Throsby Park
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The Historic Houses Trust will become the owner of Throsby Park, Moss Vale, on 26 September 2010, an acquisition that will mark the HHT’s 30th birthday. The property will be transferred from the National Parks & Wildlife Service which has owned it since 1975. The HHT will conserve and lease Throsby Park through the Endangered Houses Fund program.
Throsby Park is a 75-hectare estate on the outskirts of Moss Vale in the Southern Highlands, about 140km south of Sydney. It is the core of a once extensive rural property retaining the original weatherboard cottage (c1822) colonial homestead (1834) and a fine 1830s stables. The property’s vernacular farm buildings include a dairy, dairyman's cottage, meat house, piggery and timber-framed hayshed. A picturesque summerhouse constructed of bush timber and lattice looks over a lawn tennis court to the horse yards.
Throsby Park has rich historical associations. It was granted by Governor Macquarie to Dr Charles Throsby (1771-1828) in 1819 and was the earliest land grant outside the County of Cumberland. Throsby was a naval surgeon, magistrate, pastoralist and a member of the first Legislative Council. He explored the Southern Tablelands guided by Aborigines and his reports influenced Macquarie's decision to open the area to European settlement. Throsby owned ‘Glenfield’, near Liverpool, another project of the Historic Houses Trust’s Endangered Houses Fund.
Dr Throsby’s nephew, also named Charles (1798-1854), built Throsby Cottage before his marriage to Elizabeth Broughton in 1824. The couple were to have 17 children and many descendants.
The 27-room stone and brick homestead was commenced in 1834, probably to the design of Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis. Conceived as a cottage orné or picturesque verandahed bungalow, it is arranged around an inner sandstone flagged courtyard with a water tank at its centre. The house is noted for the quality of its Australian red cedar joinery (including the rare front door case with fluted pilasters), hardwood floors and sash windows. Later 19th century alterations include the roofing of the central roof valley to protect against hailstorms and the addition of a bay window as a suntrap for the morning room.
Throsby Park homestead was leased during the later 19th century. In 1868 the Earl of Belmore, Governor of NSW took it as a summer residence, establishing the Southern Highlands as a prestigious holiday resort. In 1872 the homestead was leased to Frederick Barker, Archbishop of Sydney, and remained with other tenants including the Fairfax family of newspaper publishers to 1891.
Throsby Park’s rural landscape, still used for grazing of horses and cattle, provides an admirable setting for the house as recorded by colonial artist, Conrad Martens in the mid-19th century. The property retains its planted carriage loop, shrubbery, orchards and groves of pine, elm, olive, cypress, oak, crepe myrtle, willow and laurel trees as well as roses, perennials and briars. It is also important for its remnant bushland including Paddy's River Box – a rare species restricted to the Southern Central Tablelands.
Throsby Park was acquired by the New South Wales Government and reserved under the National Parks and Wildlife Act in 1975. As part of the purchase, the State Government agreed that Miss Del Throsby and her mother could reside in the rear section of the house. The National Parks and Wildlife Service undertook extensive restoration work at a total cost of more than $2 million including reinforcement of the roof, underpinning the building, repairs to internal floors, walls and ceilings and electrical rewiring.
Del Throsby continued to run the Throsby Park Riding School, which was established in 1934. Mrs Throsby died in 1977 and on 1 July 2006, Del passed away in the paddock feeding her much-loved English riding pony, Peter. Del's death ended five generations of family occupancy of Throsby Park.
Throsby Park has embarked on a new chapter as a property of the Historic Houses Trust, managed under its Endangered Houses Fund which conserves historic properties and returns them to community use under long-terms leases.
HHT Director, Kate Clark, said …
‘I would like to pay tribute to the National Parks and Wildlife Service, which has managed Throsby Park with the utmost professionalism for more than 30 years. While the HHT faces some challenges with the formerly-tenanted back wing, the homestead comes to the HHT in good repair and with a wealth of documentation, which the HHT can build on.
The HHT has long realised that it is not sustainable for all historic properties to become museums. We are offered numerous properties each year and have set up the Endangered Houses Fund in order to find solutions for these places that do not ‘moth-ball’ them. In the case of Throsby Park we will contribute the things we are good at – conservation planning for buildings, interiors, gardens and rural settings. We will use the place for strong public programming and involve our tertiary audiences in a range of educational exercises in the adaptive re-use of historic buildings. We will then give Throsby Park a dynamic future with a long-term residential lease with appropriate covenants to protect its heritage values and ensure a level of public access, so that the people of New South Wales will continue to have the opportunity to enjoy their cultural heritage.’
BOUQUETS FOR THE HISTORIC HOUSES TRUST
In debating the Historic Houses Amendment (Throsby Park Historic Site) Bill in November 2009, Members of the NSW Parliament upper and lower houses were warm in their praise for the Historic Houses Trust.
Ms Pru Goward, MLA (Member for Goulburn)
‘I welcome the Historic Houses Amendment (Throsby Park Historic Site) Bill 2009. The … the Southern Highlands and the Goulburn area, is resplendent with historic houses. As we all know, the difficulty is maintaining and preserving them, and stopping them from falling down. Without an unlimited budget from the State, one option is to allow such properties to be managed and preserved by tenants once they pass to the State, as this one has, and as part of that arrangement to allow the public occasional access to the property. In this instance that seems to be a very worthwhile solution … Of course, it is not always possible to turn every house into a museum, nor is it desirable. One of the features of these houses, as the British and Europeans would confirm, is that they can be occupied and lived in as real places by real people for hundreds of years, thus demonstrating the technology, architecture and building techniques of the day and in some way preserving the lifestyles that go with the layouts of those houses.’
The Hon. Don Harwin, MLC
‘In addition to its conservation work, the trust does an excellent job in making our heritage accessible to the public in a manner that is challenging, exciting and engaging. Its commendable range of programs, activities and exhibitions attract over two million visitors each year.’
The Hon. Helen Westwood, MLC
‘The Historic Houses Trust was created in 1980 to manage, conserve and interpret historic buildings and places. It has an international standing in the conservation and interpretation of historic buildings and places. … Anyone who has visited those historic properties knows how well they are managed. They are great educational tools for students and young Australians to learn about the history of early European Australia.’
Mr John Aquilina, MLA (Member for Riverstone and Parliamentary Secretary)
‘I am excited to support the Historic Houses Amendment (Throsby Park Historic Site) Bill 2009, … I must say from the outset what a wonderful job the Historic Houses Trust does—an outstanding job. It has been doing a great job for almost three decades … The legislation will ensure that Throsby Park is managed by the organisation that is best equipped to manage the site for its most appropriate use—that is, under a long-term residential lease—while also ensuring that its heritage values are protected.’
