred to the Mitchell’s where agricultural farming and grazing of livestock continued.

Figure 212: Raby Homestead.

4.3.1.6 Belgenny Farm, Camden Park Estate

Part of the 1910 grant to Macarthur, the Belgenny Farm Group is located to the north of the main drive linking Camden and Camden Park mansion. Its setting is a north south ridge, with an outlook eastwards to the Nepean River and south-westwards to the Ridgeback Range. The stables, community hall, creamery and Belgenny Cottage are grouped around a large courtyard centred on a plane tree and an historical bell. This courtyard and its northern and western buildings formed part of the original 1920s layout. Belgenny Farm Group is thought to be the oldest surviving group of farm buildings in Australia. Belgenny Cottage is a low set weatherboard cottage featuring corrugated iron roof and incorporating some brick hog walls, it was built in several stages, the earliest attributed to Henry Kitchen in 1820. This is the house in which John Macarthur died in 1834.

Figure 213: Belgenny Farm Cottage.


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4.3.1.7 Studley Park House, Camden Valley Way, Narellan

General description

Studley Park was built in 1888 for William Charles Payne and designed in the Victorian Italianate style. Payne named the property after a property near where his father-in-law lived in England. It was designed by AL and G McCredie. The site was initially developed as a country estate for W. Payne and has since experienced a number of uses including: private school, defence force, commercial/recreational use (country retreat) and is presently a golf course.

School Period

Figure 214: Studley Park House.

While only a small school operated in the two storey front of Orielton during the Beard occupation, Studley Park was established as a school in 1902. The Campbelltown-Camden Grammar School and Commercial College located at Campbelltown was moved to Narellan. The main building provided dormitory style accommodation and accommodation for the headmaster, a single storey weatherboard room and three smaller rooms were added to the back of the main building to be used as a dining room and toilet/storage facilities. The stables building at Studley Park was converted to classrooms on the ground floor with concert room and staff accommodation on the upper floor. The original building form was unchanged but the arched openings (horse/coach entry) were infilled with double hung windows and weatherboard walls.

Army Occupation

Studley Park was one of the sites used by the Department of Defence and was first leased by the department in 1939 and later purchased in 1940. A camp was constructed in 1941 to accommodate the army personnel that included a number of alterations and additions to the site. The main house was altered to include sleeping accommodation. Weatherboard buildings were erected between 1940 and 1945.

4.3.1.8 Villages associated with Homesteads

Unfortunately many Homesteads have lost ancillary buildings that supported the functionality of the Estate for government, accommodation, agricultural, horticultural livestock management and food storage.

Maryland is an excellent example of a village which is still intact today.


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APPENDIX A Summary of Maryland Owners


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Summary of Maryland Owners prepared by Rosemary Broomham Date Name Description of Land 25 August 1812 Michael Dowdell 40 ac south of Birling Farm, centre of Maryland

20 June 1816 John Dickson Remainder of Maryland site, in 3000-acre Nonorrah

unknown Eliza Cordelia Walker 40 ac south of Birling Farm, centre of Maryland

10 July 1835 Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker – Inheritance

40 ac south of Birling Farm, centre of Maryland

24, 25 August 1838 Matthew Dysert Hunter 3000 acres granted to John Dickson divided for sale as the Cowpasture Estates

28 July 1842 Sarah Lowe Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates, most of Maryland

31 August 1842 Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgage

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates, most of Maryland

7 July 1854 Thomas Barker Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates, most of Maryland

17 December 1855 Thomas Barker 40 ac south of Birling Farm, centre of Maryland

21 April 1862 Katherine Heath Barker, wife of Thomas Barker

714 ac comprising the 40 ac farm, and 674 ac of Lots 6 & 7 – all of Maryland

21 April 1903 Thomas Charles Barker 714 ac comprising the 40 ac farm, and 674 ac of Lots 6 & 7 – all of Maryland

11 February 1913 Commerical Banking Company Mortgage

– all of Maryland plus an additional 1310 acres

16 August 1940 Permanent Trustee Company of NSW


17 September 1940 Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews


17 September 1940 Ninian Alan Thomson – all of Maryland – 721 ac

27 May 1953 Janet Ievers Thomson and Ninian Miller Thomson

– all of Maryland – 721 ac

10 June 1958 Janet Ievers Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson

– all of Maryland ex road – 629 ac

19 July 1963 Elizabeth G Thomson and Annette L Thomson

– all of Maryland ex road – 629 ac

1 November 2012 Nonorrah Farm P/L and Maryland Homestead P/L

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135

12 February 2013 Aitken Lawyers Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135


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APPENDIX B Owners of the Maryland Estate and

Chronology of Ownership

Tables prepared by Rosemary Broomham


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The Maryland Estate is defined as the land Thomas Barker bought in 1854 and the site of the country homestead he built there in 1858.

Table 1 – Owners of the Maryland Estate

Dates Names Description of Land

25 August 1812 Michael Dowdell 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468

20 June 1816 John Dickson 3,000-acre Crown grant in the District of Cook issued by Governor Macquarie

date unknown Eliza Cordelia Walker, daughter of Thomas Hassall, Cobbitty – Bequest

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

10 July 1835 Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker Inheritance

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

15 August 1838 Matthew Dysert Hunter 3,000-acre Crown grant issued to John Dickson by Governor Macquarie

24 & 25 August 1841

Matthew Dysert Hunter 1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

28 July 1842 Sarah Lowe Conveyance $2,192

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

31 July 1842 Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgage of £1,753 with Interest

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468, Old System, No 212 Bk 4

7 July 1854 Registered 22 November 1854

Thomas Barker Esq Conveyance £1,600

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Cowpasture Estates together with all houses outhouses edifices and buildings therein erected and built... PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34

17 December 1855 Thomas Barker Conveyance £120

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm between Lots 6 and 7 on ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates’ PA 14468, Old System No 706 Bk 41


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21 April 1862 Katherine Heath Barker wife of Thomas Barker in trust Thomas Walker conveyed the land to J. F. Josephson in exchange for 10 sh to the use of Katherine Heath Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm Total 714 acres PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81

21 April 1903 Thomas Charles Barker 1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm Total 714 acres, PA 14468

20 July 1906 T. C. Burnell and Gustav Hugo Leibius Equitable Mortgage Discharged Paid 8 March 1911

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

11 February 1913 Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited Mortgage C 926552

40 ac grant (Ptn 46); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57) of Cook Parish. Total 2,024 acres CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 July 1940 Death of Thomas Charles Barker

13 August 1940 Mortgage C 926279 discharged

16 August 1940 Permanent Trustee Company of New South Wales


17 September 1940 Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews


17 September 1940 Ninian Alan Thomson company director

721 ac being land originally granted as – CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

2 May 1952 Death of Ninian Alan Thomson

27 May 1953 Janet Ievers Thomson Bringelly and Ninian Miller Thomson, her son



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10 June 1958 Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson , her daughter


13 November 1960 Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson

692 ac ex road, Lots 1 and 2 in DP 218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23

19 July 1963 Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson


23 July1963 Maryalan Pty and Winbarra Pty Limited owned by Elizabeth and Annette Thomson


1 November 2012 Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folio

12 February 2013 Aitken Lawyers Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135


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Table 2 – Maryland – Chronology of Ownership Part 1 – Nonorrah

Date Owner Description

20 June 1816 John Dickson (Dixon) Crown Grant

3,000 acres in District of Cook PA 14468

1 April 1829 Richard Jones, President, Bank of NSW Unlimited Mortgage, £2,066.5sh.2p @ 10 % per annum

3,000 acres in District of Cook by name of Dickson’s Farm, including all buildings etc PA 14468, Old System No 3 Bk C

1 & 2 July 1833 John Dickson to Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle, Alexander Berry in Trust Lease and Release

All his property – 15a 3r 4p in Cockle Bay and Nonorrah Farm in the District of Cook, and 500 ac in Bankstown, also Scotland Island, Pitt Water PA 14468, Old System No 169 Bk F

12 July 1833 Deed Poll and Power of Attorney John Dickson to Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle, Alexander Berry To sell & dispose of estate and effects for payment of the just debts and maintenance and education of the children of the said John Dickson

PA 14468, Old System No 430 Bk H

3 & 4 November 1834 Richard Jones Esq All Dickson’s Farm of 3,000 acres in the to Thomas Barker, James

Dickson, George Muckle and Alexander Berry £700

District of Cook bounded on south by Netherbyres, Orielton and Hooks Farm to the west, on the north by Lowe’s Birling, Hassall’s Coventry with South Creek and Molle’s Catherine Field on

Memorial the east. Lease and Release PA 14468, Old System, No 598 Bk G

14 August 1838 Revocation and New Appointment by John Dickson

PA 14468

15 August 1838 Contract for Sale John Dickson to M. D. Hunter

PA 14468

15 August 1838 Attested Copy – Power of Attorney J. Dickson to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore

PA 14468

27 August 1853 Conveyance M. D. Hunter to H. C. Burnell

Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Nonorrah, Part of Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook, with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5 PA 14468, Old System No 160 Bk 28


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27 August 1853 Statutory Declaration of Thomas Barker

Lots 1-5 of Nonorrah with RoW PA 14468

3 September 1853 Covenant J. Thacker to H. C. Burnell


7 September 1853 Covenant Thomas Barker to H. C. Burnell


18 February1854 Deed of Confirmation M. D. Hunter to H. C. Burnell



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Table 2: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership Part 2 – Moorfield


25 August 1812 Crown Grant - Attested Copy to Thomas Moore

87 ac –District of Cook PA 14468

1830 Bargain and Sale Thomas Moore to John Dickson

87 ac, Moorfield – District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 238 Book T

15 August 1838 Power of Attorney – Attested Copy J. Dickson to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore

PA 14468

24 & 25 August 1841 John Dickson of London GB – 87 ac, Moorfield –District of Cook 1st together with all and singular buildings, Thomas Barker Sydney – 2nd waters etc George Muckle Liverpool NSW Alexander Berry MD Hunter Sydney Merch’t – PA 14468, Old System No 657 Bk 1 3rd £200

13 July 1842 Release by Mortgage Stephenson Atkin Bryant Mortgager Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgagee £2000 [interest not declared]

Moorfield 87 ac –part of Dickson’s land in the district of Cook, west side of South Creek, north of Molle’s Catherine Field and 365 ac – Lot 1 of Nonorrah – 3,000 ac PA 14468, Old System No 439 Bk 2

28 July 1842 Matthew Dysert Hunter Vendor Moorfield 87 ac –part of Dickson’s land Stephenson Atkin Bryant

Purchaser £2000 Indenture of Release

in the district of Cook, west side of South Creek, north of Molle’s Catherine Field and 365 ac – Lot 1 of 3,000 ac, District of Cook

PA 14468, Old System No 438 Bk 2

9 August 1853 Matthew Dysert Hunter 1st part Moorfield 87 ac District of Cook Stephenson Atkin Bryant

Melbourne 2nd part together with all and singular buildings, waters etc

to William Carr Sydney 3rd part PA 14468, Old System No 911 Bk 27 Matthew Dysert Hunter 4th part Conveyance by Hunter and Bryant £200

2 February 1855 Power of Attorney – Attested Copy M. D. Hunter to A. C. Daniell & S. A. Donaldson

PA 14468


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18 October 1855 Conveyance Michael Dysert Hunter to Henry Clay Burnell £191

87 ac, Moorfield –District of Cook together with all and singular buildings, waters etc with right of way to Bringelly Rd PA 14468, Old System, No 607 Bk 41

18 May 1867 Settlement 365 ac – Lot 1 of 3000 ac originally H. C. Burnell with Sarah Burnell

as Trustee granted to John Dickson and known as Nonorrah

and Alexander Dick & Adolph Leibius

and 829 ac collectively Lots 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Nonorrah

Sarah released her right to her and inheritance of 16 parcels of land 87 ac, Moorfield so Henry Burnell can convey

them to A. Dick and A. Liebius in Trust but Sarah and her

all District of Cook PA 14468, Old System, No 638 Bk 103

children retain freedom to use of the land

3 August 1868 Appointment of New Trustee Sarah Burnell & A. Liebius –1st

pt George Adolphus Allen – other pt

PA 14468, Old System, No 991 Bk 109

26 October 1870 Appointment of New Trustee Land in Settlement of 18 May 1867 – Endorsed on Deed No 638 Bk (as described in Schedule above) 121

Sarah Burnell 1st

conveyed to uses as the Trust sees fit

Adolph Liebius & G. A. Allen 2nd

Thomas Barker of Maryland 3rd

*George Allen no longer Trustee of Settlement


1871 Appointment of George Allen by Sarah Burnell


9 April 1875 Appointment of New Trustee S. Burnell and A Liebius – 1st

T. C. Burnell, Manager of Bank of NSW – the other part

Thomas Barker departed this life on or about 12 March 1875

Land in Settlement of 18 May 1867 – (as described in Schedule above) conveyed to uses as the Trust sees fit


7 March 1894 Appointment of New Trustee Sarah Burnell and T. C. Burnell 1st

G. H. Liebius – the other part


25 September 1896 Probate of Will of Sarah Burnell PA 14468


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19 July 1906 Conveyance Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Nonorrah, Part of T. C. Burnell and G. H. Liebius

to Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook, with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5

Thomas Charles Barker and £5,232 87 ac, Moorfield

all in District of Cook County of Cumberland PA 14468, Old System, No 738 Bk 809


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Table 2: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 3 Lots 6 & 7 of Cowpasture Estates


24 & 25 August 1841 Conveyance John Dickson and others to Matthew Dysert Hunter

1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

28 July 1842 M. D. Hunter to Sarah Lowe Conveyance [Released by trustees on 1 & 2 July 1842]

1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates Hunter agreed to pay $6,500 and Sarah Lowe agreed to pay $2,192 for Lots 6 and 7 PA 14468

31 July 1842 Mortgage of £1,753 with Interest Sarah Lowe to M. D. Hunter

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468, Old System, No 212 Bk 4

7 July 1854 Conveyance 674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Received 22 November 1854

M. D. Hunter of Antons Hill, County Berwick, Scotland Vendor to Thomas Barker Esq Purchaser

Cowpasture Estates together with all houses outhouses edifices and buildings therein erected and built... PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34

£1,600

2 November 1854 Conveyance 674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Thomas Barker to H. C. Burnell Cowpasture Estates £5,000 paid by Burnell. PA 14468, Old System, No 885 Bk 34 According to indenture of 7 July 1854 he had agreed to pay £2,000 but has now paid £5,000 to the Estate administrators

19 June 1855 Conveyance H. C. Burnell to Thomas Barker £2000

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 as on ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates’ PA 14468, Old System, No 224 Bk 38


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Table 2: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 4 Dowdell’s Farm & Lots 6 and 7 Cowpasture Estates


25 August 1812 Michael Dowdell Crown Grant from Governor Macquarie

40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook –to cultivate 12 acres within 5 years or grant will be voided PA 14468

7 December 1855 Statutory Declaration Thomas Hassall of Cobbitty. The farm was bequeathed to Hassall’s daughter Eliza Cordelia Walker

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468

25 February 1855 Certificate of Burial of Elisa Cordelia Hassall, wife of Wesleyan Minister William Walker, age 31

Ralph’s Plains, Bathurst 10 July 1835 PA 14468

20 October 1855 Certificate of Marriage of William Walker with Elisa Cordelia Hassall

Married at Parramatta by Rev Samuel Marsden on 14 May 1823 PA 14468

20 October 1855 Certificate of Baptism of Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker

Baptised at St John’s Parramatta on 25 January 1828, born 3 January 1828

25 February 1855 Certificate of Burial of Elisa Cordelia Hassall, wife of Wesleyan Minister William Walker, age 31

Ralph’s Plains, Bathurst 10 July 1835 PA 14468

17 December 1855 Conveyance Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker to Thomas Barker £120

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 706 Bk 41


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21 April 1862 Thomas Barker 1st, wife Katherine Heath Barker 2nd, to barrister Joshua Frey Josephson 3rd, and heirs as Trustee to the uses of the said Katherine Heath Barker free from debts, control and engagements of Thomas Barker 1. Whereas indenture 19 June 1855 between H. C. Burnell conveyed the land described to Thomas Barker and his heirs for ever and 2. Whereas indenture on 17 December 1855 between R. B. T. Walker conveyed the land described to Thomas Walker Here, Thomas Walker conveys the land described to J. F. Josephson in exchange for 10 sh to the use of Katherine Heath Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook

PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81

21 April 1903 Indenture between Katherine Heath Barker widow of Maryland Bringelly and Thomas Charles Barker of the same place agree to continue lease to Josephson and heirs during their joint lives and to Katherine after death of Thomas Charles Barker or to the latter if Katherine died first

Thomas Barker Snr died on 12 March 1875 and the land described was already left in trust to Katherine Heath Barker.

Conveyance Katherine Heath Barker to Thomas Charles Barker


PA 14468, Old System No 411 Book 734

20 July 1906 Equitable Mortgage Thomas Charles Barker to T. C. Burnell and Gustav Hugo Leibius

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468


182 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Table 3: Maryland Estate, Chronology of Ownership – Part 1 Thomas Charles Barker


21 April 1903 Conveyance Katherine Heath Barker to Thomas Charles Barker


19 July 1906 Conveyance T. C. Burnell to T. C. Barker £5,232

Lot 1, Nonorrah, Part of Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook together with Lots 2, 3, 4 and 5 with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5 and Moorfield being 1303 acres PA 14468 No 738 Bk 809

17 December 1907 Consolidation Thomas Charles Barker

40 ac grant (Ptn 46 of Cook Parish); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57 of Cook Parish). Total Area 2,024 acres CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 September 1907 Mortgage No 480433 Thomas Barker to Charles Burnell of Bathurst and Gustav Hugo Liebius Sydney solicitor

Part of the 2,024 acres Paid 8 March 1911 CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

11 February 1913 Mortgage C 926279 Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 January 1940 Thomas Charles Barker Death

Sydney Morning Herald, 10 January 1940 At the time of death, Mortgage C926279 had not been paid

24 July 1940 Application by Transmission No C 926552 by

Dealing not available as it was destroyed before filming

24 July 1940 Caveat C 926553

13 August 1940 Mortgage C 926279 discharged

4 September 1940 Caveat C 926553 withdrawn

16 August 1940 Transfer Permanent Trustee Company of New South Wales to Henry John Andrews, Northmead grazier and wife Olive Annie Andrews as Joint Tenants



183 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

Table 3: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership Part 2 – Thomas Charles Barker – Maryland Estate


17 December 1900 Edward Charles Lusted Campbelltown Contractor and his wife Agnes Lusted

294 ac 8 p – Lot 8 Cowpasture Estates and Part of 3,000 ac grant to John Dickson (Portion 45) Cook Parish and also part of 1,000 ac grant to Robert Lowe (Portion 50) CT Vol 1339 Fol 134

22 December 1901 Transfer Charles Smith, Bringelly Esquire


11 June 1906 Transfer Thomas Charles Barker Esq


11 February 1913 Mortgage Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Amount £2,000 Rent (Interest) of £160 per annum to be paid by equal half- yearly payments

294 ac 8 p – Lot 8 Cowpasture Estates and Part of 3000 ac grant to John Dickson (Portion 45) Cook Parish and also part of 1,000 ac grant to Robert Lowe (Portion 50) CT Vol 1339 Fol 134

24 July 1940 Application for Transmission Several parcels of land in the Shire of C926552

by Permanent Trustee Company

Nepean, Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland as defined in the titles listed below

Not Available – This C Dealing Transmission Application was

CT Vol 1339 Fol 134 and CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

destroyed before filming

17 September 1940 Transfer Permanent Trustee Company to Henry John Andrews grazier, Northmead and wife Olive Annie Andrews



184 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

Table 4: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 1 Thomsons Maryland homestead and farm


17 September 1940 Transfer Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews to Ninian Alan Thomson of part


17 September 1940 Ninian Alan Thomson company director

Mortgage

721 ac being land originally granted as – 40 ac grant (Ptn 46 of Cook Parish); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57) of Cook Parish CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

28 September 1942 Mortgage with AMP No D 158028

19 January 1953 Application by Transmission Janet Ievers Thomson Bringelly widow and Ninian Miller Thomson Toorak Victoria company director Joint Tenants


8 September 1955 Notice of Resumption Commissioners of DMR

27 May 1953 Caveat F864027 Withdrawn 20 October 1958

Part of the land described coloured pink

10 June 1958 Transfer Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson spinster, both of Bringelly as Joint Tenants


28 October 1958 Caveat No H 64758 CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

8 November 1960 Mortgage No D 158028 discharged

CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

8 November 1960 Whole Deed (ex road) 721 ac, Lots 1 and 2 to DP 218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23


185 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017


13 November 1960 Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson spinster, both of Bringelly as Joint Tenants


19 July 1963 Application by Transmission by Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson



186 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

Table 4: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 2 Thomsons Maryland homestead and farm


19 July 1963 Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson


23 July 1963 Maryalan Pty and Winbarra Pty Limited


23 July 1963 Transfer Right of Way affecting the site of the proposed right of way 100 links shown in Plan hereon

19 September 1963 Mortgage to CBA Discharged

5 September 1985 Mortgage to NAB Discharged

16 May 1988 Cancelled/ See Auto Folio CT Not Issued

26 April 1994 Subdivision of Lot 20 (Maryland’s Farm) Deposited Plan

Created three small farm allotments in the north-east corner of Lot 2 of DP 218779. Lot 2 bcame Lot 20 and the smaller allotments were numbered 21, 22, and 23. DP 836540

21 August 1998 Removal of small farm lots and addition of land on the western boundary Deposited Plan for Lots 28 and 29 and Lot 1 in DP218779

After sale of Lots 21, 22 and 23, Lot 20 (now Lot 29). A recently purchased 123.3-hectare rectangular allotment (Lot 28) on its western boundary added to the farm land. A new title was issued for Lots 28 and 29. DP 872135, Title 29/872135

26 February 1999 Transfer from Maryalan Pty Limited to Francesco Daniele and Francesca Daniele

Lot 28 DP 872135, a 123.3-hectare rectangular allotment on the western boundary of Lot 29 DP 872135

1 November 2012 Caveat AH349705 Maryalan Pty Limited and Winbarra Pty Limited to Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd

Re contract to purchase Withdrawn J408927

12 February 2013 Transfer AH550353 Maryalan Pty Limited and Winbarra Pty Limited to Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd Aitken Lawyers

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folio


187 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

APPENDIX C Plans and Site Cross Sections

by Various Surveyors

Tropman & TropmanArchitects Conservation Management Plan

188 Ref: 1425: CMP

.'

,.

Thomas Barker Estate: Maryland & Lowe's Birling February 2017

I 5

• l

I !'1i

:m F i gure A : S it e Planof Maryland showing view lines with associated sections, drawings providedby Cardno.

The site plan above demonstrates the various view lines from the Maryland to Birling and Nonorrah. The Cross sections clearly indicate the highpointsin the landform, therefore when positioned at Maryland there is a direct view line to Birling.

i'1i

--:,-..

·1


189 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure B: Site Sections of Maryland showing view lines, drawings provided by Cardno.


190 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure C: Site Sections of Maryland showing view lines, drawings provided by Cardno.


191 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure D: Site Sections of Maryland showing view lines, drawings provided by Cardno.


192 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure E: Site Sections of Maryland showing view lines, drawings provided by Cardno.


193 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure F: Site Sections of Maryland showing view lines, drawings provided by Cardno.


194 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure G: Site plan indicating relationship between Maryland and Nonorrah, drawing provided by Cardno


195 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure H: Site section from plan above indicating relationship between Maryland and Nonorrah, drawing provided by Cardno


196 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

Figure I: Site plan of Maryland Homestead Range and Knoll , drawing provided by Craig & Rhodes


197 Ref: 1425: CMP

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Figure J: Site plan of Maryland Homestead East Creek & Alluvial Flats, drawing provided by Craig & Rhodes


Figure K: Site plan of Maryland Northern Paddocks & Farm Complex, drawing provided by Craig & Rhodes


199 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017

Figure L: Site plan of Maryland Western Paddocks, drawing provided by Craig & Rhodes


200 Ref: 1425: CMP

February 2017