Sunnyvale

Statement of Significance

Sunnyvale is one of the earliest of a series of similar Victorian Georgian farmhouses in the Chapman valley constructed of bricks hand made on site with red and blue Flemish bond brickwork. It is associated with the Chapman families and illustrates the early settlement of the region and the agricultural practices of that time, including the development of the "Granny Smith" apple.

Physical Description

Sunnyvale is a single storey brick house in the Victorian Georgian style. The bricks are red handmade bricks laid in Flemish bond with fired blue half bricks. The roof is a moderate pitched hip and there is a wrap around verandah. A particular feature is the monumental chimney with its corbelled brickwork projecting form the east facade. An early extension constructed perpendicular to the west side facade has a hipped roof with a higher pitching plate and a verandah down the west facade only. A large extension at the rear appears to have been constructed in the late 20th century. An early timber barn is located about 100 metres from the house.

History

Thomas George Chapman, the first settler at Lowden, began developing ‘Rockhampton’, on the Preston River in 1876, when he was managing ‘Hambledon’. In 1879, one of his sons, Thomas ‘Tom’ Chapman Jnr., acquired Wellington Locations 349 and 350, and named his farm ‘Sunnyvale’. In the 1880s, the Charles brothers John, Jim and William, who had come to settle at the Preston, made the clay bricks for the house built at Location 350, one of the first brick houses in the Preston Valley. In the 1890s, they made the bricks for George Hambledon Chapman’s house at ‘Woodland’ (1892-93), and for Yabberup Hall (1894-96), where patterning in the bricks is similar to some of the Chapman houses.
By 1892, ‘Sunnyvale’ was well known, its area had increased, and the buildings included a large barn (extant, 2012). Among fruit trees the Chapman brothers, Tom, Alfred, George and Joe, obtained from Two Bays Nursery, Victoria, were two trial apple trees that originated in New South Wales. They grew well and produced a late maturing, greenish-yellow skinned apple. Some local farmers made grafts of Chapman’s Late as the variety became known, and in Western Australia it was marketed under this name until post-World War I, when it became prominent under the name given in New South Wales, Granny Smith, a popular apple for domestic and export markets for decades.
After Thomas Chapman Jnr. died (1906), his widow, Lydia, and her oldest sons continued mixed farming at ‘Sunnyvale’, and Frank (b. 1883, d. 1936) and his family lived in the original house. After he died, an advertisement for sale of ‘Sunnyvale Farm’ noted ‘two brick dwellings and three sheds upon the land’, part of which had been selected in 1876, a large area of rich alluvial flats, approx. 200 acres had been cropped and 450 acres were partly cleared for pasture. In her later life Lydia (d. 1940) lived with her youngest son, Basil Vernon Chapman. In 1943, part of ‘Sunnyvale Farm’ was sold to his wife, Jessie Mary Chapman, and Locations 350 and 529 were transferred to Lydia’s second son, Jack. His eldest son, Robert ‘Bob’ Wilbur Chapman, lived and worked at ‘Sunnyvale’ until the late twentieth century, when it was sold out of the family. In the early 2000s, the new owners renovated original 1880s house and made some additions to it.

Integrity/Authenticity

Moderate. The place is still used as a house and retains its original flemish bond brickwork. The original internal layout can still be discerned. The original front doors and Georgian windows have been replaced in the mid to late twentieth century.
A major addition to the rear was also constructed in the same period. The roof of the original house is now clad with cement tiles.

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

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