Rudall Street 8

**Fast Facts**
Place type:	Building
Address:	8 Rudall Street
Town or Locality:	Gawler East

DESCRIPTION:

This grand single-storey, double-fronted mid-Victorian villa was the family residence of prominent public figure S.B Rudall. It is constructed of bluestone, brought to course and tuck-pointed, with rendered dressings and string course above verandah. The roof is hipped and clad with corrugated metal and has been extended over an extension of the facade to the east and includes hipped addition to a projecting bay addition to the west. Windows are timber-framed and double-hung with non-original timber screens, and the door is timber framed and panelled with single sidelight and fanlight. The concave return verandah is supported on square timber posts with moulded capping, and cast-iron frieze and corner brackets. A non-original low masonry wall with cast-iron lace frieze encloses the verandah. Alterations and additions include an early extension of the façade to the east, projecting bay to the west and landscaping.

STATEMENT OF HERITAGE VALUE:

Likely constructed during the late 1880s for notable local lawyer, businessman and Gawler Corporation Clerk, the substantial villa at 8 Rudall Street, Gawler East, dates from Gawler’s boom period and demonstrates the uptake and development of the ‘Nob Hill’ area with premium residences for the town’s successful businessmen and their families. The early additions to the original residence, enlarging it substantially may further demonstrate Rudall’s success and prosperity. The fine late-Victorian era villa has generous proportions and is constructed of local stone, brick and cast iron.

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. Many of the purchasers were investors and speculators, prepared to wait for the value of the land to increase as the population grew, then creating new subdivisions.

In June 1865 Green and Wadham held a sale of part of William Paxton’s section 4, comprising about 100 acres altogether, mostly in one to three acres lots some adjoining each other. Every lot was purchased, yielding between £5000 and £6000. There was considerable interest. ‘Such a demand for suburban land speaks well for the growing interest and comfort of the Gawler inhabitants, who will now be able to have residences not a great way from their places of business’ (SA Advertiser 6 June 1865 p2)

One of the purchasers of these allotments may have been William Faulkner Wincey (1837-1894), a partner in Pearce Wincey & Co, timber merchants and twice mayor of Gawler. On 19 June 1866 notices appeared in the Adelaide Express and the Advertiser warning that all goats, pigs, dogs, poultry and rabbits etc trespassing on lots 406, 392 or part allotments 407 and 393 would be destroyed (signed by William F Wincey, Gawler).

The Gawler Rates Assessment records of 1886 show S B Rudall as owner of Allotments 390, 391, 392, 393, 406, 408, and 409, with frontages to Duffield and Turner Street, and that this was all vacant land. From 1890 Rudall is shown as occupying 392 & 393 (Duffield Street) comprising Residence and Land valued at £30 from 1890, with the other allotments remaining vacant fenced land. It is therefore reasonable to assume that the residence was completed around the late 1880s.

Samuel Bruce Rudall, MP, (1860-1945) was the eldest son of John Rudall, who was the first Town Clerk for Gawler, and first solicitor to practice in the town. After completing his education at St Peter’s College, Samuel was articled as a lawyer, first to his father and later with J & G Downer. He took over his father’s legal practice in 1881, and later followed him as Town Clerk to serving for 32 years. From 1885 to 1902 he was a director of James Martin & Co Ltd. representing the Barossa district in the House of Assembly from 1906 to 1915. He was associated with almost every civic activity in Gawler including the Gawler Institute, Literary Society, the Gawler Union Parliament, Freemasons and numerous sporting and social clubs.

In 1924 the property, was in the possession of John Reed, a grazier from Kooringa. At that stage it comprised a little over three acres, and was now divided by a new east-west road between Duffield and Turner Street named as Rudall Street on the Certificate of Title. Reed subdivided the land, and a portion of lots 392 and 393 were transferred to Pauline Anna Heinrich in 1929. Reed died in 1959 and in 1960 the title was transferred to Robert Malcolm Brown of 2 Duffield Street, a builder, and his wife Betty Joan Brown, who sold off part allotment 408 on the southern side of Rudall Street. Later subdivisions have further reduced the once expansive gardens.

Please <click here> to view photos of 8 Rudall Street.

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

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