Brush Farm

About

Brush Farm is a heritage-listed former farm, residence and vineyard and now tourist attraction, community facility, exhibition venue and meeting venue at Marsden Road, Eastwood, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was built from 1794 to 1894. It is also known as Home for Boys, Eastwood Home for Mothers and Babies and Brush Farm Home for Mentally Deficient Children, and Brush Farm Girls' Home. The property is owned by City of Ryde. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

Early European accounts of settlement in the Ryde area would indicate that the area on the northern side of the Parramatta River extending from Sydney Cove to Parramatta was that of the Wallumedegal, the territory of the Wallumede people, with the Aboriginal name Wallumetta. The Wallumedegal clan is thought to have been a clan of the Dharug speaking area. The Ryde area was highly suitable for farming and orchards, and early grants to marines were given by Governor Phillip to encourage agriculture. The military association with the area prompted Phillip to name it "Field of Mars", a reference to the Roman God of war.

In 1792 land in the area was granted to eight marines; two of the grants were in the modern area of Ryde. Isaac Archer and John Colethread each received 32 hectares (80 acres) of land on the site of the present Ryde-Parramatta Golf Links, now in West Ryde. Later in 1792, in the Eastern Farms area, twelve grants, most of them about 12 hectares (30 acres), were made to convicts. Much later these farms were bought by John Macarthur, Gregory Blaxland and the Reverend Samuel Marsden. The district remained an important orchard area throughout the 19th century.

Brush Farm was part of a land grant made in 1794 (in two adjoining lots, one (north) to Zadoc Pettit, the other (south) to Thomas Bride, both privates in the NSW Corps ) which was acquired by William Cox in 1801–3, adding them to adjoining property to consolidate his land holdings an estate of over 200 hectares (500 acres), named Brush Farm. Misuse of regimental funds saw Cox deported to England and his estate transferred to a number of prominent local citizens who acted as Cox's trustees and administered the sale of his property.

184 hectares (455 acres) of Cox's estate was acquired by D'Arcy Wentworth in 1805 and then by Gregory Blaxland in 1807. Blaxland was a free settler who arrived in 1806 from Kent, where his family had lived since St. Augustine's time, on an estate called " Newington ". Gregory was less sociable than his brother John, who arrived in the colony in 1807.

When Gregory Blaxland and his older brother, John decided in 1804 to emigrate to New South Wales they both negotiated with the British government for grants of land of their own choosing, an assignment of convicts and passage for their families and stock. In return, they would become permanent settlers and take with them a stipulated amount of money. The Blaxlands were from a wealthy family. Sir Joseph Banks was a family friend and from him the brothers learned that NSW needed high-quality, free settlers. John negotiated to receive 2,400 hectares (6,000 acres), 60 "useful convicts...for 18 months", passage for himself and family and six Spanish sheep. He committed to invest not less than 6000 pounds in the colony. Gregory's terms were half of John's as he had managed to raise only A£ 3,000. It was decided Gregory would sail first and he and his wife, Elizabeth, their three children, two female servants and one overseer departed on the "William Pitt" on 4 August 1805, arriving in Sydney on 11 April 1806.

Gregory Blaxland was a skilled Kentish farmer when he came to NSW, leasing "The Vineyard" at Rydalmere (formerly leased to Lt. William Cox, paymaster of the NSW Corps) with a flourishing vineyard. Within a year, he had entered an agreement with D'Arcy Wentworth, then the government surgeon at Parramatta, to buy the original nine farms consisting of 185 hectares (460 acres) of land known as Brush Farm and previously owned by William Cox.

In 1807 Blaxland bought Brush Farm and moved there in 1808. One of his early projects was planting a vineyard near his home in the Dundas Valley (west of today's Marsden Road). Here he collected grape vines from all around the colony that were healthy and bore good fruit. Most of these were "Constantia" (Black Muscat).

The Blaxland brothers were expected by Governor Macquarie to apply their considerable knowledge of farming to the cultivation of grain. However their commercial interests were in cattle and sheep, which Macquarie regarded as a lazy pursuit. He failed to appreciate they had supplied the government stores with 40,096 kilograms (88,396 lb) weight of fresh meat over a period of nearly three years, for A£3,287, cutting the price of meat from 2/6 per pound to 1/- per pound. Gregory continued expanding his land holdings west of Sydney, but a drought in 1812 made him and other cattlemen dissatisfied with their relatively small land holdings. This, and the challenge of the mountains that swept down within a few miles of his South Creek farm, probably helped stir Gregory into action. He had spoken to many of the explorers who had already attempted to find a route through the mountains and was aware of reasons for their failure.

In 1813 Blaxland, in company with Lt. William Lawson and William Charles Wentworth (D'Arcy Wentworth's son, then just 22 years old), with four men, five dogs and four horses loaded with provisions, made the first successful crossing of the Blue Mountains by European settlers. On their return Blaxland called on Governor Macquarie to tell him of the expedition's success. On 12 February 1814 Macquarie issued a General Order acknowledging the discovery and granting each of the explorers 400 hectares (1,000 acres) in the newly discovered country. At about this time the Blaxland brothers decided to terminate their partnership and run their own businesses.

During his trip to NSW in 1805–06, Gregory had obtained grape vine cuttings at several of the ports where the ship stopped. These he planted at Rydalmere shortly after arrival and he also looked out for high-performing grapevines already planted that could be used for winemaking. Grape cuttings or seeds had been collected by the First Fleet at both Rio de Janeiro and the Cape of Good Hope on their outward (1788) journey and some were successfully grown at Government House. The variety Gregory found most suitable was called "Black Constantia" (a Muscat variety. Years later, Gregory changed the location of the vineyard to an area close to Brush Farm House. Here he planted two new varieties which he thought to be Claret grapes. They were probably Pinor Noir and Pinot Meunier. He had also raised new vines from seeds, and pursued his interest in growing hops and brewing beer.

Blaxland, after setbacks, produced tolerable wine in 1816 from Brush Farm, sending a sample of his wine to Governor Macquarie that he described as "little better than water" and later another sample that he thought much better. By this time Gregory and Elizabeth had seven children – two girls and five boys and the house was scarcely adequate.

In 1816, the Royal Society for the Arts in England offered medals for wine from New South Wales. As early as that year, Blaxland was sending wine to Governor Macquarie to keep him informed about the possibility of an Australian wine industry.

Blaxland set about creating the estate as an agricultural enterprise and by 1817 was successfully producing meat and livestock and had established a distillery for the production of wine and vinegar. He was a founding member of the first (later the Royal) Agricultural Society of NSW, his name being recorded on a board in the Society's headquarters (McClymont, 2008, scribed by and pers.comm., Stuart Read). A 1919 Royal Agricultural Society plaque honouring twelve agricultural pioneers includes Blaxland along with Sir Joseph Banks, John Macarthur, Samuel Marsden, James Busby, Alexander Berry and others. He introduced buffalo grass (Cynodon dactylon) into the colony, a valuable grass for cattle fodder (and as an ornamental turf, retaining its green in both hot summers and winters, when many tropical grasses die off.

Probably before 1819 (beginning of constructing today's Brush Farm House), he planted another vineyard on the steep slopes of the escarpment (south of Brush Farm house and east of today's Marsden Road, part today of Brush Farm Park). This required terracing and he used knowledge gleaned from his earlier Madeira stop over. In this vineyard, he planted other grape varieties including Shiraz and Pinot, wine grapes from France. Blaxland certainly knew of the grape varieties brought back to Australia in 1817 by John, James and William Macarthur and of their plantings at Camden Park, although their first vintage was not until 1824. Not far from the house, remnants of the early vineyard terracing can still be located.

In 1821 Blaxland had three and a half acres under vines at Brush Farm.

Blaxland built Brush Farm house (the second on the farm, the first being a more modest structure down the gully to the west of the current Brush Farm house) in 1820. A shale mine/quarry on the farm probably produced cement mortar used in construction of the house. The central core of the house was built c. 1819–20 (Buttrey, 2006 (38) says 1819–21, noting the original house was a four-room, two storey dwelling with entrance hall and upper hall, on sandstone foundations with brick walls, over a cellar), east and west wings added during the 1820s with stables and outbuildings, landscaped grounds with a carriage loop. For many years, due to its elevated position, a site on the property was used as a signal station to relay messages on ship arrivals at South Head. These were relayed via Observatory Hill and Gladesville to Government House at Parramatta.

In 1822 Blaxland took 390 litres (86 imp gal) of wine in two casks on the " Royal George " to England. Some of the wine was to be submitted to the Royal Society for the Arts in England, which was offering a medal for the finest wine made from New South Wales grapes. Blaxland's wine was awarded a silver medal in 1823 as the finest wine to have been produced in NSW at the time. The medal is now held in the Mitchell Library. He could be said to have exported the first commercial quantity of wine from Australia and was an enthusiastic promoter of an Australian wine industry. Governor Phillip had previously exported a small quantity of wine, likely made by Phillip Schaeffer from Parramatta in 1791.

Five years later in 1828 he did the same (leaving his 24-year-old son, George in charge of Brush Farm), Gregory took a pipe of wine (105 gallons) and won a Gold Ceres medal at the Society's 1828 awards. That medal is now held in the Mitchell Library. Blaxland's Brush Farm was once considered the finest vineyard in the colony. Robert Townson's Varroville estate at Minto was once described as 'the finest orchard in the colony and a vineyard second only to Gregory Blaxland's'.

The gully south of the present Lawson Street and the house had a school building, a barn, later a stables. Further down the gully was an orchard. Small vineyards were located in two separate gullies, one to the west ( Dundas ) of the house. Landscape consultant Geoffrey Britton has identified two areas of terracing by doing aerial photographic analysis, one south of the house within today's Brush Farm Park, the other to its south-west, west of Marsden Road.