Oaks Estate Heritage Assessment

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Oaks Estate Heritage Assessment Note: Some of this document has been redacted to protect the privacy of individual households. HERITAGE ASSESSMENT OAKS ESTATE, ACT for ACT Environment & Sustainable Development Directorate by PHILIP LEESON ARCHITECTS PTY LTD Final Report, 4th September 2013 HERITAGE ASSESSMENT – OAKS ESTATE, ACT 1 Final 4/9/13 Cover image • Masonry structure and mature landscaping located at Robertson House on blocks 11 & 12 Section 7 Oaks Estate, 2013 • Source: Philip Leeson Architects. HERITAGE ASSESSMENT – OAKS ESTATE, ACT 2 Final 4/9/13 Table of Contents 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ........................................................................................ 5 2 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 8 2.1 PROJECT BRIEF ...................................................................................................... 8 2.2 STUDY BOUNDARY AND HERITAGE STATUS ................................................................ 8 2.3 METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................. 10 2.4 LIMITATIONS........................................................................................................10 2.5 CONVENTIONS AND ABBREVIATIONS .................................................................... 11 2.6 AUTHORSHIP .......................................................................................................11 2.7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................11 3 HISTORICAL ASSESSMENT ................................................................................ 12 3.1 HISTORICAL CONTEXT ..........................................................................................12 3.1.1 Geography and pre-European landscape ................................................... 12 3.1.2 European rural estates, 1820 – 1877 ................................................................ 13 3.1.3 Industry and subdivision, 1877 – 1901 .............................................................. 22 3.1.4 Federal Territory and Canberra, 1901 – 1920s ................................................ 27 3.1.5 Surplus to Canberra, 1930s – 1960s .................................................................. 39 3.1.6 Freehold land resumed, 1970s ......................................................................... 52 3.1.7 The 1980s to the present ................................................................................... 52 3.2 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS ..................................................................................... 54 3.2.1 Brief History of Tharwa Village .......................................................................... 54 3.2.2 Brief History of Hall Village ................................................................................. 54 3.2.3 Comparative Analysis ....................................................................................... 55 4 PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT .................................................................................... 57 4.1 INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................57 4.2 THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT ..................................................................................... 57 4.2.1 Places of individual heritage significance ...................................................... 57 4.2.2 Places of potential individual heritage significance ..................................... 69 4.2.3 Places examined and dismissed as having individual significance ............ 71 4.2.4 Places contributing to the early 20th Century urban village character ...... 72 4.2.5 Non residential places ...................................................................................... 78 4.2.6 Light Industrial Area ........................................................................................... 79 4.2.7 Gillespie Park ...................................................................................................... 81 4.2.8 Chinese Market Garden ................................................................................... 82 4.2.9 Water Tanks ........................................................................................................ 82 4.2.10 Non-contributory places ................................................................................... 82 4.3 THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT ............................................................................... 85 4.3.1 The River Corridor ............................................................................................... 85 4.3.2 Elm Grove ........................................................................................................... 88 4.3.3 Street Plantings ................................................................................................... 89 4.3.4 Individual Block Plantings.................................................................................. 89 4.3.5 Significant vistas ................................................................................................. 89 4.4 SOCIAL VALUES ASSESSMENT ............................................................................... 91 4.4.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 91 4.4.2 Community consultation .................................................................................. 91 4.4.3 Consultation findings ......................................................................................... 92 5 ASSESSMENT OF HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE ..................................................... 93 5.1 ASSESSMENT AGAINST CRITERIA ............................................................................ 93 5.2 STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE ............................................................................. 100 5.3 SIGNIFICANT FEATURES.......................................................................................100 6 RECOMMENDATIONS ..................................................................................... 102 HERITAGE ASSESSMENT – OAKS ESTATE, ACT 3 Final 4/9/13 6.1 PRECINCT LISTING .............................................................................................102 6.2 DEVELOPMENT GUIDELINES ................................................................................ 107 6.3 ENGAGEMENT WITH OTHER JURISDICTIONS .......................................................... 108 6.4 FURTHER RESEARCH ...........................................................................................108 7 BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................... 109 8 APPENDICES ................................................................................................... 116 8.1 APPENDIX A – NATIONAL TRUST DRAFT CITATION, OAKS ESTATE ............................ 117 8.2 APPENDIX B – NGH HERITAGE, ASSESSMENT OF 9 HAZEL STREET .......................... 118 8.3 APPENDIX C - DETAILED PHYSICAL ASSESSMENT, OAKS ESTATE.............................. 119 HERITAGE ASSESSMENT – OAKS ESTATE, ACT 4 Final 4/9/13 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Project brief This heritage assessment has been prepared by Philip Leeson Architects Pty. Ltd. for the ACT Government Environment and Sustainable Development Directorate (ESDD) to inform development of a Master Plan for Oaks Estate. The study area is based on the area presently nominated for listing on the ACT Heritage Places Register. This heritage assessment should be read in conjunction with the Indigenous Heritage Study and Cultural Landscape Assessment prepared by Navin Officer Heritage Consultants Pty Ltd. Heritage status Places in Oaks Estate are nominated or listed on three heritage registers as follows: • Oaks Estate, The Oaks, and Robertson House are nominated for listing on the ACT Heritage Places Register. • Oaks Estate and The Oaks are listed by the National Trust (ACT Chapter). • The Oaks and the Slab Hut at 7 George St are listed on the Register of the National Estate. Heritage assessment Following historical, physical and social values assessment, detailed heritage assessment found significance under five of the ACT heritage significance criteria set out in the ACT Heritage Act 2004, Section 10 as follows: (b) it exhibits outstanding design or aesthetic qualities valued by the community or a cultural group (c) it is important as evidence of a distinctive way of life, taste, tradition, religion, land use, custom, process, design or function that is no longer practiced, is in danger of being lost or is of exceptional interest (e) it is significant to the ACT because of its importance as part of local Aboriginal tradition. (f) it is a rare or unique example of its kind, or is rare or unique in its comparative intactness (h) it has strong or special associations with a person, group, event, development or cultural phase in local or national history (j) it has provided, or is likely to provide, information that will contribute significantly to a wider understanding of the natural or cultural history of the ACT because of its use or potential use as a research site or object, teaching site or object, type locality or benchmark site Statement of significance Oaks Estate is a highly intact early twentieth century urban village in a picturesque rural setting with a unique history, which illustrates several themes in the development
Recommended publications
  • Cartography, Empire and Copyright Law in Colonial Australia Isabella
    Cartography, Empire and Copyright Law in Colonial Australia Isabella Alexander Recent scholarship has established the centrality of maps and mapmaking to the imperial project, both as expressions of surveillance, spatial construction and control, as well as in the role maps played in making and supporting claims of property and ownership. Much less attention has been paid to the question of ownership in the map itself. This is important because the person, or entity, who owned the map could determine how the land depicted in the map was portrayed, and how access to that information was disseminated. It also affected how the map was perceived in terms of the authority, or accuracy, of its claims. This article examines several disputes that arose in colonial Australia over the ownership of maps, exploring how different interests arose and came into conflict in relation to their control, dissemination and commercialisation. It suggests that a consideration of these cases reveals the role that copyright law played as a technology of empire. Reading the history of colonial Australia, it is hard to escape the conclusion that ‘[o]ne way or another, almost everything about the history of the Australian colonies was about land’.1 It is a story of dispossession and possession: the indigenous inhabitants were dispossessed, so that the land could be possessed first by the Crown and then by private parties. Possession turned into ownership by operation of the laws that the new arrivals brought with them. But for land to be possessed and owned, it had to be known, and at the end of the eighteenth century the chief method for acquiring knowledge of land was by surveying and mapping it.
    [Show full text]
  • Proceedings of the Historical Society of Queensland
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by University of Queensland eSpace Proceedings of the Historical Society of Queensland. At a meeting of the Committee of the Historical Society of Queensland held in October, 1922, certain proposals were made for the celebration of the Hundredth Anni­ versary of the Discovery of the Brisbane River on 2nd December, 1823. These were communicated to the Bris­ bane City Council and embodied in the programme eventuaUy carried out. The Society undertook to prepare a manuscript of the field books or journals of Mr. John Oxley, Surveyor General of New South Wales, on the occasions of the discovery of the river, and of his second visit in September, 1824, when he discovered the site of the city. The official celebrations were subsequently postponed tiU August, 1924. The actual date of the hundredth aryiiversary, 2nd December, feU upon a Sunday in 1923. The Mayor of Brisbane, Alderman H. J. Diddams, C.M.G., a foundation member of the Society, invited a large number of pioneers and others, including the President and other representatives of the Society to Newstead, formerly the residence of Captain Wickham, R.N., at the mouth of Breakfast Creek, on the afternoon of Saturday, 1st December, 1923, in sight of the discoverer's first land­ ing place within the present city area. His ExceUency Sir Matthew Nathan, G.C.M.G., Governor of Queensland and Patron of the Society, read a message from His Majesty the King as follows :— " I desire to congratulate my loyal people of Queensland on the marveUous progress made since the discovery of the Brisbane River a century ago and to convey to them my most cordial wishes for their con­ tinued happiness and prosperity." Addresses were delivered by His ExceUency, the Premier (the Hon.
    [Show full text]
  • Risky Journeys: the Development of Best Practice Adult Educational Programs to Indigenous People in Rural and Remote Communities
    University of Wollongong Research Online Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive) Faculty of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities 1-1-2007 Risky Journeys: The Development of Best Practice Adult Educational Programs to Indigenous People in Rural and Remote Communities Roselyn M. Dixon University of Wollongong, [email protected] Sophie E. Constable University of Sydney Robert Dixon University of Sydney Follow this and additional works at: https://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers Part of the Education Commons Recommended Citation Dixon, Roselyn M.; Constable, Sophie E.; and Dixon, Robert: Risky Journeys: The Development of Best Practice Adult Educational Programs to Indigenous People in Rural and Remote Communities 2007, 231-240. https://ro.uow.edu.au/edupapers/229 Research Online is the open access institutional repository for the University of Wollongong. For further information contact the UOW Library: [email protected] Risky Journeys: The Development of Best Practice Adult Educational Programs to Indigenous People in Rural and Remote Communities Roselyn May Dixon, University of Wollongong, NSW, Australia Robert John Dixon, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia Sophie Constable, University of Sydney, NSW, Australia Abstract: The findings from a culturally relevant innovative educational program to support community health through dog health are presented. It will report on the pilot of a program, using a generative curriculum model where Indigenous knowledge is brought into the process of teaching and learning by community members and is integrated with an empirical knowledge base. The characteristics of the pilot program will be discussed. These included locally relevant content, appro- priate learning processes such as the development of personal caring relationships, and supporting different world views.
    [Show full text]
  • 3 the Later Maritime Prose
    3 THE LATER MARITIME PROSE The scenery here exceeded any thing I had previously seen in Australia — extending for miles along a deep rich valley, clothed with magnificent trees, the beautiful uniformity of which was only interrupted by the turns and windings of the river, which here and there appeared like small lakes The philosophically intriguing qualities of maritime texts are clearest— however skeletally limned in—in our region's earlier exploratory prose or navigation studies and chronicles. Yet similar elements are still present in subsequent maritime texts, even in those constructed in seemingly a more familiar time and ordered navigational age. The unknown and unknowable and so dangerous element is most evident in the texts recording early landings—where white vulnerability and (mercantile) opportunism are both at that time peculiarly heightened. In the later works of the period, the initial undertone of danger becomes blended with the construction of a coastal zone with its own colonial or administrative demands and social patterns of duty. The maritime prose in this chapter has been chosen comprehensively, yet archival searches beyond the scope of this study are likely to yield more. Brief journeys, where one's interest and mindset clearly lie elsewhere, must position the passing region as but a conduit with minimal distinctive or savoured features. Yet even within such over-confident acceptance of the unfamiliar, with a life- style elsewhere, the unknown can. severely disrupt. Accidents experienced as well as the natural phenomena descried, can always emerge as fresh and exciting to fracture the stable construction. Minor difficulties are suppressed in the texts—resulting from the large number of practical journeys undertaken.
    [Show full text]
  • 67 SOME NOTES on COORPAROO. (By the Late Professor CUMBRAE STEWART)
    67 SOME NOTES ON COORPAROO. (By the late Professor CUMBRAE STEWART). (Read by Mr. C. G. Austin at a meeting of the Historical Society of Queensland, July 26, 1938). When the boat of the colonial cutter "Mermaid" passed up the Brisbane River on Tuesday, December 2nd, 1823, with John Oxley, Surveyor General, of New South Wales, and Lieutenant Stirling of "The Buffs," the mouth of a water course or tributary {o the river was noticed on the southern bank, and marked on the chart. This tributary, afterwards known as Norman Creek, received the waters falling on an area roughly shaped like a horseshoe, the watershed of which is a line of heights ending in Galloway's Hill on the east and on the west in Highgate Hill. On the western side the chief stream feeding the Norman were those which formed the "One Mile Swamp" now, in great part, carried by a tunnel into the river, and, further south, the waters of King­ fisher Creek. Norman Creek itself receives the waters flowing down from the southern watershed, of which the chief natural feature is Mount Gravatt. On its eastern bank, the Norman Creek is fed by Coorparoo and Bridgewater Creeks, which are water­ courses rather than permanently flowing streams until they reach salt water. The suburb now knowm as Coorparoo may be described as the ground drained by these twd creeks, swampy in the flats along the Norman, but, for the most part, high lying and well drained, open to the cool sea breezes from the north­ west, and affording an excellent panoramic view of the city.
    [Show full text]
  • Heritage Walk
    Heritage Walk 1. Tourist Information Centre; Built in 1925 8. ‘Fairholme’; 74 Lowe St. Built as a 17. Queanbeyan Railway Station; for the Oueanbeyan Municipal Council and it residence for solicitor E. E. Morgan in 1884. Henderson Rd. The station officially opened in remained operational until 1975. The gardens 1887. The line connects to Bungendore contain significant memorials recognising 9. Isabella Public School; Corner of Isabella station, which was built in 1885 to the the involvement of local residents in various and Crawford Sts. The small stone school Canberra station which opened in 1913. war efforts. The scientifically correct sundial house was built in 1877. It was the first public was a gift from Nathan Lazarus in 1860 to the school in the area. 18. Bull’s Cottage; 24 Henderson Rd. people of Queanbeyan to provide them with Built in the 1880’s and inhabited by John Bull, an accurate timepiece. 10. Saint Benedict’s Convent; Corner of Queanbeyan’s second mayor & businessman. Crawford and Isabella Sts. Built in 1882 as a 2. Queanbeyan Showground; Lowe St. convent and school for the Queanbeyan and 19. Queanbeyan Hospital (Blood Bank Once an Aboriginal camping site, the area District Sisters of the Good Samaritan. Building); Corner of Collett and Antill Sts. began to be cleared in the 1880’s and an Built between 1859 and 1862, it could hold a official decision to make it a showground was 11. Suspension Bridge; The Suspension total of 16 patients until the next hospital was made in 1893. The memorial entrance gates Bridge was originally built in 1901 to replace built next to it in the 1930’s.
    [Show full text]
  • Edition #44 February 24Th 2021
    Braidwood Bugle FREE Independent News for Braidwood & the District www.braidwoodbugle.com.au Number 44 24 February 2021 Founder's Day at 1st Braidwood Scouts 1St Braidwood Scouts held a ‘Bring a Friend Founders Day’ celebration on Saturday 20th February at the hall. Celebrating the INSIDE THIS birthday of Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement, there was a lot of fun with outdoor activities, including WEEK: building a catapult - complete with water balloons - building a rope bridge, learning about the history of the Scouting movement and Letter to the Editor making paracord bracelets. The sun shone for the sausage sizzle, Batemans Bay Bridge opening as they all had a wonderful day at the hall, celebrating and sharing More Araluen Road repairs with friends what Scouting is all about. 1st Braidwood is Nelligen Bridge works experiencing somewhat of a renaissance with 24 youth members, 6 Re-Gen Ag 101 adult leaders and another 7 adult helpers. A further six more kids came along to try it out on Founder’s Day. News for Braidwood & the district Bugle Letters Page 2 24 February 2021 Cooling it The Facebook conundrum The difference in opinion between Roger Hoskins and If you are reading this here, you may be one of the many John Tuckwell re the QPRC Surface Heat Mapping report people who aren't actually on Facebook or rarely use it. is instructive in two ways. It's been a strange week for those of us who are regularly First, Hoskins correctly points out that a survey based on on the platform.
    [Show full text]
  • The Impact of Australia's Distinctive Nature and Ecology on Imperial
    The impact of Australia’s distinctive nature and ecology on imperial expansion in the first years of settlement in New South Wales Lucinda Janson Australia’s nature and ecology have been shaped over millennia by geological and climatic factors into a distinctive and complex ecosystem. The continent’s Aboriginal peoples adapted to the challenges of a variable and often hostile climate and landscape, and developed a sophisticated means of living off the land. Yet the arrival of a fleet of British ships to what would become known as New South Wales permanently altered this balance. The land would eventually be shaped by these invaders into what Alfred Crosby called a ‘neo-Europe’.1 Australia’s European colonisers had a complex and ever-changing relationship with the Australian landscape. During the early years of settlement in New South Wales, Europeans struggled to establish and maintain an imperial colony in a strange land. Their reluctance to understand the Aborigines and their connection with the indigenous plants and animals initially had harmful consequences for the imperial project. 1 Alfred Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900–1900 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986), 2. 9 MERICI — VOLUME 1, 2015 Overcoming this early resistance, the settlers soon began to adapt their farming practices and even their diet to the new environment. Yet the ‘foreign’ aspects of Australia’s nature and ecology caused many Europeans to react by imposing their own plants and animals in order to ‘improve’ the land. Moreover, while some colonists praised and admired the landscape, others used the image of the city replacing the bush to demonstrate that the Europeans’ imperial achievement had involved a rejection of Australia’s distinctive nature.
    [Show full text]
  • AIA REGISTER Jan 2015
    AUSTRALIAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS REGISTER OF SIGNIFICANT ARCHITECTURE IN NSW BY SUBURB Firm Design or Project Architect Circa or Start Date Finish Date major DEM Building [demolished items noted] No Address Suburb LGA Register Decade Date alterations Number [architect not identified] [architect not identified] circa 1910 Caledonia Hotel 110 Aberdare Street Aberdare Cessnock 4702398 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] circa 1905 Denman Hotel 143 Cessnock Road Abermain Cessnock 4702399 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] 1906 St Johns Anglican Church 13 Stoke Street Adaminaby Snowy River 4700508 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] undated Adaminaby Bowling Club Snowy Mountains Highway Adaminaby Snowy River 4700509 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] circa 1920 Royal Hotel Camplbell Street corner Tumut Street Adelong Tumut 4701604 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] 1936 Adelong Hotel (Town Group) 67 Tumut Street Adelong Tumut 4701605 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] undated Adelonia Theatre (Town Group) 84 Tumut Street Adelong Tumut 4701606 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] undated Adelong Post Office (Town Group) 80 Tumut Street Adelong Tumut 4701607 [architect not identified] [architect not identified] undated Golden Reef Motel Tumut Street Adelong Tumut 4701725 PHILIP COX RICHARDSON & TAYLOR PHILIP COX and DON HARRINGTON 1972 Akuna Bay Marina Liberator General San Martin Drive, Ku-ring-gai Akuna Bay Warringah
    [Show full text]
  • NSW Government Gazette
    4485 Government Gazette OF THE STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES Number 90 Friday, 13 July 2007 Published under authority by Government Advertising LEGISLATION Assents to Acts ACTS OF PARLIAMENT ASSENTED TO Legislative Assembly Offi ce, Sydney 4 July 2007 IT is hereby notifi ed, for general information, that the Her Excellency the Governor has, in the name and on behalf of Her Majesty, this day assented to the undermentioned Acts passed by the Legislative Assembly and Legislative Council of New South Wales in Parliament assembled, viz.: Act No. 14 2007 – An Act to give police offi cers special powers with respect to the provision of security for the series of meetings of the members of the Asia-Pacifi c Economic Cooperation group of economies in Sydney; and for other purposes. [APEC Meeting (Police Powers) Bill]. Act No. 15 2007 – An Act to amend certain Acts to clarify the way in which various references to public holidays are to be interpreted in respect of the public holiday appointed on 7 September 2007 in metropolitan Sydney to facilitate the holding of an APEC meeting on that day; and for other purposes. [Industrial and Other Legislation Amendment (APEC Public Holiday) Bill]. Act No. 16 2007 – An Act to amend the Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Act 2003 to mirror changes made by the Commonwealth to nationally consistent legislation; and for other purposes. [Human Cloning and Other Prohibited Practices Amendment Bill]. Act No. 17 2007 – An Act to amend the Drug Misuse and Traffi cking Act 1985 so as to extend the trial period established under Part 2A of that Act for the operation and use of the injecting centre licensed under that Part; and for other purposes.
    [Show full text]
  • Conservation Management Plan
    Anglican Church of Saint Paul the Apostle – Manuka Conservation Management Plan Prepared for: The Parish Council of the Anglican Parish of Manuka by Sandy White Eddie Braggett Pip Giovanelli November 2015 This project was supported with funding made available by the ACT Government under the ACT Heritage Grants Program St Paul’s Anglican Church Conservation Management Plan 3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY St Paul’s Church was built in three stages (1938-39, 1953-56 and 2000-2001), with each stage stylistically consistent with the architect’s (Burcham Clamp and Sons) initial design. It is significant for its aesthetic, historic and social values and continues to be above the threshold for entry to the ACT Heritage Register. The ancillary buildings of old rectory, new rectory and hall/office are of lesser heritage value and would not reach the threshold for listing in their own right. Consequently there is no heritage impediment to their demolition subject to the old rectory, designed by Malcolm Moir, being recorded for posterity. Most of the garden landscape has been substantially altered over the years with a major remodelling being undertaken from 2001-2004. That phase of work is appropriate to the church and its setting and there is no recommendation for its change. A few trees are historically significant and warrant continued careful management and there are other areas on the site that could be improved. One opportunity includes the reinstatement of a perimeter hedge or fence. As landscaping work to date has tended to be piecemeal it is recommend that a landscape plan for the whole site be developed.
    [Show full text]
  • Oaks Estate Master Plan
    OAKS ESTATE MASTER PLAN European Cultural Landscape Assessment MAY 2013 Navin Officer heritage consultants Pty Ltd acn: 092 901 605 Number 4 Kingston Warehouse 71 Leichhardt St. Kingston ACT 2604 ph 02 6282 9415 fx 02 6282 9416 i EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Design Partnership is preparing a Master Plan for Oaks Estate, a rural village situated on the ACT/NSW border approximately 12 km from the centre of Canberra, adjacent to the township of Queanbeyan. Recent information from a member of the public has put into question the current boundary of the heritage study area for this plan instead arguing that a much wider area should be incorporated into the Master Plan. Consequently, an assessment of the European cultural landscape of Oaks Estate was required. This report documents the results of an assessment of the European cultural landscape surrounding Oaks Estate and provides conclusions on whether this wider landscape should be included in the heritage assessment of Oaks Estate. It found that the argument for the expanded Oaks Estate heritage study area was one of keeping the pastoral setting of the current residential development intact. Therefore, it is an issue relating to the current perceptions of the community with the Oaks Estate rather than one of the actual heritage connections between this landscape and the estate. It is concluded that the proposed expanded area does not contain sites or landscapes of sufficient association to Oaks Estate that would warrant their inclusion in the heritage assessment of Oaks Estate. It is recommended that: • During the course of the heritage assessment and Master Planning process the views of the community regarding the surrounding pastoral landscape of Oaks Estate should be considered.
    [Show full text]