maryland homestead 773 the northern road, bringelly, nsw · maryland, bringelly, contextual history...

Maryland Homestead 773 The Northern Road, Bringelly, NSW

Historical Context

February 2015

Rosemary Broomham Consultant Historian/Archaeologist

49 Darghan Street, Glebe NSW 2037 M 0417 411 486

E [email protected]

Maryland, Bringelly, Contextual History Rosemary Broomham 2

Contents 2.0 Historical Context 2.1 Introduction 1 2.2 More numerous than expected – the inland Aborigines of New South Wales 2 The Cowpastures Frontier 3 Conflict on the southern frontier 4 2.3 John Dickson: a favoured immigrant 6 Nonorrah, John Dickson’s country estate 6 Sale of Cowpasture Estates 1840 – 1854 10 2.4 Thomas Barker – apprentice engineer to public figure 12 Thomas Barker – mentor to young, single immigrants 13 Maryland, Thomas Barker’s country estate 15 Thomas Barker – grazier and wine producer 17 Maryland in 1876 18 2.5 Thomas Charles Barker Esquire, Maryland, Bringelly 1863-1940 20 2.6 Ninian Alan Thomson – Maryland, company director’s retreat 21 2.7 Elizabeth and Annette (Annie) Thomson – dairy farmers of Maryland 24 2.8 New owners for Maryland 2009-2013 25 2.9 Appendixes 27 2.10 Select Bibliography 40


2.0 Historical Context

2.1 Introduction

Figure 1: Maryland in on The Northern Road [Route 18] about half-way between Narellan and Luddenham. Google Maps The property called Maryland is a remnant of a 3,000 acre grant that Governor Macquarie issued to John Dickson, an engineer who emigrated to New South Wales in 1813. Dickson’s land occupied a prominent position, east of Cobbitty in the Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland. It was surrounded by several other large grants to men who were regarded as settlers of the ‘superior class’. Perhaps because of its position high above The Northern Road and the land surrounding it, perhaps because of its simple colonial style, Maryland homestead has been perceived as a fabled place by several writers through the years but few understood its heritage. Having written many stories about significant houses, G. Nesta Griffiths provided this description of Maryland in 1956.

Maryland stands high on its hill, overlooking the lovely sloping country around Bringelly and Cobbitty. To the north lie Wallacia and Mulgoa on the road to Penrith. To the south the rich pastures of Camden, all historic ground. A charming gatehouse of slightly later date than the old house guards the entrance to a steep drive where grand old trees give shade and shelter.’1

1 G. Nesta Griffiths, Maryland, Bringelly, 4-page typed MS signed ‘G. Nesta Griffiths June 1956’, SLNSW


Nesta Griffiths presented a romantic view of Maryland’s history that has confused later researchers. She believed that the grantee John Dickson had given his daughter Joanna ‘part of his Bringelly farm up on the hill henceforth known as Maryland’ as a wedding gift. However, Joanna, was not John Dickson’s daughter, but his niece and she did not receive a gift of land when she married his former apprentice, Thomas Barker in 1823. Another enduring source of confusion has been the idea that John Dickson’s homestead on Nonorrah was on the same site where Maryland was built in the late 1850s and that the later house had part of the of the Nonorrah homestead within its walls. Several factors made this impossible. The first was the construction of The Northern Road, shown on some early maps as ‘The Great North Road’ or ‘North Road’. This road was made some time between ca. 1826, when a surveyor drew a map titled ‘Parts of the Districts of Bringelly, Minto and Cook’, and 1834 when the map of the Cobbitty District was made. [See Figure 5]. This road divided John Dickson’s grant so that the site of Nonorrah homestead was on the eastern side of the road and the site of Maryland was on the western side. The second major impediment to the idea that Thomas Barker built Maryland on the remains of Nonorrah homestead was that Thomas Barker did not ever own the site of Nonorrah. A third misunderstanding was that while Thomas Barker was one of the trustees of Dickson’s assets after he left New South Wales and returned to England, Barker never lived on Nonorrah as a manager or in any other capacity. Any supervision or maintenance he organised for the property was done from Sydney. A fourth problem has been created by some researchers relying on second-hand versions of information rather than the primary sources. This is particularly noticeable in relation to the information gleaned from David Lindsay Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837. As this publication is a selection of letters rather than a diary, it is difficult to discern the time and place of Waugh’s scattered comments about particular properties and even more confusing second hand. An additional problem with these letters is that those extracts published in local newspapers may not be exactly identical to those released in book form. This history of Maryland aims to avoid conjecture by relying on primary sources wherever possible, and, in particular, through a careful study of the relevant land title records.

2.2 More numerous than expected – inland Aborigines of New South Wales The Europeans called the Aborigines who lived near Maryland the Cowpastures tribe; they were also identified as Dharawal, a description based on their language. Their territory covered an area between Botany Bay and the Shoalhaven River and they travelled widely in the south-western regions of the counties of Cumberland and Camden. Further inland were the Dharug people whose area covered land from the Hawkesbury River to places as far west as the mountains and south to Camden and Picton.2 2 Carol Liston, Campbelltown. The Bicentennial History, Council of the City of Campbelltown with Allen & Unwin Australia, Pty Ltd, North Sydney, 1988, p 1


James Cook’s belief, that most Aboriginal people lived near the coast because they depended on a seafood diet, was proved wrong as soon as early European exploration parties moved away from Sydney Cove. They discovered that inland Aborigines lived on small animals such as possums, ‘vegetable roots and native fruit seeds and berries, with mullet, eel and kangaroo as supplements’.3 From the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, the official policy towards the indigenous people was conflicted. Although Governor Phillip had been advised to treat the original inhabitants with amity and kindness, as early as the third year of European occupation, he sent a punitive expedition to kill ten aborigines in revenge for the murder of his gamekeeper.4 Another Aborigine, Coleby, identified the warrior Pemulwy as the culprit and Phillip chose Watkin Tench to lead a party of soldiers to the land around the head of Botany Bay where Pemulwy was believed to live. Tench was able to persuade Phillip to lower the number of Aborigines captured or killed from ten to six. However, on two expeditions, he and his men were unable to find any Aboriginals at all.5 Settlers in the Parramatta area shot Pemulwy in 1802 but his son Tedbury continued his father’s war against the European invaders in 1805 and again in 1809 when Young Bundle helped him terrorise settlers near the Cook and Georges Rivers. Lieutenant governors and governors from 1790 vacillated between fleeting sympathy for Aborigines and ordering settlers to arm themselves and fire on them. Macquarie, who arrived in 1810, tried to encourage Aborigines to settle on land like Europeans but they were loath to do so.

The Cowpastures Frontier Europeans first entered the district known as the Cowpastures in 1795 when Aboriginals reported finding a herd of cattle there. These animals bred from the five that escaped from Farm Cove in 1788. By the time they were located, the herd had grown to 61 animals grazing on the south-west bank of the Nepean River. Aboriginal people knew the place as Baragil or Baragal but Governor Hunter called it the Cowpastures. Captain Waterhouse described it in a letter to John Macarthur in 1804.

After crossing the Nepean to the foot of what is called the Blue Mountains I am at a loss to describe the face of the country other than as a beautiful park, totally divested of underwood, interspersed with plains, with rich, luxuriant grass; but for want of burning off, rank, except where recently burnt. This is the part where the cattle that have strayed are constantly fed – of course, their own selection...it appears that some meadows bordering on the banks of the Nepean River are evidently at times overflowed from the river; but it is not very common and cannot be done without sufficient time to drive away any stock if common attention is paid.6

The area appealed to Europeans because there was little undergrowth to discourage the lush grasses that made it ideal for grazing cattle on the flats and possibly sheep on the hills towards the Razorback Range. Governors Hunter, King and Bligh ruled against European settlement on the Cowpastures, which was south-west of the Nepean River and outside the 3 Robert Murray and Kate White, Dharug to Dungaree. The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Harreen Publishing Company with the City of Penrith,1988, p 20 4 Captain Watkin Tench, Sydney’s First Four Years, Library of Australian History, 1979 edition, pp 209-16 5 Ibid, pp 209-214 6 Cited in Robert Murray, Kate White, Dharug and Dungaree: The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Hargreen Publishing Company with Council of the City of Penrith, North Melbourne, 1988, p 183


County of Cumberland. Even the north-eastern bank of the Nepean, opposite Cowpastures was deliberately kept from aspiring settlers, perhaps because of its remoteness.

Figure 3: The settlements identified on John Booth’s map of the settlements in New South Wales in 1810, were A Northern Boundaries. B Liberty Plains, C Banks Town, D Parramatta, E Ground reserved for Government Purposes (four reserves), F Concord, G Petersham, H Bulanaming I Sydney, K Hunters Hill, L Eastern Farms, M Field of Mars, N Ponds, O Toongabbie, P Prospect, Q Dundas [?], R Richmond Hill, S Green Hills, T Phillip, U Nelson, V Castle Hill and W illegible. The roughly shaped rectangles on the upper left side of the map on the Cowpasture Plains were the two grants to Macarthur and one to his friend Davidson. Most of the land north of the river was vacant. SLNSW Having withdrawn a number of grants by Lt Governors Foveaux and Paterson when he restored order after the New South Wales Corps coup against Governor Bligh, Macquarie had James Meehan survey the Cook District (later Cook Parish) in the County of Cumberland opposite the Cowpastures to prepare it for settlement. Some of the grants he made there were of modest size but most were generous.

Conflict on the southern frontier From 1814 a drought led to serious violence in the more remote southern parts of the County of Cumberland. Lack of their traditional food brought Aborigines from the south coast and Gandangara from the mountains to raid the settlers’ crops. In Appin, three members of the Veteran Company militia fired on natives who were taking corn. The Aborigines retaliated. Too wounded to flee from their spears one militia man was abandoned and his body was found later without one of its hands. The Europeans avenged this death with unmitigated violence, murdering a woman and two children in their sleep and mutilating their bodies. These acts brought more Aboriginal retaliation. The following day they killed Mrs Macarthur’s Camden stock keepers. More aggressive than the local Dharawal, Aborigines from Jervis Bay and the mountains gathered in the Cowpastures in late May. It was rumoured that they no longer feared guns and would kill all white people. Two servants speared to death at Broughton’s farm at Appin in June, and the murder of James Daley’s children at


Bringelly in July, lent credence to that rumour.7 A party led by two Campbelltown men failed to capture the culprits. In 1816 Aboriginal raiders killed four of G. T. Palmer’s men and three of Mrs Macarthur’s servants. A large party of farmers armed with muskets, pistols, pitchforks and pikes approached the Aborigines at Camden but were forced to flee when spears and stones rained down on them. The deaths of five more whites from Aboriginal attacks made Macquarie plan severe reprisals. He ordered soldiers to arrest all Aborigines in the southern districts. In April Lieutenant Dawes and the soldiers sent to capture Cowpastures Aborigines fired on them as they tried to flee, killing an unspecified number and leading to the capture an innocent boy. Governor Macquarie sent Captain James Wallis to Airds and Appin with armed soldiers. In this war, Macquarie did not distinguish between the friendly and non-friendly Aborigines but some settlers actively protected their Dharawal friends. Their attitude enraged Wallis who had fruitlessly led his force to Minto, only to find that the person calling for help was no longer there. He then turned back to Appin and found the Aboriginal camp at Broughton’s farm abandoned.8

A child’s cry was heard in the bush, Wallis formed his men into a line and pushed through the thick bush towards a deep rocky gorge. Dogs barked in alarm and the soldiers started to shoot. It was moonlight and the soldiers could see figures bounding from rock to rock. Some Aborigines were shot, some met their death by rushing in despair over the cliffs. Two women and three children were all who remained ‘to whom death would not be a blessing’. Fourteen had died.9

Some bodies were hauled up the cliff and hung from trees on Broughton’s farm as a warning to others. Some were never recovered. The captured women and children were taken to Liverpool. As Carol Liston states in her history of Campbelltown, ‘The Appin massacre is traditionally remembered as the annihilation of the Aboriginal people of Campbelltown’.10 Wallis continued to search fruitlessly for Aborigines along the Georges River. He then joined other contingents at Narellan and they marched together to the Wingecarribee district. They spent another month patrolling but failed to find any of the wanted Aboriginals. Macquarie then issued a proclamation in May 1816 forbidding ‘gatherings of armed Aborigines within one mile of farms and villages. After the frontier conflict of 1816 the Dharawal stayed in the Cowpastures under the protection of the Macarthurs. The family maintained friendly contact with them. They had surveyor James Meehan mark out some land at Camden Park for any who wished to live there. This action allowed a form of tribal life to continue and corroborees were held there and at Denham Court when other Aborigines visited.11

7 Carol Liston, op cit, pp 19-20 8 Appin Airds and Minto are south of Cook Parish. See Figure 9 Carol Liston, op cit, pp 22-3 10 Ibid, p 23 11 Ibid, p


2.3 John Dickson: a favoured immigrant John Dickson was a Scottish engineer who trained with his father John, who may have worked with the famous engineers Watt and Rennie. Born in 1774, he obtained his first patent for ‘steam engines, pumps and other hydraulic machines in 1798’ and gained a second for his design of ‘a stop cock’ for steam ten years later. 12 Dickson’s application to settle in New South Wales was received enthusiastically by the Colonial Office which recommended him to Governor Macquarie in advance of his arrival. Lord Goulburn wrote in November 1812, ‘Mr Dickson is possessed of considerable property and is an excellent engineer and millwright’. He instructed Macquarie to grant Dickson land in town and in the interior ‘and allow him all the privileges and encouragement which have usually been given to settlers of a superior class’, an order duplicated by Goulburn’s Under-Secretary the following April.13 Dickson’s steam engine from his factory in Southwark travelled to Sydney ahead of him in the Fortune.14 Macquarie reported Dickson’s arrival in the convict transport Earl Spencer on 9 October 1813 and wrote in more detail in 1814, about granting Dickson of ‘a liberal portion of land, namely three thousand acres...and ten government men on the stores’ for 18 months. Macquarie also presented Dickson with ‘a most convenient and eligible situation in the Town of Sydney’ for his mills, steam engine and other machinery.15 The 15 acre site for the mill was west of Sussex Street, on the waterfront at the southern end of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour); a stream ran through it from Surry Hills. It included Dixon Street, the centre of present-day Chinatown. The grant was registered on 20 June 1816.16 Dickson’s prompt construction of flour and timber mills on his land persuaded Macquarie that the engineer was ‘a great acquisition to the colony’ because of his ‘considerable capital’, ‘enterprising spirit’ and ‘persevering industry’.17 An ‘impressive early industrial complex with its own wharf’, the mill was documented in Harper’s Survey of Sydney ca. 1823.18 However, by 1828 Dickson’s enterprise was struggling to become viable, leading him to engage in soap-making on a large scale in partnership with John Mackie. They used ‘soda’ extracted from mangroves around Sydney and Botany Bay. This short-lived partnership also established a brewery near the flour mill but broke up in 1829, the year that Dickson obtained a mortgage from Richard Jones, President of the Bank of New South Wales. Dickson added to his mill in 1831 but advertised the whole complex for sale in July 1833.19

Nonorrah, John Dickson’s country estate Dickson named his land in the Parish of Cook, Nonorrah and with the help of his convict labourers, promptly cleared some of the land. Apparently he ran a stud there. The Sydney Gazette advertised a Stallion ‘Contractor’ at John Dickson’s Farm Nonorrah available to mares at £3 per time and 5 shillings to the groom on Thursday, 18 September 1823.

12 G. P. Walsh, ‘Dickson , John (1774-1843)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography (ADB) Vol 1, p 306 13 Goulburn to Macquarie, 23 November 1812, HRA I, 7, p 677; Goulburn’s Under Secretary to Macquarie, 6 April 1813, HRA I, 7, pp 699-700 14 Goulburn to Macquarie, 23 November 1812, HRA I, 7, p 677 15 Macquarie to Bathurst, 1814, HRA I, 8, p 159 16 PA 14468, LPI 17 Macquarie to Bathurst, 1814, HRA I, 8, p 159 18 Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’, September 2002, p.2 19 Darling to Huskisson, 18 April 1828, HRA I, p 128


Figure 4: This map showing the extent of European settlement by 1820 is from Manning Clark’s History of Australia Volume 1. It shows the Cowpastures southwest of the Nepean River in the new County of Camden. Dickson’s Nonorrah was in Cook Parish on the other side of the river west of South Creek. Minto, Airds and Appin where most of the southern frontier war was fought are the most southerly parishes in the County of Cumberland.


Figure 5: Dickson’s (Dixon’s) 3000 acre estate Nonorrah, in the centre of this map of Cobbitty District in 1834, is only matched in size by Alexander Riley’s Raby. The Cobbitty District later became Cook Parish, Co Cumberland. SLNSW The 1828 census listed Dickson’s properties as 17,000 acres of land in the Counties of Cumberland and Argyle including 15,000 acres cleared and 300 cultivated. Among the County of Cumberland properties he acquired were Netherbyres, Orielton, Moorfield and Eastwood, which together formed a diagonal line from Bringelly Road in the north to beyond Cobbitty Road in the south. At that time he owned 3000 cattle and 2000 sheep.20 However, the problems with his steam mills are reflected in the ‘Unlimited Mortgage’ he established to borrow £2,066. 5sh. 2p at 10 per cent per annum from Richard Jones on 1 April 1829 using all his landholdings as security – the 15a 3r 4p in Cockle Bay; Nonorrah Farm in the District of Cook; 500 ac in Bankstown; and Scotland Island, Pitt Water.21 By the early 1830s, the situation had worsened. Dickson ordered the sale of 600 Red Devon dairy cows, 50 heifers aged two to three years, twenty Red Devon bulls and fifteen ‘excellent horses’ on Friday and Saturday 7 and 8 February 1834.22 That, together with the divestment of his industrial assets and land in town signalled his return to England in 1834. Before doing so, he appointed three friends Thomas Barker, George Muckle, and Alexander Berry and his brother James Dickson, to sell and dispose of his real estate and effects ‘to pay his just debts and maintain and educate’ the three sons and four daughters from his relationship with his housekeeper, Susannah Martin.23 He revoked this trust on 14 August 1838 and entrusted the disposal of his Cowpasture Properties to Matthew Dysart Hunter the following day. Dickson made his home in Brook Street, Holborn, London where he died on 23 May 1843.24 20 G. P. Walsh, op cit 21 PA 14468, Old System No 169 Bk F, LPI 22 Sydney Herald, 20 January 1834; Sydney Gazette advertised a further sale of 800 dairy cows, heifers, bulls and steers of the Durham breed on 7 September 1837, Trove Newspapers 23 PA 14468, Old System No 430 Bk H 24 G. P. Walsh, op cit; Sale Dickson to M. D. Hunter 15 August 1838; Dickson appointed son-in-laws W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore Power of Attorney


Figure 6: In this Plan of the Cowpasture Estates in 1847, the numbers show the allotments remaining after Moorfield and Orielton had been sold. SLNSW


Figure 7: In this detail of the Plan of the Cowpasture Estates published in 1847, the site of Nonorrah homestead is clearly shown on the eastern side of The Northern Road, Lot 7, the site of Barker’s Maryland is on the western side. SLNSW

Sale of Cowpasture Estates 1840 – 1854 A survey of John Dickson’s properties having been completed by 1840, Hunter attempted to sell all the farms he owned in the Parish of Cook on 16 July that year. For sale purposes the land was titled ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates, the property of M. D. Hunter, Esqr’ and the properties offered were Orielton, Nonorrah, Moorfield, Eastwood etc’.25 Orielton and Nonorrah were divided into smaller allotments to encourage buyers. Sales were difficult to make as 1840 marked the beginning of a severe depression in New South Wales. However, Stephenson Atkin Bryant purchased the 87-acre property Moorfield and the 365-acre Lot 1 of Nonorrah, which had the homestead on it, taking out a mortgage of £2000 with Matthew Hunter on 13 July 1842, the purchase being confirmed on 28 July.26 A detailed description of Lot 1 accompanied the sale notices. This 365-acre allotment ‘well-watered by South Creek and Lowes Creek’ contained Nonorrah homestead – ‘a substantial verandahed Cottage, containing six rooms, excellent hall, butler’s pantry, detached kitchen, brick-built store secure with iron-bound windows, dairy, cheese house, with several lever presses’. The land comprised eight cleared paddocks but also boasted ‘extensive and excellent stabling sufficient for sixteen horses, coach house, pig styes, commodious sheds for various purposes, stock and milking yards, men’s house [with] shingled roof...and an orchard of about 2½ acres.27 25 Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser 16 July 1840, Trove Newspapers 26 PA 14468, Old System No 439 Bk 2; PA 14468, Old System No 438 Bk 2 27 Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July 1840


Hunter and Bryant sold Moorfield to William Carr on 9 August and Hunter alone sold Lots 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Nonorrah to Henry Clay Burnell on 27 August 1853. By that time, Bryant who had purchased Lot 1 earlier, owed M. D. Hunter £4,500 on his mortgage,which he was unable to pay.28

Figure 8: Lots 1 to 5 as marked on the plan of the Cowpasture Estates as sold to H. C. Burnell in 1853. No 160 Book 28 LPI Sarah Lowe, having inherited the adjacent farm Birling after the death of her husband Robert, purchased Lots 6 and 7 of Nonorrah on 31 July 1842, relying on a mortgage of £1,753 plus interest to secure the 674-acre property.29 The description of these allotments was as follows.

Immediately opposite the estate of Mrs. Lowe...lot six contains more than a mile frontage to the Great North Road [The Northern Road], and comprises in all three hundred and forty acres – all girdled, and bounded on the north by Lowes Creek to the extent of half a mile; lot 7 contains three hundred and thirty-three and a half acres, nearly all girdled, and possessing three quarters of a mile frontage to Lowe’s Creek; the views from this particular spot are admirable; it also contains a valley of rich dark soil.30

On 7 July 1854 M. D. Hunter, now in Scotland, sold Lots 6 and 7 to Thomas Barker for £1,600, an action which suggests that Sarah Lowe’s mortgage had been foreclosed.31 A 40-acre grant made to Michael Dowdell by Governor Macquarie on 25 August 1812 was surrounded on three sides by Lot 6 of the Cowpastures Estate. This land had been bequeathed to Elisa Cordelia Walker, the married daughter of the Reverend Rowland Hassall whose small property Coventry was a little to the east on the northern side of Lowes Creek. Dowdell’s farm had passed down to Elisa’s son, Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker who sold it to Thomas Barker on 17 December 1855.32 With its elevated knoll and extensive views, Lot 7 became the site of Thomas Barker’s ‘summit model’ homestead Maryland.

28 PA 14468, Old System No 911 Bk 27; PA 14468, Old System No 160, Bk 28 29 PA 14468 and associated Old System Files 30 The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July1840, Trove Newspapers 31 PA 14468 and associated Old System Files 32 Refer to Appendix, Table 1 part 4


Figure 9: This detail, part of the plan of Lots 6 and 7 Cowpasture Estates, was attached to the conveyance from M. D. Hunter to Thomas Barker on 7 July 1854. However, it seems that the scale may be approximate. PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34, LPI

2.4 Thomas Barker – apprentice engineer to public figure Thomas Barker was an engineer, manufacturer, grazier and philanthropist. Born in 1799, he was orphaned at the age of nine, but his guardian organised his education at private schools before arranging his apprenticeship with the engineer John Dickson. He was sixteen when he came to New South Wales with Dickson on the Earl Spencer in 1813. By his late twenties, Barker was regarded as a highly skilled engineer and millwright. With his partner John Smith, he erected two windmills near Elizabeth Point (later Darlinghurst) in 1826 on a grant he obtained there. A decade later he built his house Roslyn Hall on another grant of 16 acres of land nearby. Designed by the architect Ambrose Hallen, this grand villa was said to be ‘more like a palace’. He lived there with his first wife, John Dickson’s niece Joanna who he married in 1823 but there were no children from that marriage which ended when she died in 1851. In 1828 Barker purchased Cooper and Levey’s steam flour mill next door to his Sussex Street house. The following year he purchased additional land to the west of his town properties, where Bathurst Street met the shore of Cockle Bay (Darling Harbour).33 In 1831 he consolidated his freehold and leases there in a grant of more than 8 acres. Hoping to retire, he leased his mill to the partnership of his brother James Barker and Ambrose Hallen while he visited England and Europe. However, Barker and Hallen were early casualties of the severe 1840s depression so Thomas Barker had to resume control on his return in 1842. While the mill was in receivership David Lanarch purchased its assets for the low price of £25,000. The money was used to invest in new stock for the mills but three months later Lanarch entered a partnership with Thomas Barker.34 Like many others at this time, Barker created a residential subdivision of his some of his land but, unable to sell many of the Sussex Street allotments, he partnered John Walker to use one of the mills for manufacturing tweed cloth. In 1848 he settled a five year lease with John Walker but, not long after making the agreement, he withdrew it. That was the year when his joint operation of the flour mill with Lanarch ended and he began another with his brother 33 G. P. Walsh, Barker, Thomas (1799-1875), ADB Vol 1, pp 57-8 34 Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’ from their ‘Cross City Tunnel Assessment’, September 2002, pp 8-9


James.35 However, ‘they leased the cloth mill to Malcolm Macintyre Campbell in June 1859 and the flour mill to their nephews George William Barker and William Craddock Barker in 1860’.36 Eight years later, Thomas and James Barker ‘sold both their mills to their lessees’ and retired from milling altogether.37 In his description of Maryland, James Broadbent makes the point that Thomas Barker made a fortune in the early 1830s but, having done so, he spent his later years in serving the community. His ‘earned a reputation for his honesty and reliability in business matters and became a respected figure in publis affairs’.38 Thomas Barker was one of the first to promote railways in New South Wales, sharing the cost of a survey for a line from Sydney to Goulburn by Thomas Woore. He was director and president of the Sydney Railway Company and became an honorary commissioner of railways after the New South Wales government assumed control in 1855. He held leading positions in the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney and the Royal Exchange and was trustee for the Savings Bank of New South Wales. He was a magistrate from 1834 and a warden for the Sydney Council from 1843. He acted as secretary for the committee petitioning the Queen for a new Constitution, was a member of the Legislative Council from 1853-1856 and represented the counties of Gloucester and Macquarie in the Legislative Assembly from 1856-7. Barker had an enduring interest in education. A loyal Presbyterian – he was an elder of St Andrew’s Scots Church and trustee of the Presbyterian Burial Ground, Devonshire Street – he opposed the introduction of the Irish National school system in 1836. Instead, he supported the Denominational School Board, Sydney College, Sydney Grammar School and the Sydney Mechanics School of Arts. He presented a £1,000 scholarship in Mathematics to the University of Sydney and contributed to a window for the Great Hall. He was trustee for the Sydney Bethel Union; the Destitute Children’s Asylum benefited from his philanthropy, and the Sydney Female Refuge Society received help from him and his wife, Joanna.39

Thomas Barker – mentor to young, single immigrants Just after John Dickson had left New South Wales, a young Scot who wanted to settle in the colony – David Lindsay Waugh – wrote letters to his family and friends about his experiences. Extracts from these letters, published in the 1830s to encourage enterprising hardworking immigrants to come to New South Wales, have been used to provide information on Nonorrah and related properties.40 Waugh’s letters reveal a deeper sense of charity in Barker’s daily life. Waugh heard about Thomas Barker from an acquaintance he met on a ship from Hobart to Sydney. On his advice he visited Barker in his ‘splendid house on Sussex Street’ and enjoyed his hospitality for several days. He reported that Barker kept ‘a kind of open house for all the respectable young men of the town who were staying in lodgings. I got, through him, most respectable board

35 Ibid 36 Ibid, p 14 37 Ibid, p 17 38 James Broadbent, ‘Maryland New South Wales’, in Historic Homesteads of Australia, Australian Council of National Trusts, Cassell Australia, 1969-1976, p 70 39 G. P. Walsh, ‘Barker, Thomas (1799-1875)’, ADB Vol 1, pp 57-8; A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799-1875), self published, Ryde NSW, 1985 40 David Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837, John Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1838, p 18, Mitchell Library SLNSW.


and lodgings with Mr Bass, shipbuilder, Darling Harbour’.41 It seems that Barker acted a mentor to many young men. Waugh reported that he had been ‘at Mr Barker’s at least once or twice a day by his kind invitation’ and had met politicians such as the Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay and Colonial Treasurer Campbell Drummond Riddell and Mr Campbell, probably the merchant Robert Campbell.42 Waugh was interested in a career in the law but Barker and his friends advised him to go into the country. Barker, who had the ‘management of the most extensive farms’ said that ‘I might go and live at one of them as long as I liked; and while I should be at no expense, I should have an opportunity of learning the business’. Waugh then spent a month at the Nonorrah homestead but the published extracts offer no details about that property.43 After gaining additional experience at Orielton, near Nonorrah, Barker asked him to go to Mummel in the County of Argyle where he took charge of the harvest of 150 acres (61 ha) of hay and 350 acres (142 ha) of wheat. He told his parents, ‘and here I am at present furnishing stores of fifty men, keeping accounts, &c.’44 Eventually, Waugh accepted a permanent position as overseer at Mummel.

I go for good and all to Mummel, Goulburn Plains, Argyleshire...for the first year,–I am to get £40 and board and washing. The farm is 6,000 acres and has about 4,000 sheep and 1,500 cattle on it. There is another overseer from Ayrshire, with a good salary, –he has been twelve years here. He has, besides, a farm of his own, which he manages with an overseer.45

Waugh reported that he stayed briefly at Orielton in late 1834 before moving to Mummel in the County of Argyle in February 1835. Together with James Dickson (John’s brother), Liverpool flour miller George Muckle, and Alexander Berry Esq, Thomas Barker was a trustee of John Dickson’s colonial assets and shared Power of Attorney. However, in 1838 Dickson revoked that arrangement and gave Power of Attorney to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore. In a sense, Barker did manage Dickson’s farms in the early 1830s but Waugh’s account makes it clear that he did so from Sydney. By stating, ‘according to D. L. Waugh, [Barker] had three most extensive farms including Nonorrah (later Maryland) at the Cowpastures and Mummel on the Goulburn Plains’ in his Australian Dictionary of Biography entry, G. P Walsh has translated trusteeship into ownership but this claim is not supported by the land title records.46 Thomas Barker did not obtain any part of Nonorrah until 1854 and even then, he was not able to buy the land with the main dwelling on it. Nonorrah homestead, which was on the eastern side of The Northern Road, remained in the possession of the Burnell family until 1906. However, Barker did purchase other land in Cook parish. Oran Park and Netherbyres have his name as owner on a Lands Department map dated 1867. As to the grant in Yass, an 800-acre property called Evandale in Mummel Parish, County of Argyle bears the names of John Dickson original trustees, suggesting that it too belonged to Dickson rather than Thomas Barker.

41 Ibid, p 16 42 Ibid; Mr Campbell was probably the merchant Robert Campbell 43 Ibid, p18 ff 44 Waugh, op sit, pp 21-27; Waugh wrote this letter 45 Ibid, p 21 46 G. P. Walsh, op cit, p 58


Maryland, Thomas Barker’s country estate

Figure 10: The east-facing verandah of Maryland homestead looking south showing the flagstones and timber pillars. Photo R. Broomham 2014

In 1854 Thomas Barker purchased Lots 6 and 7 and from the Nonorrah Estate plan and Dowdell’s 40-acre farm lay between them. He named his purchase Maryland – possibly after his mother Mary Shuldham (or Schuldham) – and married his second wife Katherine Heath Gray in 1857 while the building was under construction. The couple lived permanently at Maryland before it was finished after Thomas Barker sold Roslyn Hall to Captain Russell from about late 1860 or early 1861.47 Their only child Thomas Charles Barker was born there on 20 September 1863. The 1847 sale notice described the three hundred and thirty-three and a half acres of lot 7 as being nearly all girdled, or ringbarked as was customary at that time to kill the unwanted trees and make it easier to fell and burn them. Lot 6 had received similar treatment. However, Lot 7 seems the likely site of the Maryland homestead as it had ‘admirable views’ and a frontage to Lowe’s Creek that was three quarters of a mile long while the valley below had dark rich soil.48 While it is not known what kind of buildings may have been on Lots 6 and 7, given the terms of his grant, it is highly likely that there was a house on Matthew Dowdell’s forty-acre farm and that its land had been cleared and cultivated. The Maryland homestead is of rubblestone construction, its thick walls rendered and marked to resemble regular ashlar blocks and later painted. Earlier techniques used in construction of the attached kitchen at the western end of the house suggest that this was part of an earlier building as were several utility buildings behind it.49 The homestead is located on a hill or knoll that rises so abruptly once the house and gardens were established, it became a prominent landmark, easily identified from The Northern Road and all the flats below. Its profile is characterised by ‘massed plantings of...araucaria Bidwellis (Bunya Bunya pines)’ whose tops show above the other large trees on the crest of 47 Information on back of Record No 34250, Vertical File, Sydney Living Museums, Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection; Thomas Barker married Katherine Gray in 1867. 48 The Sydney Monitor and Commercial Advertiser, 16 July1840, Trove Newspapers 49 Personal comment, Heritage Architect Lester Tropman


the hill. To create a dense windbreak, they have been planted with ‘pines, cypresses,...camphor (laurels) and lophostemons’.50 Thomas Barker was a keen gardener, obtaining vine cuttings unusual exotic plants from the Botanic Gardens while building Roslyn Hall in 1832. His friendship with ‘Sydney’s first’ nurseryman, Thomas Shepherd, is indicated by his appointment as trustee to Shepherd’s will.51 The Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar described the scene from the top of the hill in 1870.

We might say ‘That a fairer scene we had ne’er surveyed, when gazing on the vale below’ with its large pool of water, enclosures planted with pines, and cattle peacefully browsing; the mowers cutting hay, the fine, commodious farmyard in the distance, while on the slopes of the hill were vineyards, orchards, kitchen gardens, plantations of ornamental trees, all forming a picture so complete as more likely to be seen on canvas than in reality.52

That publication mentioned dairy cows peacefully browsing near the pool or dam.

Figure 11: View of Maryland homestead and nineteenth century plantings from the flats near the farm buildings below. Photo R Broomham 2014

The ‘garden and vineyards were...surrounded by a strong fence, having two sets of gates’ and Katherine Barker was credited with the decorative plantings round the house and carriage drive.53

[A] neat border under the verandah, plentifully planted with choice dwarf plants of all kinds. On a wall on the northern side of the house, Bougainvillea splendens and spectabilis, Quisquales indica, Mandevillea, cloth of gold roses, Bignonia cherere...were exerting their powers to please the eye.54

There was an area near the homestead, deliberately designed to be wild, and ‘a rambling garden of oaks, olives, araucarias, plumbago hedges, geraniums’ surrounding the house, which includes ‘oxalis deliberately planted by Thomas Barker Snr’.55

50 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870 51 Writer unknown, source, Len Fox, Old Sydney Windmills, self published, 1978 52 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870 53 Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar 1870 54 Ibid 55 C. Morris & G. Britton/ NSW National Trust, Colonial Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain and Camden, NSW, 2000


Thomas Barker – grazier and wine producer According to A. K. Weatherburn, Barker began work on Maryland’s vineyard before the house was completed. He was able to consult James and William Macarthur whose family had been tending vineyards and making wine since 1817.56 He was friendly with the Macarthur family as can be seen in James Macarthur’s response to Barkers’s toast on Macarthur’s return from England in 1864.

Whilst in Sydney Mr Barker took a high place amongst those who represented the commercial interests of the colony, and since residing in the district he has done much for its advancement by the introduction of valuable stock, by the example of steady industry and by cultivation of a vineyard. In private life he is everything which we expect to find in a man and a gentleman; as a magistrate he has invariably acted according to the rules of justice.57

Although he ran cattle, Barker was more interested in viticulture. The facilities for producing Maryland wines included extensive cellars with a ‘huge wine press’ and ‘stone storage bins for casks’, together with a plant capable of bottling 120 gallons a day. There is ample proof that his wines were successful as they were sold commercially from 1867 and won prizes. The annual record of the Agricultural Society of New South Wales for 1868-69 lists Thomas Barker as a council member and refers to his production of a Red Hermitage and a Verdeilho [sic} at Maryland. In 1871 he was reported to have invented ‘a simple machine’ for diffusing sulphur in vineyards where powdery mildew or oldium, now known as Uncinula necator, needs to be eradicated.58 In 1862 Thomas Barker conveyed the 700 acre site of Maryland to a trustee, barrister Joshua Frey Josephson and his heirs, to ensure that it belonged to Katherine Heath Barker for her to use as she saw fit – ‘free from debts, control and engagements of Thomas Barker’.59 Thomas Barker died at Maryland on 19 March 1875 and was buried in Newtown cemetery, leaving the property in trust to his widow Katherine Heath Barker on his death.60

Figure 12: This old building is the kitchen on the western end of Thomas Barker’s Maryland homestead. The construction techniques used to fashion the roof and ceiling are earlier than the remainder of the house but its history is unknown. Photo R. Broomham 2014

56 A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799 to 1875), self published, Ryde, NSW, 1985, p

105 57 SMH 20 January 1865, p 7, cited in A. K. Weatherburn, op cit, p 106 58 SMH, 23 August 1871, in report on the Agricultural Society Exhibition 59 PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81 60 PA 14468, Old System No 411 Book 734


Maryland in 1876 There seems to have been some problem with Thomas Barker’s plan for leaving the Maryland Estate to his wife Katherine. On 7 October 1876 the Australian Town and Country Journal published a Preliminary Notice of Sale by the Trustees of the Estate of the late Thomas Barker. It described Maryland as an estate that had been laid out and improved over the past twenty years by the late proprietor to create ‘one of the most charming country retreats’. It listed the improvements.

[A] stone-built mansion of 14 fine rooms with extensive outbuildings, garden, shrubbery and grounds...splendid, well-managed vineyard of about 20 acres in sound good order from which the celebrated Maryland red and white wines are produced and which yields a large annual return, orchard and orangery, massively-built stone wine cellars and other large buildings with perfect plant and appliances for the manufacture of wines, extensive stabling and coach-houses, underground water reservoirs, capable of holding about 10,000 gallons, farmhouse and other premises, paddocks – well-watered grazing and cultivation paddocks, two handsome lodges at the entrances on Bringelly and Cobbitty Roads &c. &c.61

The Sydney Morning Herald published additional information in late November 1876.

The whole of the above described buildings are very massively built of stone, and in thorough good order...The vineyards are planted with the choicest vines, now in full bearing, and under the careful skilled management of a German vigneron of long experience. Appliances for storing and bottling are complete. The wines on hand, about 12,000 gallons in wood and bottle, can be taken at a valuation. They are all superior 1872 to 1876 vintage, are in excellent condition, forming a valuable stock of matured wines, while the annual vintage will secure a handsome return on this portion of the estate. These wines have obtained prize medals wherever exhibited, and are favourably known both here and in Europe. The farmhouse and dairy farm, together with the barn &c, are let on lease, with conditions as to supply of produce required by the proprietor.62

In spite of the vigorous advertising campaign, Maryland was not sold in the late 1870s but it has not been possible to discover the reason for the attempted sale, nor why that was not achieved. However, an advertisement in the Sydney Morning Herald on 6 December 1880 suggests that the need for skilled help in the vineyard may have been a factor.

To Vignerons – Wanted, a thoroughly sober trustworthy MAN, who understands vineyard work and winemaking. For particulars apply Dr Liebius Royal Mint Sydney or Mrs Barker Maryland, Bringelly.

Mrs Barker and her son Thomas Charles Barker stayed at Maryland; the vineyard continued to thrive and both entered wines in shows. Mrs Barker received a mention in the Bordeaux Wine Exhibition of 1882 and her son obtained a ‘first order of merit for red wine at the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition’.63 Insurance helped them recover from a fire in the wine cellar in May 1899 although loss of wines and brandies was assessed at more than £1,200.64

61 Australian Town & Country Journal, 7 October 1876 and 4 November 1876 62 SMH, 25 November 1876, p 14 63 Australian Town & Country Journal, 28 October 1882; Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 27 April 1889 64 Sydney Mail and New South Wales Advertiser, 20 May 1899


On 21 April 1903 Katherine sold Maryland to her son Thomas Charles Barker. This decision may have arisen from symptoms of the long illness that ended her life. Katherine Heath Barker died peacefully at Maryland on 2 June 1911 at the age of 91.65 As the local paper put it, ‘Although confined to her home for many years, she never failed to help, with her purse, many good causes’. Her funeral was held at St Paul’s Anglican Church, Cobbitty where she was laid to rest in the family vault. 66

Figure 13: The Maryland farm buildings can be seen on the river flats below the homestead from the grassy terrace in front of the house. Photo R. Broomham 2014 Figure 14: The stone stable in the group of farm buildings on the flats below the homestead. Photo R. Broomham 2014

65 Camden News, Thursday 4 June 1911, p 5 dates death as last Friday; Supreme Court of NSW as 2 June 1911 66 Camden News, Thursday 8 June 1911, p 5


2.5 Thomas Charles Barker Esquire, Maryland, Bringelly 1863-1940 Thomas Charles Barker was twelve when his father died. He followed his father in assuming responsibility for the winemaking activities on Maryland. He also adopted his dutiful attitude to community service, but in a different way. Whereas Thomas Barker was a trained engineer and earned his wealth through industrial investment and management in Sydney and served as a magistrate and a New South Wales parliamentarian, his son Thomas Charles Barker lived the life of a country squire. While the father continued as Scots Church Elder and his city trusteeships until the last years of his life, his son stayed within his local area and served it on the Nepean Shire Council. On 10 November 1887, when he was in his early twenties, Thomas Charles Barker married Emily Macarthur Chisholm, daughter of James Kinghorne Chisholm of Gledswood, Narellan in St John’s Church at Camden.67 This union raised his social status as her father was the grandson of Mary Isabella Macarthur and James Bowman so the marriage linked him to the Macarthur dynasty. Emily’s home Gledswood had shared in the early days of Australian viticulture in which the Macarthurs were leaders. It was also admired for its garden as the Chisholms shared the Macarthurs’ passion for horticulture, an interest that Thomas Barker followed enthusiastically once he had the 15 acres of Roslyn Hall to beautify.68 James K. Chisholm and his wife Isabella Macarthur Bowman (1834-1883) had two sons and four daughters who survived to adulthood. When he died in 1912, James Chisholm bequeathed Gledswood and all its contents to his two spinster daughters Elizabeth Mary and Mary Macarthur Chisholm. The homestead was surrounded by 1,340 ac of land including garden, orchard and pastures. However, he expressed the wish that the property should eventually go to his only grandson James Chisholm Martin, son of Blanche Chisholm and husband Peter Martin.69 His other married daughter, Emily Macarthur and her husband had no children. Clearly, the Barkers visited Gledswood frequently. In 1899, T. C. Barker even went so far to complain to the Under Secretary and Commissioner for Roads Robert Hickson about the poor state of the road from Narellan (Gledswood) to Bringelly (Maryland). He received a telegram assuring him that ‘liberal provision has been made on the schedule for this road, and instructions will be issued for works to be put in hand at once’.70 In 1906 Thomas Charles Barker was able to realise a long-held dream and purchase Lots 1 to 5 from the Cowpasture Estates plan, where Dickson’s landholdings began and where he built the Nonorrah homestead. Moorfield was also available. These purchases were made possible by the death of H. C. Burnell’s widow Sarah and the sale of the estate that had been held in trust for her during her lifetime. H. C. Burnell’s son, T. C. Burnell, conveyed these two pieces of land to Thomas Charles Barker on 19 July 1906 for the sum of £5,232. The following year Barker received the title for the consolidated properties – the 1303 ac of the recently purchased allotments and the 87 ac of Moorfield with the 721 acres of Maryland, a total of 2,024 acres excluding roads. On 11 June 1906 he also bought the 294-acre Lot 8 of the Cowpasture Estates that bordered the original Maryland property on the south.71

67 SMH, 12 November 1887 68 Note on Gledswood, Heritage Council of New South Wales, 2008 69 Camden News, 7 November 1912, p 6; familypedia.wiki.com, Isabella Macarthur Bowman 70 Official Correspondence, Public Works Department, Camden News, 10 August 1899 71 CT Vol 1339 Fol 134


T. C. Barker first raised a mortgage for these acquisitions from Charles Burnell of Bathurst and the Sydney solicitor Gustav Hugo Liebius but replaced that arrangement with another from the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited in 1913.72 When he increased the size of Maryland’s land in this way, Thomas Charles Barker was 43 years old. Although he sometimes described himself as a grazier, he prefered to lease his pastures for others to work. In 1913, he resigned his position on the Nepean Shire Council in order to take a ‘tour to the Old Country’. Given the tensions in this, the year before the British declaration of war against Germany in August 1914, the timing may have been inauspicious.73

Figure 15: Thomas Charles Barker was twelve when his father died but in 1906 he added Lots 1-5 of the Cowpasture Estates plan and Moorfield to the 721 ac Maryland property. The additional 274 acres was immediately below the 721-acre farm and homestead of Maryland. CT Vol 1840 Fol 53, LPI

T. C. Barker returned to his seat on the Nepean Shire Council in 1916 where he followed the example of his father in adding £35 of his own money to the local main road fund. In March the following year he requested a council lamp near the four mile post on the road to Cobbitty.74 He and his wife Emily continued to live quietly at Maryland, with regular visits to Gledswood. That they enjoyed the help of domestic servants can be seen in Mrs Barker’s advertisments in the local paper in 1920. Her wanted ad in July asked for a general cook and explained that the job did not involve washing or ironing, as Maryland already had a housemaid and a parlour maid. In October she advertised for a girl to be a general help, offering ‘good wages for a suitable person’.75 In December 1934 the Sydney Morning Herald featured ‘A Visit to Maryland’ with photographs of the garden and homestead and some of its treasures. Perhaps it was the reporter who repeated the tale of Dickson’s daughter requesting ‘the pretty hill’ as a wedding gift when she married Thomas Barker Snr. However, the report states that it was Thomas Charles Barker who offered this published version of the family history. He began with his 72 CT Vol 1840 Fol 53 73 Camden News, 13 February 1913 74 Camden News, 16 March 1916, 18 January 1917 75 Camden News, 15 July and 7 October 1920


father’s arrival in New South Wales as a young lad in 1814 (sic) and moved directly to his home ‘with his people’ at Roslyn Hall in Darlinghurst standing in its own lovely gardens of 14 acres and built at the same time as the spacious neighbour Elizabeth Bay House’.76 He did not mention his father’s engineering skill or his industrial and commercial history. From that beginning, the story of Thomas Barker Snr’s life became more fabulous as Thomas Charles Barker recounted a tale of a journey his father made in 1838 to Asia and Europe in a chartered ship.

From Java to China, he loaded up the good ship with rice and other goods and set sail for Europe. The grand tour was the correct adventure for every Englishman, so plans were made for it but Mr Barker was also a practical Australian with farming ambitions, so he first moored his vessel at Leith and began to prepare for his future career! Cattle, sheep, farming machinery, seeds and provisions were chosen and ordered and Scottish shepherds engaged for their care, and then, his farming mind at rest, Mr Barker travelled and acquired furniture treasures for his future Australian home.77

He then ‘returned to his adopted country and his life at Maryland began’. (Maryland was built in 1858.) According to this report, all of the exotic and beautiful objects so admired by the Herald journalist were still set out as they had been ‘when Mrs Barker came from her own historic old home Gledswood as a bride’ some forty years earlier.78 Thomas Charles Barker died suddenly and unexpectedly on 9 January 1940 at the age of 76. As a Nepean Shire Councillor, ‘his interest in the affairs of the district was unflagging’. He refused to accept the allowance for councillors and made several donations for road maintenance. He was loyal to the local Anglican Church and belonged to the Camden Show Society. He was buried at St Paul’s Cemetery, Cobbitty.79 The fact that the Permanent Trustee Company lodged the Application by Transmission with the Registrar General on 24 July 1940 suggests that Thomas Charles Barker had not made a will. Neither had he discharged his mortgage on the Maryland Estate.80 The Permanent Trustee placed a Caveat forbidding registration of any dealing affecting the Certificates of Title 1840-53 and 1339-134 which Henry John Andrews, who described himself as a grazier from Northmead, and his wife Olive Annie Andrews were purchasing. These titles referred to the 2,024 acres attached to Maryland, consolidated in 1906; and the 274 acres 8 perches of Lot 8 on Hunter’s Cowpasture Estates plan Barker purchased on 11 June 1906. It appears that once the purchase was completed, the Permanent Trustee Company paid the outstanding £2,000 Mortgage which applied to both these titles.

76 SMH, 13 December 18238, p 10; Roslyn Hall was built in 1836 77 Ibid 78 Ibid 79 The Biz, Fairfield, 11 January 1940 80 Unfortunately the Application by Transmission was not filmed before it was destroyed.


2.6 Ninian Alan Thomson – Maryland, company director’s retreat On 17 September 1940, one month after their purchase had been finalised, Henry John Andrews and his wife Olive Annie Andrews subdivided the property that Thomas Charles Barker had created. They then sold the 721 acres that remained of the Maryland homestead and farm after main road changes to company director Ninian Alan Thomson. Thomson and his wife Janet (Jetta) Ievers came from ‘Cuppacumbalong’, a property on the Murrumbidgee River, now Tharwa, ACT.81 They had lived in the Sydney suburb of Double Bay since 1923 when Ninian Thomson had taken control of the family business Mauri Brothers & Thomson a merchant firm in Sydney after the death of his father Ninian Miller Thomson. When Thomson bought Maryland it comprised the homestead, garden, winery, and a farm that had been leased to dairy farmers. Thomson wanted to live in the country while running the business in the city.82 World War 2 had been in progress for a little over one year. 21

Figure 16: This aerial shows Maryland homestead in 1947. The dark line of trees at the top marks Lowes Creek, the northern boundary of Lot 2 in DP 218779; the double line of scattered trees on the right is The Northern Road which is the eastern boundary. The hill where the homestead is situated is the darker roughly triangular shape on the lower left hand side, the original entrance being by the road that shows as a diagonal white line through the trees at the upper end while the more recent access is the partly visible track looping up to the house from the centre of the lower edge of the image. LPI In 1942 Ninian Alan Thomson suffered such a severe stroke that he was forced to retire from business. He died of a heart attack after a prolonged illness on 2 May 1952 leaving Maryland

81 NSW Environment & Heritage, Maryland Draft Listing, p 4 82 Harriet Veitch, ‘Dairy’s crème de la crème on city’s edge, Annie Thomson, 1921-2009’, 17 July 2009, brisbanetimes.com.au


to his widow Janet Ievers Thomson of Maryland, Bringelly and his older son Ninian Miller Thomson company director of Toorak, Victoria as joint tenants.83

2.7 Elizabeth and Annette (Annie) Thomson – dairy farmers of Maryland When their father retired, four years had passed after his second daughter Annette (Annie) had finished the Leaving Certificate at Frensham. As their brothers were working in the city, Annie and her older sister Elizabeth took over Maryland’s farm.84 They joined the Friesian Cattle Club in 1959, established a stud herd and entered some of their animals in local shows. They exhibited at the Sydney Royal Easter Show from 1964.85 It may have been from this time that Annie provided the commentary for the exhibit called ‘Milky Way’. This comprised a portable dairy where milkmaids in old fashioned costumes attended specially chosen docile cows while Annie explained milk production and processing. A comprehensive exhibition of the ‘Milky Way’ in the Lower Town Hall, Sydney had drawn large crowds in 1955. It was created to celebrate the sale of disease-free bottled milk, encourage people to drink more milk, and support the dairy industry. The Thomson sisters took the travelling exhibition to Sydney, Canberra, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth. It was permanently installed in the Royal Agricultural Show ground after it moved to Homebush in 1998.86

Figure 17: This plan of DP 218779 shows the Maryland property subdivision that separated the homestead and its access road in Lot 1 (23a 2r 16p) from the Farm (692 ac) in Lot 2. The Northern Road on the right is of ‘variable width’. CT Vol 5148 Fols 22 and 23, issued 13 November 1963, LPI

Annie Thomson won multiple awards for her contribution to the dairy industry. They were life membership of the Holstein Friesian Association of Australia, 1988, Dairy Industry Merit Award 1993, life membership of the dairy industry 1994, the Dairy Research Foundation’s 83 SMH 2 April 1952; CT Vol 5146 Fol 105, LPI 84 Harriet Veitch, op cit; The Southern Mail, 18 January 1938 85 Harriet Veitch, op cit 86 Nepean Times 11 August 1955; The Farmer and Settler, 19 August 1955


Tetra Pak award and a Royal Agricultural Society contributor’s award 1997. In 2001 she was recognised as a Royal Easter Show Legend.87 Annie also loved horses and riding and helped establish the Cobbitty Pony Club which began in 1960 and held its activities on Maryland for many years. Instructing beginners until 1985, ‘she taught generations of local children to ride’.88

Giving this up, and later having to give up riding, were two of the hardest things and saddest things she had ever faced. Although she did not marry or have children of her own, she loved young people. Nieces and nephews, godchildren, family friends and children of farm workers were frequent visitors to Maryland.89

Indeed, Elizabeth and Annie Thomson ‘were the mainstay of their community’. Known locally as ‘the Girls’, they continued working well into their eighties. In 2004 both sisters were awarded the Medal Order of Australia ‘for their contributions to shows, the dairy industry and the community’. Even at that time they kept 120 dairy cows to show on their travels throughout New South Wales.90 Elizabeth died in 2006 and Annie in 2009.

Figure 18: Annie and Elizabeth Thomson on the lawn in front of the Maryland homestead in 2004. Photo Peter Morris

87 Harriet Veitch, op cit 88 Ibid 89 Ibid 90 Ibid


2.7 New owners for Maryland 2009-2013 When Annie died, the Thomson family hoped they would continue to own and manage Maryland. However, there have been two sales of the property in quick succession. The family placed a caveat on a contract to purchase but that was withdrawn on 1 November 2012 and Maryalan Pty Limited and Winbarra Pty Limited, the companies created by Annie and Elizabeth Thomson, transferred to Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd. Just over three months after that transaction, Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd sold Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 to Aitken Lawyers, the transfer being registered on 13 February 2013.91 Change is coming to Bringelly as Sydney takes more of the territory of the colonial country squires and their descendants.

91 Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folios LPI


2.9 Appendixes Appendix 1: Summary of Maryland Owners Date Name Description of Land 25 August 1812

Michael Dowdell

40 ac south of Birling Farm, centre of Maryland

20 June 1816

John Dickson

Remainder of Maryland site, in 3000-acre Nonorrah

unknown

Eliza Cordelia Walker


10 July 1835

Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker – Inheritance


24, 25 August 1838

Matthew Dysert Hunter

3000 acres granted to John Dickson divided for sale as the Cowpasture Estates

28 July 1842

Sarah Lowe

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates, most of Maryland

31 August 1842

Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgage


7 July 1854

Thomas Barker


17 December 1855

Thomas Barker


21 April 1862

Katherine Heath Barker, wife of Thomas Barker

714 ac comprising the 40 ac farm, and 674 ac of Lots 6 & 7 – all of Maryland

21 April 1903

Thomas Charles Barker

714 ac comprising the 40 ac farm, and 674 ac of Lots 6 & 7 – all of Maryland

11 February 1913

Commerical Banking Company Mortgage

– all of Maryland plus an additional 1310 acres

16 August 1940

Permanent Trustee Company of NSW


17 September 1940

Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews


17 September 1940

Ninian Alan Thomson

– all of Maryland – 721 ac

27 May 1953

Janet Ievers Thomson and Ninian Miller Thomson

– all of Maryland – 721 ac

10 June 1958

Janet Ievers Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson

– all of Maryland ex road – 629 ac

19 July 1963

Elizabeth G Thomson and Annette L Thomson

– all of Maryland ex road – 629 ac

1 November 2012

Nonorrah Farm P/L and Maryland Homestead P/L

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135

12 February 2013

Aitken Lawyers

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135


Appendix 2: Table 1 – Owners of the Maryland Estate The Maryland Estate is defined as the land Thomas Barker bought in 1854 and the site of the country homestead he built there in 1858. Dates Names Description of Land 25 August 1812

Michael Dowdell

40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468

20 June 1816

John Dickson

3,000-acre Crown grant in the District of Cook issued by Governor Macquarie

date unknown

Eliza Cordelia Walker, daughter of Thomas Hassall, Cobbitty – Bequest

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

10 July 1835

Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker Inheritance

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

15 August 1838


3,000-acre Crown grant issued to John Dickson by Governor Macquarie

24 & 25 August 1841


1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

28 July 1842

Sarah Lowe Conveyance $2,192

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

31 July 1842

Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgage of £1,753 with Interest

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468, Old System, No 212 Bk 4

7 July 1854 Registered 22 November 1854

Thomas Barker Esq Conveyance £1,600

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Cowpasture Estates together with all houses outhouses edifices and buildings therein erected and built... PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34

17 December 1855

Thomas Barker Conveyance £120

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm between Lots 6 and 7 on ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates’ PA 14468, Old System No 706 Bk 41

21 April 1862

Katherine Heath Barker wife of Thomas Barker in trust Thomas Walker conveyed the land to J. F. Josephson in exchange for 10 sh to the use of Katherine Heath Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm Total 714 acres PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81

21 April 1903

Thomas Charles Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm Total 714 acres, PA 14468


Dates Names Description of Land 20 July 1906

T. C. Burnell and Gustav Hugo Leibius Equitable Mortgage Discharged Paid 8 March 1911

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm PA 14468

11 February 1913

Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited Mortgage C 926552

40 ac grant (Ptn 46); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57) of Cook Parish. Total 2,024 acres CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 July 1940

Death of Thomas Charles Barker

13 August 1940

Mortgage C 926279 discharged

16 August 1940

Permanent Trustee Company of New South Wales


17 September 1940

Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews


17 September 1940

Ninian Alan Thomson company director

721 ac being land originally granted as – CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

2 May 1952

Death of Ninian Alan Thomson

27 May 1953

Janet Ievers Thomson Bringelly and Ninian Miller Thomson, her son


10 June 1958

Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson , her daughter


13 November 1960

Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson

692 ac ex road, Lots 1 and 2 in DP 218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23

19 July 1963

Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson


23 July1963

Maryalan Pty and Winbarra Pty Limited owned by Elizabeth and Annette Thomson


1 November 2012

Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folio

12 February 2013

Aitken Lawyers

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135


Appendix 2: Table 1 – Chronology of Ownership Part 1 – Nonorrah Date Owner Description 20 June 1816 John Dickson (Dixon)

Crown Grant 3,000 acres in District of Cook PA 14468

1 April 1829 Richard Jones, President, Bank of NSW Unlimited Mortgage, £2,066.5sh.2p @ 10 % per annum

3,000 acres in District of Cook by name of Dickson’s Farm, including all buildings etc PA 14468, Old System No 3 Bk C

1 & 2 July 1833 John Dickson to Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle, Alexander Berry in Trust Lease and Release

All his property – 15a 3r 4p in Cockle Bay and Nonorrah Farm in the District of Cook, and 500 ac in Bankstown, also Scotland Island, Pitt Water PA 14468, Old System No 169 Bk F

12 July 1833 Deed Poll and Power of Attorney John Dickson to Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle, Alexander Berry To sell & dispose of estate and effects for payment of the just debts and maintenance and education of the children of the said John Dickson

PA 14468, Old System No 430 Bk H

3 & 4 November 1834

Richard Jones Esq to Thomas Barker, James Dickson, George Muckle and Alexander Berry £700 Memorial Lease and Release

All Dickson’s Farm of 3,000 acres in the District of Cook bounded on south by Netherbyres, Orielton and Hooks Farm to the west, on the north by Lowe’s Birling, Hassall’s Coventry with South Creek and Molle’s Catherine Field on the east. PA 14468, Old System, No 598 Bk G

14 August 1838

Revocation and New Appointment by John Dickson

PA 14468

15 August 1838 Contract for Sale John Dickson to M. D. Hunter

PA 14468

15 August 1838

Attested Copy – Power of Attorney J. Dickson to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore

PA 14468

27 August 1853

Conveyance M. D. Hunter to H. C. Burnell

Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 Nonorrah, Part of Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook, with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5 PA 14468, Old System No 160 Bk 28

27 August 1853

Statutory Declaration of Thomas Barker

Lots 1-5 of Nonorrah with RoW PA 14468

3 September 1853

Covenant J. Thacker to H. C. Burnell


7 September 1853

Covenant Thomas Barker to H. C. Burnell


18 February1854

Deed of Confirmation M. D. Hunter to H. C. Burnell



Table 1: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership Part 2 – Moorfield Date Owner Description 25 August 1812 Crown Grant - Attested Copy

to Thomas Moore 87 ac –District of Cook PA 14468

1830

Bargain and Sale Thomas Moore to John Dickson

87 ac, Moorfield – District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 238 Book T

15 August 1838 Power of Attorney – Attested Copy J. Dickson to W. J. Dowling and Thomas Woore

PA 14468

24 & 25 August 1841

John Dickson of London GB – 1st Thomas Barker Sydney – 2nd George Muckle Liverpool NSW Alexander Berry MD Hunter Sydney Merch’t – 3rd £200

87 ac, Moorfield –District of Cook together with all and singular buildings, waters etc PA 14468, Old System No 657 Bk 1

13 July 1842

Release by Mortgage Stephenson Atkin Bryant Mortgager Matthew Dysert Hunter Mortgagee £2000 [interest not declared]

Moorfield 87 ac –part of Dickson’s land in the district of Cook, west side of South Creek, north of Molle’s Catherine Field and 365 ac – Lot 1 of Nonorrah – 3,000 ac PA 14468, Old System No 439 Bk 2

28 July 1842

Matthew Dysert Hunter Vendor Stephenson Atkin Bryant Purchaser £2000 Indenture of Release

Moorfield 87 ac –part of Dickson’s land in the district of Cook, west side of South Creek, north of Molle’s Catherine Field and 365 ac – Lot 1 of 3,000 ac, District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 438 Bk 2

9 August 1853

Matthew Dysert Hunter 1st part Stephenson Atkin Bryant Melbourne 2nd part to William Carr Sydney 3rd part Matthew Dysert Hunter 4th part Conveyance by Hunter and Bryant £200

Moorfield 87 ac District of Cook together with all and singular buildings, waters etc PA 14468, Old System No 911 Bk 27

2 February 1855 Power of Attorney – Attested Copy M. D. Hunter to A. C. Daniell & S. A. Donaldson

PA 14468

18 October 1855

Conveyance Michael Dysert Hunter to Henry Clay Burnell £191

87 ac, Moorfield –District of Cook together with all and singular buildings, waters etc with right of way to Bringelly Rd PA 14468, Old System, No 607 Bk 41

18 May 1867

Settlement H. C. Burnell with Sarah Burnell as Trustee and Alexander Dick & Adolph Leibius Sarah released her right to her inheritance of 16 parcels of land so Henry Burnell can convey them to A. Dick and A. Liebius in Trust but Sarah and her children retain freedom to use of the land

365 ac – Lot 1 of 3000 ac originally granted to John Dickson and known as Nonorrah and 829 ac collectively Lots 2, 3, 4, and 5 of Nonorrah and 87 ac, Moorfield all District of Cook PA 14468, Old System, No 638 Bk 103

3 August 1868 Appointment of New Trustee Sarah Burnell & A. Liebius –1st pt George Adolphus Allen – other pt

PA 14468, Old System, No 991 Bk 109


Table 1: Maryland, Chronology of Ownership Part 2 Moorfield (continued) Date Owner Description 26 October 1870

Appointment of New Trustee Endorsed on Deed No 638 Bk 121 Sarah Burnell 1st Adolph Liebius & G. A. Allen 2nd

Thomas Barker of Maryland 3rd *George Allen no longer Trustee of Settlement

Land in Settlement of 18 May 1867 – (as described in Schedule above) conveyed to uses as the Trust sees fit PA 14468, Old System, No 874 Bk 121

1871

Appointment of George Allen by Sarah Burnell


9 April 1875

Appointment of New Trustee S. Burnell and A Liebius – 1st T. C. Burnell, Manager of Bank of NSW – the other part Thomas Barker departed this life on or about 12 March 1875

Land in Settlement of 18 May 1867 – (as described in Schedule above) conveyed to uses as the Trust sees fit PA 14468, Old System, No 774 Bk 156

7 March 1894

Appointment of New Trustee Sarah Burnell and T. C. Burnell 1st G. H. Liebius – the other part


25 September 1896 Probate of Will of Sarah Burnell PA 14468 19 July 1906

Conveyance T. C. Burnell and G. H. Liebius to Thomas Charles Barker £5,232

Lots 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, Nonorrah, Part of Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook, with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5 and 87 ac, Moorfield all in District of Cook County of Cumberland PA 14468, Old System, No 738 Bk 809


Table 1: Maryland, Chronology of Ownership – Part 3 Lots 6 & 7 of Cowpasture Estates Date Owner Description 24 & 25 August 1841 Conveyance

John Dickson and others to Matthew Dysert Hunter

1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468

28 July 1842 M. D. Hunter to Sarah Lowe Conveyance [Released by trustees on 1 & 2 July 1842]

1,833 acres released by Trustees including Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates Hunter agreed to pay $6,500 and Sarah Lowe agreed to pay $2,192 for Lots 6 and 7 PA 14468

31 July 1842 Mortgage of £1,753 with Interest Sarah Lowe to M. D. Hunter

Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468, Old System, No 212 Bk 4

7 July 1854 Received 22 November 1854

Conveyance M. D. Hunter of Antons Hill, County Berwick, Scotland Vendor to Thomas Barker Esq Purchaser £1,600

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Cowpasture Estates together with all houses outhouses edifices and buildings therein erected and built... PA 14468, Old System, No 884 Bk 34

2 November 1854

Conveyance Thomas Barker to H. C. Burnell £5,000 paid by Burnell. According to indenture of 7 July 1854 he had agreed to pay £2,000 but has now paid £5,000 to the Estate administrators

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 on the Cowpasture Estates PA 14468, Old System, No 885 Bk 34

19 June 1855 Conveyance H. C. Burnell to Thomas Barker £2000

674 ac 2 r Lots 6 and 7 as on ‘Plan of the Cowpasture Estates’ PA 14468, Old System, No 224 Bk 38

Table 1: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 4 Dowdell’s Farm & Lots 6 and 7 Cowpasture Estates Date Owner Description 25 August 1812 Michael Dowdell

Crown Grant from Governor Macquarie

40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook –to cultivate 12 acres within 5 years or grant will be voided PA 14468

7 December 1855

Statutory Declaration Thomas Hassall of Cobbitty. The farm was bequeathed to Hassall’s daughter Eliza Cordelia Walker

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468

25 February 1855 Certificate of Burial of Elisa Cordelia Hassall, wife of Wesleyan Minister William Walker, age 31

Ralph’s Plains, Bathurst 10 July 1835 PA 14468

20 October 1855

Certificate of Marriage of William Walker with Elisa Cordelia Hassall

Married at Parramatta by Rev Samuel Marsden on 14 May 1823 PA 14468

20 October 1855 Certificate of Baptism of Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker

Baptised at St John’s Parramatta on 25 January 1828, born 3 January 1828

25 February 1855 Certificate of Burial of Elisa Cordelia Hassall, wife of Wesleyan Minister William Walker, age 31

Ralph’s Plains, Bathurst 10 July 1835 PA 14468


Table 1: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 4 Dowdell’s Farm & Lots 6 and 7 Cowpasture Estates (continued) Date Owner Description 17 December 1855 Conveyance

Rowland Thomas Brisbane Walker to Thomas Barker £120

Dowdell’s Farm – 40 ac south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 706 Bk 41

21 April 1862 Thomas Barker 1st, wife Katherine Heath Barker 2nd, to barrister Joshua Frey Josephson 3rd, and heirs as Trustee to the uses of the said Katherine Heath Barker free from debts, control and engagements of Thomas Barker 1. Whereas indenture 19 June 1855 between H. C. Burnell conveyed the land described to Thomas Barker and his heirs for ever and 2. Whereas indenture on 17 December 1855 between R. B. T. Walker conveyed the land described to Thomas Walker Here, Thomas Walker conveys the land described to J. F. Josephson in exchange for 10 sh to the use of Katherine Heath Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 71 Bk 81

21 April 1903

Indenture between Katherine Heath Barker widow of Maryland Bringelly and Thomas Charles Barker of the same place agree to continue lease to Josephson and heirs during their joint lives and to Katherine after death of Thomas Charles Barker or to the latter if Katherine died first Thomas Barker Snr died on 12 March 1875 and the land described was already left in trust to Katherine Heath Barker. Conveyance Katherine Heath Barker to Thomas Charles Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468, Old System No 411 Book 734

20 July 1906 Equitable Mortgage Thomas Charles Barker to T. C. Burnell and Gustav Hugo Leibius

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook PA 14468


Table 2: Maryland Estate, Chronology of Ownership – Part 1 Thomas Charles Barker Date Owner Description 21 April 1903

Conveyance Katherine Heath Barker to Thomas Charles Barker

1. 674 ac with all buildings, Lots 6 and 7 of the Cowpasture Estates and 2. 40 ac, Dowdell’s Farm, south of Lowe’s Birling Farm in the District of Cook

19 July 1906

Conveyance T. C. Burnell to T. C. Barker £5,232

Lot 1, Nonorrah, Part of Dickson’s 3,000 ac District of Cook together with Lots 2, 3, 4 and 5 with Right of Way to lots 2, 3, 4.& 5 and Moorfield being 1303 acres PA 14468 No 738 Bk 809

17 December 1907

Consolidation Thomas Charles Barker

40 ac grant (Ptn 46 of Cook Parish); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57 of Cook Parish). Total Area 2,024 acres CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 September 1907

Mortgage No 480433 Thomas Barker to Charles Burnell of Bathurst and Gustav Hugo Liebius Sydney solicitor

Part of the 2,024 acres Paid 8 March 1911 CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

11 February 1913

Mortgage C 926279

Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

9 January 1940

Thomas Charles Barker Death

Sydney Morning Herald, 10 January 1940 At the time of death, Mortgage C926279 had not been paid

24 July 1940

Application by Transmission No C 926552 by

Dealing not available as it was destroyed before filming

24 July 1940

Caveat C 926553

13 August 1940

Mortgage C 926279 discharged

4 September 1940

Caveat C 926553 withdrawn

16 August 1940

Transfer Permanent Trustee Company of New South Wales to Henry John Andrews, Northmead grazier and wife Olive Annie Andrews as Joint Tenants



Table 2: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership Part 2 – Thomas Charles Barker – Maryland Estate Date Owner Description 17 December 1900

Edward Charles Lusted Campbelltown Contractor and his wife Agnes Lusted

294 ac 8 p – Lot 8 Cowpasture Estates and Part of 3,000 ac grant to John Dickson (Portion 45) Cook Parish and also part of 1,000 ac grant to Robert Lowe (Portion 50) CT Vol 1339 Fol 134

22 December 1901

Transfer Charles Smith, Bringelly Esquire


11 June 1906

Transfer Thomas Charles Barker Esq


11 February 1913

Mortgage Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Amount £2,000 Rent (Interest) of £160 per annum to be paid by equal half-yearly payments

294 ac 8 p – Lot 8 Cowpasture Estates and Part of 3000 ac grant to John Dickson (Portion 45) Cook Parish and also part of 1,000 ac grant to Robert Lowe (Portion 50) CT Vol 1339 Fol 134

24 July 1940

Application for Transmission C926552 by Permanent Trustee Company Not Available – This C Dealing Transmission Application was destroyed before filming

Several parcels of land in the Shire of Nepean, Parish of Cook, County of Cumberland as defined in the titles listed below CT Vol 1339 Fol 134 and CT Vol 1840 Fol 53

17 Deptember 1940

Transfer Permanent Trustee Company to Henry John Andrews grazier, Northmead and wife Olive Annie Andrews



Table 3: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 1 Thomsons Maryland homestead and farm Date Owner Description 17 September 1940

Transfer Henry John Andrews and wife Olive Annie Andrews to Ninian Alan Thomson of part


17 September 1940

Ninian Alan Thomson company director Mortgage

721 ac being land originally granted as – 40 ac grant (Ptn 46 of Cook Parish); part of grant of 1,000 ac to Robert Lowe (Ptn 50) and part of 3,000 ac (Ptn 45); 87 ac (Ptn 57) of Cook Parish CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

28 September 1942

Mortgage with AMP No D 158028

19 January 1953

Application by Transmission Janet Ievers Thomson Bringelly widow and Ninian Miller Thomson Toorak Victoria company director Joint Tenants


8 September 1955

Notice of Resumption Commissioners of DMR

27 May 1953

Caveat F864027 Withdrawn 20 October 1958

Part of the land described coloured pink

10 June 1958

Transfer Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson spinster, both of Bringelly as Joint Tenants


28 October 1958

Caveat No H 64758

CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

8 November 1960

Mortgage No D 158028 discharged

CT Vol 5146 Fol 105

8 November 1960

Whole Deed (ex road)

721 ac, Lots 1 and 2 to DP 218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23

13 November 1960

Janet Ievers Thomson widow and Annette Lillie Thomson spinster, both of Bringelly as Joint Tenants


19 July 1963

Application by Transmission by Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson



Table 3: Maryland – Chronology of Ownership – Part 2 Thomsons Maryland homestead and farm Date Owner Description 19 July 1963

Elizabeth Gillies Thomson and Annette Lillie Thomson

692 ac ex road, Lots 1 and 2 in DP218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23

23 July 1963

Maryalan Pty and Winbarra Pty Limited

692 ac ex road, Lots 1 and 2 in DP218779 CT Vol 9568 Vols 22 & 23

23 July 1963

Transfer

Right of Way affecting the site of the proposed right of way 100 links shown in Plan hereon

19 September 1963

Mortgage to CBA

Discharged

5 September 1985

Mortgage to NAB

Discharged

16 May 1988

Cancelled/ See Auto Folio

CT Not Issued

21 August 1998

Deposited Plan

DP8722135

1 November 2012

Caveat AH 349705 Maryalan Pty Limited and Winbarra Pty Limited to Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd

Re contract to purchase Withdrawn J408927

12 February 2013

Transfer Nonorrah Farm Pty Ltd and Maryland Homestead Pty Ltd to Aitken Lawyers

Lot 1/DP 218779 and Lot 29/DP 872135 Auto Folio


2.10 Select Bibliography

Primary Sources Title Search Old System and Primary Application Packet Land & Property Information (LPI) Maps and Manuscripts Mitchell Library, State Library of NSW

Primary Sources –Texts G. Nesta Griffiths, Maryland, Bringelly, 4-page typed MS signed ‘G. Nesta Griffiths June 1956’, SLNSW Historical Records of Australia (HRA) Horticultural Magazine and Gardeners’ and Amateurs’ Calendar, 1870 Record No 34250, Vertical File, Sydney Living Museums, Caroline Simpson Library and Research Collection Watkin Tench, A Narrative of the Expedition to Botany Bay and A complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson 1788-1791, reprint, Library of Australian History, Sydney, 1979 Trove Newspapers National Library of Australia (NLA) David Lindsay Waugh, Three years’ practical experience of a settler in New South Wales: being extracts from letters to his friends in Edinburgh from 1834-1837, John Johnstone, Edinburgh, 1838

Secondary Sources –Texts James Broadbent, ‘Maryland New South Wales’, in Historic Homesteads of Australia, Australian Council of National Trusts, Cassell Australia, 1969-1976 Carol Liston, Campbelltown. The Bicentennial History, Council of the City of Campbelltown with Allen & Unwin Australia, Pty Ltd, North Sydney, 1988 Casey & Lowe Pty Ltd, ‘History of Barker’s Mill Darling Harbour’, September 2002 Environment and Heritage Office, ‘Maryland, Bringelly’ Draft Statement of Significance and related texts Heritage Council of New South Wales, ‘Gledswood’, 2008 C. Morris & G. Britton/ NSW National Trust, Colonial Landscapes of the Cumberland Plain and Camden, NSW, 2000


Robert Murray and Kate White, Dharug to Dungaree. The History of Penrith and St Marys to 1860, Harreen Publishing Company with the City of Penrith,1988 Harriet Veitch, ‘Dairy’s crème de la crème on city’s edge, Annie Thomson, 1921-2009’, 17 July 2009, brisbanetimes.com.au A. K. Weatherburn, Thomas Barker, pioneer Australian industrialist (1799 to 1875), self published, Ryde, NSW G. P. Walsh, ‘Barker, Thomas (1799-1875)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 1 G. P. Walsh, ‘Dickson , John (1774-1843)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography Volume 1

Section 91 Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997

Clean-Up Notice

Page 1

J. P. HAINES PLUMBING PTY. LIMITED

Trading as HAINES BROS EARTHMOVING & DRAINAGE

ABN 90 072 913 556

136 Mersey Road

BRINGELLY NSW 2556

Attention: Mr Mark Haines

Notice Number 1504687

File Number FIL12/1969

Date 27-Apr-2012

NOTICE OF CLEAN-UP ACTION

BACKGROUND

A. The Environment Protection Authority (EPA) is responsible for the administration and enforcement ofenvironment protection legislation, including the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997(POEO Act).

B. This Notice relates to the rural property known as 'Marylands', located at 877 The Northern Road,Bringelly (the Premises) and depicted in 'attachment 1'.

C. The EPA understands that J. P. Haines Plumbing Pty Limited t/as Haines Bros Earthmoving &Drainage (Haines Bros) were engaged by the executors of the Premises to deposit fill material at thebase of the northern wall of the western dam at the Premises.

D. On 2 February 2012, authorised officers from the EPA and Camden Council conducted an inspection ofthe Premises. During this inspection, EPA officers observed waste stockpiled and spread across theground surface in the area to the north of the western dam (see area outlined in 'attachment 2').Samples of suspected asbestos fragments were taken during the inspection. Analysis by Envirolabshowed that samples taken contained chrysotile and amosite asbestos.

E. On 8 March 2012, authorised officers from the EPA and Camden Council conducted a follow-up siteinspection with Mark Haines and Phil Clifton. The purpose of this inspection was to identify the areasthat require clean-up. EPA officers and Mr Haines agreed that the areas are marked as 1, 2, 3 and 4 on'attachment 3' were to be removed and disposed of in accordance with the POEO Act. Thephotographs at 'attachment 4' further identify these areas.

F. Given the presence of asbestos, the EPA is the appropriate regulatory authority for the contaminatedwaste at the Premises.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 2

G. The EPA reasonably suspects that a pollution incident is occurring at the Premises. Specifically, thestorage, and land application of waste, including fragments of asbestos, is suspected to be causingland pollution at the Premises.

H. Asbestos waste in any form must be disposed of at a landfill that can lawfully receive that type of waste.

I. The EPA has not issued an environment protection licence for any activities to be conducted at thePremises.

DIRECTION TO TAKE CLEAN-UP ACTIONThe Environment Protection Authority (the EPA) directs J. P. HAINES PLUMBING PTY. LIMITED to takethe following clean-up action:

1. By no later than 4pm on Monday 28 May 2012, remove all asbestos contaminated waste, and allwaste that does not meet a resource recovery exemption, including:

a. all waste within the area marked by the red triangle in 'attachment 2', and

b. all waste stockpiled and spread in the areas marked as 1, 2, 3 and 4 on the sketch map at'attachment 3',

and dispose of it at a facility that can lawfully receive that waste.

2. By no later than 4pm on Thursday 31 May 2012, provide copies of receipts, dockets and invoicesrelating to the removal, transport and disposal of each load of waste from the Premises asrequired by the Notice to the Manager Waste Operations, EPA PO Box A290 Sydney South, NSW1232.

FEE TO BE PAID You are required by law to pay a fee of $455 for the administrative costs of issuing this notice.

It is an offence not to pay this fee. However you can apply for an extension of time to pay the fee or forthe fee to be waived. At the end of this notice there is information about how and when to pay the feeand how to apply for an extension or a waiver of the fee.

.......................................................

Peter Watson

Acting Unit Head Waste Operations

HazMat, Chemicals and Radiation

(by Delegation)


Clean-Up Notice

Page 3

INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CLEAN-UP NOTICE This notice is issued under section 91 of the Protection of the Environment Operations Act 1997.

It is an offence against the Act not to comply with a clean-up notice unless you have a reasonableexcuse.

Penalty for not complying with this notice The maximum penalty for a corporation is $1,000,000 and a further $120,000 for each day the offence

continues. The maximum penalty for an individual is $250,000 and a further $60,000 for each day theoffence continues.

Cost recovery from the person who caused the incident If you comply with this clean-up notice but you are not the person who caused the pollution incident to

which the notice relates, you have a right to go to court to recover your costs of complying with thenotice from the person who caused the incident.

Deadline for paying the fee

The fee must be paid by no later than 30 days after the date of this notice, unless the EPA extendsthe time to pay the fee, or waives the fee.

How to pay the fee Possible methods of payment are listed on the last page of the attached invoice/statement.

Please include the payment slip from the attached invoice/statement with your payment.

How to apply for an extension of time to pay/waive the fee Any application for and extension of time to pay the fee or for the fee to be waived should be made in

writing to the EPA. The application should set out clearly why you think your application should begranted.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 4

Other costs The Protection of the Environment Operations Act allows the EPA to recover from you reasonable

costs and expenses it incurs in monitoring action taken under this notice, ensuring the notice iscomplied with and associated matters. (If you are going to be required to pay these costs andexpenses you will later be sent a separate notice called a “Notice Requiring Payment of ReasonableCosts and Expenses”).

Continuing obligation Under section 319A of the POEO Act, your obligation to comply with the requirements of this notice

continues until the notice is complied with, even if the due date for compliance has passed.

Variation of this notice

This notice may only be varied by subsequent notices issued by the EPA.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 5

ATTACHMENT 1Map indicating the location of Premises in relation to the Northern Road, Bringelly.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 6

ATTACHMENT 2

Map showing the 'western dam' located on the Premises. Red triangle indicates the area where waste has beendeposited.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 7

ATTACHMENT 3

Sketch map drawn by M Whelan during site inspection on 8 March 2012. Map indicates areas that require clean-up(identified by the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4). The sketch map area is located within the area marked by the red triangledetailed in "attachment 2". Sketch map signed by M Haines and M Whelan during the inspection.


Clean-Up Notice

Page 8

ATTACHMENT 4

Photographs taken by Camden Council officers during inspection on 8 March 2012 from on top of dam wall

Photo 1: Spread and stockpiled waste. Areas 1, 2 and 4 are outlined in red, and indicate where waste is to be removed from.

Photo 2: Spread and stockpiled waste. Areas 2, 3 and 4 are outlined in red, and indicate where waste is to be removed from.

maryland homestead 773 the northern road, bringelly, nsw · maryland, bringelly, contextual history...

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