Matthews Cottage is a heritage-listed

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

Kiandra Kiandra is an abandoned gold mining town and the birthplace of Australian skiing. The town is situated in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, in the Snowy Monaro Regional Council inside the Kosciuszko National Park. Its name i ...

in the

Kosciuszko National Park The Kosciuszko National Park ( ) is a national park and contains mainland Australia's highest peak, Mount Kosciuszko, for which it is named, and Cabramurra, New South Wales, Cabramurra, the highest town in Australia. Its borders contain a mix o ...

Snowy Valleys Council The Snowy Valleys Council is a local government area located in the South West Slopes region of New South Wales, Australia. This area was formed on 12 May 2016 from the merger of the Tumut Shire and Tumbarumba Shire councils. The council area ...

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. The property is owned by the Office of Environment and Heritage, an

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that s ...

of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the executive state government of New South Wales, Australia. The government comprises 11 portfolios, led by a ministerial department and supported by several agencies. Th ...

. 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

The site of Matthews' Cottage, Lot 4, Section 12 of Kiandra, was initially sold at an auction of

Crown land Crown land, also known as royal domain, is a territorial area belonging to the monarch, who personifies the Crown. It is the equivalent of an entailed estate and passes with the monarchy, being inseparable from it. Today, in Commonwealth realm ...

to George Venterman on 29 June 1874. George, who is recorded as a "miner of Kiandra" paid the sum of 20 shillings 3 pence for the land. In March 1879 the land was sold to Frederick Blaxland of Binjura, and subsequently to William John Foley of Kiandra. "Bill" Foley was born at Goulburn Jail in 1879, the son of a warden. By the age of sixteen, Bill was working on the mail coach from Kiandra to . This work often proved to be exciting to the young Bill, particularly as the coach frequently carried gold for the banks. At these times a gold escort of six to eight armed men would accompany the coach. Bill was later employed on mining dredges, initially at Adelong and later at in

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

. His departure from Myrtleford was by pushbike; he rode all the way to Grahamstown, near , for his wedding with Jenny Bradley. The Bradley family has a long association with the Snowy Mountains, various branches of the family having settled at , the Yarrangobilly Hotel, Yarrangobilly Caves as the first caretakers, and Kiandra. During 1900 the Foleys moved to Kiandra where Bill found work at Oliver Harris' store. Work comprised the butchering of livestock and subsequent transportation of the meat by packhorses to miners at Lobbs Hole. Photographic evidence indicates that the original cottage was constructed by the Foleys at some time between 1900 and 1906.

Description

The Cottage was a simple three-roomed building with a

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 ...

h facing the street. Construction was of

weatherboard Clapboard (), also called bevel siding, lap siding, and weatherboard, with regional variation in the definition of those terms, is wooden siding (construction), siding of a building in the form of horizontal boards, often overlapping. ''Cla ...

s with a

corrugated iron Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

roof and the interior was lined with timber boards. The construction utilised modern techniques and materials, due to the technology available within a typical rural town at the time and the easy access to major centres via reasonable roads. The builder is not known. It is likely that the sawn timber framing would have been obtained from one of the local sawmills such as Alpine Creek. Lining boards, windows and doors are likely to have been obtained from outside the region. The use of basalt stonework in the fireplace is relatively uncommon, although the

Kiandra Courthouse The Kiandra Courthouse is a heritage-listed former courthouse at Kiandra in the Kosciuszko National Park, Snowy Valleys Council, New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Kiandra Courthouse/Chalet. The property is owned by the Office of ...

and Police Lockup were constructed entirely of basalt.

Heritage listing

Matthews Cottage was listed on the

on 2 April 1999.

References

Bibliography

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Attribution