| Historical notes: | STATEMENT OF COUNTRY
Vaucluse House and Setting (and moveable heritage) is on the traditional lands of Birrabirragal and Gadigal. When the First Fleet landed in Botany Bay and Port Jackson in 1788, at least 1,500 people lived in the area between Botany Bay and Broken Bay and the intermediate coast. For over a century after 1788, the series of harbourside bays was still home to Aboriginal people who continued to rely on waterways for their livelihood. At Vaucluse House there is evidence of these connections. Today members of the La Perouse Aboriginal community maintain close historical connection to the Eastern suburbs and to the Eastern suburbs and Vaucluse House.
At Vaucluse House there is evidence of these connections. Rock engravings and rock shelters in the grounds are evidence of daily and spiritual life before European contact. There is evidence, in reported interactions with families such as the Wentworths at Vaucluse House, of survival of Aboriginal people with links to the area, including Bobby, who lived as a servant in the house in the 1860s and travelled to England, and other Aboriginal workers on the property (Ingrey and Irish 2011: 4; Nicholas 2020).
There were Aboriginal camps on the Vaucluse estate. Later, there is evidence of involvement of Aboriginal people from the La Perouse community in 1930s historical pageants at the house. Although the historical record is fragmentary, such connections should not be viewed as discrete encounters of Aboriginal people within a colonised landscape. Rather this is evidence that, despite devastation by the effects of European settlement, Aboriginal people chose to remain in the area. Today members of the La Perouse Aboriginal community maintain close historical connection to the Eastern suburbs and to the Vaucluse House precinct (Ingrey & Irish 2011: 5).
WILLIAM WENTWORTH
William Wentworth was born on board the 'Surprise' off Norfolk Island in 1790, to surgeon D'Arcy Wentworth and former Irish convict Catherine Crowley. He spent his early years on the island, returning to Sydney to settle in Parramatta, where D'Arcy became a prosperous landowner. In 1802 William was sent to England for education. On return in 1810, Governor
Macquarie appointed him acting provost-general, granting him 1750 acres along the Nepean. On 15 October 1810, William rode to victory in the first official horse race on Australian soil, in Hyde Park (Smith 2014: 4).
In 1813, Wentworth, Gregory Blaxland and Lt. William Lawson, led an expedition crossing the Blue Mountains, with four servants and an Aboriginal guide. As a reward Wentworth was granted another 1000 acres. He continued to assist his father with business, combining farming interests with Pacific sandalwood trading, before returning to England in 1816 to study law. He wrote a book published in London in 1818 titled 'A Statistical, Historical and Political Description of the Colony of New South Wales'. It argued for political reform and liberalisation, NSW elected assembly, trial by jury and free emigration. William returned to NSW in 1824. In 1827, his father died, leaving Wentworth inherited his property and making
him one of the wealthiest in the colony (Smith 2014: 4).
On 27 August 1827, Wentworth purchased the adjacent (MacGlynn's) 40-acre estate. He consolidated it through an additional 370-acre grant, bringing Vaucluse estate to 515 acres (208 ha). From the time of his grant, Wentworth began subdividing the land (Mather 1982, 3). His estate stretched from Macquarie Lighthouse on South Head to the eastern heights of Rose Bay. He and Sarah moved here with their growing family in 1828, carrying out major building and ground works over 25 years. They would have 10 children and live here 1827-53 and 1861-62 (Smith 2014: 4; HHT 2004: 33; Bogle 2002: 612).
By the 1830s, the family had made many improvements, including turrets on the house in picturesque Gothic Revival style, sandstone stables with seven stalls, harness room, fodder room, mens' quarters and coach house in 1829 by architect George Cookney, large kitchen wing and 'convict barracks'. He used it as a family home and setting to enhance his status as a public figure (Smith 2014: 4; Read 2016: 128).
Although Wentworth was prominent and important in politics, he was never welcomed into the Sydney 'exclusives' club of officers and wealthy free settlers. Initially he identified himself with emancipists and native-born Australians, establishing the first non-government newspaper 'The Australian' to agitate for reform. He entered the NSW Parliament in 1843, a dynamic time in Australian politics and chaired a committee formed to draft a new NSW constitution. The democrats and radicals accused him of attempting to create a 'bunyip aristocracy' that gave voting rights to wealthy landowners and squatters. After several redrafts a constitution was accepted and responsible government formed, although the Legislative Council remained unelected.
GARDEN AND SETTING
Within immediate view of Vaucluse house, the surrounding bush provided a setting for Wentworth's 'park' of grazing paddocks. Within this, the family created two fine views. A carefully designed vista looked north-east to the sandstone outcrops of nearby Parsley Hill. Another framed by long V-shaped native tree edges looked north by north-east. This was gardening on a grand scale. A winding carriageway separated parklands from pleasure grounds. In the later 19th century, these boundaries were marked by iron estate fencing. The inner pleasure garden, with original layout of rolling lawn, shrubbery, and meandering gravel paths, survives. To the rear, stock fences, service yards, and extensive vegetable ('kitchen') garden were reconstructed in the 1990s. Original plantings of brush box survive in the site (Bogle 2002: 612).
Vaucluse House garden remains Sydney's most complete surviving example of the Gardenesque - one of the pinnacle movements of 19th century horticulture. Conrad Martens' sketch from Vaucluse Bay (1840) shows a clear view to the residence and what appears to be a well-established climber (possibly Chinese wisteria) over the verandah. To the west is a dense grove of trees (possibly native) and large Norfolk Island pine 25-30 years old, probably planted pre-1827 (Lindsay 2017; Mather 1982: 3; Watts 1985: 22).
Vaucluse House and furnishings were clearly intended to provide the correct social surroundings for Wentworth's family including seven daughters and three sons. Its public areas were designed for effect and drawing and dining rooms, long hall and sweeping staircase were as fashionable as his taste would allow. The house was never completed due to factors including the 1840s depression and his intentions for a full faade, bedroom additions and formal entrance are unknown (Smith 2014: 4).
Wentworth regarded Vaucluse as an estate - a private residence with outbuildings. It acted as a base for a man who helped form the Australian Patriotic Association, an active player in improving education and in establishing the University of Sydney, Australia's first. He had a keen interesting in horticulture, which was reflected in the gardens of Vaucluse House.
VAUCLUSE HOUSE FROM 1850
To escape social exclusion, in March 1853, the family sold most of the house's contents by auction before leaving for England. In December, the house and 163 acres were leased to John Hosking for three years. By the time they left in 1854, the garden was well established. The lease required Hosking to keep 'the park, gardens, orangeries, vineyard and buildings, fencing, hedges, ditches, gates, bridges, stiles, rails, poles, posts and drains in good and sufficient order'. (Nicholas 2020; Mather 1982: 4; Watts 1985: 22).
By the mid-1800s, when John Lang was writing (1859: 'A Special convict', Household Words: a Weekly Journal, vol. 19, no. 474, 23/4/1859: 489), the harbourside villa was still to be finished, but the surrounding estate boasted gracious gardens and parklands, wooded greens, orchards and vineyards (Nicholas 2020).
When the Wentworths and four children returned briefly in 1861-62, many improvements were made to the pleasure grounds. They returned with 25 crates of furniture, Grand Tour souvenirs and European tastes. Renovations were needed after years of tenants' neglect, and the verandah with Gothic Revival columns replaced a flat-roofed one. Use of grounds extended to the Beach Paddock. The fountain on the front lawn was installed. New plantings were introduced to gardens and orchards and innovations in fencing shaped and formalised approaches. The Wentworths returned to England in 1862, the estate occupied by agents, relations and family members (Nicholas 2020; Mather 1982: 4; Parramatta Advertiser 2005).
In 1867, a very dry year, the fire brigade was called to Vaucluse House, when the estate was said to be in the care of servants. Fire penetrated but didn't reach the house or destroy the garden.
In 1872, W.C. Wentworth died in England. According to his wishes, Sarah arranged for a mausoleum and iron palisade fence to be built on their Sydney estate. The Wentworth Mausoleum is a now separate property on Chapel Road, visible from the house.
From the late 1870s, the house was occupied by family, friends or caretakers. Sarah and a daughter took up residence during the slow completion of the Mausoleum, returning to England in 1875 to visit family. Sarah only returned to Australia briefly. After William's death, Sarah and unmarried daughter Eliza continued a life-long interest in the property, even from abroad (Bravery 1997: 5-8).
From available literature, pictures, sub-division plans and municipal maps of the estate it can be established that the garden and grounds were most characteristically the curtilage of a residence completed in the 1860s and maturing in the 1880s (Mather 1982: 1).
PUBLIC USE
In 1900, the house's contents were auctioned, and it remained unoccupied until July 1910. After extensive 1909 community activism by the Harbor [sic] Foreshores Vigilance Committee, the NSW government resumed 22.9 acres (9.3ha), including house, garden, parkland and harbour frontage in July 1910, dedicating it for public recreation in August 1911
(Carlin 2011(1): 8; Nicholas 2020).
Vaucluse House was acquired to give locals access to the harbour frontage, which was then largely in private hands (Watts 1982: 47).
The Department of Lands was charged with establishing a public recreation ground here. This was first managed by an Honorary Board of Trustees as part of Nielsen Park-Vaucluse Trust. The dilapidated house, virtually empty, was open to the public on weekends and holidays from March 1912. The Trust granted public access to its ground floor only (Nicholas 2020; White 2015: 19). As well as being a 'Museum of Australian Historic Objects', it became a monument to Wentworth's role in Australia's nationhood. A former library or estate office became the 'Constitution Room', where the NSW constitution for responsible government was drafted. It became a popular tourist destination, and its grounds took on the character of a municipal park (Carlin 2011(1): 8).
In the 1920s, further changes were made to the house and by the mid-1920s almost all evidence of Wentworth's entry drive was lost, replaced by Wentworth Road. When it and Olola Avenue were laid out, the most dramatic section of drive north of the house survived but its eastern return was lost (Carlin 2011(1): 8). Until this decade substantial areas of cleared land survived in east and west. In the 1920s, the whole house opened to the public and great changes began in its grounds. The kiosk (tearooms) was built, new pedestrian bridges crossed the creek, and the ground level west of the stables was radically altered for footpaths. Bitumen was laid on the original gravel paths, the last remnants of orchard, vineyard and the original drive disappeared. Wentworth's precious bushland to west and east was subdivided.
The 1930s Depression saw much relief works, with concrete paths laid, stone walls on the creek, much work on the carriage loop including stone walls, kerbing and arbours. An extensive rose garden was established in the lawn. A rockery was formed around the bakery and the garden embellished with beds of azaleas, cannas, cinerarias and begonias - changing it into a 20th century municipal park.
Further additions and alterations were made up until 1966. In 1968, responsibility for house and grounds passed to the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service and it was declared a historic site under the National Parks and Wildlife Act 1967. Over 200 indigenous trees were planted and refurbishment of interiors was announced in 1978. In 1980 the property became the responsibility of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (Bravery 1997: 5-8).
In 1981, the Trust commenced work on a long-term conservation plan and program (Watts 1982: 47). This was based on a study of the site's history, contemporary documentation such as paintings, sketches, family papers, photographs, and research on 19th century garden practises in Australia. Today Vaucluse House is one of the few 19th century houses on Sydney Harbour retaining a significant part of its original setting.
A bush regeneration program for the south paddock's escarpments has re-established its wooded backdrop. Several mature palms and casuarinas from the front garden (public reserve) near the 'approach road' (drive) and sandstone piers were removed c. 1996 to recover a partial view from house to Vaucluse Bay (Bogle 2017; Carlin 2011 (1): 8; Taylor 2017).
From 1999, curatorial adviser Dr James Broadbent and head gardener Dave Gray prepared a conservation policy for a small plot of land adjacent to the kitchen wing. Since the early 20th century, the site of the original kitchen garden had been used as a rubbish tip and then car park. It was decided to reinstate a kitchen garden using heritage seeds imported from the UK. This work was completed in time for the first Kitchen Garden Festival in March 2000. The garden grows approximately 90 varieties of vegetables, some of which have survived in Australia for over a century. |