A brief history of Stannix Park!

This house was built by William Hall in 1839 (see key stone of arch). William is little known in Australian Colonial settlement but figured prominently in New Zealand as a missionary. He was recruited by Samuel Marsden in 1809 and with Dinah and their young family they settled in the Bay of Islands area in 1813. After 12 years he returned to Sydney and was sent to the Blacktown Aboriginal School as Superintendent where he and Dinah were required "to instruct the boys in reading, writing and the common rules of cyphering but especially carpentry." The girls were "to be taught plain needlework and spinning especially from the down of the Opossum." He built a house at Plumpton from hand made bricks using the aboriginal students as apprentice labourers. In 1827 he found 1280 acres at this site for the cattle he had been accumulating since his first years in Sydney (1810-13 ).

The land grant took a long time to be finalized before William proved that he was not related to the well-known George Hall who lived in the Pitt Town area. His grant became official in 1837 and work on the house began. The letters H.H. carved in the key stone refer to his second son Henry who inherited the property. William had been born in Stanwick, a village near Carlisle, the site of the largest Roman stronghold on Hadrian's Wall and the inscription, (S11), refers to this house being the second of that name. During the long depression of the 1840's the property was sold several times and its owners included Thomas Tebbutt, uncle of the astronomer. In 1851, it was sold to Matthew Everingham III, (grandson of first fleeter Matthew ); his wife, Sophia Arndell, was the great granddaughter of first fleet surgeon John Arndell. The house was sold again in 1867 but not before Matthew 11 had been rescued by boat from the first floor during the great flood of that year.

The new owners were Peter and Amelia De Rome; Peter had made a fortune on the goldfields at Araluen. They were evidently successful farmers because they lived here for forty years. When they died the property was subdivided into 14 portions. After 1907 the house had many owners while deteriorating gradually from the onslaught of termites, vandals and absentee-landlords to become the ruin that we found in 1983. Max and I had been looking at old houses for about a year as a new project for our retirement years. Most of the houses we found had many detractions; they were on a busy main road, had unsympathetic additions or the surrounding land had been sold to developers. Stannix Park had none of these drawbacks, it was a romantic ruin on such a magnificent site and we responded to its silent call for help.

After restoration of the house was completed in Dec. 1985 we moved in and began to make a garden. The only remnants of gardening were the huge oleandas, the robinias and their suckers, the white cedar tree, an agave growing in the cleft of a rock, a mulberry tree and lots of weeds. Rocks, rabbits, and the lack of water were apparent obstacles but with enthusiasm and dedication we set to work, Max to tame the grass and weeds and I, with a crowbar and a mattock, to make gardens. It was an enormous challenge and now we are enjoying the results.

Lorna Hatherly