Tanilba House & The Temple

Item details

Name of item: Tanilba House & The Temple
Type of item: Landscape
Group/Collection: Landscape - Cultural
Category: Historic Landscape
Location: Lat: -32.7215724323 Long: 151.9925047680
Primary address: 32 Caswell Crescent, Tanilba Bay, NSW 2319
Parish: Sutton
County: Gloucester
Local govt. area: Port Stephens
Local Aboriginal Land Council: Worimi
Property description
Lot/Volume CodeLot/Volume NumberSection NumberPlan/Folio CodePlan/Folio Number
LOT45 DP16873
LOT1 DP548644
LOT2 DP548644
All addresses
Street AddressSuburb/townLGAParishCountyType
32 Caswell CrescentTanilba BayPort StephensSuttonGloucesterPrimary Address
Admiralty AvenueTanilba BayPort Stephens  Duplicate Address

Owner/s

Organisation NameOwner CategoryDate Ownership Updated
 Private 

Statement of significance:

In 1834 Lieutenant Caswell planted a vineyard at Tanilba on ten acres around the house. He was possibly one of the first vignerons in the Hunter Valley and did well with his harvest. This was followed by neighbours in the Raymond Terrace district, who also did well with wines. (Paddle, 1992, p.13).
Date significance updated: 14 Jun 06
Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the Department of Premier and Cabinet copyright and disclaimer.

Description

Designer/Maker: Lt. William Caswell
Construction years: 1831-1837
Physical description: Site:
Spread across three lots, with a dual frontage to Caswell Crescent and Anchorage Avenue, the complex includes Tanilba House, remnants of convict barracks, a garden cottage, water tank, stone walls, circular drive (loop), wishing chair, direction finder, olive tree, rustic pergola and wisteria vine and a garden setting, including Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwilli) and fig (Ficus sp.) tree.

Entrance Walls & Direction Finder, 392964.56m, 1377766.02m (LEP, 2013).
Part of the sequence of stone structures built by Henry Halloran in the 1930s (1931) to frame the house, that make Tanilba Bay unique (Heritage Study, c2004).

Convict Wall:
Lot 1 DP 54864432, CaswellCrescent, Tanilba Bay (LEP, 2013).
Convict built loose rock wall to circle vegetable garden - along Caswell Crescent, Admiralty Avenue down to the Mosaic Temple of the Stork - remnants remain (Heritage Study, c2004).

Wishing Chair (LEP, 2013), Timber Cottage / studio, Bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and Mulberry tree (Morus sp.)
Built and planted by Henry Halloran in the 1920s-30s (Heritage Study, c2004).

Olive tree (Olea europaea cv.)(LEP, 2013)
The olive tree was planted by the Caswell's approximately in 1837, making it the second-oldest (documented) olive tree in Australia. It was recently visited by olive experts from the Hunter Olive society who report it is older than a specimen at Elizabeth Farm (Heritage Study, c2004).

Existing trees include a near-200 year-old olive and 150-year-old mulberry tree (Morus sp.)(Elias, 2019).

Water Tank (LEP, 2013)
Rock wall tank with square base and round neck sides. Metal roof and four columns on corners with a frog (maybe cememt) on each post. Has convict base underneath. Damaged in 1989 earthquake, repaired 1990 - one frog is missing (Heritage Study, c.2004).

Wisteria Walk (Stone Pillars): 392923.65m, 1377758.69m (LEP, 2013)
Part of the garden built by Henry Halloran in the 1930s (1931) to enhance Tanilba House

Tanilba House (1837)
Stone house built of quartz porphyry stone quarried nearby. The mortar came from lime produced by burning oysters (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).
392955.87m, 1377728.59m. The stone used was quarried from nearby Sunset Point (LEP, 2013).

Outbuildings:
Chapel:

Small jail:
Small square two storey rock structure. Bottom storey - local rock convict gaol with bars circa 1830s. Top storey quarried rock Halloran additions circa 1910-1930 (Heritage Study, c2004).

Exterior kitchen:

Source: Heritage Study, c2004.
Modifications and dates: 1829 slab hut
1831 hut expanded to a cottage in 1831.
1834 vineyard planted
1837 foundations of Tanilba House laid

The house was modified in the 1920s by Henry Halloran (LEP, 2013).
Current use: House museum
Former use: Aboriginal land, farm and farm residence

History

Historical notes: Tanilba House was built for Lieutenant William Caswell, a naval officer. He and his family emigrated in 1828. He established farm sites at Seaham (23 km north of Tanilba) and Salt Ash and opted to build his homstead on the 50 acres he received at Tanilba (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).

Using convict labour he started with a slab hut in 1829, expanding to a cottage in 1831. He laid the foundations of Tanilba House in 1837, built of quartz porphyry stone quarried nearby. The mortar came from lime produced by burning oysters (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).

Caswell (1789 - 1859) retired from a 25 year career in the Royal Navy to become a settler in NSW. He arrived with his wife Susan (1806 - 1886) and two children. Caswell's land grants were 1920 acres at Balikera and a homestead block of 50 acres at Port Stephens. He called the homestead block 'Tanilba', said to be a native place name signifying white flannel flowers. Apparently the local Worimi used the area as a meeting place and interactions with the family and the Worimi appear to have been amicable (LEP, 2013).

The growing family were on good terms with the local Aborigines whose children played with their own. However, there numbers soon diminished as they did throughout the colony. Emily Caswell wrote in 1841:
'When we first came here all around we saw nothing but the blacks' fires and canoes, but now only a dozen are left of our tribes - they bring fish and oysters for flour - our blacks are harmless inoffensive people - their children are stout and spend half their day in the seaeach tribe had land allotted - they used to fight among themselves very often and had 'corroborys' - jumping up and down; and mourning by smearing themselves with white clay, saying [enigmatically] "Die - jump up white man'. The Caswells lived at Tanilba Bay for fifteen years. The family house at Tanilba Bay was sold in 1886 and stood derelict until 1897 (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).

Fish and oysters were regularly bartered for tobacco or flour. Caswell took his possessions and servants including convicts to Port Stephens where he supervised the building of a barrack and other accommodation and a home for his wife and children. The closest neighbours were at Carrington on the north shore of Port Stephens at the Australian Agricultural (AA) Company's headquarters. The Caswells kept a boat at Tanilba enabling them to maintain social contact with the principal families at Carrington (LEP, 2013), the AA Company settlement there.

Despite the poor soil, gardens, an orchard and vineyard were planted, butter and cheese were profitably made and sold and in 1837, Caswell began construction of a large stone-built home for his growing family. The stone was quarried from nearby Sunset Point. Lime burning kilns built at Sunset Point for shell burning provided mortar. Caswell travelled between Tanilba and Balikera regularly to develop the Balikera estate (LEP, 2013).

In 1834 Caswell planted a vineyard at Tanilba on ten acres around the house. He was possibly one of the first vignerons in the Hunter Valley and did well with his harvest. This was followed by neighbours in the Raymond Terrace district, who also did well with wines (Paddle, 1992, p.13).

This arrangement worked until the late 1830s when factors outside their control brought considerable change. The transportation of convicts ceased, seasons of low rainfall reduced farm productivity, the increasing number of children brought financial restraints and the colony generally headed toward depression. Caswell, bankrupted, had to relinquish the Tanilba home and move with his family to another home on the Balikera Estate. Caswell tried to find a tenant for Tanilba without success. Tanilba was leased to a German family named Linz from 1860 to 1871 (LEP, 2013).

Following Susan Caswell's death in 1886, Tanilba House, vacant and dilapadated was advertised for sale but no buyer came forward until 1897 when Elizabeth Holmes paid 300 pounds for the house and fifty acres. Part of the house was restored as a guesthouse (LEP, 2013).

Walter J Clift bought Tanilba in 1913 as a country home then sold it to Henry Halloran's surveying, real estate and development agency in 1920. Halloran's company planned to make Tanilba a township. Halloran modernised the house in the style of the 1920s for a guesthouse and undertook extensive stone landscaping (LEP, 2013).

In the 1950s Tanilba House became a retreat for a religious sect, the Gospel Fishermen. In the 1960s the Oberland family leased and then purchased Tanilba House, their proprietorship enabling the property's conservation and management. The heritage significance of Tanilba House and surrounding evidence of history was officially recognised in the 1970s by the heritage and planning process (LEP, 2013).

There is a small jail and an exterior kitchen: reminders of the days of convicts and servants. The house has numerous and genuinely interesting historic displays. There are letters written by the Caswells, dressmaker's dummies adorned with delicate dresses and underwear from the late nineteenth century, old newspapers and crockery, antique furnishings and presses, a remarkable book collection with items dating back to the 17th century, and other memorabilia (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).

Tanilba Bay house is open for inspections Wednesdays, weekends, and every day during school and public holidays. Telephone: 02 4982 4866 (http://www.portstephens-australia.com/port-stephens-destinations/tanilba-bay/).

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)New South Wales themeLocal theme
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present. All nations - place of first contact between Aboriginal and European peoples-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present. Aboriginal Culture-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent Aboriginal cultures and interactions with other cultures-Activities associated with maintaining, developing, experiencing and remembering Aboriginal cultural identities and practices, past and present. Worimi nation - places of contact-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent Convict-Activities relating to incarceration, transport, reform, accommodation and working during the convict period in NSW (1788-1850) - does not include activities associated with the conviction of persons in NSW that are unrelated to the imperial 'convict system': use the theme of Law & Order for such activities Convict labour-
2. Peopling-Peopling the continent Ethnic influences-Activities associated with common cultural traditions and peoples of shared descent, and with exchanges between such traditions and peoples. German migrants-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture Orchards-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture Private farming-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Agriculture-Activities relating to the cultivation and rearing of plant and animal species, usually for commercial purposes, can include aquaculture Growing vines and maintaining vineyards-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Commerce-Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services Innkeeping-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use Dairying-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use Agisting and fattening stock for slaughter-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies Pastoralism-Activities associated with the breeding, raising, processing and distribution of livestock for human use Agisting and fattening stock for slaughter-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. (none)-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Building settlements, towns and cities-National Theme 4
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Living on the land-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Farm homestead-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. early settlement or worker's cottage-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Guesthouses-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Adapted heritage building or structure-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities Accommodation-Activities associated with the provision of accommodation, and particular types of accommodation – does not include architectural styles – use the theme of Creative Endeavour for such activities. Crude huts-
5. Working-Working Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour Private assignment-
5. Working-Working Labour-Activities associated with work practises and organised and unorganised labour Working on the land-
7. Governing-Governing Defence-Activities associated with defending places from hostile takeover and occupation Naval establishment or involvement-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Creative endeavour-Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretive or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities. Architectural styles and periods - colonial homestead-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Creative endeavour-Activities associated with the production and performance of literary, artistic, architectural and other imaginative, interpretive or inventive works; and/or associated with the production and expression of cultural phenomena; and/or environments that have inspired such creative activities. Architectural styles and periods - colonial vernacular-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Ways of life 1788-1850-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Ways of life 1850-1900-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Ways of life 1900-1950-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Ways of life 1950-2000-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Kitchens and servants-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Domestic life-Activities associated with creating, maintaining, living in and working around houses and institutions. Living in a rural homestead-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Leisure-Activities associated with recreation and relaxation Gardening-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Leisure-Activities associated with recreation and relaxation Gathering at landmark places to socialise-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship (none)-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship Private Chapel open for community use-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship Adaptive new use-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship parsonage, manse, vicarage, rectory, verger's cottage-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship religion (in the country)-
8. Culture-Developing cultural institutions and ways of life Religion-Activities associated with particular systems of faith and worship Gentlemen's Villas-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with Lt. William Caswell, naval officer-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with Henry Halloran, enlightened property developer-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with Elizabeth Holmes, guesthouse keeper-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with Walter J Clift, gentleman-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with the Linz family, farmers-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with the Gospel Fishermen, religious sect-
9. Phases of Life-Marking the phases of life Persons-Activities of, and associations with, identifiable individuals, families and communal groups Associations with the Oberland family, conservators-

Recommended management:

Recommendations

Management CategoryDescriptionDate Updated
Recommended ManagementProduce a Conservation Management Plan (CMP) 
Recommended ManagementCarry out an Archaeological Assessment 
Recommended ManagementPrepare a maintenance schedule or guidelines 
Recommended ManagementCarry out interpretation, promotion and/or education 

Procedures /Exemptions

Section of actDescriptionTitleCommentsAction date
57(2)Exemption to allow workStandard Exemptions HERITAGE ACT 1977

ORDER UNDER SECTION 57(2) TO GRANT STANDARD EXEMPTIONS FROM APPROVAL

I, Penny Sharpe, the Minister for Heritage, on the recommendation of the Heritage Council of New South Wales and under section 57(2) of the Heritage Act 1977:

revoke the order made on 2 June 2022 and published in the Government Gazette Number 262 of 17 June 2022; and

grant an exemption from section 57(1) of the Act in respect of the engaging in or carrying out the class of activities described in clause 2 Schedule A in such circumstances specified by the relevant standards in clause 2 Schedule A and General Conditions in clause 3 Schedule A.

This Order takes effect on the date it is published in the NSW Government Gazette.

Dated this 29th day of October 2025
The Hon Penny Sharpe MLC
Minister for Heritage

For more information on standard exemptions click on the link below. 		Nov 7 2025

PDF Standard exemptions for engaging in or carrying out activities / works otherwise prohibited by section 57(1) of the Heritage Act 1977

Listings

Heritage ListingListing TitleListing NumberGazette DateGazette NumberGazette Page
Heritage Act - State Heritage Register 0002902 Apr 99 271546
Heritage Act - Permanent Conservation Order - former 0002929 Feb 80 340910

Study details

TitleYearNumberAuthorInspected byGuidelines used
Port Stephens Community based Heritage Study2000 Port Stephens  Yes

References, internet links & images

TypeAuthorYearTitleInternet Links
TourismAttraction Homepage2007Tanilba House & The Temple View detail
TourismHomepage Lemon Tree Passage View detail
WrittenPaddle, Norah; Taylor, Helen and Lind, Angela (notes)1992Tanilba House: a place of white flowers

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.
rez
(Click on thumbnail for full size image and image details)

Data source

The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name: Heritage NSW
Database number: 5045714
File number: S90/06004, HC 32294, EF14/5200

Every effort has been made to ensure that information contained in the State Heritage Inventory is correct. If you find any errors or omissions please send your comments to the Database Manager.

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