Egglemont

Cremorne Point and Mosman Bay

Wooloorigang / Cremorne Point and Mosman Bay were both once Cammeraygal territory named Wul-warra-Jeung before European settlement in Sydney Cove to their south. Aborigines called the waters east of the point Goram-Bullagong. In early European settlement after 1788 it became known as Careening Point and Mosman Cove became known as Hungry Bay. Careening Point commemorates HMS Sirius, a ship from the First Fleet of 1788, which was refurbished, pushed upstream in Mosman Bay.^[1]

In January 1822 Scot James Robertson, watch maker, arrived on the Providence with wife and six children to become Supervisor of Governor Brisbane's astronomical instruments and clocks at his observatory in the Parramatta Domain. Brisbane was named "founder" of Australian science by Sir William Herschel, himself a noted astronomer and botanist who spent some time in South Africa. Robertson was granted a large amount of land on the Upper Hunter River and later in 1823 a further 35 hectares (86 acres) of Cremorne headland, where he built a Georgian house with fine cedar joinery. In its grounds were some fine pear trees. One of his sons became Sir John Robertson, NSW's fifth Premier - and premier five times. His statue graces the pedestrian avenue in the Domain opposite the Art Gallery of NSW.^[1]

The difficulty of crossing the harbour was overcome by Robertson in a novel manner. Rather than hire a boat from Blues Point (there were no ferries yet) and walk, he would walk to Mrs Macquarie's Point, tie his clothes to his head and swim. At Fort Denison he would rest before swimming the remainder. Robertson's Point commemorates his father's occupation. Today it sports a lighthouse for navigation.^[1]

The foreshore path from Neutral Bay to Cremorne Point wharf dates to 1830 when the reserve was retained by the Crown. Cremorne Point Reserve is the most substantial example in North Sydney of imposition of the 30-metre (100 ft) (Harbour Foreshore) Reservation, applied from 1828.^[1]

The Rev. W. B. Clarke identified a coal seam running under much of Sydney and proposed it be mined. An experimental copper smelting industry was established in the mid-1840s on the eastern shore but was not successful and was removed by 1849.^[1]

In 1853 North Shore pioneer James Milson bought the land - Robertson's house became the Cremorne Hotel, later Cremorne House - and three years later leased 9 hectares (22 acres) to J. R. Clarke and Charles H. Woolcott, who planned Cremorne Gardens, named for the rather notorious Regency Pleasure Gardens in London. These opened in 1856 with 12 hectares (30 acres) and amusements galore. Steamers plied from Circular Quay and Woolloomooloo Bay every half hour until late. There were scenic walks - the Serpentine Walk and Italian Walk. Papers advertised "a monster dancing stage, 508 centimetres (200 in) in circumference', an "excellent (German) band, carousel, archery, quoits, rifle shooting, skittles, gymnastics, rifle gallery and refreshments" at Sydney prices. Even a masked ball. At 8pm, magnificent fireworks, a la Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens (London) and splendid pyrotechny as in Cremorne Gardens, London. The Sydney Morning Herald declared Cremorne to "be ranked among the best of those places of holiday resort of a superior order which have recently sprung into existence in the neighbourhood of Sydney". Anyone missing the last boat was compelled to remain behind overnight, as the bush was too thick to penetrate and few cared to swim back. By 1862 the place had an unsavoury reputation and the "Gardens" were in ruins.^[1]

Around 1875 a white cask was moored just off Cremorne Point and used for target practice from Mrs Macquarie's Chair. Balls from the 31-kilogram (68 lb) cannon would skim across the harbour ending up near Whiting Beach, near Taronga Zoo. The barrage would stop for the hourly steam ferry. In the 1880s and 1890s Cremorne Point was a more genteel Victorian Sunday destination.^[1]

In 1891 and 1893 Sydney Harbour Collieries Ltd. sank exploratory bores and discovered coal ten feet thick. Despite support from the Mines Department, the Lands Department refused permission to build coal wharves and the company found an alternative base in Balmain.^[1]

In 1905 a Harbour Foreshores Vigilance Committee formed and Cremorne Reserve was proclaimed later that year, with North Sydney Council as trustee. This was the culmination of a ten-year campaign to secure the area as public land. It reflected other campaigns for harbour foreshore reserves and conservation of that time. Magnificent harbour and city views were and remain available from here.^[1]

The McCallum Pool west of Cremorne Point was built in the 1920s as a pleasure pool for residents. As the threat of industrialisation subsided, others arose. Subdivision of the peninsula followed land reservation. By 1925 residential development encroached. While private gardens flourished, weeds and rubbish choked the foreshore reserve. Reports that "respectable people" didn't go there at night suggest it was sheltering the homeless or carousing couples after dark. North Sydney Council started a beautification campaign in the 1920s with local residents helping, transforming it by the 1930s. Several elements of that era survive - a concrete and chicken wire sign, archway etc. Then, perhaps due to the 1930s depression and World War 2, it sunk into neglect again.^[1]

The area attracted various architects including J. Burcham Clamp: his house The Laurels (1907, extended 1920) is a striking Arts & Crafts example. A 1927 issue of The Home magazine featured an Italian (Mediterranean revival) example - a house belonging to Mr F. C. Lane.^[2][1]

Egglemont

Egglemont was built in c. 1916 / 1918 in the Californian Bungalow style with a garden typical of that period. It is a four bedroom house.^[1] In latter years the property was owned by property developer Michael and Kimberley McGurk. Michael McGurk was murdered outside the property in September 2009. The property was sold in October 2011.^[1][3]

Site

Egglemont relates well to the adjacent house by Alexander Stuart Jolly and to other houses in the Cranbrook Avenue group. It is a significant element of the Cranbrook Avenue Group, relating well to the adjacent house by A. S. Jolly and other houses in the group. The area has unfortunately been degraded in the 1970s by red brick multi-storey flat developments.^[4][1] The house is sited on a sloping site on Cranbrook Avenue, Cremorne, with a low, stepped wall (plastered masonry) facing the footpath, stone walls flanking a low wide paired "wide lattice" form timber gate and crazy-paved sandstone path to the front door, large shrubs (Viburnum odoratissimum, pruned into a hedge) providing some screening from the street. To either side of the main pedestrian entry gate the name "Esslemont" is carved into the top course of sandstone boundary wall blocks.^[5][1]

A crazy paved sandstone pedestrian path approaches the front door, which is accessed up a flight of wide stairs. Planter beds are at the base of the stairs, and abut the base of the house's walls.^[1] A secondary pedestrian gate (Art Deco iron, flanked by stone pillars) is on the uphill side of the house. It abuts, (on its uphill side again) a paved tennis court and high (steel pipe and wire netting) fence which runs up to the house and to the street wall. At the rear of the tennis court fence is a lawn area and an outbuilding (a single garage) with a sloping roof, abutting the uphill side boundary.^[1]

On the uphill side of the tennis court are a multi-storey late-mid-20th century block of flats (Rosz & Howard et al., 2001 photographs). As well as the tennis court the property has a swimming pool.^[6][1] At the rear of the house is a small flat lawn area with shrubs and a ground cover of cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior) up against the house's rear wall. The garden contains an elevated tennis court.^[1] To the back of the house is a three-storey red brick mid-20th century block of flats.^[1] The garden is typical of the period.^[1][7]

House

The house was built c. 1916-18 and is one of the best examples of an early Californian Bungalow style house in Australia. IThe proportions, materials and craftsmanship are typical of the early examples of the style.^[1]

The house is large and contains a billiard room, large sunroom, dressing room and ensuite bathroom to the main bedroom, kitchen, laundry and scullery configured for use by domestic staff. The house is little altered in the past 60 years with the exception of extension of Bedroom 3 into the northern verandah and kitchen cupboards installed in the 1960s. The laundry contains early (probably original) china laundry double tubs and pedestals and a copper and finishes (photo 41), which are to be removed.^[8][1]

It comprises a large and low set single storey residence (c.1916^[3]/ 1918) in Californian Bungalow style. It has a low pitched spreading roof and gables supported on heavy timber beams, with small leadlight windows above rough dressed stone walls and massive circular verandah piers.^[7][1]

The house has four bedrooms on 1,640 square metres (17,700 sq ft).^[6][1] The original laundry was in the southwestern corner of the house.^[9][1]

Modifications and dates

• c. 2006 - Leighton's Green' hybrid cypress (x Cuprocyparis leylandii 'Leighton's Green') hedge planted on boundary facing 13 Cranbrook Avenue - a block of flats.
• 2011 - NSW Land & Environment Court Tree Dispute application over the above hedge from the Strata Title flat neighbours. Application withdrawn after consultation.^[1]

Bibliography

• Philip Rosz and Rod Howard Heritage Conservation Pty Ltd. (2001). Esslemont 11 Cranbrook Avenue, Cremorne : photographic recording.
• Read, Stuart, from various sources (2009). notes for 30/8/09 Cremorne Point to Mosman Bay: A Walk with Joan Lawrence.CS1 maint: Multiple names: authors list (link)
• Tanner Architects (2012). Heritage Impact Statement - Esslemont - proposed essential repairs and other works in two bathrooms.
• Masterman, Latona (1981). North Sydney Heritage Study.

Attribution

This Wikipedia article was originally based on Egglemont, entry number 00321 in the New South Wales State Heritage Register published by the State of New South Wales and Office of Environment and Heritage 2018 under CC-BY 4.0 licence, accessed on 1 June 2018.