G032 : Ulinbawn

Item details


Name of item:	G032 : Ulinbawn
Other name/s:	Breakfast Poin Refreshment Roomt; Durham's Collegiate School
Primary address:	6 Nepean Gardens Place, Glenbrook, NSW 2773
Local govt. area:	Blue Mountains

All addresses

Street Address	Suburb/town	LGA	Parish	County	Type
6 Nepean Gardens Place	Glenbrook	Blue Mountains			Primary Address

Statement of significance:


	Ulinbawn has layers of historical significance, all at the local level. It is associated with a prominent and faintly notorious politician, who built it; with a well-known local surveyor; and for half a century with one of the dominant families in the Glenbrook area, the Skarratts. It has close links with the first stage of the railway up the Lapstone Zig Zag as a refreshment room and with the first years of the RAAF at Glenbrook (G 030) as accommodation for personnel. It has also significance as a private school, representative of these on the mountains in the early twentieth century. Ulinbawn is a rare extant example of a Victorian Georgian sandstone house in the Blue Mountains. It has good quality detailing and features including the french windows with the louvred shutters and the side stone entry stair. The mature erythrina in the front yard is a good surviving remnant of the original garden plantings.
	Date significance updated: 28 Feb 00
	Note: The State Heritage Inventory provides information about heritage items listed by local and State government agencies. The State Heritage Inventory is continually being updated by local and State agencies as new information becomes available. Read the OEH copyright and disclaimer.

Description


Construction years:	1877-1877
Physical description:	Ulinbawn is a single storey gabled house on a north-south axis facing east to overlook Penrith and Sydney beyond. A single slope verandah encircles the house. A rear kitchen wing is at the south end of the west elevation. The house has a symmetrical front with a central front door with sidelights and a toplight. French windows with louvred shutters are located either side of the door and on the north and south walls. The roof is of corrugated steel and the walls of random sandstone, margined at the openings. The verandah is supported on cast iron columns and approached by a generous sandstone stair centred on the east elevation. A mature erythrina stands in the front yard.
Physical condition and/or Archaeological potential:	Good
	Date condition updated:17 Jan 00
Modifications and dates:	Rear addition First floor accommodation including dormer and gable windows Swimming pool


Current use:	Residence
Former use:	Residence; Refreshment Rooms; School; Railway Halt

History

Historical notes:

Ulinbawn was built on John Lucas’s 1870s land-holdings on the Lapstone escarpment above the original railway line. Lucas, a prominent and controversial Sydney politician, built a cottage for himself as a country retreat close to his private railway station called Lucasville. The reason for and the date of the construction of Ulinbawn also on Lucas’s land are not known, but presumably it was built for leasing. In 1877 another railway halt called Breakfast Point was established, through Lucas’s influence, close to Ulinbawn and the train-travellers were served food and drink by the lessees of Ulinbawn. It is possible, even probable, that Ulinbawn was built at the same time as the new rail-halt in 1877 specifically as a refreshment room.

Lucas sold Ulinbawn with 4 hectares (10 acres) of land to George Yeomans, a local surveyor, in 1883. Yeomans planned to develop upstairs rooms in the house, but was frustrated by the loss at sea of the staircase he had ordered. In 1892 the Lapstone Zig Zag was closed and replaced by the Glenbrook Tunnel: this meant that Ulinbawn was no longer on the rail line, lost its service function and was now accessible only by a rough track from Mount Street.

Donald Frederick Skarratt had spent time at Ulinbawn in the 1890s and early 1900s and liked the house sufficiently to lease it from Yeomans in 1906 and then to buy it in 1910. Skarratt had also bought Mountside (G 034) nearby and chose to live there with his wife and family. Ulinbawn was leased, as in Lucas’s time, for much of the period of Skarratt ownership, from 1910 until 1965, first to the Walls, then in the 1920s to Mr Durham who ran a Collegiate School there. When the RAAF took over the Lapstone Hill Hotel nearby in 1948, airforce personnel occupied Ulinbawn, the kitchen was relocated and in the 1950s a bathroom was added.

The house finally left Skarratt ownership in 1967. Since then it has been altered internally a good deal and the creation of a residential sub-division closely around it has radically altered its environment.

Historic themes

Australian theme (abbrev)	New South Wales theme	Local theme
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Commerce-Activities relating to buying, selling and exchanging goods and services	(none)-
3. Economy-Developing local, regional and national economies	Transport-Activities associated with the moving of people and goods from one place to another, and systems for the provision of such movements	(none)-
4. Settlement-Building settlements, towns and cities	Land tenure-Activities and processes for identifying forms of ownership and occupancy of land and water, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal	(none)-
6. Educating-Educating	Education-Activities associated with teaching and learning by children and adults, formally and informally.	(none)-

Assessment of significance


SHR Criteria a) [Historical significance]	Ulinbawn has layers of historical significance, all at the local level. It is associated with a prominent and faintly notorious politician, who built it; with a well-known local surveyor; and for half a century with one of the dominant families in the Glenbrook area, the Skarratts. It has close links with the first stage of the railway up the Lapstone Zig Zag as a refreshment room and with the first years of the RAAF at Glenbrook (G 030) as accommodation for personnel. It has also significance as a private school, representative of these on the mountains in the early twentieth century.
SHR Criteria c) [Aesthetic significance]	Ulinbawn is a rare extant example of a Victorian Georgian sandstone house in the Blue Mountains. It has good quality detailing and features including the french windows with the louvred shutters and the side stone entry stair. The mature erythrina in the front yard is a good surviving remnant of the original garden plantings.
Integrity/Intactness:	Reasonable
Assessment criteria:	Items are assessed against the State Heritage Register (SHR) Criteria to determine the level of significance. Refer to the Listings below for the level of statutory protection.

Listings

Heritage Listing	Listing Title	Listing Number	Gazette Date	Gazette Number	Gazette Page
Local Environmental Plan	LEP2005	G032	07 Oct 05	122
Heritage study		G032

Study details

Title	Year	Number	Author	Inspected by	Guidelines used
Blue Mountains Heritage Study	1983	G032	Croft & Associates Pty Ltd & Meredith Walker		Yes
Heritage Study Review, Blue Mountains	1992	G032	Tropman and Tropman		Yes
Blue Mountains Heritage Register Review	1999	G032	Jack, R. I. for University of Sydney	RIJ & PH	Yes
Technical Audit BM Heritage Register	2008	G032	Blue Mountains City Council	City Planning Branch	No

References, internet links & images

Type	Author	Year	Title	Internet Links
Written	Payne, David and Fuller, Colleen	1998	Ulinbawn National Trust Listing Sheet
Oral History	Skarratt, Eric of Glenbrook	2000	Interview 24 February

Note: internet links may be to web pages, documents or images.

(Click on thumbnail for full size image and image details)

Data source


The information for this entry comes from the following source:
Name:	Local Government
Database number:	1170271

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