| Historical notes: | STATEMENT OF COUNTRY
Llanarth is located on Wiradjuri country on the banks of the Wambuul/ Macquarie River (AIATSIS 1996). The river is one of the three rivers which shape Wiradjuri country. Wiradjuri clans within the Bathurst region came together to trade, hunt, share information, feast, fight, and for ceremonial purposes (Pearson, 1981). Wiradjuri practices are evident in archaeological finds of stone monuments, tools and water holes. Carved trees and bora rings attest to culturally significant places in this region (Extent Heritage, 2017). Recorded evidence by colonial settlers documented their continuing cultural practices following the arrival of colonists in and around Bathurst.
The broader region of Bathurst is known to be a significant site of Wiradjuri resistance to colonial settlement (Gapps, 2021, Read, 1988). The Wiradjuri experienced the impacts of pastoral expansion, settlement, imported disease and settler violence early and retaliated with a series of attacks. Between the years 1822 and 1824 coordinated resistance escalated into Gudyarra (‘war’) in the Bathurst region (Gapps, 2021). This warfare is part of a broader national history of Aboriginal resistance to colonial settlement. The Bathurst region has a strong oral tradition of culturally significant stories which remember the loss and violence experienced and resistance waged by Wiradjuri people.
EARLY EUROPEAN SETTLEMENT OF BATHURST
The Bathurst district was the first European inland settlement in Australia, having been proclaimed by Governor Lachlan Macquarie on 7 May 1815 (Barker, 1992, 25). Macquarie had originally conceived Bathurst as a government settlement which would play an administrative and military role in securing and expanding new pastoral districts (Atkinson, 1997). The formalised layout of the town was completed by Surveyor-General Thomas Mitchell in 1833. Between 1815 and 1833, large land grants were issued, particularly along the Wambuul/Macquarie river, to the north of the township and of the subject site.
The growth of Bathurst accelerated in the mid-nineteenth century (around the time Llanarth was constructed) following the discovery of gold at Ophir in 1851. The original road to the goldfields from Bathurst was accessed by a road (now known as Eglinton Road) which bordered the northern side of the Llanarth property and cut through the original Walmer Estate (Parish of Bathurst Map, Surveyor Generals Office, Sydney NSW, 15 November 1881; Urbis, 2008). The extension of the rail line from Lithgow in 1876 further consolidated growth and meant Bathurst played a key role in facilitating western settlement and pastoral expansion in NSW (Barker 1998, 178).
WALMER ESTATE
The original 1830 land grant of 320 acres was held by Thomas Jarman Hawkins (1809-1885), a Coroner and Returning Officer for Bathurst, Commissioner of Crown Lands for the Western District (1875-1881), Gold Commissioner and Member of the NSW Legislative Assembly Parliament of NSW (1859-1860) (Parliament of NSW Members, accessed 28 November 2025). Hawkins called the property 'Walmer' and it originally extended down to the Wambuul/Macquarie River (Parish of Bathurst Map, Department of Lands, 19 November 1895; CMP, 2008, 52).
In 1852 ownership of the Walmer estate was transferred to James and Leticia Stewart who sold the land to William Atkins in 1857. Aitkins built the house, coach house and original stables in 1858 and named the property 'Stratheden'. The coach house was originally built as servant's quarters and historical notes recorded by subsequent owners state the house was built by convict labour using hand-made bricks and Australian Red Cedar (Raine and Horne, no date, referenced in: CMP, 2008). The house was built in the Victorian Italianate style as a gentleman's residence.
LLANARTH
John Smith purchased the subject site in 1863 (CMP, 2008; Land Titles 1863). Smith was an influential pastoralist who owned numerous parcels of land in western NSW and is credited for evolving a type of sheep with hardy wool at his Gamboola stud. Smith contributed to colonial NSW as a member of the NSW Legislative Council (1880-1895), a magistrate from 1850 and a foundation member of the Union Club in 1857. His son Fergus Jago Smith was also a Member of both the Legislative Council (1895-1924) and Legislative Assembly (1887-1889) of NSW (History by L. F. Hawkins written on 4 July 1979 in Siede, 2008A).
In 1863, Smith began rebuilding the rear section of the house and renamed the property 'Llanarth', a name likely originating from Smith and his wife Mary's Cornish ancestry (CMP, 2008, 53). Around this time, a coachman's cottage was built in front of the entrance gates, although no structural evidence remains (CMP, 2008, 53).
Under the Smith family's custodianship (1863-1916), the house and out-buildings took their layout in the landscape which largely remains intact today, although the coachman's cottage and the route of the then driveway which looped in front of the house eastward are no longer evident. The original stables and some outbuildings were damaged or destroyed by fire in 1863 and likely rebuilt a further two times following subsequent fires in 1883 and 1905 (Evening News, 17 November 1883, 4; Molong Argus, 6 January 1905, 6). In 1907 a new set of stables were built designed by John (JJ) Copeman, a local architect active in the late Victorian through to the Federation periods who also designed many homes, as well as public buildings such as school of arts, hall, factory and religious buildings and as well as the one of the pavilions at the Bathurst Showground (SHR 01960), (Fallon, 2007).
Llanarth played a central social role in Bathurst. Numerous dignitaries were entertained there, such as Lady and Lord Hopetoun (first Governor-General of Australia 1901-1903) and Lord Kitchener Western Advocate 1984A).
Llanarth continued (and would continue throughout the twentieth century) to undergo subdivision, reducing the land size over time. By 1914, Llanarth was advertised as having 50 acres of land (Australian Town and Country Journal, 2 September 1914, 3). Frederick Henry Roberts, a grazier in Bathurst, purchased the property in 1924 from Jerome William Maguire, a butcher in Bathurst (Land Titles 1924). The Roberts family owned Llanarth from 1924 to 1973.
SUBURBAN EXPANSION, SUBDIVISION AND HERITAGE CONSERVATION
Post-war housing development around Bathurst saw many former rural villages become satellite suburbs (McLachlan, 2007, 111). The original land grant of Walmer was located beyond the original 1833 survey of Bathurst. However, by the 1960s, this land was identified as a 'growth area' for Bathurst (Parish of Bathurst Map, Department of Lands, 27 November 1970) and the suburb Llanarth - taking its name from the subject site - was gazetted (Government Gazette of the State of New South Wales, 22 April 1977, No. 40, 1589).
In the last quarter of the twentieth century, suburb growth began to reach pastoral mansions such as 'Llanarth' (McLachlan, 2007, 100-111). By the time a Permanent Conservation Order was gazetted on 23 March 1984, the property, now on six acres, was also under consideration for subdivision into three lots (CMP, 2008, 46).
From 1970s, custodians of Llanarth increasingly focused on heritage restoration and maintenance, consistent with broader social shifts in attitudes towards heritage conservation. Llanarth was one of the earlier properties to seek Permanent Conservation Order (PCO) status (gazetted in 1983).
Llanarth was last sold in 2007 and a conservation management plan was completed in 2008 (Urbis, 2008, 51-79). |