Real Estate Sydney Hills District

Hills District History It is believed that the first white visitors to the district were Governor Phillip and a party of 21 from Parramatta who reached the Hills in April 1791. Their aim was to find new country for settlement and farming to feed the struggling Sydney colony. 1794 saw the beginning of the Baulkham Hills settlement. In that year, Governor Hunter officially granted the first parcel of land on the Hawkesbury Road to William Joyce, a pardoned convict. North of Baulkham Hills was the District of Castle Hill Reserve, which was the site of the Government Farm, an agricultural farm worked by convicts to support the colony. The Farm began on 8 July, 1801 and centred on Old Castle Hill and Banks Road. The farm was about 14,000 hectares and extended northwards towards what are now Dural and Glenorie. To house the convicts, a two-story stone barracks was built at Castle Hill in 1803. With the closure of the Farm, the barracks was turned into an asylum for the mentally ill. The first free settler at Castle Hill was a Frenchman of noble birth, Verincourt De Clambe, who had fled France because of the revolution. He was granted 100 acres of land at Castle Hill in 1802. Mostly free settlers such as Thomas Bradley, James Bean, Andrew McDougall, John Smith, George Suttor, Israel Raynor and Matthew Pearce stocked their land with cattle and sheep and cleared the bush to plant crops of wheat and maize. With the arrival of George Suttor and his citrus trees, orchards began to spring up all over the district and proved a more worthwhile crop than wheat or maize. By 1887, large areas of new land from Parramatta to Castle Hill were being used to grow oranges, apples, plums, peaches and apricots. Castle Hill Rebellion And Battle Of Vinegar Hill The story of the Castle Hill Rebellion and the Battle of Vinegar Hill is a story of failed mini-rebellions, unsuccessful escape attempts, mutiny, conspiracies, betrayal and personal tragedy. Following an uprising in 1798 in Irelands Wexford County known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill, many Irish leaders were exiled to New South Wales. After repeated escape attempts, in March 1804 the Irish patriots at Castle Hill Government Farm decided to rise up against the authorities of the colony and escape back to Ireland. Together with their supporters they escaped, captured arms and marched towards Parramatta. On the way to Windsor in the search for reinforcements the NSW Corps led by Major Johnston set upon the convicts. The ensuing conflict with the British military forces took place near Rouse Hill and became known as the Battle of Vinegar Hill, after the Battle in Ireland, the first European battle fought on Australian soil. The battle left 15 convicts dead with most of the leaders of the uprising being later executed as a mark of infamy. Today a memorial stands at Castlebrook Cemetery on Windsor Road, commemorating the battle. Education Education in Baulkham Hills was first provided at the Roman Catholic St. Michael's Denominational School from 1862 until 1867 when the school was temporarily closed due to the lack of a teacher. Mr George Frederick Hughes had recently opened a small school in a large room of a brick house called "Marooba" situated at 238 Windsor Road Baulkham Hills. In December 1868 it became Baulkham Hills Provisional School. The School initially had 27 students of the Tuckwell, Jenner, Fishburn, Cowell, Brien, Billett, Allsop, Noakes, Burton and Dellow Families. In 1871, when the school population consisted of 26 boys and 16 girls, moves were made to convert the school to a Public School. Unfortunately, due to Mr Hughes receiving a poor inspection report, the school was closed temporarily and the school books and maps etc. were handed to the head-teacher of the Church of England Denominational School at Castle Hill. In the 1960s and 1970s the Education Department had to quickly make new schools available because of rapid expansion of the population. First Transport The earliest transport was a wagon service from Sydney to Windsor, provided by Mr William Roberts. The trip took 16 hours and ran once every three weeks, mainly to get wheat to the Sydney markets, but passengers were welcome. About 100 years ago, most of Sydney's citrus products were grown in the Hills District. The transportation of goods to and from the district was very slow, so in 1831 the feasibility of building a railway was explored. A railway was predicted to be too costly, so a tramway opened for service on the 8th of August 1902. The service travelled from what is now Platform 4 at Parramatta Station, along Church Street, over the Lennox Bridge and followed Windsor Road to Baulkham Hills. The route was extended to the Castle Hill Post office in 1910. On January 28, 1923 the tramway "Pansy" was replaced by a train service. It departed from Westmead Station, travelled past Westmead Hospital, along Mons Street and then crossed Toongabbie creek. It continued along Briens Road to the Woollen Mills on Windsor Road and then followed Windsor Road to Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill. In May 1928 the Main Roads Department said that due to the increase in road usage by vehicles, there was not enough road space to continue the rail service. Changes in the citrus export markets and the relocation of the orchards to the Murrumbidgee Irrigation Area meant less revenue for the railways. This also influenced the decision to close the railway. In the Arthur Whitling Park at Castle Hill, a tram signal is installed to commemorate the Tramway. Orchards In The Hills Area A BRIEF HISTORY. Edited from BHSC Baulkham Hills Heritage Study 1995. Within days of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the first European settlers in Sydney had the satisfaction of seeing the grape, the fig, the orange, the pear, and the apple, taking root and establishing themselves in our New World. The success of the orange and soon also the lemon resulted in a substantial acreage along the Parramatta River in the first twenty years of the colony. By 1808 some 230 hectares in the Parramatta area were under citrus, with some trees already over five metres high. Unlike the peach and the fig, which grow quickly, the orange took about seven years to come to full fruit-bearing in the colony. It was normal, therefore, for intending orchardists to have a variety of crops and stone-fruit trees while waiting for the orange-grove to mature. Baulkham Hills was the first area outside Parramatta to develop such orchards, closely followed by Ryde. Two men stand out as the founders of an industry which radically changed the environment and economy of many parts of the present Hills Area. It all began in Baulkham Hills suburb itself after George Suttor established Chelsea Farm on a 74 hectare block straddling Windsor Road close to its junction with Old Northern Road. Suttor is one of the two founding fathers of the Hills citrus industry. He had arrived in 1800 as custodian of Sir Joseph Banks boxes of plants useful to the colony. Although Banks did not send orange seedlings, the expert gardening skills of young Suttor encouraged him to acquire first lemon seeds and a little later three orange plants. Both citrus did well on the well-drained sandy soils at Baulkham Hills. His first commercial sales in the Sydney markets were in 1807 and oranges gradually became Suttor's primary cash crop. After an absence in England from 1810 to 1812, Suttor returned to find that the oranges though much improved during my absence was not yet sufficient to support the family, but we grew wheat etc. and I remember sowing about an acre or more of turnips which turned out very well and profitable. This is the characteristic mixed farming of the early period when self-sufficiency was essential. Although the orchard was neglected during the years after 1822 that Suttor was establishing his grazing empire north of Bathurst, but after his return to Baulkham Hills the oranges was restored to prosperity in the 1830s. The orange trees planted by Suttor had been brought from San Salvador by Colonel William Paterson, a botanist friend of George Suitor's father in England and lieutenant governor of New South Wales from 1800 to 1803. The plants came with him either in 1791 or in 1798. Still older citrus stock was, however, used by an ex-convict called William Mobbs, also with gardening experience in Britain, who had worked in the government garden in Sydney and established his own orchard in Castle Hill using a cutting from the first orange tree brought from Rio. Already by 1819 Mobbs and his four sons had occupied or received promises of 780 acres (312 hectares), with purchase of John Macarthur's Pennant Hills lands. John Dunmore Lang visited Mobbs in 1830 and noted the very extensive orchards: Mrs Felton Mathew believed that Mobbs and his son were making over $2000 a year in 1833. But the best and largest orchards in the 1830s were those of George Suttor and his Scottish neighbour Andrew McDougall (who had settled in Baulkham Hills earlier than Suttor but copied his orcharding). Suttor and McDougall greatly increased their production in the year 1831 to 1837. Competition did not immediately develop elsewhere: in 1848 Baulkham Hills was characterised as having 'the finest orangeries [orchards] in the colony. G Suttor's estate continued to flourish: Chelsea Farm was inherited by George's eldest son, George Banks Suttor, in 1859, while Sutter's great Bathurst estate of Brucedale went to the second son. The Baulkham Hills orchard continued under Suttor control for the rest of the century with a number of lessee orchardists building houses throughout the property. The orcharding area spread northwards over the nineteenth century. In the West Pennant Hills Valley south of Castle Hill Road Henry Curtis established an orchard in the 1840s on portion 71, Field of Mars parish and his son's house still stands at the end of Coonara Avenue. James Smith started a 40 hectare orchard at 'The Grove' in 1855. In the 1870s Robert Allen created substantial orchards on portions 37 and 39 which confirmed the district's recovery from the heavy losses during the wet, flood years of the 1860s. From the 1890s onwards new orchards were developed by new residents or by older residents diversifying so that about a dozen families shared in the growing of citrus along Highs Road and stone fruit along Taylor Street. To the south of the Hills Area, a similar shift of farming interest was evident at Bella Vista, which had been a sheep run under the Macarthurs (up to 1821), had some fruit trees under James Robertson's ownership in the 1830s, was primarily agricultural (barley, oats and maize) and grazing land under W.T. Pearce (1842-62) but under Edward Hugh Pearce (1862-1912) with a quintupling of its landholding became one of the largest orchards in the shire. To the west, at Kellyville, 600 hectares of 'rich orchard land in the centre of the fruit-growing district were offered for sale in 1884, north-east of Windsor Road and north of Showground Road. Interest in orcharding developed rapidly after phylloxera wiped out the vineyards there in 1890. The biggest of the Kellyville orange orchards was run by the Acres family, on the site of the present Castle Hill Country Club, south of the Windsor road. But small farmers, such as William Flint, could also have oranges, lemons, figs, grapes, loquats, mulberries and pears and peaches, all within ten yards of the door. 'Almost anything will grow', Flint wrote home to Britain in 1861. In general the thirty years before the First World War saw a rapid development of sub-division for orcharding both around Baulkham Hills and further north at Dural and Kenthurst. Jenner's estate close to Suitor's orchards was sub-divided for orchards in 1890; Roxborough Park (McDougall's former estate adjacent to the Windsor Road at Baulkham Hills, had 17 hectares under lemons, oranges, apples and stone fruit when it was sold about 1900. Darcey Hey estate at Castle Hill was offered for twelve orchard sites between Francis Street and Excelsior Avenue in 1913. At Northmead the Windermere estate was sold in this period as 53 building sites with Productive Fruit Trees. Kenthurst land was offered as 15 orchard blocks, varying from 2.8 to 6.4 hectares in 1893 and an 1895 sale plan showed numerous other orchards in existence; while at Dural 20 orchard blocks had been offered in 1887 straddling the Great North Road and six more opposite St Jude's with packing sheds already on each. There were, therefore, three major areas of orcharding within the future Baulkham Hills Council Area in the nineteenth century: Kellyville in the south-west, Baulkham Hills and West Pennant Hills in the south-east and Kenthurst-Dural in the north. There were also significant plantings along the Hawkesbury foreshore from North Sackville to Wisemans Ferry. The Southern orchards were part of a much larger area of prime orange-growing country. 'Old residents (of Parramatta) say with pride [in 1892, "we can drive around through forty miles (64 km] of oranges" . The export market to Victoria, Tasmania and New Zealand had become very substantial indeed by the 1870s. Ever since the early 1880s fruit-growers had sought a rail-link from Parramatta north to Baulkham Hills, Castle Hill, and on to Dural, to replace the slow horse transport on inadequate roads to the main line railway stations at Thornleigh, Hornsby or Pennant Hills in the north, Seven Hills or Parramatta in the south. The opening of the line to Castle Hill in 1910 was probably the catalyst which prompted William Sandford, the ironmaster, the man who had made the first steel in Australia in 1900 and who had built the first modern blast-furnace for local ores at Lithgow in 1906-7, to buy land in Castle Hill in addition to his Eastern Suburbs home, where he had retired in 1907. On his Castle Hill property, Sandford grew oranges, apples, olives and strawberries, reverting to his origins in a Devon nursery, later moving to Eastwood. The tramway reached Baulkham Hills in 1902, Castle Hill in 1910 and Rogans Hill in 1924: it did not go farther north to service the Dural orchards and was closed in 1932 because of increasing congestion on the road which it shared with cars and trucks. Orcharding started its terminal decline, just before the tramway closed. There was increasing competition in the 1930s from the irrigation areas created round the Murrumbidgee and from rapid expansion of citrus and passionfruit in the Gosford area. The decline of orcharding in the hills area was, however, slow. Much land was converted from citrus to fruit (though the Hawkesbury continued to grow citrus) and old orchardists say that such soils are exceptionally rich. The stone-trees in turn became old and the end of serious fruit-growing came in the 1950s in most parts of the area. The annual Orange Blossom Festival at Castle Hill is a token of a lost reality. The History Of Castle Hill The first white visitors to the district are thought to have been Governor Phillip and a party in April 1791. One year later much of the land as far north as Castle Hill had been surveyed and the presence of excel1ent soils for agriculture already well known. In 1801 “Government Farm” Castle Hill was commenced by Governor King on land in the Banks Road area. The aim of the farm vas to make the colony as self supporting as possibly and to induce settlers to take up the forest lands. In October, 1802, 300 men were employed in clearing the farm and by May 1803, 700 acres had been cleared. Stone barracks for the convicts were erected in 1803 with the village at this stage comprising no more than a dozen houses “Government Farm” was finally closed in 1810. In 1811 the barn at “Government Farm” was re-roofed and repaired and converted into an asylum for convict 1unatics previously kept at Parramatta. The first Superintendent was Rev. Samuel Marsden who was succeeded on 1814 by George Suttor. The Church of Saint Simon was established in the old stone barracks with services carried on as early as 1827. All the old buildings were demolished between 1850 and 1860 The first white settler at Castle Hill was Frenchman, Verincourt De Clambe. He arrived in New South Wales in 1801 and was permitted to select land at Castle Hill. “De Clambe’s Farm” at the intersection of North and Pennant Hills Road reverted to the crown and was re-granted in 1818. The first actual grant was issued on December 1, 1794 to William Joyce. The following grant was to Matthew Pearce in 1795. Pearce’s grant adjoined Joyce’s and is still known as Kings Langley Farm. In 1799 a group of settlers occupied land at Baulkham Hills. These pioneers were Thomas Bradley, James Bean, Andrew McDougall, John Smith and John Anson. McDougall’s grant was known as Roxburgh Place. Seventy-one Grants were occupied at Baulkham Hills and Castle Hill in 1818 and by 1823 most of the suitable land in the parish had been taken up. Most of the pioneers were farmers on a small scale, and only a few of them acquired wealth. Like “Government Farm” most of the early farmers were wheat farms with some carrying sheep and others experimening with vInes and cotton. Some of the wheat was ground into flour at the Darling Mills which were established in 1825. A portion of these Mills still stand as part of the Sydney Woollen Mills, north of DarlIng Mills Creek north-eastern side of Windsor Road (This is now Hardware House). Many of the wheat crops were destroyed by blight and rust so that George Suttors success as an orchardist caused a gradual change from wheat and sheep farming to orchards during the early 1890’s Orchards eventually became the farming for which the “Hills District” was most famous. THE BELLA VISTA PROPERTY Bella Vista History In October 1799 Joseph Foveaux was granted 980 acres “in the district of Toongabee”. He increased it to 1,770 acres by various purchases that he made from land holders around him and by 1801 it was the largest sheep farm in the colony. Joseph Foveaux was sent to Norfolk Island as Commander of the convicts and before leaving the mainland decided to sell his farm. At the time of the sale the acreage had increased to 1,250. John Macarthur purchased the land and the stock from Foveaux and soon after was able to purchase land from William Goodhall and Richard Richardson which brought the number of acres to 2,040. This land was owned by the Macarthur family for twenty years. For twelve of those years John Macarthur was occupied, in England, having been heavily involved in the political ramifications connected with the Rum Rebellion. The management of the Seven Hills Farm and his other properties was carried on by his wife Elizabeth. In her letters and other correspondence she referred to this farm as “my Seven Hills Farm”. The Seven Hills Farm was the largest farm held by the Macarthurs from 1801 to 1805. They ran 4,760 sheep, the majority of which were grazed at Seven Hills. This land has prior claim to being the birthplace of the Australian Wool Industry, rather than Camden Park which was first acquired in 1805. Macarthur’s Seven Hills Farm was returned to the Crown in 1820, in exchange for more land at Camden Park. The land was subsequently re-granted to other farmers including Andrew McDougall, George Acres and James Robertson. Over the years, the fact that it had belonged to the Macarthur family, was lost in the historical archives, until W. O’Halloran began a search in 1982, to establish its locality. Bella Vista Property The present “Bella Vista” property now only encompasses enough land to contain the buildings that have been built over the years it has been in use. Some of the buildings date from very early days in the time the Macarthur family owned the property, but the majority of buildings were probably erected by the Pearce family. William Pearce, son of Matthew Pearce, purchased this land from the Acres family in 1842. The land remained in the possession of the Pearce family for 108 years and was considered to be the “largest orchard in the colony”. Edward Henry Pearce, son of William, developed the property and built the house now known as “Bella Vista”. By 1890 the property was at the peak of its prosperity. This property was singled out by the Governor, Lord Carrington, when he visited the area in 1887. ”Bella Vista” was sold to North Sydney Brick and Tile Co. in 1950. In 1974 the Water Board resumed thirteen hectares of the property, for a future reservoir site. This included the home and outbuildings. In 1979, “Bella Vista” was placed under and interim Conservation Order (No. 108) by the Heritage Council of NSW. But it has taken 14 years (1993) for the Department of Planning to make this Conservation Order, permanent. The buildings have now been returned to the North Sydney Brick and Tile Co. and they have been included in the Norwest development for restoration The Bella Vista house and surrounding buildings are now owned by Baulkham Hills Shire Council and will be restored with a grant from the NSW Government. JOHN AND ELIZABETH MACARTHUR, A SHORT HISTORY John Macarthur was baptized on 3 September 1767 at Stoke Dameral near Plymouth. In October 1788 he married Elizabeth Veale, daughter of a yeoman farmer, at Bridgerule in Devon. During the voyage John and Edward became gravely ill, both recovered but John suffered recurring bouts of mental depression for rest of his life. John was posted to Parramatta in 1791 and 1792 while Elizabeth remained in Sydney. In 1793 Macarthur was granted 100 acres of land at Parramatta and in August 1794, Elizabeth wrote that they had moved to Parramatta the previous November. In 1797 their son Edward was sent home to England to be educated and in 1801 John also sailed for England with their daughter Elizabeth and son John. Elizabeth was left with their three younger children, Mary (b.1795), James (b.1798) and William (b.1800) and care of Elizabeth Farm for five years until John's return in 1805 with Elizabeth, merinos from the Royal flock and permission for a land grant of 5000 acres at Camden. Prior to his departure Macarthur had purchased other grants adjacent to Elizabeth Farm which eventually grew to 850 acres. Elizabeth also looked after what was known as "Elizabeth Macarthur's Seven Hills Farm" during the period from 1801. Following a deposition of Bligh, John Macarthur left once more for England in 1809 taking with him, James and William to complete their education. John was unable to return to New South Wales until 1817 During these eight years Elizabeth was left with her three daughters, Elizabeth, Mary and Emmerline (b.1808) and the responsibility of Elizabeth Farm, Camden, supervision of their convict labourers and the care of the merino flocks. Under her direction, using instructions from her husband in England, the pure merino flocks increased the quality of their wool improved and was sent to England with detailed reports of Elizabeth's visits to Camden. John was involved with the building of the cottage (Hambledon) at Parramatta. a cottage at Camden and his proposal to build a mansion at Pymont. In 1824 Macarthur's efforts were concentrated on the formation of the Australian Agricultural Company and for the next few years spent some time at the company's properties at Port Stephens. In 1826-7 alterations and additions were made to Elizabeth Farm, John ordered Elizabeth to Sydney to live with her daughter and son-in-law, Mary and James Bowman. After the death of their son John in England in 1831, Macarthur's bouts of depression increased and once more he planned alterations to Elizabeth Farm; more than fifty plans were prepared. By June 1832 Macarthur was confined to his apartments at Elizabeth Farm attended by an old male servant. Elizabeth Macarthur remained at Woolloomooloo with her daughter Mary and did not see her husband again. In May 1833 Macarthur was moved to Camden; there he showed a keen interest in the garden and the building of Camden Park of which one wing was intended to be completed first to accommodate him. He showed no interest in his wife and daughters, nor in the merino flocks. In March 1934 his mental condition deteriorated and he was restricted in the small cottage at Camden where he died on 11 April 1834. He was buried in the family graveyard there. Elizabeth Macarthur returned to Elizabeth Farm where she wrote lengthy letters to her son Edward, maintained her interest in world affairs and the political activities in the colony. She visited Camden Park for the sheep shearing and harvesting, read a wide range of books and was devoted to her grandchildren, the four sons and daughter of Mary bowman and later the daughter of James, Elizabeth Macarthur. She remained at Elizabeth Farm for the rest of her life with the exception of her last three summers which were spent with her daughter and son-in-law, Emmerline and Henry Parker at Watsons Bay where she died on 9 February 1850. She was buried at Camden Park. Planning to live in The Hills District? Are you, a family member or a friend intending to settle in The Sydney Hills District? See our article menu on the home page or email me for more information at bruce@bestrealestate.com.au Our real estate sites are at these links: www.bestrealestate.com.au | www.bestbroker.com.au
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