Duntryleague with Lodge, Park, Gates and former Stables, Woodward St, Orange, NSW, Australia

About

Duntryleague is a heritage-listed former residential estate and now golf club house and course located at Woodward Road, Orange, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1875 to 1890. It is also known as Duntryleague with Lodge, Park, Gates, Stables and Orange Golf Club.

In the 1820s surveyors of the interior of the New South Wales colony were required to select, survey and map out one mile square areas of land which were to be reserved for future villages as population numbers increased. In 1829 surveyor J. B. Richards reserved land for the town of Orange. This remained empty through the 1830s, although it was surrounded by three substantial land grants to Simeon Lord and Joseph Moulder (to the north, south and east of the reserve), and to the west to William Ealy Sampson. Sampson's 1836 of grant of 260 hectares (640 acres) contained the property which became known as Campdale, and this contained the property which later became Duntryleague. Sampson did not remain at Campdale, but settled in Mudgee.

By 1846 these three original grantees were already leasing some of their land and dividing other parts for sale. George Mills opened the Boree Inn about 100 metres (330 ft) to the west of Campdale's southwest corner on the main road boundary of Sampson's grant. This building was situated on land that later incorporated part of the Duntryleague property, and remained until it was demolished in the mid 20th century.

In 1847 James Dalton Senior opened a store at the village of Summerhill (a short distance from the site of the village of Orange). James Dalton was a shopkeeper, part-owner of the Dalton Brothers' Store, a prominent institution in the town of Orange, on its main street, Summer Street. Originally Dalton was from Galbally, County Limerick, Ireland. Initially he set up a store in an earlier settlement (before Orange was established) outside (east of the present) Orange. After the town of Orange was proclaimed in 1845, he began trading in the town on the corner of Post Office Lane in 1849, in a small store which was replaced by 1865 by the easternmost section of the present Myers store (formerly named Grace Bros, and originally named the Dalton Brothers Store). A second building was built in 1870 on the western side of the existing three-storey building, and the gap between the two was in-filled in 1895, forming a large general store. The Dalton Brothers boasted they could fit out a man with everything.

James lived at 70 Byng Street Orange, building a house there in 1860 where eleven of his twelve children were born.

By the 1850s Campdale had already been subdivided and continually leased, with a major part of the property being sold to the Flanagan family with Michael's daughters Emily, Henrietta and Margaret each owning a share. In 1851 gold was discovered in nearby Ophir. James Dalton Senior's store flourished with the passing miners. By this time he had also set up a "relatively substantial slab store" in the village of Blackman's Swamp (Orange) which he had built in 1849, 3 years after its gazettal.

In 1853 James Dalton Senior's store was established in Orange – he was just 19. During the gold rush of the 1850s Dalton's store bought gold, and gradually expanded to provide all necessary commodities: including the ironmongery and grocery departments of the Western Stores. During the mid 1850s James Dalton had acquired Spirits Licenses (although his father had already gained a license to sell liquor in his stores in 1851) and in 1853 became the proprietor of the Daniell O'Connor Inn in Byng Street, Orange.

In 1860 Orange incorporated as a city. During the 1860s it developed into a significant commercial centre including three flour mills, a foundry, three banks, 14 hotels and a daily coach mail service along the Great Western Highway. By 1864 the population had increased to over 1,000, rendering it eligible to become a borough with a mayor and 8 aldermen. One of those nominated to be amongst the first of the aldermen was James Dalton. By 1860 the Dalton Bros business was flourishing and a new building was erected on the Summer Street site. In 1861 the Dalton Bros opened a coffee mill in Orange, and James also built a steam flourmill on the corner of Summer and Sale Streets. This was a highly profitable venture and flour produced here won many international prizes for its quality.

By the 1870s Dalton Brothers' Stores had become the most significant merchant business in western NSW, with wool as a major commodity. Wool was brought to the Stores in Orange from farms by bullock teams and sent to Tarana in horse-drawn wagons, then to Sydney by rail. When the railway was extended west to Orange it was James Dalton who turned the first sod to commence work for the extension, and Thomas, as Orange's mayor, who officially opened the line in 1877.

In 1872 James Dalton began to acquire the 126 hectares (311 acres) of the original Campdale grant off the Flanagan family, which would become his Duntryleague property.

Between 1875 and 1879 Dalton consolidated ownership of 126 hectares (311 acres). In 1879 he applied for Torrens Title before he commenced work on construction of his family residence. He named it Duntryleague after his birthplace in Ireland. As originally built, Duntryleague had no third-storey dormer windows (these were added later by James Dalton).

By the time James commenced building his home, the property extended across Forbes Road and as far as the Collins Orchard on the Molong Road. He engaged the well known architect Benjamin Backhouse to design the house. Backhouse designed many significant buildings in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria, and had an office in Bathurst at the time. Local stonemasons Robert Scott and J. J. McMurtrie were responsible for the considerable amount of stonework in and around Duntryleague. The stone was quarried from Coffey Hill, 24 kilometres (15 mi) from Orange. The bricks were handmade on the property and laid by James Lindsay.

The family moved in 1876 into the newly completed house which was named after his Irish birthplace. The place Duntryleague in near Galbally in County Limerick, Ireland and means "the Fort of the three pillar stones". It refers to the burial of King Cormack, who was King of Munster in the 11th century. The original spelling was Doon-tri-liag.

At the time of its completion, the house was "said to rank among the finest in the colony" and "showed the vision and foresightedness of its owner." Included in the design was a family chapel and substantial central staircase into which Dalton had built the stained glass window which commemorated his investiture as a Papal Knight in recognition of his services to the Catholic Church. The window was presented to Dalton by Pope Gregory and carries his papal crest and motto, "Inter Cruces Triumphans in Cruces".

Several outbuildings were built on the estate, including two gate houses, on Forbes and Woodward Roads. The gatekeeper employed by Dalton, Leon Ravat, was a French vintner who made wines from the grapes grown in the extensive vineyards of the property. Irrigation was facilitated by a deep well and windmill that dew water from 27 metres (90 ft) below the ground.

The Banjo Patterson Memorial on the road off to Clifton Grove is one of the original gate posts of Duntryleague. Two inns were located on Duntryleague – the Coach & Horse Inn (later the Boree Inn) and the Limerick Castle.

By 1880 the property expanded to 141 hectares (349 acres) with the realignment of Cargo Road and subsequent purchase of this portion by James Dalton. When Dalton's children were grown he had other substantial homes built for them in the area, including the stately Kangaroobie and Ammerdown, among others. The Dalton Bros. firm had expanded to include warehouses and stores in Sydney – the large emporium Dalton House, in Pitt Street and Dalton Wharf at Millers Point. They began to acquire pastoral interests in the Orange area.

In c. 1885 Dalton employed Alfred Andrew Patterson (1859–1932) as a gardener at Duntryleague which had magnificent grounds. Through Dalton's influence Patterson became the inaugural gardener (in 1887) at Cook Park and was subsequently head gardener at Machattie Park, Bathurst, for twenty years of a formative period in its development.

1895 the grand new Dalton Brothers Emporium was opened on the original Store site in Summer Street, by now the Dalton Brothers had become renowned as one of the most important commercial enterprises in eastern Australia.

In 1901 Clover Hill, Orange Golf Club's first course, was officially opened (on a different site to Duntryleague). In 1906 land to north of Forbes Road transferred to ownership of the Dalton estate. In 1908 transferred back to James Dalton. During Dalton's ownership most of the native trees on the land were cleared and imported trees, primarily pines (Pinus spp.) had been planted along the drive, near the hose and along the Woodward Street boundary. While by far the majority of pines used were Monterey pine (P.radiata), other species are still on Duntryleague such as America's long-needled Southern pitch pine (P.palustris) on the entrance drive, Western yellow pine (P.ponderosa) and the stone pine (P.pinea) from the Mediterranean near the Pro-Golf Shop.