Perth House is a heritage-listed former residence and school for girls at 85 George Street,

Parramatta Parramatta (; ) is a suburb (Australia), suburb and major commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney. Parramatta is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district, Sydney CBD, on the banks of the Parramatta River. It is co ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

, Australia. It was designed by James Houison and built in 1841. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 2 April 1999.

History

Perth House, stables and carriageway were built in 1841 by James Houison for George Oakes, a landholder of the Parramatta district and member of the

Parliament of New South Wales The Parliament of New South Wales, formally the Legislature of New South Wales, (definition of "The Legislature") is the bicameral legislative body of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW). It consists of the Monarch, the New South Wa ...

. The architect of the house was James Houison, who designed many houses in Parramatta. The original cottage garden around the house, stables and carriage way was likely to have been planted between 1844 and 1846, including the Moreton Bay fig (

Ficus macrophylla ''Ficus macrophylla'', commonly known as the Moreton Bay fig or Australian banyan, is a large evergreen banyan tree of the mulberry and fig family Moraceae. It is native to eastern Australia, from the Wide Bay–Burnett region of Queensland i ...

) which survives today.Gerloff, 2010 A photo in 1880 shows Perth House was used as a girls' school at that time.Kass, 1996, ML SLNSW PX*D 302/3/25 The building was for sale in September 2016, advertised as being suitable for uses including hospitality, professional services and childcare.

Description

Perth House is a single-storey Colonial/Victorian Georgian residence with a

hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...

to a central block with encircling

veranda A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...

hs. Constructed of coursed and dressed

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

blocks with

quoins Quoins ( or ) are masonry blocks at the corner of a wall. Some are structural, providing strength for a wall made with inferior stone or rubble, while others merely add aesthetic detail to a corner. According to one 19th-century encyclopedia, ...

2 courses deep. The spacing of the Doric moulded square timber verandah pots is unusual. The verandah is paved with stone. Small paned

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double glazing) of glass. History ...

s and a 6 panelled door with

fanlight A fanlight is a form of lunette window (transom window), often semicircular or semi-elliptical in shape, with glazing (window), glazing bars or tracery sets radiating out like an open Hand fan, fan. It is placed over another window or a doorway, ...

. Generous grounds and plantings. Cedar joinery. Two storied stone out-building at the rear. Archaeological Site: AZP Cross Reference: PC 71 To the west of the house and north of the stables near the footpath on George Street is a large mature Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla), thought to date from 1844-6, in the time of Oakes. This tree is most probably a remnant of the original cottage garden of Perth House.Tanner & Blackmore CMP, 1988, as quoted in Gerloff, 2010 West of the house is the carriageway, leading to the stone out-building (former stables) behind (south of) the house. The property was in good physical condition as at 27 October 2006.

Heritage listing

Perth House and Stables is of State significance as it demonstrates 1850 aspirations with regard to taste and lifestyle on a domestic level. It demonstrates a high degree of creative excellence and is a fine example of medium sized domestic architecture. It has strong associations with important figures such as George Oakes and James Houison.Howard Tanner & Associates, 1987 Perth House and Stables was listed on the

on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. Perth House and Stables reflects the changing circumstance of Parramatta through the gradual attrition of the land holding. The relatively small accommodation of the house caused its occasional enlargement to the south, firstly by enclosure of the south west verandah area. Division into flats and offices in the 20th century reflected the increasing commercialisation of central Parramatta, with key residential areas on its fringe. The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history. Perth House was apparently built for pastoralist George Oakes, son of a former missionary, who became first Member of the Legislative Assembly for Parramatta as well as a lengthy involvement in local municipal politics. Perth House is also associated with James Houison, who arrived in the colony as a steerage passenger, quickly established himself as an astute builder and urban land speculator and later became known as an architect/builder of recognised talent as well as an important figure in municipal politics. The site has further significance due to its association with the Superintendent of Government Buildings at Parramatta who resided on the site - adjacent to the lumber yard - at an earlier date. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. This item is aesthetically significant. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. This item is technically or scientifically significant. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. Perth House and Stables has a considerable degree of unity in its materials, form and scale and is a rare reminder of the harmonious and generally low scale architectural character once in Parramatta. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. Perth House and Stables is an important and typical example of a 1850 house designed by the fashionable Parramatta architect of the day, James Houison.

References

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Attribution