Wollaston House

Statement of Significance

Wollaston House, a two-storey brick and iron residence, predominantly in the Victorian Regency style, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
The place is associated with Dr Henry Wollaston, son of the Reverend J R Wollaston, with Albany Harbour Master John Morley, with explorer Peter Egerton-Warburton, and with father and son lighthouse keepers, George Charles Powney and George Thomas Powney.
The place is important for its early date of construction and displays a rare history, having been built with brick imported as a ship's ballast and relocated to the present site.
The place is a residence of a classically derived design that employs Victorian Regency elements.
The place is illustrative of the innovative use of available materials.
The place contributes to the community's sense of place through its landmark value as a familiar item, located on a corner lot, in an important streetscape.
A free-standing single-storey shed and garage also located on the site has little cultural heritage significance.

Physical Description

A Conservation Plan by Lynne Farrow Architect and Robin Chinnery Historian was prepared in 2011. It is supposed from this research and from the attached Archaeology Report by Wolfe and Associates 2009, that the house originally existed as a small three roomed single storey structure lying north south along Parade Street; that the southern end with its pitched roof may have been an earlier storeroom or some such structure associated with the original Army camp on Parade Street, Parade Street Barracks. That the northern two rooms of the single storey, including the two chimneys were later additions either before or as part of the 1848-50 rebuilding of the two main rooms and bedrooms with materials relocated from near Point Wakefield by Dr. Henry Wollaston. The materials are from the house of the drowned harbour master Morley.

Wollaston House is a two-storey residential building situated on the north-east corner of Duke and Parade Streets, Albany. The site has a moderate incline to the south and east and the house is set well back from the southern boundary granting the southern rooms views towards Princess Royal Harbour. A single-storey garage and studio (1987) stand on the northern boundary and is bounded by a brick wall on Parade Street and north boundary, post and rail recycled timber fence, with varied picket heights around the Parade /Duke Street corner frontage and shiplap pine on the east boundary.

The garden (2007) today has been designed along English classic lines and is semi formal with paving and planting of exotica and native plants. There is no lawn. A large Magnolia Grandiflora and an old Plum tree dominate the north yard set in paving and an old banksia dominates the south east corner in front. Numerous other smaller ornamental and fruit trees are now mature. The changes in levels are accommodated by terraces and steps.

The original house is constructed of imported English bricks in Flemish bond brickwork, now painted, on stone rubble foundations with a corrugated iron roof over the remnants of a shingle roof. A large (1987) two storey addition on the east end is also of brick (painted) with high stone foundations to accommodate the slope and internally raised traditional style wooden floors. The most significant architectural details are the brick ‘quoin’ arches and surrounds over the windows, doors and on wall corners, sadly the quoining originally on the east end have been removed with the addition of the new end of the house. The remaining original very tall chimney (northern side) is also decoratively built with brick quoins, the southern chimney replaced (1987) is both shorter and plain. The old single storey kitchen on the west end of the house has a skillion roof except for a small ridged roof on the southern end with south facing gable which has a decorative barge board. The main two storey roof ridge runs east west with gables each end and an additional gabled roof has been added to the front balcony most probably in the 1930s -1940s.

The south facing verandah, possibly added in the late 19th Century is highly unusual with almost two storey jarrah posts (125mmsq) that serve to support the balcony balustrade above and protrude 520mm above the waist high balustrade. These posts have been finished with small wooden cushion shaped ‘caps’ that are the most likely source for the alternative name by which this house was known at the turn of the twentieth century i.e. Stirling’s Castle. As the caps on rising posts above the balustrade would have had a noticeably castellated effect.

The gabled roof over the balcony (probably added in 1930s-40s) obliterates this castellated effect as it sits (uncomfortably) on posts located directly on top of the verandah posts and caps. Though some caps are still clearly visible. This gable is weatherboarded above head height.

There are three ‘French windows’, including the main entrance on the ground floor. The two south facing ones have fanlights above, giving a semi Georgian effect to the facade, one fanlight is believed to be original. All doors and windows have wooden lintels but there is no uniformity in size or pane verticality. All windows, but the landing window, have been replaced in the last ten years, some with new frames. Four new windows have been added in the last 10years, one on the ground floor south facing room’s east wall overlooking the front entry, two in the (1987 and windowless) laundry and one large window in the north facing ground floor room, replacing a small high one. A glazing bar design commonly used by Ramond Erith, Georgian Architect, in the UK has been used on all new windows.

Internally Wollaston House has three changes of level on the ground floor and two on the first floor, these accommodate the 1.5m drop over the site. The front entry and hallway are over a low cellar with stone flooring and accessed from the rear yard. The stairs (replaced in 1960-70s by Cyril Ashe) rise from the hall and evidence of the original newel post can be seen in the floor. The landing size was reduced at this time and the stairs made less steep. The remnant landing balustrade is identical to that of Strawberry Hill Farm and a small wooden peg in the very simple (Georgian) hall east side skirting board provides an interesting original detail. The internal walls of the corridor are of brick noggin and are supported on stumps again in the same manner as internal walls of Strawberry Hill (National Trust).

The floors of the main house have been largely un renovated, though the corridor and part of the hall and the original bedrooms have been poorly sanded and treated with epoxy. The original main bedroom now part (south side) of one large room has English Maple 8+inch floor boards believed to be the excess of those imported for Governor Stirling’s house, the smaller north side (once a separate bedroom) has jarrah flooring. The original two bedrooms were knocked into one in the 1990s. In the kitchen there is a new pine floor (2008) that replaced a modern brick floor with infill and black plastic. Skirting boards throughout the house are simple and along Georgian lines not Victorian.

The 1987 laundry and bathroom open off the hallway to the east and a corridor to the west gives access to the two living rooms and the kitchen. The kitchen is five steps above the corridor and the laundry is two steps down from the hall. The original kitchen still serves as a kitchen dining room (the dividing wall between the original south ‘room’ or store has been long removed) and what previously was Dr Wollaston’s surgery at the north end of the kitchen is now a kitchen scullery for preparation and washing up etc. The stove is set into the chimney which still has an iron bar for hanging cooking pots and smoking meats etc.

An enclosed (glass) verandah on the west of the kitchen includes a small bathroom/toilet, and gives access to the west entertaining area from the ‘back’ kitchen door. A large verandah on the north of the house accessed from the smaller rear living room. A modern shingle roof over the cellar entry has been replaced with tin. A contemporary galvanised steel and glass porch (2007-8) and new brick steps enhance the main front entry.

History

Following the proclamation in March 1831 of the King George Sound Region as part of the Swan River Colony, land was made available to free settlers. Almost immediately the Sulphur took the Resident Magistrate and the first free settlers, among them John Lawrence Morley, to Albany.

Morley was a former seaman for the East India Company and after building one house in Albany, (Patrick Taylor’s House in Duke Street) brought out ten Indian craftsmen and builders (1835) to build a house on a beach side lot near Point Wakefield, below Lawley Park. Inaccurate reporting has put this house to be further east at Point King, Point Wakefield being a rather indeterminate point! However, there are no beach side lots, no beaches as such at Point King which is a rocky headland and at the time relatively inaccessible, it is highly unlikely that materials could have been punted west from Pt King as this is deep water. Point Wakefield below what is now Lawley Park was the site of government goal, stores etc and had a jetty and was generally where Morley, as the Harbourmaster, might well have built.

Morley accidentally drowned with Hugh Seymour Spencer eldest son of the recently deceased Sir Richard Spencer in 1840. It is thought the house was left empty until acquired by Dr Henry Wollaston in 1848 and possibly unfinished. Dr Wollaston found the beachside / harbour side location unfitting for a gentleman and had the materials removed by punt along to Parade Street and its present location by 1850. Dr Wollaston sold the house in 1852 and left the State.

The following article appeared in the Albany Advertiser which describes the origins of the house:
At the bottom of what is now Lawley Park, a little to the East, a building constructed with bricks imported from England was erected by John Lawrence Morley, some time during the early thirties. It was known as Stirling Castle. By 1848 it had fallen into disrepair and soon after the arrival of the Rev. J.R. Wollaston it was purchased by his son, Dr. Henry Wollaston(Henry C. Newton Wollaston) and the bricks used in the erection of a building which now stands on the northern corner of Duke and Parade Streets, opposite the recreation ground on Albany Town Lot No 61. This house, when erected, was a gabled cottage of one and a half storeys and comprised a cellar, two rooms with hall, passage, kitchen and study on the ground floor, and two rooms on the upper floor. (Albany Advertiser 16 November 1936).

It is considered that the mention of the Morley house being called Stirling Castle in the early 19th Century is creative journalism and that the name applied to the existing building during the late 19th century and early 20th century due to the verandah posts.

The very high verandah posts added at an unknown date possibly in the late 19th century and supporting a balcony and balustrade with the capped posts rising 500mm+ above the balustrade could have been the most plausible source of the caption ‘Stirling’s Castle’. This name could have been for the existing building and not for the house Morley built. The 1868 Panorama of Albany by William Carmalt Clifton c.1868 shows the distinctive gable but no verandah.

In 1853, Peter Egerton Warburton on visiting his brother the Superintendent of Albany Convict Depot purchased the Duke Street House for 450 pounds stirling. (This figure may in fact have been inflated from 45pounds by the addition of a 0 at a later date as it is extraordinarily out of character with the prices of other properties in town at this time.) Peter Warburton is not known to have lived here, he went on to be Commissioner of Police in South Australia and later explored inland South Australia and Western Australia. It is unknown who occupied the house during his 20years of ownership. In 1873 he sold the property for 105pounds to local lighthouse keeper, George Charles Powney. The Powneys built two houses on the property during their ownership and members of the family occupied Wollaston House at different times. Alfred Powney Brown was the last of this family to own the house in 1942.

In 1953 Cyril Ernest Ashe retired farmer purchased the house and was responsible for extensive repairs including the existing ‘new’ staircase. By 1980 the land had been subdivided and the neighbouring houses sold off and Wollaston House was located on an individual lot. In 1987 Donald Philips undertook major renovations and built the eastern extension of laundry, bathroom and bedroom above. Council has no records of this.

Integrity/Authenticity

Integrity: High

Authenticity: High/Moderate

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.