| Historical notes: | Wiradjuri Land
The Wiradjuri Aborigines lived in the Mudgee area for many thousands of years before Europeans arrived. The name Mudgee is derived from the Wiradjuri term Moothi meaning "Nest in the Hills". (Wikipedia entry on Mudgee 22/1/07)
Early European occupation of the area
James Blackman was the first European settler to cross the Cudgegong River in 1821 followed by Lieutenant William Lawson who was then commandant of Bathurst. Lawson would later take up 6,000 acres (2,428 hectares) in the area. George and Henry Cox, sons of William Cox, were the first settlers on the Cudgegong River when they established the Menah run, 3 kilometres north of the current town. The European settlers were soon in conflict with the Wiradjuri over a range of issues including killing of livestock and animals such as kangaroos and possums which were major food sources for the indigenous people. Martial law was declared in 1824 leading to significant losses by the Wiradjuri. (Wikipedia entry on Mudgee 22/1/07)
While the site of Mudgee was surveyed for a village in 1823, Menah was the original settlement having a police station and a lock up by 1833. Robert Hoddle designed the village which was gazetted in 1838. John Blackman built a slab hut, the first dwelling in Mudgee and its general store. By 1841, there were 36 dwellings, three hotels, a hospital, a post office, two stores and an Anglican church. An Anglican school was established in that decade as well. (Wikipedia entry on Mudgee 22/1/07)
In 1851, the population of Mudgee was 200. However, the population soon exploded with the discovery of gold in New South Wales. While no gold was found in Mudgee itself, the town prospered as gold was discovered in nearby Hargraves, Gulgong, Hill End and Windeyer, some temporarily reaching populations of 20,000. . . As the gold mines petered out in the latter half of the 19th century, Mudgee was sustained by the strength of its wool industry as well as the nascent wine industry established by a German immigrant, Adam Roth, in the 1850s. (Wikipedia entry on Mudgee 22/1/07)
Family ownership of Binnawee farm
Henry Cox was the son of William Cox, who was responsible for the construction on the first road across the Blue Mountains. Henry Cox became the first grantee of the land now known as Binnawee, bought at a cost of 244 pounds and registered in 1834. This grant adjoined further of his crown grants to the east and to the north.
In 1852 Henry Cox sold the Cullenbone property, including Binnawee, to William Lewis, whose father Richard Lewis had worked with Henry's father on the road construction project as Chief Superintendent. Throughout the 1850s Lewis took up several runs on the Castlereagh River. Perhaps buoyed by his prosperity, Lewis is believed to have built the Georgian two-storey homestead which was initially called 'LoisAlle'.
The term 'villa' was first used in England in the 17th century, partly from the Latin and Italian 'country house, farm', perhaps derived from the stem of vicus (village). The villa was a country mansion or residence, together with a farm, farm-buildings, or other house attached, built or occupied by a person of some position and wealth. It was taken to include a country seat or estate and later a residence in the country or in the neighbourhood of a town, usually standing in its own grounds. From this is was appropriated by the middleof the 18th century to mean a residence of a superior type, in the suburbs of a town or in a residential district, such as that occupied by a person of the middle class, and also a small, better-class dwelling house, usually detached or semi-detached. The term 'villa garden' was used in the context of Hobart and Sydney residences in the 1830s, and if near the coast or harbour, the appellation 'marine villa' was often applied. Australian origins probably date from the grant conditions applied to Sydney's Woolloomooloo Hill (1827, under Governor Darling), which obligated the construction of villas fulfilling certain conditions... 'with garden like domain, and external offices for stables and domestic economy' (John Buonarotti Papworth, 1825, quoted in James Broadbent's 1997 book, 'The Australian Colonial House'). Many gardens of 19th century villas followed Gardenesque conventions, with garden ornaments often complementing the architecture of the house. The term had acquired such widespread usage by the 1850s that when Jane Loudon issued a new editiion of her husband (John Claudius Loudon)'s 'Suburban Gardener and Villa Companion' (1838) she merely entitled the revised work 'The Villa Gardener' (1850). This coincided with a growing period of suburbanisation in Australia with consequent fostering of the nursery trade... By the 1880s, descriptions of Australian villas implied sufficient room for a lawn on two or three fronts of the residence. By the 1920s, a garden attached to a large suburban house was often described as a villa garden... after WW2 the term villa was rarely used..(Aitken, 2002, 619-20).
By 1862 Lewis was insolvent and all of his real estate interests seized and sold. 'LoisAlle' was purchased by the Blackmen brothers of Mudgee, cousins of Lewis' wife. William Richard and Samuel Alfred Blackman, sons of Mudgee pioneers, William and Sarah Blackman, became prominent landowners in the Mudgee district. In 1869 William bought out Samuel's share in the property and lived there during the 1870s, occasionally leasing the house and portions of adjoining land.
In 1878 Blackman sold the property to George Henry Cox of Burrundulla, a prominent pastoralist in Mudgee (and nephew of the original grantee - he was also Henry Cox's son-in-law since he had married his cousin Henrietta). George Henry Cox absorbed the property into his adjoining landholding known as Piambong and the house and lands were leased. From 1883-86 the house was occupied by George Henry Cox's eldest son, George Henry Frederick Cox. In the late 1890s the house was occupied by John Turner McRae, a nephew by marriage and manager of Piambong. Legal documentation in 1898 refers to him as John Turner McRae as of 'Binnawee', although it is not known precisely when or by whom the property was given this name.
Shortly before his death in 1901, George Henry Cox transferred the property to his son-in-law George Stewart. In 1900 the widower Stewart and his four children took up residence at Binnawee where he was assisted by his sisters-in-law, Lucy and Alice Cox. Referred to as the 'squire of Binnawee' George played a prominent role in the political, commercial and social life of the Mudgee district. He was an alderman of the Municipality of Cudgegong for twenty-one years, including four years as mayor from 1905 to 1908, and also served as a Justice of the Peace, coroner and magistrate. He was also a pillar of Mudgee's Saint John's Anglican Church.
In 1923 Stewart leased Binnawee to Dr Charles Lester and his son, Bruce, and moved to Sydney where he died in 1926. Charles Lester was born in Mudgee in 1865, and graduated from medical studies at Edinburgh University in 1888. He married Mary Bruce before returning to Mudgee to establish his medical practice in the early 1890s. Also a qualified pharmacist, Charles operated his medical practice and pharmacy in premises in Church Street, Mudgee, later known as Mercer's and Gawthorne's Pharmacy. Charles left Mudgee and established a practice in Macquarie Street in 1924.
Bruce Lester, also a qualified pharmacist, was a member of the 6th Light Horse Division during WW1, serving for four years in the Middle East. In 1920 he selected Kobi, a block of 225 acres adjacent to Binnawee, which was formerly part of an 1823 grant to Captain Henry Steel. In 1923 Bruce married Mabel Hume, by whom he had one son, David. Bruce and Mabel Lester lived at Binnawee which was run primarily as a sheep property with some cattle. Charles and Bruce Lester also bred racehorses, while Bruce was a competent amateur jockey, frequently riding in the Bligh Picnic Races.
In 1944 Bruce Lester became ill and, as there was a shortage of manpower due to the war, sixteen- year old son David took over the management of the property. In 1948 Bruce Lester purchased the Binnawee homestead portion from George Stewart's trustees and the property was eventually expanded to some 2500 acres. In 1950 David married Mary Grant and built a new homestead on Binnawee in 1955. Gradually reduced to 120 hectares over the years, Binnawee retains some sheep and cattle. In partnership with their daughters - Elizabeth Ganguly, Anne Lofts, and Robyn Holdaway - David and Mary have recently planted olive groves.
Architectural context of house and homestead:
The historic Binnawee homestead building is the earliest surviving two-storeyed house in the Mudgee district: Burrandulla homestead was constructed in 1864 and Havilah homestead in 1872. Bleak House in Lawson Street Mudgee dates from c.1860. |