North Heritage Leaflet 23

GRAYTHWAITE Graythwaite is a magnificent three-storey sandstone mansion, built in stages between 1832 and 1875. It was listed on the Register of the National Estate in 1978. It is one of North Sydney’s most historically significant houses. Given the extent of the surviving grounds with its outhouses, important 19th century garden plantings, but also its association with the prominent Dibbs family, through the 1915 bequest of Thomas Dibbs, its link to the history of ANZAC and the home front during World War One. As the possibility of its sale to private interests emerged in the 1990s, the site also became the focus for a passionate, but ultimately unsuccessful, campaign by local residents and to keep the property in public ownership.

The land on which Graythwaite is situated was granted by purchase to Thomas Walker, a Deputy Assistant Commissary - General for whom Walker Street in North Sydney is named. A part of the land consisting of 39 acres was soon after transferred to William Miller, the Assistant Commissary- General, for whom Miller Street is named. Additional land was transferred to William Lithgow, NSW Engineer-in-Chief of Railways, who also lived in North Sydney and for whom the city of Lithgow is named.

Walker built a house on his estate known as ‘Euroka’. When Walker died in 1850, this house passed to his widow who later sold it to George Tuting. This ownership was short-lived, however, and it was sold again to Edwin Mawney Sayers, a wealthy shipping merchant. Sayers added a substantial new wing to Walker's house. He also planted formal gardens to the south, east and north-west of the house. Sayers renamed his grander property ‘Euroka Villa’. To recoup costs Sayers subdivided the Union Street frontage of his property and built four large semi-detached houses using local stone – the first permanent dwellings on the street. ‘Sayers' Terrace’ survives today at 34 to 40 Union St.

In 1873 the property was purchased for £4500 (around $4 million in today’s terms) by Thomas Allwright Dibbs, Manager of the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney. However, the first Dibbs to live at ‘Graythwaite’ was George, who later became Premier of . Thomas Dibbs moved into ‘Euroka’ in the early 1880s and changed its name to ‘Graythwaite’. It is believed that the name refers to a family property in the Lake District of England.

Dibbs enlarged the house substantially, incorporating Sayers’ home as the western bay-fronted wing of a grander Victorian Italianate mansion built of smooth stone with a lace iron balcony and a substantial widow’s walk on the rooftop with panoramic views of the Harbour. The property was the centre of high-society socialising in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1915, Sir Thomas Dibbs was so moved by stories of the ANZAC campaign at Gallipoli that he gave his house to the State for the rehabilitation of wounded soldiers. The Memorandum of Transfer (dated 1/10/1915) states:

I, Thomas Allright Dibbs, hereby transfer and surrender to His Most Gracious Majesty King George V on behalf of the Government of the State of NSW all my estate and interest, as such registered proprietor, in all that piece of land containing six acres two roods 23 3/4 perches known as “Graythwaite” situated at St. Leonards in the Parish of Willoughby, County of Cumberland...for a convalescent home for our sick and wounded soldiers and when not required for that purpose as a convalescent home in perpetuity for distressed subjects of the British Empire regardless of sect or creed. For 60 years Graythwaite was administered by the Red Cross for ex-servicemen. In 1980 the property was passed to NSW Health Department and was subsequently run as a nursing home by Hope Healthcare – a not-for-profit health provider. Public fundraising in the 1970s, led by the Historical Society, had helped to restore the Widows Walk. But as maintenance costs rose and the facility aged, NSW Health initiated a process to sell ‘Graythwaite’.

Concerted public opposition and the looming state election saw these plans temporarily shelved. To express their concern for the property, and to establish a public presence on the property, local residents and Council staff began refurbishing the Graythwaite gardens.

But in 2006, the NSW Government sought a Court ruling to break the Dibbs’ bequest and sell the property to fund a rehabilitation hospital in Ryde. North Sydney Council was interested in buying the property to retain the land in public ownership and create a unique CBD park. It also supported Returned Services League (RSL) / Commonwealth Government proposals to refurbish the building as a rehabilitation facility, thereby adhering to Dibbs’ wishes. The grounds would be open to the public and managed by Council.

However, in 2009, the Supreme Court ruled that the State Government could sell the property without continuing the provision of healthcare on the site. Despite numerous community rallies and protests and the threat of a ‘green ban’ on development, the decision was made to open the process to tender – thereby selling the estate to the highest bidder. The adjoining Sydney Church of England Grammar School (Shore) bought the property for $35.2 million.

The sale itself is interesting for it exemplifies the historical and growing significance of well-resourced private schools in the social and economic make-up of the local area. ‘Shore’ is only one of several schools that have expanded through the acquisition of surrounding properties – many of them residential. Many of these schools were founded in substantial, converted private residences. Indeed, ‘Shore’ was established when it bought the ‘Holtermann mansion’ next to ‘Graythwaite’ from Thomas Dibbs himself in the late 19th century.

That purchase was part of the transformation of North Sydney into a major centre of private education. The 2009 acquisition of ‘Graythwaite’ by ‘Shore’ is evidence of the ongoing strength of the sector in North Sydney.

North Sydney Heritage Centre

1st Floor Stanton Library 234 Miller Street North Sydney NSW 2060

Phone: 02 99368400 Fax: 02 99368440

Email: [email protected] www.northsydney.nsw.gov.au