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Images- Western Suburbs Macquarie Fields House |
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architect |
Samuel Terry |
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location |
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date |
1840 |
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style |
Victorian Regency |
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construction |
A handsome breakfront homestead with colonnaded verandah. |
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type |
House |
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Macquarie Fields House is of state and national heritage significance as one of the finest examples of early Australian residential architecture and a landmark, carefully sited in an intact 19th Century rural cultural landscape. The house is a fine sandstone Regency dwelling built c.1838-40 by Samuel Terry and represents the final flowering of the Australian colonial country house style, symmetrical in plan, bold in mass and outline, possessing qualities of simplicity, unity and repose, tempered with a refinement of detail and a careful control in the disposition of the various elements in the design. The property has considerable historical, architectural and archaeological significance as the site of the estate of three well known colonial figures* and for its associations with an early period of colonial history. (*James Meehan, ex-convict who became Deputy Surveyor General and surveyed much of the land south of Sydney between 1810-1820, and then of Samuel Terry, ex-convict, 'Botany Bay millionaire' for his daughter and her husband John Hosking, the first elected Mayor of Sydney). The complex has regional aesthetic significance as its siting closely relates to the surrounding landscape, being a landmark on a prominent hilltop amidst along undulating ridge of high land, surrounded by mature trees, and commanding expensive views to the south and west. This siting demonstrates the Australian nineteenth century fashion for picturesque country estate development which followed the eighteenth century English landscape tradition, and its corresponding attention to lands ape siting and moulding and the cultivation of a 'prospect'. It also demonstrates the distinctive lifestyle of the early nineteenth century County of Cumberland settler, including their deliberate moulding of the landscape's appearance. While the detail of the early arcadian style garden has been eroded, the remainder of Meehan's original 1810 land grant, plantings of mature Araucarias, pepper trees, African olives and oleanders and the open rural cultural landscape surrounding the estate are relatively intact today, adding to the significance of the property. Specific remains identified on site to date include Meehan's Farm House or 'Castle'(1806-10), the Barn which was reputedly built or supervised by Government Architect Francis Greenway, of significance for its interesting architectural form and possible early use as a fortified barn and associated relics such as a wall along the southern side of the house, an early rubbish dump, two early wells, a possible early school house, possible remains of the flour mill and water race erected on the Bunbury Curran Creek. (Draft Statement of Significance, Jan 1999, Heritage Office) The garden has largely been re-formed and has lost its detail but its importance is its wider landscape quality, the overall effect of its impressive dense, rich planting on its dominant hill-top site. It is an important link in the chain of 'Cowpasture' gardens - the gardens of the large mid 19th century homesteads of the county of Cumberland distinctively planted with olives, oleanders, araucarias etc. which still punctuate the landscape of the outer south-western Sydney region. The garden alcove, although in ruins, is a rare example in the colony of substantial garden architecture (James Broadbent for National Trust of Australia, 1981) Macquarie Fields House is of exceptional value as a substantial mid-19th century homestead, prominently sited, with important remnant plantings, layout and archaeological features including a rare example of an exedran garden alcove (below the house on the eastern slope capitalising on the wide views, built c1870s and on the site of an even earlier structure). The Group has considerable value in the local area as a major visual and historical reference point. A contributing factor to this prominence is the juxtaposition of the homestead and landmark vegetation to the open rural landscape surrounding them. The Group has value for its archaeological research potential and strong associations with various individuals prominent in the 19th century. (Britton, G. & Morris, C., 2000) Macquarie Fields garden is a small homestead garden established in the 1840s in an Arcadian style. It is important for demonstrating the distinctive lifestyle of the early nineteenth century County of Cumberland settler, including their deliberate moulding of the landscape appearance, by the following features: the use of exotic plantings of olives, oleanders, and araucarias; the selection of a hilltop location to provide a prospect of the surrounding countryside; a creation of a curved carriage loop; and the garden architectural features of stylised gates, gate piers, and the elliptical apsidal garden seat alcove (now in ruins). The garden has aesthetic significance, as follows: it is valued by the community as richly planted hilltop which creates a landmark feature in the local environment; and it provides an appropriate garden setting for the historic Macquarie Field residence. The garden is important for containing, as features, gates, gate piers and a garden seat alcove, which have distinctive and uncommon design style (AHC). Date Significance Updated: 01 Nov 02 Note: There are incomplete details for a number of items listed on the State Heritage Register. The Heritage Office intends to develop or upgrade statements of significance for these items as resources become available. Description: A mid 19th Century hill-top garden. The detail has been almost totally destroyed however, its planting of 2 large hoop pines (Araucaria cunninghamiana), African olives and pepper trees survives forming a prominent landmark of dense closely textured plantation on a dominant hill-top site. Two impressive sets of entrance gates and piers (one set a re-construction) open onto the drive, now brick paved, which leads to the house sited on a level hill-top plateau overlooking the village of Macquarie Fields. The drive, originally encircling the house, now terminates in a paved car park, the rest being grassed over. The plateau and original drive are ringed with African olives and pepper trees. More olives, the remnents of hedges and also self-sown, clothe the sides of the hill. Built into the hillside, directly below the front of the house (i.e east) is an elliptical, apsidal, restored brick alcove for a garden seat, now in ruins. |
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