Harrington Park is a heritage-listed former race track, rural estate management and alluvial grazing paddocks located at 1 Hickson Circuit in the south-western Sydney suburb of Harrington Park in the Camden Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The original designer is unconfirmed, with 1950-60s additions completed by Marcel Weyland. The homestead was built from 1817 to 1827. The property is privately owned and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 December 2006.
History.
The Cowpastures frontier.
The Europeans first saw the Camden area in August 1790. Captain Watkin Tench, Lieutenant William Dawes and surgeon George Worgan (late surgeon of the "Sirius") undertook an expedition where the country had not previously been explored by the settlers. The second expedition into the Camden area by Europeans was in 1795.
For a short period the settlement was short on livestock because the cattle that arrived on the First Fleet had escaped within five months of its arrival. A large importation from India in May 1795 had ended the shortage. Nonetheless a party was organized by Governor Hunter to investigate the stories of the Aboriginal people that the first herd (which had grown substantially in size) was grazing to the south-west of the Sydney town centre. Sixty-one cattle were found grazing in open country beyond the Nepean River. Hunter named the area the Cowpastures; the name used in England for the common grazing of land near a village.
The country impressed the Europeans but it was too far away from the seat of government to be useful. Governor Hunter left the cattle to multiply undisturbed. In 1800 when the herd numbered about five or six hundred, his successor Governor King tried unsuccessfully to have the cattle mustered. When that plan failed he had a slab hut built at the river crossing place, which acted as a guard house and a base for butchering. Governor King tried to stop settlers from going there.
During King's time the Cowpastures was becoming a fine spot for visiting naval officers and those interested in romantic landscapes. To prevent depredations on the wild herd, on 6 July 1803 Governor King issued a proclamation forbidding people to cross to the western bank of the Nepean River without a permit signed by the Governor (cattle were thought to have been killed by escaped convicts as a source of sustenance). In a later ruling on 1 March 1804 he continued the ban, stating that "no ground whatever ought to be granted or leased to individuals on the other side of the Nepean". It appears that a number of settlers occupied land on the Nepean from 1800, although no grants were issued there until 1805, and early accounts of this occupation suggest that most was on the north-eastern bank.
Historian Alan Atkinson reports the river flats drew admiration from the Europeans who travelled through in 1795. They described "large ponds covered with ducks and the black swan, the margins of which were fringed with shrubs of the most delightful tints". Governor Bligh, a naval man, particularly admired the second type of country in the district rising gradually from the river as "Hills and Dales, waving like the Sea, their Bases nearly uniting and rising as they advance towards the high Mountains" [of the Razorback range]. The Europeans thought the flats were perfect for cattle and the hills would carry sheep. They admired the absence of underbrush – probably achieved through Aboriginal land management practices (burning off) – and felt comfortable with a landscape that reminded them of an English gentleman's park.
In spite of Governor Bligh's ruling that no further grants should be made at Cowpastures, small settlers made their homes on the Sydney side of the Nepean from about 1810. This move was part of a large push to extend the settlement southwards after floods and over-cultivation had blighted the Hawkesbury farming area.
The New South Wales Corps deposed Governor Bligh on 26 January 1808 and during the interregnum, which lasted until Lachlan Macquarie replaced Bligh as Governor in January 1810, members of the Corps served as lieutenant governors. Joseph Foveaux in particular thought Bligh's restriction of land grants was detrimental to the colony's progress and he granted land to all who requested it, spreading the small farmers broadly across the Cumberland landscape. Even so, as John Booth's map of 1810 indicates, the "Cowpastures plains" was remote, at the edge of the known landscape.
Restoring order after the rebellion, Governor Macquarie recalled a number of the grants given out by Foveaux and Paterson during the interregnum but he agreed that the "right" or northern bank of the Nepean should be settled. He had James Meehan survey the area and made additional grants on the Sydney side of the river. Some of these were modest, ranging from , but others were extensive. From 1812, Macquarie began to allot land north of Camden to potential large scale landowners, men of substance in the colony. Food shortages and the imminence of population growth as the Anglo-American War of Independence drew to a close prompted this move to favourable ground in the south-west of the Sydney Plain. The first grants in the area were made in 1815: "Kirkham" to John Oxley (Surveyor-General) who was also granted the "Elderslie" farm; "Harrington" to William Campbell (sea captain and Pacific trader); and "Orielton" to Simeon Lord (ex-naval officer and entrepreneur). In 1816 there was "Netherbyres" to Molle (regimental colonel) and "Nonnorah" (later "Maryland") to Dickson (steam miller). About the same time, grants of a similar kind were made: "Macquarie's Gift" to Cowper (clergyman); "Denbigh" to Hook (merchant); "Curtis" to Blaxcell (merchant); and "Raby" to Riley (merchant). Macquarie later regretted his generosity because of the great numbers of cattle stolen from the government herds after the settlers had moved into the area.
At first, these, and similar properties in the neighbourhood were used for sheep and cattle; the few assigned resident convict stockmen lived in primitive huts. By the 1820s some owners looking for "rural retreats" and needing to cultivate the land, established residences and began to build permanent homes with associated farm buildings. These included Oxley and Campbell. The practice began of such landowners running sheep beyond the mountains (on Crown land), using their Cowpasture estates for breeding and agistment and, increasingly, developing agriculture, which began to include milling, threshing, and viticulture as allied activities.
Founder of Harrington Park, William Douglas Campbell.
Captain William Douglas Campbell was a member of the British merchant navy who worked initially in the India trade. He was the most knowledgeable navigator of the Pacific region. He first visited the colony of New South Wales in 1797 on the brig Deptford that brought merchandise from Madras. Two years later he returned as captain of the Rebecca and came to Sydney again in 1801 as master of the brig Harrington. On the way back to Madras in 1803 he visited Chile and Peru for trade purposes and was so successful that he purchased a half-share in the Harrington and returned there the following year. On this occasion, he raided the coast on the "somewhat flimsy excuse" that he believed England and Spain to be at war. When he next visited Sydney, Governor King detained the Harrington while he investigated whether Campbell's actions amounted to piracy. Though Navy officials in England judged Campbell's action to be highly questionable, they returned his ship but confiscated his prizes, which they sold for A£5,054.
Campbell next entered the sandalwood trade with John Macarthur. His profits from delivering Fijian sandalwood to China and returning with oriental merchandise enabled him to buy the remaining share in the Harrington. Having been a close associate of Macarthur before the New South Wales Corps deposed Governor Bligh in 1808, Campbell later fell out with Macarthur and supported Governor Macquarie. In 1809 escaping convicts seized the Harrington and she was destroyed by her pursuers near Manila.
Campbell continued to trade sandalwood from Fiji until late that year when that resource was exhausted. He subsequently concentrated on the trade in salt pork from Tahiti that he had initiated in 1805. During one of his voyages he recaptured the Venus from Tahitian rebels and rescued the English missionaries escaping the civil war. Campbell returned to London where he succeeded in gaining compensation for the Harrington. The grant of near Camden issued by Governor Macquarie on 10 June 1815 was his payment for that loss. Campbell continued trading, though in a less flamboyant manner, until 1817 when he settled on his property naming it "Harrington Park" after his ship. During the next ten years he stayed mainly at his farm where he died on 3 March 1827.
Building the homestead.
Some sources state that the first house that William Douglas Campbell built at Harrington Park – now the kitchen – was a modest single-room dwelling of local bricks with a stone floor and a fireplace at one end and sleeping cabins at the other. Another room provided washing facilities with water from the well nearby. These arrangements were similar to those of other gentlemen farmers when establishing their country properties. Other local farms that began with similar dwellings were Elizabeth Farm at Parramatta, Brownlow Hill at Cobbitty and Nonorrah (later Maryland) at Bringelly. James Broadbent in his book "The Australian Colonial House" (p151), states that Campbell "built a simple two-storeyed single-pile brick house which he enlarged some time before his death". Broadbent believes that, not only did W. D. Campbell build the two-storey house at Harrington Park, but he also made significant changes to it before his death.
Later generations of Campbells.
W. D. Campbell never saw the homestead fully completed, dying in 1827 aged 57. He left the estate to his nephews Murdoch and John Campbell. In 1828 the Census recorded (his nephew) Mr Murdoch Campbell and Mrs A. Campbell living at Harrington Park with convict servants Sarah Maker, housemaid and William Bailey, cook. The farm had of cleared land with in cultivation and 150 cattle and nine horses. The convict labourers working the farm were Patrick Murphy, Samuel Lester, Lawrence Lyons, Abraham Malabar and Joseph Parker. In 1830 William Riley described the Campbell's' altered residence as "an elegant mansion on an eminence and about cleared and in cultivation".
The first subdivision of Harrington Park occurred on 29 August 1829 when Murdoch Campbell sold of enclosed land from the northern part of the estate to his cousin John Douglas Campbell for £600. This farm was named Aberfoil. Two years later, he leased, and later sold, a smaller farming allotment of north of the Cobbitty Road to George Graham, a farmer from Liverpool.
Murdoch Campbell was murdered at "Harrington Park" by an escaped convict or bushranger in 1833. After his death, his share in the "Harrington Park" estate passed to his eldest brother, William Douglas Campbell the younger, a resident of Scotland, and the property reportedly declined from that time. The incumbent released very small allotments in the form of 99-year leases – two just over to James Greenfield and John Graham, and two of about to Andrew Keaton and another unnamed recipient.
In 1838 William Douglas Campbell the younger died without a will and his share of the estate passed to his eldest son, Alexander, an Edinburgh merchant, who issued a power of attorney for the property to his brother William Douglas Campbell III of Arbroath, Scotland, on the understanding that he was about to embark for New South Wales. However, later title details show that W. D. Campbell III was a writer who never left Scotland.
John Douglas Campbell who had purchased the farm named Aberfoil in 1829 sold it to Henry William Johnson in 1842 for £1,600. He made the sale in the worst year of the 1840s depression, so it seems likely that he had financial problems. His action permanently removed this farm from the "Harrington Park" estate. It later became "Oran Park". Outraged, Alexander Campbell, still residing in Scotland, opened legal proceedings against John Campbell in the New South Wales Supreme Court, claiming that he had no right to sell off parts of the "Harrington Park" estate. The Court ruled that the remnant parts of the estate be divided between Alexander and John Campbell. The remaining portion (with the homestead on it) was sold at auction to the highest bidder, Sydney leather dealer James Rofe for £1,775, together with the under lease. The enforced sale ended