Redbanks Road 33 Willaston
| Place type: | Building |
|---|---|
| Address: | 33 Redbanks Road |
| Town or Locality: | Willaston |
DESCRIPTION:
This large single-storey, double-fronted cottage is elevated from street level and displays features typical of the late-Victorian era. It is constructed of face sandstone, brought to course and tuckpointed, with red face brick quoins and dressings, and rubble sandstone to side walls. The hipped roof is clad with corrugated colorbond sheeting and features overpainted corbelled brick chimneys. A central timber-framed panelled timber door with sidelights and fanlight is flanked on either side by timber-framed, double-hung sash windows. A concave verandah is supported on square timber posts with moulded caps with cast iron shoes, as well as lace frieze and corner brackets. The elevated verandah is accessed by central rendered steps with splayed walls to either side. A masonry fence of rubble sandstone, tuck pointed, with red shaped-brick piers and rendered arched coping, defines the front boundary. A central, non-original, cast-iron gate provides pedestrian access.
STATEMENT OF HERITAGE VALUE:
Likely built some time in the 1880s, this cottage is a quality example of its typology, common along this particular stretch of Redbanks Road, which was part of the 1878 subdivision of Waltham. The cottage is intact and demonstrates high-quality workmanship in the fine timber and cast-iron detailing, and superior stonework to both the dwelling and the boundary wall.
BRIEF HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:
The original plan of Gawler Town prepared by Light, Finniss and Co in 1839 was extended as additional townships were added over the next two decades. These townships included: Willaston in 1848; Gawler East in 1849; Bertha in 1850; Evanston in 1853; Gawler North, Gawler West and Bassett Town in 1857; and Gawler South in 1858. Later smaller subdivisions included the Edith/Blanche Street area of Gawler East in 1873, Gulf View in 1876, and Waltham in 1878. A later stage of development saw the creation of Olive Hill in 1891 and Berrett Town in 1910.
The Township of Waltham was the initiative of Henry Edward Bright MP owner of section 134 Hundred of Mudla Wilrra. The 79-acre section located to the north-west of Willaston had been advertised for sale in December 1868 by its previous owner George Neil, who had applied to have it brought under the Real Property Act two years earlier. On 12 December 1868 an advertisement appeared in the Bunyip for the sale of Mr George Neil’s property section 134 Hundred of Mudla Wirra, located immediately to the north of Willaston and containing 79 acres. He had applied two years earlier to have this section brought under the Real Property Act. The property was purchased by Henry Edward Bright (1819-1904), who had emigrated with his young family from Essex in 1849. The family settled at Gawler and his first employment had been driving bullock teams between Gawler and Burra. Within 20 years he had risen to becoming a member of Parliament, representing the district of Stanley in the House of Assembly from 1865 to 1875, and the district of Wooroora from 1875 to 1884.
From 1873 to 1875 he was Commissioner of Public Works in the Government of Arthur Blyth and in 1885 was elected to the Legislative of which he was a member until 1891.
In 1878 Bright subdivided part of section 134 into 43 allotments, laid out as the Township of Waltham. The name was adopted from a town in Essex and is believed to derive from either the Anglo -Saxon wealtham - ‘enclosure in the weald’ [wood], or weald-ham - ‘a forest homestead or enclosure’.
Allotments were offered at an auction conducted by J C Wilkinson on 27 January 1879, at Frankel’s Exchange Hotel in Gawler. The advertisement read in part as follows: ‘This Land is beautifully situated, and for Salubrity of Position, Grandeur of View, and General Excellence, is not to be equalled in the Neighbourhood of Gawler’.
H E Bright died in 1904 and his second son, Thomas R Bright, as his executor, created Waltham Abbey, in 1907, as an extension to Waltham. In the early twentieth century there were several dairies associated with the area. These subdivisions are now both included in Gawler and the names have disappeared.
Adjoining allotments 14 and 29, each comprising about ¼ acre, of portion of section 134 in the Hundred of Mudla Wirra, County of Gawler, were transferred to William Flett Loutit, bank manager of Gawler on 18 November 1879. In 1897 he transferred them to Arthur Henry Gartrell son of Edwin James Gartrell, proprietor of the successful Willaston butchers and smallgoods business, and also a butcher. The next owner was Horace Frank Ayling, mason of Willaston, in 1909. It was next transferred to Henry Everett and his wife Ellen, farmers from Templers in 1911, then after Everett’s death to Arthur Oscar Krieg, a baker in Willaston, and his wife Ivy Maud in 1933. The two allotments were transferred to separate titles in 1980.
The stone cottage located on allotment 14 is likely to date from the early period of William Flett Loutit’s ownership, circa 1880s. W F Loutit (1844-1911) emigrated to South Australia with his family from Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands (Scotland) in 1850, and was a brother of Thomas Loutit, engineer and sometime Mayor of Gawler. William initially worked as an accountant in Gawler, later joining the National Bank. He was appointed as accountant at Mount Gambier, then manager of the Auburn, Gawler and from 1880 the Naracoorte branches of the bank. His period of residence in Gawler was probably curtailed by his appointment to the position at Naracoorte, and the house was probably rented in his absence.
Please <click here> to view photos of 33 Redbanks Road Willaston.
Acknowledgments
This report has been prepared by the following people:
• Nancy Cromar (Flightpath Architects)
• Deborah Morgan (Flightpath Architects)
• Kate Paterson (Flightpath Architects)
• Douglas Alexander (Flightpath Architects)
The study team would like to acknowledge the assistance of the following people:
• David Petruzzella (Strategic Planner; Town of Gawler)
• Jacinta Weiss (Cultural Heritage Centre Coordinator; Town of Gawler)
• Jane Strange (Senior Development and Strategic Policy Officer; Town of Gawler)
Gawler History Team Inc. thanks:
Flightpath Architects, Ryan Viney and the Town of Gawler for allowing us access to this important document of Gawler History.
www.flightpatharchitects.com.au
.
References
- LTO CT 320/245; CT 4159/796
- Hignett & Company Gawler Heritage Study Stage 1 December 1981
- Place Names of South Australia (accessed 27 February 2020) https://published.collections.slsa.sa.gov.au/placenamesofsouthaustralia/W.pdf
- Bunyip 12 December 1868 p.4
- Chronicle 2 September 1911 p.45 ‘Obituary’
- Gawler Standard 4 Jan 1879 p.2
- Register 21 December 1866 p.4
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