I ain’t Gonna Work on Maggie’s Farm No More

On a slightly drizzly Saturday morning with my fractured foot in a moonboot, my friend P said she would drive us out to Parramatta in Western Sydney to check one of the few remaining places in the Historic Houses Trust list we were yet to visit. 

Elizabeth Farm is the family home of the man who bought the wool industry to Australia, John Macarthur and his wife Elizabeth and their seven children. The Macarthur's had a much grander home in the Camden area but this was their first home, also I think they both died here which is a little creepy.

Building started at Elizabeth Farm in 1793 as a modest three room solid brick home looking towards the Parramatta River. It is the maintaining of this original brickwork that apparently allows Elizabeth Farm to hold the name of 'Oldest European Dwelling' and not the oldest 'home' in Australia that, in her excitement, our guide told us. The oldest home in Australia is a hot debate actually. Some claim it is Cadman's Cottage in The Rocks which is a museum that I really don't enjoy and think it is mainly a boring history of plumbing or Cleveland House in Surry Hills which is falling apart through neglect.

Looking from the front sitting room out to the garden area where you may take a turn in the garden and discuss matters of a private nature, that's what period films tell me garden are for anyway.

Elizabeth Farm is a house museum meaning you can touch the furniture or jump onto the bed like our guide insisted. Pretty high up it was too, required a small stool and a fair amount of balance. I believe there are four layers of mattresses to make the bed soft and warm (and high). This room was created as a bedroom, obviously, but it may not have been. Sydney Living Museum (SLM) recreates their museums based on houses at the time and what the rooms are assumed to be used for previously, only if there is no evidence to state otherwise. 

We didn't take a stroll though the garden as it had been raining and was currently drizzling and I was wearing a moonboot. The verandah does look like a lovely spot to sit. We got to the museum at about 10m and by 1130am the place was becoming quite popular with the families and older folks. It is only opened from Friday to Sunday.

Our guide gave us a full tour of the house and I would recommend getting one if you can. Helps to learn and understand how the house was developed and also little things like this stone bowl, below, is a water filter!

I don't normally look so gigantic. 

Next stop was the kitchen. I get really excited by this part of the tour for some reason. The Farm's kitchen is on the street side of the property at the rear of the house and separate from the living quarters. It was pretty huge and very well decorated and seems like it would have functioned well. Our guide gave a lot of quirky information in the area of the home too.

Like I said, a house museum. Here I am churning butter by the fire. They also had something on the stove that made a smell, maybe to help all the senses in understanding what it was like to be in this kitchen around 1800. There is a cellar below the kitchen but considering the stairs were a bit slippery the guide said we would give it a miss considering my foot. P and I went later anyway, bandits.

In about 1820 the home expanded and enveloped the original part of the cottage. Renovations to the property were planned and started but when Macathur become ill in the 1830's work kind of stopped.

Can not miss a trip to the cafe when visiting the Farm. We both had Devonshire Teas with scones that were double the normal size of what I usually see and quite good coffee.

Little touches like washing on the line and kids toys strewn about help create the home environment.

What we nearly missed out on by not going under the kitchen was a cellar. Looks like most cellars but still didn't want to miss it.

A great museum and worth the trip out to Parramatta. The kitchen would have to be my favourite part of this museum. May have to go out again and explore more of the grounds. I've never been particularly fond of Macarthur mainly because he seemed to up against Macquarie a bit and not fond of free convicts at all but he does have a lovely farm.

-A

gallery and hospital

May have to rename the blog to 'Random Sporadic Updates'.

Months ago I went to AGNSW to check out the John Kaldor part of the gallery and take some sneaky, and hilarious, photos of myself.

Taking the long way back to Town Hall I went around the back of Sydney Hospital.

The Hospital, on Macquarie St, was known as the Rum Hospital because the convicts who built it were paid in Rum. and was completed in 1894.

 

I'm still about. Much has been happening. Expect better updates in the near future when I get a new comp. 

- A

A Hoi Hoi

A few weeks back P and I did a bit of a tour of Historic Houses in Sydney trying to knock a few things of The List. First up was lovely Elizabeth Bay House.

The main reason why it has taken me so long to put this one up is because I didn't know what to write really and didn't think I could properly explain the history of the houses, I'll let the photos do the talking. There are great views from both houses and the Historic Houses Trust always do well with their museums with furnishing their houses and the staff are always informative.

A marble bust of Macleay in in the library, he doesn't often have a knitted rat on his head it was part of an art installation throughout some of the museums in Sydney.

 

Each room is furnished as it may have been when it was originally built, with separate rooms for Husband and Wife, reading rooms and foyer for greeting guests. Elizabeth Bay House changed hands many times and was an artists commune in the 70's where the rooms were split and squatters moved in. 

About a 20 minute drive from Elizabeth Bay House is Vaucluse House. The house doesn't have an entrance to the museum as such, you come up the side of the property and go through this little shed thing (more of a building really) so the start of the tour is from the kitchen. This is because of the way the house evolved from a small house consisting of the main living area then with add-ons to the mansion today.

 

Money ran a little short towards the end of the build. looking towards the staircase. Marble busts of Will Wentworth and his wife Sarah are positioned where the front entrance would have been, looking to the grand stairwell.

 

Main living area which was the only part of the house when originally built.

People had a fair amount of time to create elaborate things of out shells.

Two more places off The List. I'll probably go back to both houses again. We only caught a bit of the tour at Elizabeth Bay House and we forgot to see The Grotto!. 

 

Also, Macleay (Elizabeth Bay House) and Wentworth (Vaucluse House) have buildings named after them at Sydney University for the science-y type work and their houses were kind of rivals at the time. Apparently they would not have been all buddy buddy though because Wentworth was born out of wedlock and his wife was a commoner. I think Vaucluse House was better though, mainly because of the history of the building and you can see how much it changed as the family changed.

- A

You Rock My World, You Know You Did

Knocked off a newbie to The List. I've read about people locking engraved padlocks onto retaining walls within Ballast Point Park on a few different blogs. This oddity was the main reason I was going to go. I didn't read anything about the place. Checked the map and saw it was down the road from Adriano Zumbo's so done! Cake in hand I found possibly the most complicated way to get there.

The park reminds me of Cockatoo Island with an industrial and slight modernist feel and basic native plantings. This is an internal photo taken from 'Delicate Balance' which hovers over the edge of the water. There are little cut outs to see framed parts of the harbour and a steel grate which allows the sound of the water to come up the tunnel you're in. 

Ballast Point Park was used to quarry sandstone in the past. Obviously being near Balmain there is a fair bit of the stuff about.

There is the running theme of rivets throughout. Another, much later, purpose of the park was as an oil refinery for Caltex. 

I tried the panorama thingo on my camera. Worked a treat. Now I have no idea how to make it panorama on computer. Views from the park are amazing. Lovely clear day. Thought it was going to be all overcast.

Cake! I had the Drunken Mocha Tart ($9). Consisting of Grand Marina, Orange Ganache, Italian Meringue and..... one last thing I can not remember. Felt a little odd taking a photo of the card in the store. I know heaps of people blog about his food and take notes. Still. little self conscious Aly just didn't have the guts. 

Finally, I find the padlocks. I read the first one. Sweet. I read the second and wonder if MJ is a weird relationship-py code for something, it is just a coincidence or MJ likes to throw themselves around the Inner West. The final one gave it away.

 

I think you pay per letter for engraving. Only one person out of ten was not stingy and got his whole name on there. I thought this was a going to have hundreds all with personal notes. Maybe there is such a wall and I missed it. 

There are heaps of these retaining walls through the park. The park is a sustainable park using mainly recycled materials, including Phil's 21st Birthday Pewter mug.There is also shade cloths made out of seat belts that didn't meet safety standards.

Tank 101 is a sculpture that symbolises the Ballast Point industrial history. The sculpture is in the place of the largest storage tank in park which was used to store crude oil before processing. It was the largest tank in Australia to use rivet construction technology!

Don't know if it is a Space Invader original or some cheat. 

 

Jeremy Gili's 2002 Mosman Rugby mug. This made me wonder if people donated stuff to the site. Caltex occupied the site from 1928 to 2002 and then it was acquired by the government to turn it back into a public space. Maybe Jeremy worked for Caltex and used his mug to cheers off the remaining days to Caltex. 

 

Obligatory feet shot. Always with the blue nails, jeans and thongs. Am consistent with my style. The site maintains much of the industrial Caltex site. Outlining where the tanks stood and the paths around the park.

Retaining walls surrounded the park when it was still Caltex in the event that one of the tanks fell apart and the oil wanted to go into the ocean. Now, all that greenery filters out stuff before it goes into the ocean. 

I do love Kangaroo paws. Barely any coloured plantings, this could have to do with the fact it is Autumn. 

Finished up Ballast Point Park at about 5pm, there is a full history PDF of the site. Read it! Bit of a pain to get across Victoria Rd at this time so when I came across another park I thought I'd check it out. 

Expecting to hear the screeching guitar of BH90210. Am currently going through the series. 

I either saw a movie or had some weird nightmare in my youth but this tree reminded me of a 'movie' where people are absorbed into a tree or people put their babies into a tree... I just remember a tree with faces in it. I feel like a bit of a freak asking the Internets this but, meh. 

I'm at Dawn Fraser swimming pool park! These are blue flowers near the pool/baths. Lovely flowers. Also a lot of spiders in this park. Heaps. 

Pool is closed because of heavy rain. I didn't have my $4 casual entry fee anyway so I took a sly over the fence shot. 

 

Why do all the boats face the same way? Genuine question.

Storm clouds look like coming over. 

The end of my Balmain park tour. I really need to figure a better way of ending posts.

- A