Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan Conservation Management Plan Cambria Estate Swansea, Tasmania 1 August 2017 Bruce Trethowan B. Arch., FRAIA Sam Nichols B.Arch. ABN 44168657823 Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1 BACKGROUND 1 1.2 HERITAGE LISTING 1 1.3 DEFINITION OF THE PROPERTY (THE HERITAGE PLACE) 4 1.4 EXTENT & LIMITATIONS OF THE PROJECT 5 2. HISTORICAL OVERVIEW 6 2.1 LAND HISTORY 6 2.2 HOMESTEAD COMPLEX 15 2.3 LANDSCAPE AND GARDENS 28 3. KEY PEOPLE 33 3.1 GEORGE MEREDITH (1778-1856) 33 3.2 THE MEREDITH DYNASTY AND CAMBRIA (1821-1927) 38 4. HOMESTEAD COMPLEX 46 4.1 INTRODUCTION 46 4.2 HOUSE 47 4.3 OUTBUILDINGS 59 4.4 LANDSCAPE AND GARDENS 69 5. COMPARITIVE ANALYSIS 70 5.1 INTRODUCTION 70 5.2 WEST-INDIES COLONIAL ARCHITECTURE 70 5.3 COLONIAL HOMESTEAD COMPLEXES IN TASMANIA 78 6. ASSESSMENT OF HISTORIC HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE 81 6.1 INTRODUCTION 81 6.2 ASSESSING HISTORIC HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE 81 6.3 HISTORIC SIGNIFICANCE 82 6.4 AESTHETIC SIGNIFICANCE 83 6.5 SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE 84 trethowan architecture interiors heritage i Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan 6.6 SOCIAL SIGNIFICANCE 84 6.7 RECOMMENDED STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE 86 6.8 LEVELS OF SIGNIFICANCE 88 6.9 AREAS OF SIGNIFICANCE 88 7. DEVELOPMENT OF CONSERVATION POLICY 89 7.1 INTRODUCTION 89 7.2 KEY FACTORS INFLUENCING POLICY 89 8. CONSERVATION POLICY 97 8.1 SIGNIFICANCE, CONSTRAINTS AND STATUTORY REQUIREMENTS 97 8.2 CARE & CONSERVATION OF FABRIC 99 8.3 MANAGING CHANGE 104 9. BIBLIOGRAPHY 112 9.1 BOOKS 112 9.2 UNPUBLISHED 112 9.3 NEWSPAPERS AND JOURNALS 112 9.4 WEBSITES 112 10. APPENDICES 115 10.1 APPENDIX A – CITATIONS FOR STATUTORY LISTINGS 115 10.2 APPENDIX B – CITATIONS FOR NON-STATUTORY LISTINGS 117 10.3 APPENDIX C – ROOM DATA SHEETS 119 10.4 APPENDIX D – LANDSCAPE ANALYSIS (DR CATRIONA MCLEOD, 2016) 121 10.5 APPENDIX E – HISTORICAL ANALYSIS (GLAMORGAN-SPRING BAY HIST. SOCTY., 2016) 123 ii trethowan architecture interiors heritage Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND This Conservation Management Plan (CMP) was commissioned by Cambria Green Agriculture and Tourism Management Pty. Limited, in their capacity as the managers of an investment syndicate who have purchased the Cambria estate. The objective of the CMP is to establish a policy framework for the Cambria estate homestead complex and its environs – hereafter referred to as the property – to identify the significance of the buildings’ and immediate landscape and to outline the necessary policies that will enable and support the buildings’ and landscape’s potential repurposing for commercial uses. The CMP has been prepared in accordance with the guidelines for the preparation of Conservation Management Plans prepared by Heritage Tasmania, and the principles set down in the Australia ICOMOS Burra Charter 2013, adopted by Australia ICOMOS (The International Council of Monuments and Sites) to assist in the conservation of heritage places. As part of this CMP, the current Statement of Significance as included in the Heritage Register has been revised reflecting the additional information uncovered as part of this CMP. The authors of this report are Bruce Trethowan and Sam Nichols. The authors acknowledge the assistance of the following groups and individuals: - Cambria Green Agriculture and Tourism Management Pty. Limited and their representatives. - Heritage Tasmania - Mr. and Mrs. N.D. Burbury, Evandale - Mr. C.L. Lucas, O.B.E., Architect, Sydney; and - the Glamorgan Spring Bay Historical Society, Swansea. 1.2 HERITAGE LISTING 1.2.1 Commonwealth – Register of the National Estate (redundant) The property is included on the now archived Register of the National Estate (RNE), known as the Australian Heritage Database, as Place ID 11692 – Cambria Homestead and Outbuildings. The property was ‘registered’ as a historic building on 21 March 1978. The registration for the property includes the following Statement of Significance: An imposing colonial homestead built in the 1820's by George Meredith. The house is intact and in near original condition and is complemented by brick stables and timber barn. The siting for the house is special, being high above the Meredith River with views to the hills of the Freycinet Peninsula and Schouten Island.1 The legal status of the property as ‘registered’ indicates the property as having been entered in the RNE prior to its closure in 2007. While the existence of an entry for the property on the RNE does not result in a requirement to protect the property under Commonwealth law, information contained within the register may continue to be current and/or relevant to statutory decisions regarding protection.2 There are no statutory requirements as a result of the registration. The accompanying citation for the registration is included at Section 10.2 (Appendix B). 1 Australian Government – Department of the Environment, ‘Cambria Homestead and Outbuildings, Tasman Hwy, Swansea, TAS’ in Australian Heritage Database, accessed online 18 April 2016 at: http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi- bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;search=place_name%3Dcambria%3Blist_code%3DRNE%3Bkeyword_PD%3Don%3Bkeyword_SS%3Don%3 Bkeyword_PH%3Don%3Blatitude_1dir%3DS%3Blongitude_1dir%3DE%3Blongitude_2dir%3DE%3Blatitude_2dir%3DS%3Bin_region%3Dpart;place_i d=11692 2 Australian Government – Department of the Environment, ‘Status of the Register of the National Estate’, accessed online 19 April 2016 at: http://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/publications/australian-heritage-database/legal-status trethowan architecture interiors heritage 1 Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan 1.2.2 State – Tasmanian Heritage Register The property is identified on the Tasmanian Heritage Register (THR) as THR ID 1559 – Cambria. The property address is 13566 Tasman Highway, Swansea. The property was ‘permanently registered’ on 21 November 2001. The Tasmanian Heritage Register Datasheet for the property indicates the registered area accords with the cadastral boundaries of the property: Title Reference 148001/1. It is noted that the Datasheet includes Property ID 2812475 as the reference for the property, however this does not accord with the Property ID number referenced against Title Reference 148001/1 by Land Information System Tasmania (LIST), this being Property ID 3362795.3 The registration for the property includes the following Statement of Significance: 'Cambria' is of historic heritage significance because of its ability to demonstrate the principal characteristics of a stone Old Colonial Georgian rural homestead with its associated outbuildings.4 The accompanying datasheet for the registration is included at Section 10.1 (Appendix A). Figure 1 Extract of the Land Information System Tasmania Map; the title and registered extent of the property is highlighted. Source: Land Information System Tasmania, accessed 21 April 2016 1.2.3 Local Heritage Listing – Glamorgan Spring Bay Interim Planning Scheme 2015 The property is identified as Heritage Area Overlay 60 (Cambria, 13566 Tasman Highway, Swansea) in Table E.13.1 (Heritage Places) of code E.13.0 (Historic Heritage Code) – hereafter referred to as the Heritage Code – of the Glamorgan Spring Bay Interim Planning Scheme 2015. It is noted that while the listing description relates to the property (13566 Tasman Highway, Swansea; Title Reference 148001/1), Map E13 (Historic Heritage) to the Heritage Code indicates the Heritage Area Overlay relating to the listing has been incorrectly applied to the neighbouring property at Lot 1 Dolphin Sands Road, Dolphin Sands (Title Reference 111628/1; Property ID 3362779). The relevant section from Table E.13.1, for the listing, is included at Section 10.1 (Appendix A). 3 Land Information System Tasmania (LIST), LIST Map, accessed online 21 April 2016: http://maps.thelist.tas.gov.au/listmap/app/list/map 4 THR ID Number no. 1559, Tasmanian Heritage Register Datasheet ‘Cambria’, p. 1. 2 trethowan architecture interiors heritage Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan Figure 2 Extract of the Heritage Area map from the Glamorgan Spring Bay Interim Planning Scheme 2015; the title extent of the property is highlighted. The incorrect Heritage Area attributed to the property is indicated by the red arrow. Source: Glamorgan Spring Bay Interim Planning Scheme 2015 1.2.4 Other – National Trust The property was included on the Heritage Register of the National Trust of Australia (Tasmania) prior to the archiving of the Register and its amalgamation with the Tasmanian Heritage Register (THR). The Register was amalgamated with the THR in c. 1998.5 The property was classified as being significant at State / Territory level – file no. 13.12 (Cambria & Outbuildings). The building was nominated for classification on 27th July 1979. The registration for the property includes the following Statement of Significance: An imposing colonial homestead built in the 1820's by George Meredith. The house is intact and in near original condition and is complemented by brick stables and timber barn. The siting for the house is special, being high above the Meredith River with views to the hills of the Freycinet Peninsula and Schouten Island.6 The property does not contain trees included on the National Trust of Australia Register of Significant Trees. There are no statutory requirements as a result of this classification. The accompanying citation for the registration is included at Section 10.2 (Appendix B). 5 Pers. Comm.: M. Clarke (Heritage Tasmania) to S. Nichols (Trethowan Architecture), 26th April 2016. 6 Heritage Tasmania, ‘National Trust datasheet, Cambria & Outbuildings’. trethowan architecture interiors heritage 3 Cambria Estate, Swansea, Tasmania Conservation Management Plan 1.3 DEFINITION OF THE PROPERTY (THE HERITAGE PLACE) The property, Cambria, is located at 13566 Tasman Highway, Swansea; approximately 2.5km north-west of the town of Swansea and adjoining the southern extent of the hamlet of Dolphin Sands (refer Figure 3). The property consists of two major areas of land located either side of the Tasman Highway.