The Bunyas
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| The Bunyas | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
| Location | 5 Rogers Avenue, Haberfield, Inner West Council, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Coordinates | 33°53′01″S 151°08′08″E / 33.8836°S 151.1355°E |
| Built | 1900–1907 |
| Architect | John Spencer-Stansfield |
| Official name | Bunyas; The Bunyas; Stanton Residence |
| Type | state heritage (complex / group) |
| Designated | 2 April 1999 |
| Reference no. | 317 |
| Type | Mansion |
| Category | Residential buildings (private) |
  Location of The Bunyas in inner Sydney | |
The Bunyas is a heritage-listed residence and former church missionary and scout headquarters at 5 Rogers Avenue, Haberfield, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was designed by John Spencer-Stansfield and built from 1900 to 1907. It is also known as Stanton Residence. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.[1]
The Haberfield and Dobroyd Point area was used as farmland with scattered industries until after steam tramway came from Leichhardt to Five Dock. The 1893 Depression retarded subdivision.[1]
The property now known as 'The Bunyas' has been occupied by two prominent local families, the Ramsays and the Stantons.[1]
David and Sarah Ramsay took possession of the Dobroyd Estate, as Haberfield was then known, in the mid-1820s. Both lived at Dobroyd House on the corner of Parramatta Road and Dalhousie Street until David's death in 1860. After his demise, portions of the Dobroyd Estate were given to Ramsay children and Sarah continued to live at Dobroyd House until her death in 1889.[2][1]
In 1901 Richard Stanton and W. H. Nichols, real estate agents of Summer Hill, purchased 50 acres of the Dobroyd Estate from the Ramsay family.[1]
Stanton purchased parts of the Dobroyd Estate from members of the Ramsay family and on them developed his model "Garden Suburb". He is said to have named the area Haberfield after his mother's maiden name and this gradually replaced the Dobroyd Estate as the name of the area.[2]
Stanton was an Irish immigrant (he and family arrived on 29 November 1862) whose father Patrick developed a furniture and auctioneer's business in Summer Hill (from 1882 it was a real estate agency called 'Stanton & Son'). Richard continued the business after his father's death in 1889. In 1893 he married Florence Nicholls. In 1901 he purchased that portion of the Dobroyde Estate that belonged to Margaret Ramsay and, on it, began development of the Haberfield Estate.[3][1]
The first subdivision occurred by 1903.
In 1905 the Ramsay family vacated Dobroyd House. Stanton purchased the property, had Dobroyd House demolished and, in its place, built "The Bunyas", into which his family moved in 1907,[2] showing his faith in the new development.[3][1]
Stanton, the managing director of Haberfield P/L, placed his home in spacious grounds which extended from present day Rogers Avenue to Dalhousie Street, and from Parramatta Road to a line opposite Tinana Street. "The Bunyas" was the largest house in the Haberfield Estate. Under a massive, multi-gabled slate roof, the house features shingled gables, stone pillars on the eastern verandah and a large arch enveloping its entry porch covered in rough cast. It is entered by double doors from this porch. Leadlight glass was used in the front doors, their sidelights, the triple windows above the front door and in the vestibule lantern. The vestibule leads into large rooms suitable for entertaining. The original drawing room is to the left and beside it the dining room. A timber fretwork screen divides vestibule from the hall. Off the hall were bedrooms and to the left a staircase leading to servants' quarters. Also off the vestibule and beside the hall was the morning room which opens onto the eastern-facing verandah.[4][1]
It was named after the bunya pines which stood in the surrounding area during the days of the Ramsays. The present bunya pines were planted by Scouts Australia, as seedlings, in 1986 (Scouts Australia, undated).[1]
The house was designed by John Spencer Stansfield as the family home of Richard Stanton and it was home to the family from 1907.[4] It was designed to face Parramatta Road and Dalhousie Street and the original area of the property was 15,864.64 square meters. Spencer-Stansfield was the architect for the Haberfield Model Suburb from 1905 to 1914 and according to 'Who's Who' of 1929, designed over 1000 houses, and "specialises in high-class domestic architecture". His correct name was Spencer-Stansfeld, but he gave his name as Spencer-Stansfield.[5][1]
In 1908, with other estate agents, Stanton helped form the Western Suburbs Real Estate Agents' Association. Two years later he played a prominent role in establishing the Real Estate Auctioneers' and Agents' Association of NSW - this became the Real Estate Institute in 1921. He served on its board for many years and was president from 1922 to 1923. He attempted to improve the ethics of estate agents and raise their status in the community. In 1913 he became a fellow of the Auctioneers' and Estate Agents' Institute of the United Kingdom.[3][1]
By 1910, Stanton controlled 200 acres.
The Bunyas featured in the edition of 1 February 1913 of Home & Garden Beautiful magazine [Archnex Designs 06/12/04], at which time it was described as the largest and most complete cottage residence in the state (National Trust of Australia (NSW), 1982). Several photographs of its extensive gardens were featured, showing grassed walks, bunya pine and other tall trees, dense shrubs such as gian bird-of-paradise flower (Strelitzia nicolae), palms and bedding plants.[6][1]
Stanton and his family lived in The Bunyas until 1917 when they moved to Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay. From 1917 until 1927 The Bunyas was occupied by Herbert Field, J.P. and his family. Field had been born in England in 1878 and migrated with his parents to Sydney in 1885. In 1900 Herbert and his brothers, Thomas and Sydney, inherited their father's wholesale and retail butchering business. During World War I the Field Brothers controlled about one third of Sydney's wholesale meat business through their own company and through their interests in James Elliott and Co. Ltd. and with listed assets of 1,100,000 pounds ($2.2m); Tom was chairman, Herbert and Sydney were directors. Before moving to Haberfield, Herbert and his family lived in Annandale. He was one of several businessmen who moved with their families from Annandale to Haberfield between about 1914 and 1920. From Haberfield the Fields moved to Bellevue Hill, where Herbert named his new home "The Bunyas".[7][1]
In 1928, after Stanton and his family had left, the land fronting Dalhousie Street and Parramatta Road was subdivided and sold for residential development. This comprised the front and much of the backyard of the property.[8] This included subdivision to the east (Dalhousie Street) where blocks of inter-war flats were built; and to the south facing Parramatta Road where a car yard/service station was built.[1]
Blocks of flats were built and Wadd's plant nursery was established (on the corner of Parramatta Road and Rogers Avenue) in the former front garden of The Bunyas in the late 1920s and early 1930s. These included Mayfair Court (149 Parramatta Road); Brundah Flats (1931, at 151 Parramatta Road) and Penliegh Hall flats (1929, at 153 Parramatta Road).[8][1]
Rogers Avenue commemorates William Rogers (1855-1930), an Alderman on the Ashfield Municipal Council from 1914 to 1922, a baker and bread-carter who owned a large bakery at 32 Orpington Street almost facing Pembroke Street. He was President of the Ashfield Bowling Club from 1918 to 1920. Until about 1915 Rogers Avenue was known as Orpington Street, which had been extended from Ashfield in 1908. The first houses were occupied in Rogers Avenue (then Orpington Street) in 1908 after completion of The Bunyas.[8][1]
The house itself was purchased with a 1.25 acre (about 0.5ha) curtilage by the Methodist Missionary Society of Australia who used it for a Missionary Training College. This was officially opened on 9 June 1928 as "The George Brown Methodist Training College" with Rev.J.W.Burton as the principal. George Brown was born in England, migrating to New Zealand in 1855, was ordained a Methodist Minister in 1860 and became a South Pacific missionary. By 1881 Sydney had become his headquarters for his missionary activities. He died at his home in the Sydney suburb of Gordon in 1917 and is buried at Gore Hill Cemetery. Salote Tupou III, Queen of Tonga from 1918 to 1965, was a devout Methodist and often resided at The Bunyas when visiting Sydney.[9][1] Later it became the "Pacific Islanders Centre" of the Uniting Church of Australia. It was used for church purposes until the 1980s.[1]
In the early 1980s the property was threatened with subdivision into building allotments and demolition of the house.[1]
On 18 April 1982, Vincent Crow, a concerned local historian, applied to the Heritage Council of New South Wales for a conservation order to be placed on the property. This was put into effect on 3 December 1982 and had the effect of preventing demolition or alteration of any building or plantings on the land without prior approval of the Heritage Council. This interim conservation order was renewed in September 1984. A permanent conservation order was placed on The Bunyas in 1986.[9][1]
In November 1984 The Bunyas was purchased by The Scout Association of Australia to become their NSW headquarters. Scouts Australia restored the home and put a sympathetic extension on the former servants' quarters wing (the western side of the house) (1985–86) which can be seen from Rogers Avenue. The new west wing provided offices, bathrooms and other areas for the scouts. Part of the servants' quarters containing small rooms facing Rogers Avenue was demolished and an addition made.[9] In converting the house to provide efficient office accommodation and comfortable meeting facilities, Scouts Australia restored the principal rooms and building exterior.[1]
In 1999 The Bunyas was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register.[1]
Scouts Australia vacated the property in 2004.[1] They sold the property to Korean-born developer Jin Park for a reported $4 million.[10]
In 2005, The Bunyas was rezoned from Special Uses: Scouts to Residential and returned to residential use. The 1985 west wing was to be used as a home office, in which a recent door was infilled and two new openings made.[1]
The property sold for $5,250,000 in September 2012.[11]
