Leichhardt Historical No12 Journal 1983 FROM PEACOCK POINT TO DARLING ST WHARF BIDURA THE HOME THAT BLACK ET BUlL T FROM DARLING ST WHARF TO SIMMONS POINT LOOKE'S BOATYARD AT BALMAIN EAST Annandale Balmain Glebe Leichhardt Lilyfield Rozelle Leichhardt Historical Journal EDITORIAL graceful sandstone school set at the ISSN 0155-4840 No 12 1983 THE 1980s: THE CENTENARY DECADE top of the hillside at Balmain East. ~ P Reynolds, A Roberts, M Soiling The 1970s witnessed increasing Its centenary was declared open by Peter Reynolds interest in local history and build­ the Hon N K Wran, QC, MP, Premier of Alan Roberts ing conservation. The fruits of NSW, on 23 April 1983. Editors Max Solling many projects are ripening in the To sheet home the centenary, the 1980s at a time when many centenar­ school is publishing Larrikin Days, The Leichhardt Historical Journal is ies are being celebrated. a 100 years of growing up in the published jointly by: 1983 began with the centenary of suburb, by Annette O'Neill and Tony The Annandale Association, the death of Sydney's famous archi­ Stephens. The book gives slices of C/-289 Annandale St,Annandale,2038 tect, Edmund Thomas Blacket (1817- life in Balmain for important time The Balmain Association, 1883) .The impact that he left upon his periods based upon diligently collect­ PO Box 57, Balmain 2041 adopted country has been well record­ ed oral history. The Glebe Society, ed in the Australian Dictionary of Orange Grove Public School is also PO Box 100, Glebe, 2037 Biography and in Morton Herman's The 100 not out this year. The school The Leichhardt Association Blackets. ground was once part of the Garry PO Box 168, Leichhardt, 2040 Further, in .January 1983 the Nation­ Owen estate (now Rozelle Hospital) The Editors are not responsible for al Trust commemorated his death 100 and gets its name from the orange opinions expressed by contributors years ago with an extremely well trees of the property. to the Journal. mounted exhibition, "Our great Vic­ When the school opened in 1883 it Correspondence should be addressed torian architect: Edmund Thomas was called Leichhardt West. The site to Dr P L Reynolds, 9 The Avenue, Blacket". cost b3 022 and,at first,temporary Balmain East 2041. The timely publication of a book buildings formed the school. Ten under the same title by the distin- years later the first permanent Acknowledgements guished architectural historian, Dr buildings were erected at a cost of The Editors gratefully acknowledge Joan Kerr, complemented the exhibit- b2 517. the financial support of the Royal ion. More importantly, the book Another centenary due this year Australian Historical Society, the breaks much new ground and brings to is the founding of Balmain Hospital. Annandale Association, the Balmain light a great deal of work by Black- In March 1883, the efforts of the Association and the Glebe Society. et not seen before~ Balmain working men were successful The Leichhardt Municipal Council The architect belonged to a family in the inauguration of the Cottage gave a generous donation under Sect­ whose roots were planted in the soil Hospital. ion 504 of the Local Government Act: of 14th Century England. His great, It is a great pity that no effect- 1919. Jennifer Bates helped with great grandson Nick Vine Hall, has ive historical study of the hospital layout and production. produced a mighty family history has been published. R Deveraux's, Contents which he calls My name is Blacket. Small beginnings: 1883 is little more Bidura - the home that Timed to appear in the centenary than a collection of official stat- Blacket built by F MacDonnell 3 year of architect Blacket, the 357- istics . A worthwhile history of From Peacock Point to paged book was launched with befitt- Balmain's hospital is yet to be Darling St Wharf by P Reynolds 4 ing ceremony at the gathering of the written. From Darling St Wharf to Blackets at Sydney University last Edmund Blacket's house,Alderly, Simmons Point by P Reynolds 6 February. became the Cottage Hospital in 1883, The first steam tram to Among the many school centenaries The centenary of the man and the Rozelle: 1892 by P Fraser 26 to be celebrated in this decade is hospital deserves much better than Index LHJ: 1982 31 that of Nicholson Street Public School. a hard-covered bundle of reports Reviews 32 Completed in 1883 to a design by and startling revelations such as one of Blacket's pupils, architect that Medibank is a "politically W E Kemp, "Nicholly High" is a simple contentious issue". Peter Reynolds A Note on Contributors OBITUARY Leichhardt Peter Fraser is a school teacher: Morton Earle Herman, the doyen of Freda MacDonnell has spent many years Australian architectural historians, Historical on local historical research; and died in the early part of this year. Peter Reynolds lectures in Architect­ He graduated Bachelor of Architect­ Journal ~:~~ ure at the University of New South ure in 1930, his thesis being the Wales. genesis of his first important book, FROM PEACOCK PC»NT TO DARLING ST WHAA~' BIDURA THE HOME THAT BLACKET BUILT The early Australian architects and FROM DARLING ST WHARF TO SIMMONS POINT Cover their work. Situated on the waterfront at the The book was not published until bottom of Lookes Avenue (on land now 1954 and even in those modern times occupied by units,8 Lookes Av), was people scoffed at the very existence Looke's boatyard. The boatyard of an Australian architecture. existed from late 1838 into the first After working in England where he few years of this century. founded the world's first building We are indebted to Joseph Looke's information centre in the mid 1930s, great, granddaughter, Mrs May Gray he returned home to practice. Hogg of Willoughb~ for donating the He was among the first, if not the original of this illustration. first, to head the conservation move­ The original is undated; in the ment at a time when few knew what it background can be seen Cliffdale stood for and governments and devel­ House (8 Lookes Av) and behind that, opers cared not a whit. Durham Cottage (6 Lookes Av) . He lectured at the Universities of .\nuandale Balmain Glehe Leichhardl lil~ricld RoLCIIl' New South Wales and of Newcastle. * See Ed Note on p 30. (please turn to p30) 2 Bidura the home that Blacket built FREDA MACDONNELL, AUTHOR OF THE GLEBE: PORTRAITS AND PLACES, WRITES OF AN IMPORTANT HOUSE WHICH HAD BEEN LOST IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SUBURB. BIDURA, Glebe Point Road, Glebe (Courtesy V Clements) BIDURA IS NOW THE METROPOLITAN REMAND As seen from the rear from a sketch by Edith Blacket. Edith 's drawing of the house from the front garden CENTRE FOR CHILDREN. appears in The Glebe: Portraits and Places. In the heart of Glebe Point is a spacious been built on portion of a grant to William Colonial Georgian house remembered in the Dumaresq. It was bounded on the south-east neighbourhood as the home of the popular med­ by land belonging to George Allen, solicitor, ical practitioner, Dr. Water Burfitt who pur­ who made his home at 'Toxteth Park' (now the chased the property from Frederick John Perks, Convent of the Good Samaritan). The owner of a Sydney solicitor. The house, which had the land on the north-west was William been kept in excellent repair, was later pur­ Strachan Clarke who holds the key to the chased by the Crown and is now the property mystery. In part of his Statutory Declarat­ of the Child Welfare Department. Part of its ion, now in the hands of the Registrar-Gener­ charm used to be the long back garden, stret­ al, he declares that Blacket and his success­ ching down to Avon Street. It is an unusual ors Robert Fitz Stubbs and Frederick Perks sight in present day Glebe to see such an occupied Lot 1 in what is now Deposited Plan area of land left vacant all these years. 64049 continuously from 1865 to 1905. The And it was like this when I saw it about Registrar-General concludes: "This indicates 1974. The lawns, open space and complete that the building known as 'Bidura' was occ­ privacy were ideal for tiny tots who played upied during this period; however it is not there under careful supervision. But with shown in any plan of survey in this office the planning of new premises there had to be subsequent to 1905". changes. Fortunately the old house was re­ The picture shown in this article is the tained for administrative purposes, for this back of 'Bidura' -one of Edith Blacket's is a house of history which should never be sketches. Edmund Blacket realised that his demolished. This is where five of Edmund young daughter had talent and sent her to Thomas Blacket's children were born. study with Conrad Martens. Naturally the By deed dated 10 September 1857 the arch­ whole family would have been very proud of itect purchased one acre and twenty-five and the beautiful new home which Blacket had a half perches of land from Stuart Donaldson, built for them, and it was to be expected for which he paid ~1,200. that there would be a sketch captioned 'Our The exact position of Edmund Blacket's Home'. house had never been known and the where­ Blacket, who had staked his whole career abouts would probably remain unresolved had for the sake of the woman he loved, left the not Mr. Surveyor Vernon Clements of Castle comparative security of his life in England Hill offered his grandmother's sketch book to to cross the world to a new country, Austral­ me while writing The Glebe: Portraits and ia, where his genius produced the University Places.