Yasmar

About

Yasmar is a heritage-listed house at 185 Parramatta Road, Haberfield, New South Wales, Australia. It has variously served as a private home, Sunday school, children's court and juvenile remand and detention centre, and is now used by community groups and as a correctional services training facility. It was designed by John Bibb and built from 1856 to 1858. The surrounding site has also been known as Yasmar Hostel, Yasmar Detention Centre, Yasmar Child Welfare Home, Ashfield Remand Home, Yasmar Shelter and the Yasmar Juvenile Justice Centre. The property is owned by Land and Property Management Authority (LPMA) (State Government). It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 18 February 2000.

The Ramsay and Learmonth families and the construction of Yasmar

In 1803, a land grant of 480 acres, the boundaries of which form the present day suburb of Haberfield, was made to NSW Army Corps Ensign Nicholas Bayley (or Bailey) and known as "Sunning Hill" Farm. The land was sold for 850 pounds in 1805 to Simeon Lord (1773-1840), wealthy emancipist who changed the locality name to "Dobroyde" (note with an 'e') after his cousin's home, Dobroyde Castle, Lancashire, England where he had spent much of his youth. Lord had been convicted in 1790 for stealing cloth and was transported to Sydney for seven years. He arrived in 1791 and after his release became a very prosperous businessman. By 1820, he was recorded as being the largest landholder in Sydney.

In 1825, Simeon Lord's daughter, Sarah Anne, married Dr David Ramsay. Ramsay, born in Scotland in 1794, had graduated from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and had arrived in NSW as a ship's surgeon aboard the "Surry", a convict transport in 1820. Two years later he returned and established a business with his former ship's captain, Thomas Raine. The firm of Raine & Ramsay was a broadly based trading enterprise, located on the corner of Bligh and Hunter streets, Sydney billing itself as 'ship owners, agents, general merchants and wool brokers'; Ramsay also held several offices with Scots Church, Sydney. There was a conditional transfer of Dobroyde Estate as a dowry. The Ramsays built their home "Dobroyde House" on a crest of their estate fronting Parramatta Road between present day Dalhousie Street and Rogers Avenue. It was a timber cottage with a garden. The Ramsays moved into their new house in 1826. Mary Louisa, first of 10 children to the Ramsays, was born the same year. (9 of the 10 surviving children are buried in St David's church yard: one died young. Percy is buried in Brisbane. Family names are commemorated in Haberfield's street names e.g.: Lord, Ramsay, Yasmar, Dalhousie, Percy, Edward [now Hawthorne], St David's, Learmonth).

The Raine & Ramsay partnership did not last and Ramsay devoted much of his time to his Dobroyde estate, especially horticultural pursuits. He also had an inn known as "Speed the Plough" or "The Plough Inn" built on the Dobroyde Estate side of Parramatta Road at its junction with Liverpool Road. He owned the inn but leased it out for others to manage. It was a two-storey building with a verandah across the front and a single storey wing on each side. It was a noted landmark in the district. Here locals, travellers, and drovers taking cattle or sheep to the Glebe Island abattoirs could quench their thirst. In the 1860s a flour mill and bakery were built near the inn.

In the 1830s, Ramsay established the Dobroyde Gardens Nursey alongside Iron Cove Creek (now Hawthorne Parade). In 1840, Sarah and David Ramsay set up a home Sunday School at Dobroyde House, the first Home Sunday School of the Presbyterian Church of NSW. That year Dr Ramsay was presented with a silver medallion for "Pine Apple" at the Flora & Horticultural Society Show. David Ramsay owned most of what is now Haberfield and grew oranges and pineapples along the creek. Their son Edward Pierson Ramsay, who would become a prominent zoologist, was born in 1842.

In 1850 Mary Louisa Ramsay married Alexander Learmonth. Learmonth had been born in Scotland and had arrived in New South Wales in 1842. In 1854 the Ramsay's 3rd daughter, Isabella Helen was married to Dr John Belisario, English dentist, at Dobroyde by the Rev. Dr J Dunmore Lang [SMH 7.10.1854]. Dr Belisario was accredited as first colonial dentist to use ether as an anaesthetic; tooth extraction for Duke of Edinburgh in 1869; later he became a member of Linnean Society and Australian Museum. In 1855, four roads were constructed through Dobroyde Estate and named Ramsay, Dalhousie, Waratah and Boomerang. In the same year, 46 acres of the estate was transferred to Alexander and Mary Louise Learmonth.

In 1856, Learmonth commissioned architect John Bibb to draw plans for Yasmar house. The name stemmed from the Ramsay surname spelled backwards. It was designed for he and his wife Mary Louisa, who was the eldest daughter of David and Sarah Ramsay. The house was built between 1856 and 1858. The house and garden face Parramatta Road on a crest between present-day Bland & Chandos Streets further west of Dobroyde House. It is U-shaped with the rear wings for servants' quarters and service rooms. Learmonth lived at Yasmar until his death in 1877. The house's siting and garden layout was designed according to John Claudius Loudon 's "Gardenesque" principles, including being set back from the main road, the carriage way, the siting of the stables, vegetable garden and offices.

Bibb had been arrived in Australia in 1832 and soon been employed by John Verge, continuing Verge's practice after he retired to Dungog in 1837. Bibb became auditor to Flora & Horticultural Society and committeeman for the Sydney School of Arts; he designed the School of Arts' headquarters in Pitt Street. He would also later design the Congregational Church in Pitt Street, Sydney. He died in February 1862 and was buried in the family vault at St Peter's Church, Cooks River.

The 1858 Sands Directory showed Alexander Learmonth as residing at Parramatta Road; Mary Louisa Learmonth is shown in residence at 70 Upper Fort Street, Sydney. The Dobroyde Sunday School was transferred to the western side room of Yasmar house in 1860. In June David Ramsay died in the garden of nearby Dobroyde house. The estate was divided into 20 blocks ranging in size from 1 acres to 23 acres amongst David and Sarah's 5 daughters and 5 sons, as required by the marriage settlement of 1825. Sarah Ramsay donated 4 acres for the dedication of the Presbyterian church, school, family vault and manse (built 1911) (now the heritage-listed St David's Uniting Church precinct, Dalhousie St Haberfield). In 1861 the foundation stone of St David's Church Hall was laid by Sarah Ramsay (the building continues to this day as the hall to St David's Church precinct; after Yasmar this the 2nd oldest building in Haberfield).

In 1861 Edward Pierson Ramsay was elected the founding treasurer of Entomological Society of NSW. He was a keen botanist who was friendly with the powerful plant men of the day, including William Macarthur of Camden Park and Alexander Macleay of Elizabeth Bay House. When Edward moved to Queensland to capitalise on the sugar rush, his plantation neighbour (at Tinana, Maryborough) was John Carne Bidwill, botanist and plant hunter (and Commissioner of the Wide Bay district), who discovered the Queensland kauri ( Agathis robusta ) and the bunya pine ( Araucaria bidwillii ).

In 1862 St David's Church Hall opened as a Sunday School and a day school, called Yasmar, during week days (the forerunner of Haberfield Primary School); Mary Louisa Ramsay was appointed Superintendent of the school. In 1864 the Ramsay brothers Edward Pierson, James and Percy purchased the Jindah sugar plantation at Maryborough, Queensland; Percy resided there. In May 1866 the first Divine worship was held in St David's School Hall, conducted by the Rev. Dr John Dunmore Lang. In 1867, Edward Pierson Ramsay opened the New Dobroyde Plant and Seed Nursery on the same Iron Cove Creek site as Dr Ramsay's Dobroyde Gardens Nursery. As a horticulturist he had much input into Victorian garden design and species registration.

In 1874 Edward Pierson Ramsay, ornithologist and zoologist, was appointed the Curator of the Australian Museum (a post he held until 1894). He moved from Dobroyde house to quarters at the Museum. In January 1875 the Linnean Society of NSW held its 1st meeting with Sir William Macleay and Edward Pierson Ramsay original committee members. E. P. Ramsay became a fellow of the London Linnean Society and married Ellan Fox that same year.

In 1877 Alexander Learmonth died in his garden at Yasmar, he was buried in the family vault at St David's Church. His wife Mary Louisa stayed there until 1891.

1882 saw the release of "The Dobroyd Estate" along St David's Road to St David's Church, being inheritance lands of Louisa Ramsay. In 1885 three further sections of The Dobroyde Estate were subdivided and sold for Victorian type residential subdivision near Parramatta Road (being Ramsay heirs Isabella's portions between present day Wattle/Alt Streets and southern end of Dalhousie/St David's/Dobroyd (now O'Connor) streets; and an area around Percy/Lord/Sloane/Marion/Hawthorne streets belonging to Louisa, Margaret and David Ramsay).

In 1886 Edward Pierson Ramsey sold a portion of his inheritance. Long Cove Creek and Parramatta Road. In 1888, following the museum's decision to use the curator's quarters for office space, he moved to Dalhouise house, on the present day site of Dobroyd Point Public School in Waratah Street, in 1888.

In 1889 Sarah Anne Ramsay died. In 1892 the depression inhibited further sale of the Dobroyde Estate inheritance lands. In 1894 Mary Louisa Learmonth and her unmarried daughter, Mary, took an Indenture Mortgage to Mutual Life Association. In the 1890s land west of Yasmar was leased to horticultural nursery Wadd Pty Ltd.

In 1902 Mary Louisa vacated Yasmar and moved to live with her daughter, Mary, at Concord.

Grace family and Stanton residential development

In 1901 real estate agent and entrepreneur Richard Stanton purchased 43 acres of The Dobroyde Estate from Ramsay heirs Margaret (present day bounded by Waratah, Dalhousie, Hawthorne and Barton Streets) and David (Dalhousie, Ramsay, Barton and O'Connor). He commenced development of Australia's 1st "garden suburb" - residential subdivision on a "design and construct" formula. Stanton named the new garden suburb "Haberfield", and subsequently bought further Ramsay heirs' land, including Dobroyde House.