| Historical notes: | Wahroonga is Aboriginal land:
The meaning of 'Wahroonga' - an Aboriginal word - is 'our home'.
Material in rock shelters reveals that Aboriginal people inhabited the surrounding region at least from the last ice age some 20,000 years ago. Several different languages and dialects were spoken in the Sydney Harbour area before the arrival of the First Fleet. 'Kuringgai' was the language spoken on the north shores (DEST & DUAP, 1996, 42, 135, 138). When Europeans chose the south side of the harbour for the settlement of the First Fleet in 1788, they chose the territory of the Darug-speaking people, who inhabited the region from the southern shores of Sydney Harbour west to the Blue Mountains. Both the Darug and the Kuringgai groups suffered catastrophic loss of life in the smallpox epidemic that swept through the indigenous population in 1789, with a death rate estimated to have been between 50 per cent and 90 per cent. Over the following century there were numerous documentary recordings of the movements of surviving Kuringgai people within the Ku-Ring-Gai locality, both attending Aboriginal gatherings and collecting European rations such as blankets. There are also several oral history accounts of small clans travelling through the district in the late nineteenth century. In the 1950s at least a few local Aboriginal people were known to be still living within their traditional territory (Ku-Ring-Gai Historical Society, 1996, 12-13).
Early Europeans in the district
Before the railway (constructed late nineteenth century) and later the Sydney Harbour Bridge (opened 1932) made the north shore easily accessible, the Kur-Ring-Gai area was remote from Sydney Town and consisted mainly of isolated white rural communities earning their livelihood from agricultural activities such as timber-getting and market gardening. Wahroonga first experienced suburban development after the railway line from Hornsby to St Leonards was opened in 1890, when the first suburban roads were constructed followed by the first homes, built around 1896. The Shire of Ku-Ring-Gai was first constituted in 1906 with just six councillors, who took temporary offices in the grounds of St John's Church at Gordon (ibid, 1996, 12-18).
George Caley (1770-1829), a botanist sent to the colony in 1795 by Sir Joseph Banks from London to collect flora specimens for Kew Gardens, was one of the first white men to explore this bushland area. In 1805 he walked along a cattle path on the ridge towards Fox Valley, near the 640 acres that were later granted to Thomas Hyndes by Governor Darling (1825-31). The north-western part of the grant, known later as Pearce's Corner extended past the present Sydney Adventist Hospital (today this area marks the boundary of three suburbs: Normanhurst, Waitara and Wahroonga) - and honours an early settler whose name was Aaron Pierce. He arrived with his wife in 1811, received a conditional pardon and worked as a timber cutter along the ridge from Kissing Point to the present Pacific Highway (formerly Lane Cove Road). Three tracks converged at this point and Pierce built a hut to house his family and set out an orchard. He was said to reside there by 1831, and the corner was then known as Pierce's Corner). A village developed on the opposite corner (Pearce's Corner Township, later renamed Normanhurst)) around St. Paul's Church (which today is in Wahroonga).
On Hyndes' death the grant was bought by John Brown and became known as Brown's Paddock. When he died in 1881, it was resurveyed and the larger portion became Fox Ground Estate, purchased by a Francis Gerard (Pollen, 1988, 260-2).
Before the railway (late nineteenth century) and later the Sydney Harbour Bridge (1932) made the north shore easily accessible, the Ku-Ring-Gai area was remote from Sydney Town and consisted mainly of isolated white rural communities earning their livelihood from agricultural activities such as timber-getting and market gardening (ibid, 1996, 12-18).
The harbour barrier delayed suburbanisation of the district and in the early 1880s the tiny settlement was judged too small to warrant a railway line. Access to Milsons Point remained difficult although a coach service plied that route from 1881 to 1887. By 1885 it was also possible to travel to Sydney via the 5 bridges road crossing the water at Fig Tree, Gladesville, Iron Cove, Glebe Island and Pyrmont (AHC - indicative place listing - Mahratta Avenue Urban Conservation Area).
Railway and tramway plans for the area were discussed by the authorities in the 1880s (Scobie, 2008, 9). The single-track North Shore railway line that went from Hornsby to St Leonards in 1890 finally reached Milsons Point in 1893. The North Shore Ferry Company had been carrying passengers from Milsons Point to Circular Quay since the 1860s and by the 1890s around 5 million people crossed the harbour by this means every year. Offering suburban subdivisions along the railway line in advance of the stations, speculators developed Ku-ring-gai well before completion of the North Shore Bridge in 1932 set off another flurry of real estate promotion. Ku-ring-gai grew slowly in the 19th century, its population being 4,000 by 1901. However, over the next two decades its population quadrupled. By this time, with its large residences in beautiful, leafy surrounds, it had changed from a district with a dubious reputation to one that attracted people of high socio-economic status, 73 per cent of whom were home owners.
When the railway line came through the North Shore from St. Leonards to Hornsby, a station opened in this area on 1/1/1890 and was called Pearce's Corner. The construction name had been Noonan's Platform because the property belonging to Patrick Noonan came within the new railway's boundary. The name was changed to Wahroonga on 30/8/1890 (AHC - indicative place listing - Mahratta Avenue Urban Conservation Area). The section between Hornsby and St. Leonards was built by E.Pritchard & Co. contractor (Scobie, 2008, 9).
Wahroonga first experienced suburban development after the railway line from Hornsby to St Leonards opened in 1890, when the first suburban roads were constructed followed by the first homes, around 1896. The Shire of Ku-Ring-Gai was first constituted in 1906 with six councillors, who took temporary offices in the grounds of St John's Church at Gordon (ibid, 1996). The post office opened on 15/10/1896. In 1898 Abbotsleigh School for girls moved to Wahroonga. In 1899 when only 3 houses stood in Fox Valley Road, Wahroonga, the Seventh-Day Adventists purchased land there and erected a large building by 1903. This evolved into 'The San' or Sanitarium hospital (Pollen, 1988, 260-2).
During the interwar years of 1921 to 1933, the population increased by 45 per cent from 19,209 to 27,931 with a 68 per cent rise in the number of occupied dwellings, the proportion of brick to weatherboard being 5:1. The same sort of increase occurred from 1933 to 1947 when a further 43 per cent of people moved into the district bringing the total population to 39,874 and adding 3,564 houses. Even greater restriction on the use of timber and fibro occurred in this period so that 3,182 of these were brick. Clearly, Ku-ring-gai suffered less in the 1930s depression than other municipalities where development was much slower. Its people also encountered less unemployment - only slightly behind Vaucluse with 16 per cent unemployed, Ku-ring-gai and Mosman registered 18 per cent unemployed in 1933 - although the proportion of owner occupation did fall to 68 per cent (AHC - indicative place listing - Mahratta Avenue Urban Conservation Area).
Rose Seidler House:
In 1855 to 1856 the Lands Department put up for Crown Land Auction a large area from St Ives Public School to the present Clissold road, Wahroonga that included the Rose Seidler House site. For twenty years not one lot was sold and in 1877 the whole area was bought by William Billyard. After passing through several hands undeveloped, the mortgagee, The Sydney Land Bank and Financial Agency Co came into possession of it and subdivided the whole area into 38 allotments of 2-10 acres in 1893 and was called the "Pymble View Estate."
During the turn of the century the more accessible areas attracted the attention of the developing middle class who were seeking property suitable for large houses and generous gardens in bushland settings. In the more inaccessible pockets such as Clissold Road, tradespeople and gardeners established market and flower gardens, orchards, dairies and poultry frams with an array of homebuilt shacks and sheds.
The gazettal of the Cumberland County Plan in 1951 led to the promoting of neighbourhood areas whilst retaining open space and green belts. This planning scheme led to a new wave of developers and middle class professionals who were attracted to the bushland settings and vistas for architect-designed homes.
In 1948 Harry Seidler arrived in Sydney to build a house for his parents and decided upon Clissold Road. The Seidler family purchased 16 acres for 500 pounds. Harry Seidler had envisaged a family estate. He strategically sited three houses which were flanked by an S shaped driveway. There was provision for a swimming pool and communal areas in the centre of the triangle formed by the houses. The communal housing estate was surrounded by vegetable gardens and indigenous bush.
Rose Seidler house was built between 1948 and 1950. By 1952 the 16 acres had been divided into 3 lots and by 1956 Marcus Seidler House and Rose House had been completed. The Seidler family lived here for the next twenty years.
During this time subdivisions occurred and in the late 1960s Harry Seidlers parents passed away. Rose Seidler House was leased out until 1980. In 1981 Harry Seidler renovated the interior and exterior of the house.
In 1988 Harry Seidler officially handed over Rose Seidler House to the Corporation Sole, Minister Administering the Heritage Act. The property was leased to the Historic Houses Trust for use as a public house museum (Historic Houses Trust 1989:11-29).
More than a gift of extraordinary personal generosity, this added a further century's development to the discourse on design, architecture, history and heritage that is at the heart of the Historic Houses Trust of NSW (now Sydney Living Museums)'s work. Introducing an Australian modernist icon to HHT's collection of 19th century properties opened the Trust up to a whole new audience as it asked questions about 'heritage' in a 20th century context. The HHT's 'Fifties Fair', held every year at Rose Seidler House, reflects its commitment to engage new audiences in the business of heritage. Every August, on a sunday, rockabillies and modernist collectors, families and architecture students all come together to celebrate the era and share their love of the house. Rose Seidler House also provides the HHT with an opportunity to be a leading voice in debates around heritage, architecture and design and to explore in depth questions about modernism and the rise of the 'McMansion'. |