Hadley House, Castlereagh gets heritage listed
The New South Wales Government has heritage listed for Hadley House at Castlereagh.
The homestead’s significance is one of Australia’s oldest farming estates.
But keeping it on the map for future generations has been a struggle.
The Castlereagh property has a special meaning for 2GB broadcaster Ray Hadley, belonging to his fourth great-grandfather Charles Hadley in the 18th century.
In February this year, the Penrith Lakes Development Corporation assured Ray that Hadley Park would be protected only to go back on its word.
State Planning Minister Anthony Roberts says Governor David Hurley has signed off on a heritage listing for the property.
The government is now moving to restore it.
“From there we’ll start to, of course, protect the site further, rebuild it, and turn it into a destination for people to go and see how people in the past used to live and work,” he tells Ray.
Ray has thanked the Minister and the government for preserving the historic location.
“I think it’s very important, from my point of view, that we leave some sort of legacy into the future, where our children… can go and look at places and have a look and feel what it was like back then.”
NSW Heritage says it is difficult to overestimate the significance of this complex, "still extant in its original 1803 grant, and still in a remarkably unaltered condition".
As a building it is one of the earliest extant buildings in the colony; in its condition and setting it is probably unique, the reference suggests.
The farming complex, together with Nepean Park adjacent, make an outstanding pair within the Castlereagh/Nepean River farming plateau.
The site comes with a single storey outbuilding, possibly the earliest timber cottage on the site circa 1806, maybe the oldest timber cottage known to survive in Australia.
The area is now owned by the Penrith Lakes Development Corporation (PLDC) and is off-limits to the public.
The main farmhouse is an extremely rare surviving example of a jerkin head roof structure embodying a most unique and unusual timber structure and clad externally with brickwork.
The technical excellence of the timber roof structure is paralleled by Elizabeth Farm, Parramatta, Old Government House, Parramatta and St. Mathgew's Anglican Church, Windsor and because of this technical excellence the building cannot be described as vernacular.