St Stephen's Uniting Church – 197 Macquarie Street – From Lang's Breakaway and Phillip Street to the Burdekin House Site – 1842 to Today

Halfway along Macquarie Street, opposite Parliament House and Sydney Hospital, there's a sandstone Gothic church with a big tracery window across the front. Over its roof leans a curved glass office tower. That's St Stephen's Uniting Church at number 197. The building only dates from 1935, but the congregation goes back to 1842, and it spent nearly a century moving around the city before it ended up here.

St Stephen's Uniting Church, 197 Macquarie Street. Photo: Rangasyd, 2019, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Breaking away from Dr Lang

Presbyterianism in Sydney started with the Reverend John Dunmore Lang, who founded the Scots Church on Church Hill in 1824. The Dictionary of Sydney calls him "fiery and at times controversial". In 1842 he led his people out of the Synod of Australia to form his own Synod of New South Wales. St Stephen's own history says that the same year, 22 communicants left Scots Church during Lang's ministry and started their own fellowship.

They moved around a lot. The church's history says they met first in a hall in Macquarie Place. In 1846 they moved to the Wesleyan Chapel in Macquarie Street, opposite the Mint, and in 1848 to the Independent Chapel in Pitt Street, next to the Sydney School of Arts. In 1845 the church in Scotland split into the Established Church and the Free Church, and the colonial congregations were urged to take sides. The Dictionary of Sydney says the minister, Thomas Mowbray, stayed neutral, but some of his people left to form a Free Presbyterian congregation anyway.

The Iron Church and the name

During the Gold Rush the congregation imported a prefabricated iron church that seated 800. The church's history says it went up in 1855 on what is now the State Library site, next to Parliament House. That's where the name St Stephen's comes from. The Westminster Parliament met in St Stephen's Chapel from 1543 to 1834, and a church beside Sydney's Parliament seemed like a good match. The heritage listing gives the same reason for the name.

In 1865 the various Presbyterian groups joined to form the Presbyterian Church of New South Wales, and the Dictionary of Sydney says the Iron Church was formally named St Stephen's then. It soon got too small. The congregation joined with another one in Phillip Street, which was also called St Stephen's, and the Phillip Street church became home. The dates differ. The Dictionary of Sydney says the merger came in 1872, while the church's own history says 1875.

St Stephen's Church, photographed by Charles Percy Pickering in 1872. Charles Percy Pickering, State Library of NSW, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

St Stephen's, Phillip Street

The Phillip Street church became the leading Presbyterian church in the country. When the NSW General Assembly first met in 1901, it met there. The Reverend John Ferguson was inducted in August 1894, when it was the largest Presbyterian congregation in Australia, and he was moderator-general of the national church in 1909. He collapsed in the pulpit in October 1924 and died the next year. Peter Dodds McCormick, who wrote Advance Australia Fair, worked as a stonemason on the Phillip Street church as a young man and later led its choir.

Then the council needed the land. In the 1930s Sydney City Council resumed property to push Martin Place all the way through to Macquarie Street. The church's history says the Phillip Street church stood partly under where the north-west corner of the Reserve Bank is now. The Dictionary of Sydney says the new church went up quickly because of "pressure to demolish the previous St Stephen's church in Phillip Street, which was in the way of the extension of Martin Place".

Martin Place being pushed through from Pitt Street to Macquarie Street in the 1930s. Photo: Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

Building on the Burdekin House site

The new site at 197 Macquarie Street had been Burdekin House. The heritage listing says Thomas Burdekin built it in 1841–42, and it stayed in the family until it was sold in 1924. The Dictionary of Sydney says it was once called the finest private house in Sydney, and pulling it down became one of the first rallying points for heritage campaigners in the city.

The Dictionary of Sydney says the foundation stone was laid on 23 March 1934 and the church was dedicated a year later, on 23 March 1935. The church's history also puts the dedication in 1935. The heritage listing, as summarised on Wikipedia, says it was built from 1935 to 1937, so the finishing work probably carried on after the dedication. The builders were Kell and Rigby.

Building St Stephen's in Macquarie Street, 13 September 1934. Photo: Sam Hood, State Library of NSW, via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

The architects and the design

The architects were John Reid and Finlay Munro junior. The church says they were probably inspired by St Stephen's Chapel at Westminster. Their design is in the Interwar Gothic style, and both the church and the Dictionary of Sydney say it's one of only three churches in that style in the city, along with the Scots Church and the Central Baptist Church. The front is sandstone, with carved tracery and leadlight windows arranged symmetrically around the big east window. Stairs on either side of the entrance lead up to the gallery and down to the Ferguson Hall.

Sydney Open says the church was made with Australian materials by local craftspeople. Inside there's panelling in polished Queensland maple and plaster ceilings based on English Perpendicular Gothic.

The sandstone front and tracery window of St Stephen's. Photo: Rangasyd, 2019, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The windows

The windows were designed by Norman St Clair Carter, the artist who also did the clerestory windows at St Andrew's Cathedral. The church says they were dedicated over about thirty years from 1935. Each window has two medallions with Bible scenes, a coat of arms at the bottom linked to the donor or the person being remembered, and etched verses from the King James Bible. Some of the old Phillip Street windows came along too. The church says they are now in the Ferguson Hall downstairs.

The organ and the music

The organ was built in 1934 by the Melbourne branch of the English firm Hill, Norman and Beard. It has 61 stops and around 2,500 pipes. In the 1970s it was altered in the neo-Baroque style that was fashionable then. Restoration since 2009 has been reversing some of those changes, and a new console by Daniel Bittner of Australian Pipe Organs went in in 2021. Harry Chandler was organist for 50 years, from 1890 to 1940, which spans both the Phillip Street and Macquarie Street churches. The current music director is Mark Quarmby.

Dame Joan Sutherland grew up in this congregation. Her father was an elder and her mother sang in the choir, and she joined the choir herself at six. These days the church holds Friday lunchtime concerts and jazz nights as well as services.

Notable ministers

The ministers' list starts with Dr Robert Steel (1862–1893) and John Ferguson (1894–1925) at Phillip Street. James McLeod (1933–1939) took the congregation over to Macquarie Street. Gordon Powell (1952–1965) was the best known of them. He regularly preached to more than a thousand people on Sundays and at Wednesday lunchtimes, broadcast for thirty years, and is credited with bringing Alcoholics Anonymous to Australia. In 1956, according to the Dictionary of Sydney, St Stephen's broadcast the first televised church service in Australia. The Reverend Fred McKay, who took over from John Flynn at the Australian Inland Mission, was associate minister from 1974 to 1986. Two NSW governors, Sir John Northcott and Sir Eric Woodward, had their state funerals here.

Uniting Church, 1977

In 1977 the Congregational, Methodist and Presbyterian churches joined to form the Uniting Church in Australia, and St Stephen's went in with the union. The Dictionary of Sydney and the church's own history both give 1977. The heritage listing says the congregation's story is "interwoven with the development of the Presbyterian and Uniting Churches in NSW and Australia".

St Stephen's was listed on the State Heritage Register on 3 September 2004 as item 01704. In 2015 Hassell won a design competition for a 33-storey tower at 60 Martin Place, which curves out over the church's roof. The church says the developers, Investa, struck a deal that involved joining the two land titles for a time. Sydney Open says Tonkin Zulaikha Greer restored the east and west facades.

Macquarie Street in 2023. Photo: -wuppertaler, 2023, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0).

The church is open on weekdays from 12pm to 5pm. Next time you're on Macquarie Street, pop in and look up at the Carter windows. The congregation that started with 22 people walking out on Dr Lang has worshipped near Parliament for over 150 years.

Where this came from

• Dictionary of Sydney: St Stephen's Presbyterian Church, Macquarie Street.
• St Stephen's Uniting Church: Our History and Our Building (ssms.org.au).
• Sydney Open (Museums of History NSW): St Stephen's Uniting Church.
• NSW State Heritage Register: St Stephen's Uniting Church (SHR 01704), as reproduced in the Wikipedia article (ministers' and organists' lists, organ details, notable members).
• State Library of NSW photographs by Sam Hood and Charles Percy Pickering, via Wikimedia Commons.

The Water Police Court – Phillip Street, Circular Quay – Edmund Blacket's 1856 Courthouse and the Justice and Police Museum

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised that this page contains the name of an Aboriginal person who has died.

The old Water Police Court on the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets, now the Justice and Police Museum, 2013. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

If you have ever walked up from the ferries at Circular Quay towards the Opera House end of Phillip Street, you have probably passed a little sandstone courthouse sitting up on its own raised footpath, with three arches across the front and a triangular pediment on top. It looks almost too modest for the address. These days it is the Justice and Police Museum, but for well over a century it was where Sydney's waterfront troubles ended up – the drunks, the brawlers, the petty thieves, the sailors who had a big night, and plenty of folk who were just unlucky. This is the story of the Water Police Court.

Gadigal Country

The court stands on Gadigal Country. The City of Sydney's Barani history site describes the Gadigal as a clan of the Eora Nation, one of about 29 clan groups across the Sydney area, whose land stretched along the southern side of Port Jackson from South Head to around what is now Petersham. Wikipedia's article on the Gadigal (spelt Cadigal and Caddiegal in older records) describes them as the traditional owners of Sydney Cove, the place the British chose for their first settlement in 1788.

The same Barani page quotes historians on how quickly the Gadigal were devastated after the British arrived, through smallpox and the loss of land and food sources, and it also stresses that descendants of the Eora still live in Sydney today. Museums of History NSW, which runs the museum, greets visitors to the building with "Good to see you on Gadigal Country", and it acknowledges in particular the impact that colonial and state law enforcement had on First Nations people, saying it wants the museum to be a place for reflection and conversation about First Nations people and the justice system. For a former police station and courthouse, that is a fair thing to say out loud.

Sydney Cove, Port Jackson, painted by John Lewin in 1808, long before Circular Quay was built. John Lewin, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Before the Court: Where the Water Police Came From

Sydney was a harbour town from day one, and it needed policing on the water as much as on land. The Australian Police chronology says that in 1789 Governor Phillip set up a Night Watch and that a Row Boat Guard was "quickly established on Sydney Harbour". The Dictionary of Sydney says the Row Boat Guard's job was preventing smuggling, and that the Water Police were formally established by legislation in 1840, later adding the protection of wharf cargoes and rescue work to that list. The same chronology records the 1840 Water Police Act setting up a force of 15 operational and 12 support personnel, an inquiry into the Sydney Water Police in 1843, and about 28 Water Police men, including two detectives, by 1852.

For a few years the Water Police had their base on the other side of the Quay at Cadman's Cottage. The Dictionary of Sydney says that after John Cadman, the last government coxswain, left, the cottage was occupied by the Water Police from 1846 to the mid-1850s, and was extended for offices and lock-up cells. The NSW Government's Plan of Management for the cottage says the Water Police took it over between 1846 and 1849, that it was gazetted as a Court of Petty Sessions in 1849, and that by 1854 it was reported as inadequate. Even after the move it kept being used as a Water Police lock-up. I wrote about the cottage itself in my Cadman's Cottage post.

Cadman's Cottage at The Rocks, where the Water Police had their offices and cells before moving to Phillip Street. Gwrang, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Cadman's Cottage with the Sailors' Home behind it on George Street, The Rocks. Bidgee, CC BY-SA 3.0 au, via Wikimedia Commons

Museums of History NSW historian Jane Kelso puts it this way: by 1851 the old Water Police Office in The Rocks, with its court and lock-up, was "inadequate and dilapidated". A new home was needed, and the Government had just the block.

A Site Carved from Government House Grounds

The first Government House was pulled down in 1845–46, and Kelso writes that a large part of its grounds was carved up into new streets and allotments. One block was held back for public buildings, and the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets was picked for the new Water Police Office. The site sat up high above the brand-new Circular Quay, and that is still obvious today when you look at the way the building perches above the street.

Looking south from Dawes Point past the ships at Campbell's Wharf to Circular Quay, about 1857, around the time the new court opened. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Sydney Cove from Fort Macquarie in 1859, looking across to The Rocks, the Water Police's old patch. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The Architects

Edmund Blacket and the Water Police Office, 1854–1856

The plans were drawn up by the Colonial Architect, Edmund Blacket. Wikipedia's biography gives his dates as 25 August 1817 to 9 February 1883, and the NSW Government Architect list on Wikipedia has him as Colonial Architect from 1849 to 1854. Most people know Blacket for his churches and the University of Sydney, so a small police court is a bit of a sideline for him.

It was not an easy job to get built. Kelso says the project kept stalling because labour and materials were scarce and dear just as the colony boomed, and it was hard to find a contractor who could do the work. The State Heritage Register text, as reproduced on Wikipedia, adds that quarrying of the sandstone began at Bennelong Point in 1853, and that the gold rushes pushed prices up and drained the labour supply. More money was found and building started in 1854. The courthouse was finished in 1856.

Edmund Blacket, the Colonial Architect who designed the Water Police Office, about 1870. Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Kelso describes it as a Palladian-influenced design, with two lower wings set back slightly from a central pedimented bay, a layout that turned up again in other NSW courthouses. The three arches and the porch behind them were open at first, but iron palisading soon went up to keep out stray goats. Inside was the courtroom with cedar joinery, with rooms for magistrates, clerks and records in the wings, and a separate privy block out the back. From 1858 to 1873 the Shipping Master's Office had the east wing.

According to the heritage listing text on Wikipedia, the building was occupied in April by the Water Police Magistrate, Hutchinson Hothersal Brown, with a Clerk of Petty Sessions and a second clerk, and its cases came under the Harbour Regulations Act and the Act for Establishing a Water Police. In May the Steam Navigation and Pilot Boards were given a room.

The new building did not win any beauty prizes. Former curator Nerida Campbell, writing for Museums of History NSW, says it was "not universally celebrated for its architecture" but was accepted as "well fitted for the purpose for which it is designed", quoting the Sydney Morning Herald of 29 April 1856. Its acoustics were another matter. The Evening News in 1902 complained that "If the magistrate speaks, one hears a voice proceeding from the roof, as if some ardent ventriloquist were displaying his talent." Kelso adds that coir matting was laid to deaden the noise and roof cowls added to fight the "stench" from nearby warehouses and from the courtroom regulars.

The Water Police Court in 1872, photographed by Charles Percy Pickering for the NSW Government Printing Office. Pickering, Charles Percy (New South Wales. Government Printing Office), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Water Police Station, 1857–1858

Next door went the station. Kelso writes that money was allocated in 1855, but it was two years before the new Colonial Architect, Alexander Dawson, submitted a plan and a contractor was found. It was a T-shaped building of Pyrmont stone, with offices and a guardroom facing Phillip Street, cells behind, rooms for inspectors and a big barrack room upstairs, plus a separate kitchen block. It was finished in 1858. The heritage text says the upstairs barracks housed four water policemen and their families, and that the original design, based on stations at Darlinghurst, Newtown and Balmain, was trimmed back because of the gold rush costs.

The Water Police finally moved over from Cadman's Wharf. Kelso adds that the station grew two new cells in 1875–76, an exercise yard a couple of years later, and that the yard behind the court was enclosed to keep out "trysting" goats. The goats get a surprising amount of attention in this building's history.

The former Water Police Station at 8 Phillip Street, later called the Phillip Street Police Station. Sardaka, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Another view of the old station, photographed in 2007. Sardaka at en.wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

James Barnet and the Police Court, 1884–1886

The third building is the one squeezed in between. Kelso writes that in 1884–85 a new courthouse was slotted between the two Water Police buildings, designed by Colonial Architect James Barnet, with three arches and a pediment that echoed Blacket's court. Barnet's double-height courtroom tried to fix the old complaints: linoleum and asphalt blocks on the floor to dampen sound, ventilation tubes in the walls, an unusual recessed skylight and an underfloor "air propeller" for a kind of early air-conditioning. Wikipedia gives Barnet's dates as 1827 to 16 December 1904 and says he was Colonial Architect from 1862 to 1890.

Campbell writes that the Police Court opened in 1886 and that its first magistrate, Mr Whittingdale Johnson, said, "There was chance now of those magistrates who were in good health not losing it, and of those who had suffered through the foul atmosphere of the old court regaining their health." He was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald of 8 January 1886. I covered this building's green plaque in Sydney Police Court – Historical Marker Number 94.

James Barnet, Colonial Architect from 1862 to 1890, who designed the 1886 Police Court. Unknown photographer, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later on, in the late 1890s, Government Architect Walter Liberty Vernon added bow-fronted weatherboard infills to the side arches of both courts. Kelso says they were mocked as looking like "little fruit, lolly, and soft-drink shops", quoting the Evening News of 20 November 1899.

The three arches and pediment of the court, looking along Phillip Street, 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Cases: Sailors, Wharf Crime and the Push

Don't let the name fool you. Kelso points out that the Water Police Court was not confined to maritime cases. Its patch stretched north from Bridge Street to Broken Bay and west to the Lane Cove River, and it dealt with a growing pile of minor criminal and public order matters, as well as preliminary hearings for serious crimes.

Campbell paints the picture well. In the 1850s, with the end of convict transportation and the gold rush, people of every kind flooded through the port, and crime rose along with trade. Most of the court's work was petty: offensive language, public drunkenness, careless "mistakes" after a night out, petty theft and break and enter. By 1880 it was dealing with more than 17,000 cases a year, she writes, citing the Sydney Morning Herald of 22 January 1881. The public gallery was its own show. The Evening News in March 1884 sniffed that "the same faces are visible in their dirt and repulsiveness, watching with interest and gloating over the scenes which are almost daily presented in the courts."

Circular Quay in 1871, crowded with sailing ships. The sailors off these ships kept the Water Police busy. Australian National Maritime Museum on The Commons, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Looking east over Circular Quay and the Government Domain from the Observatory in the 1870s. Aussie~mobs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Rocks Push

Just across the Quay was The Rocks, and from the 1870s it had its own homegrown trouble. The Dictionary of Sydney describes the Rocks Push as a larrikin gang who "dominated and intimidated the residents of the Rocks from the 1870s to the 1890s by theft, assault and battery". Wikipedia's article on the gang says it fought running battles with rival pushes such as the Miller's Point Push, the Glebe Push and the Forty Thieves from Surry Hills. It also tells a grim story about female members luring drunks and seamen into dark lanes like Harrington Place, nicknamed the "Suez Canal", where they were assaulted and robbed. That story comes from Wikipedia rather than a court record, so take the gory details with a grain of salt.

Wikipedia also says the push leaders were decided by bare-knuckle fights, and that Larry Foley, later called the "Father of Australian Boxing", led a Catholic larrikin gang known as the Greens. In 1871 he fought Sandy Ross, leader of the Protestant "Orange" group, for 71 rounds before police stepped in. Wikipedia's article on larrikins quotes the Queanbeyan Age of 27 February 1892 describing "a horde of larrikins, known as the 'Rocks push'" abusing and attacking men at the Labour Bureau. The Water Police Court was the nearest bench to The Rocks for much of this time, so it is a safe bet it saw a fair share of push members, although none of the sources I read names a particular push case heard there.

"The Larrikin", from A Walk in Sydney Streets on the Shady Side, 1885, by Nelson P. Whitelocke. Nelson P Whitelocke (1861-1927), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Mad Dentist and Captain Moonlite

The court's most notorious preliminary hearing, Campbell writes, was that of Henry Louis Bertrand, "the mad dentist of Wynyard Square". In 1865 he murdered Henry Kinder, the husband of his lover Maria Kinder, and dressed it up as suicide. When another of Maria's lovers wrote accusing him, Bertrand took the letter to the police, and the writer was sent to jail for a year for attempted blackmail by the Water Police magistrate. In his secret diary Bertrand wrote, "I am satisfied. Thus once more perish my enemies." Further inquiries led to his arrest along with his wife Jane and Maria Kinder. The Water Police magistrate heard part of the case in his private office to spare the two women from telling the details in public. Bertrand was found guilty but insane at a higher court. The museum holds the guns he bought and little bone carvings he made in prison.

Campbell also notes that the bushranger Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, is known to have spent time in the Water Police Station. The museum has a plaster death mask made shortly after his execution.

Andrew George Scott, alias Captain Moonlite, about 1879. He spent time in the Water Police Station. believed to be Charles Nettleton (1826-1902), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

From Water Police Court to Traffic Court

The 20th century brought big changes. According to Kelso, the Water Police moved to Dawes Point in 1913, and the Phillip Street building became a subsidiary station. The heritage text on Wikipedia says it was known from then on as the Phillip Street Police Station, though people still called it the Water Police Station, and that the court was still called the "Water Bench" until late 1940. In 1933 the station became head station of No. 4 Division of the Metropolitan Police District.

Kelso writes that the Water Police Court closed in 1918 to make way for the Police Traffic Branch, served as an inoculation depot during the 1918–19 influenza pandemic, and reopened in 1924 because courts elsewhere were overcrowded. With the motor car came two dedicated Traffic Courts and later a special Parking Court. The heritage text says that from 1926 the courts were known as Traffic Courts 1 and 2 and heard all traffic and parking offences in the Sydney district, while still taking shipping cases and Water Police matters.

There were some telling small changes along the way. In 1912, Kelso says, the iron spikes on the "cage-like dock" were taken off because it looked degrading and implied guilt. In 1945–46 the road levels were lowered for the Circular Quay railway loop, which is why the buildings now sit up on a split-level footpath. By the late 1940s the station was described as "the worst in the State" (The Sun, 3 May 1949), but rather than being knocked down, it was patched up again. A wartime concrete air-raid shelter ended up as the sergeants' room.

Phillip Street in the late 1880s, photographed by Arthur K. Syer. State Library of New South Wales collection, No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

The corner of Phillip and Bridge Streets in 1899. Bridge Street was the southern edge of the Water Police Court's patch. Photographic Collection from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Justice and Police Museum

The museum's roots go back to 1910. Kelso writes that a Police Museum opened at Police Headquarters that year, filled with confiscated weapons, gambling gear and housebreaking tools, to train recruits. It was called "the demonstrating laboratory in the policeman's school" (The Sun, 5 September 1926). It later moved to the Redfern Police Barracks, and by the 1970s a more public home was being looked for.

When the courts and police moved out of Phillip Street, the old buildings were the obvious choice. In 1986 the NSW Public Works Department began conserving them, stripping out later additions and returning them largely to their late-19th-century look. Kelso says a company, Justice & Police Museum Limited, was set up after the 1987 police reorganisation. The museum went to the Ministry for the Arts in 1988, the Historic Houses Trust of NSW took over in August 1989, and the Justice & Police Museum officially opened in 1991. The Historic Houses Trust later became Sydney Living Museums and is now part of Museums of History NSW. Campbell says the museum shows a courtroom, charge room and cell recreated to look as they did in the 1890s, when the complex was at its busiest.

The building around 1987, during the years it was being turned into a museum. Sardaka, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The sandstone courthouse in 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Collection and the Mugshots

The heritage text describes the collection as largely police-based, built on the 1910 Police Museum teaching collection, and especially strong in colonial firearms and forensic evidence from famous crimes. Campbell mentions evidence from the Pyjama Girl murder and items said to have belonged to the bushrangers Ben Hall, Thunderbolt, the Kelly gang, the Clarke gang and Frank Gardiner.

The best-known treasure is the police photographs. The Research Data Australia listing for the collection describes about 2,500 glass plate negatives, plus some cellulose negatives, of suspects, offenders and detainees taken by Sydney police between 1910 and the early 1930s. They are known as "Special Photographs", and the listing says they were mostly taken in the cells at Central Police Station. It quotes curator Peter Doyle saying the subjects seem to have been allowed, "perhaps invited", to pose themselves as they liked. Museums of History NSW explains that suspects hold handbags, papers and cigarettes, that a bentwood chair in the frame gave an idea of height, and that the lack of handcuffs meant a photo could be shown to a witness without prejudice. The listing names razor-gang era figures such as John Frederick "Chow" Hayes and Guido Calletti (spelt "Guidio" in the listing) among the sitters. I wrote about that era in Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens.

Exhibitions

The museum's exhibition Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties displayed more than 100 of these Specials, taken between 1920 and 1930 and reproduced from the original glass negatives. It is listed as a past exhibition. The current museum page lists a permanent display on Alexander Riley, the legendary Aboriginal police tracker, about the work of Aboriginal trackers for NSW Police in the 20th century. It also notes that the Police Cells are closed for conservation work and are due to reopen in early 2027 with a new exhibition. The museum opens on Saturdays and Sundays from 10am to 5pm.

The museum building on the corner of Phillip and Albert Streets, 2012. sv1ambo, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Bricks and stone said to come from the old Water Police Court. The photo was shared by a NSW records collection, and its original caption links the stone to the first years of the colony. Photographic Collection from Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Heritage Listing

The complex was listed on the NSW State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 as item 673, under the name "Justice and Police Museum; Police Station & Law Courts (former); Traffic Court", according to Wikipedia's article, which reproduces the register text. The listing says the buildings were the headquarters of one of the earliest policing bodies in NSW, closely tied to Sydney's growth as a port, and that they reflect "the work of four government architects over 48 years". It also notes the museum holds the only public collection in NSW of artefacts on the history of crime, law and policing. And it says, rather nicely, that the buildings' "endearingly human scale" gives an important foil to the towers around Circular Quay. The police station's own green plaque is in my post Phillip Street Police Station – Historical Marker 93.

Circular Quay in 1888, painted by Julian Ashton. Julian Ashton, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Water Police are still on Sydney Harbour today. This boat was photographed in 2008. Adam.J.W.C., CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Another Water Police vessel on the harbour, 2008. Adam.J.W.C., CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• 1789 – A Row Boat Guard is set up on Sydney Harbour (Australian Police chronology).
• 1840 – The Water Police Act is passed (Australian Police chronology, Dictionary of Sydney).
• 1845–46 – The first Government House is demolished and its grounds are subdivided (MHNSW).
• 1846–1849 – The Water Police move into Cadman's Cottage (sources differ on the exact year).
• 1851 – The old Water Police Office in The Rocks is described as inadequate. The Phillip and Albert Street site is chosen.
• 1853 – Sandstone is quarried at Bennelong Point (SHR text).
• 1854 – Building begins on Blacket's Water Police Office.
• 1856 – The Water Police Court opens.
• 1857–58 – Dawson's Water Police Station is built.
• 1865 – The station gets gas lighting. Bertrand's preliminary hearing takes place.
• 1873 – The west wing clerks' room becomes a second courtroom.
• 1880 – The court handles more than 17,000 cases a year.
• 1884–86 – Barnet's Police Court is built and opens in January 1886.
• 1899–1900 – Vernon's timber and glass infills go into the arches.
• 1910 – The Police Museum opens at Police Headquarters.
• 1912 – The spikes come off the dock.
• 1913 – The Water Police move to Dawes Point.
• 1918–1924 – The Water Police Court is closed. The Traffic Branch moves in, and the building is used as a flu inoculation depot.
• 1926 – Traffic Courts 1 and 2 begin.
• 1933 – The station becomes head station of No. 4 Division.
• 1945–48 – The street levels are lowered for the Circular Quay railway.
• 1979–80 – The courts close.
• 1984–85 – The police station closes and the police leave.
• 1986 – Conservation work begins.
• 1989 – The Historic Houses Trust takes over.
• 1991 – The Justice & Police Museum officially opens.
• 1999 – The complex is listed on the State Heritage Register on 2 April.

Where the Sources Disagree

• Who designed the Water Police Station? It is sometimes credited to James Barnet. But Museums of History NSW (Kelso) and the State Heritage Register text both say Colonial Architect Alexander Dawson designed it, and Wikipedia's list of NSW Government Architects shows Barnet didn't become Colonial Architect until 1862, four years after the station was finished. Barnet's building on the site is the 1886 Police Court.
• When was the station built? The Dictionary of Sydney says the police station was built in 1857. MHNSW says it was completed in 1858, and the SHR text says construction began in 1857 and lists it as "1858 – Police Station".
• When was the Police Court built? Kelso says 1884–85. Campbell, the Dictionary of Sydney and the SHR text give 1886, which was when it opened.
• When did the courts close? Campbell says the courts closed in 1979, and the SHR text says late 1979. Kelso says the premises were vacated by 1980, and the SHR's list of court uses runs the Traffic Court to 1980.
• When did the police leave? Kelso says the station closed in early 1984. Campbell says the police left the site in 1985.
• When did the museum open? MHNSW says the museum officially opened in 1991. The Dictionary of Sydney says the buildings were adapted for the museum in 1990.
• How long were the Water Police at Cadman's Cottage? The Dictionary of Sydney says from 1846 to the mid-1850s. The Plan of Management says they took it over between 1846 and 1849, probably around 1849, and used it as a lock-up even after the new station opened.
• Lowering the roads. Kelso gives 1945–46. The SHR text gives 1947–48.

My Earlier Posts

• Cadman's Cottage
• Phillip Street Police Station – Corner Phillip St & Albert St – Green Plaque – Historical Marker 93
• Sydney Police Court – Historical Marker Number 94
• Darlinghurst Gaol & Darlinghurst Court
• Kate Leigh & Tilly Devine – Sydney's Razor Gang Queens

Sources

• Jane Kelso, "From Water Police Office to museum", Museums of History NSW, 20 February 2026 – mhnsw.au
• Nerida Campbell, "Gritty business", Museums of History NSW, 13 February 2023 – mhnsw.au
• Justice & Police Museum visitor page, Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "NSW Police 'Specials'", Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "Underworld: Mugshots from the Roaring Twenties", Museums of History NSW – mhnsw.au
• "Special Photographs – NSW Police Forensic Photography archive", Research Data Australia – researchdata.edu.au
• "Justice and Police Museum", Wikipedia, incorporating NSW State Heritage Register item 673 text (CC BY 4.0) – wikipedia.org
• "Water Police Court", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Water Police", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Cadman's cottage", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• "Rocks Push", Dictionary of Sydney – dictionaryofsydney.org
• NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Cadmans Cottage Historic Site Plan of Management – environment.nsw.gov.au
• "Chronology of Policing – NSW", Australian Police – australianpolice.com.au
• "Aboriginal people and place", Barani, City of Sydney – sydneybarani.com.au
• "Gadigal", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Rocks Push", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Larrikin", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "Edmund Blacket", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "James Barnet", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• "New South Wales Government Architect", Wikipedia – wikipedia.org
• All pictures are from Wikimedia Commons, with credits and licences under each picture.

Willow Grove – 34 Phillip Street – Parramatta – Annie Gallagher's Villa, the Maternity Hospital and the Powerhouse Fight – 1891 to 2026

Willowgrove - Parramatta - NSW

Willow Grove (often styled Willowgrove) was a Victorian Italianate villa at 34 Phillip Street, Parramatta, a familiar sight on the Parramatta riverfront for generations, set back behind its cast-iron fence and stone gate posts that locals knew at a glance. Built as a private house on the Parramatta River foreshore, it later sat squarely in the path of the Powerhouse Museum Parramatta project.

In 2021 the villa was dismantled to clear the site. The former NSW Government had promised relocation and reconstruction elsewhere; sandstone, bricks and architectural elements were catalogued and stored. Heritage advocates, including the National Trust (NSW), argued that dismantling was effectively demolition and that an “authentic” rebuild was not real conservation.

In 2023 the Minns Government announced it would not proceed with a costly rebuild, citing heritage advice that a replica would be “fake heritage.” Attention shifted to interpreting the Powerhouse site’s layered history (including Willow Grove), advice on reuse of salvaged materials, and other Parramatta priorities such as the Roxy Theatre.

Further reading: Willowgrove Biggest Bungle

Willow Grove – The Story of the House on Phillip Street

I wrote the bit above back in 2022, when the fight over Willow Grove was still fresh. Since then the City of Parramatta's own historians have dug right through the title deeds and old newspapers, so here's the fuller story of the house, the women who owned it, the babies born in it, and how it ended up in storage while the Powerhouse went up where it stood.

The Parramatta River near the Elizabeth Street bridge, a short walk from where Willow Grove stood on Phillip Street. Chris.sherlock2, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Burramattagal Country

Long before anyone drew a boundary line here, this stretch of riverbank was an important foraging place for the Burramattagal clan of the Darug people, according to the City of Parramatta's history of the site. The council history notes that European settlers cleared the land, riverbanks included, which badly cut back the native plants and animals Aboriginal people depended on. Green Left's 2020 report on the campaign also points out that the name Parramatta comes from the Burramattagal, and that the Darug Strategic Management Group objected to the museum, saying it hadn't been consulted and pointing to a significant tree on the site.

A French view of the landing at the entrance to Parramatta, published around 1833. J. Tastu, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Augustus Earle's watercolour of the Female Factory at Parramatta, about 1826. Colonial Parramatta was already growing up along the river. Augustus Earle (1793-1838), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Benjamin Lee, the Waterloo Man

The council's research traces the land back to Benjamin Lee, who held two blocks, Portions 41 and 43 of Section 25 of the Town of Parramatta. Lee died in April 1879 aged 91, and he was known locally for a military record that included fighting with the British at Waterloo. After he died, his estate of twenty lots in Phillip and Church Streets was cut up and auctioned. The lots that later became Willow Grove were sold as vacant building blocks with "good, elevated positions, and nice sheltered spots for cottages away from the dust of the public road".

The Town of Parramatta in the 1840s, from Baker's Australian County Atlas. Phillip Street runs along the river's south bank. Baker's Australian county atlas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

A Mr T. Ellis bought Lots 11 to 15 for £360. That was Thomas Henry Ellis, an auctioneer, though the title went into his wife Rebecca's name. The couple lived on the north side of Phillip Street until Rebecca died in September 1890.

Frederick Tudgay's 1879 painting of Parramatta, the year Benjamin Lee's estate went under the hammer. Frederick Tudgay, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Annie Gallagher, the Draper Who Built It

In November 1890 the land sold again, for a hefty £1,000, to Annie Josephine Gallagher, born Hanly. The council history makes the point that she bought it with her own money, which the Married Women's Property Act 1879 made possible for women like her.

Annie had started young. Her father John Hanly died in April 1883 and left her £230. By July that year she'd opened A. J. Hanly's Cash Millinery and Drapery Shop in Church Street, which she called "The Sydney Gem". She married Thomas Gallagher at St Patrick's in Parramatta in April 1884 but kept trading under her maiden name for a while. In 1885 the business moved into bigger premises called The Arcade. In time it became Gallagher's Arcade, and sometimes, a bit grandly, Gallagher's Great Arcade. Her motto was "Small Profits, Quick Returns".

Church Street, Parramatta, in 2015. Annie Gallagher's drapery and arcade traded on Church Street from 1883. User:rcbutcher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On 3 December 1890 a tender went into the Cumberland Mercury for a cottage in Phillip Street for the Gallaghers. The architect was Sydney Moore Green, a colonial-born architect with offices in Pitt Street. According to the council, Green had earlier worked with Thomas Rowe, first as an employee and then as a partner, on jobs including the YMCA building, the original part of Sydney Hospital, the Synagogue and Vickery's Chambers. Green died in 1912 and is buried at Gore Hill.

Thomas didn't get long to enjoy it. He died at home in Phillip Street on 3 November 1891, aged only 35. Annie carried on, and in August 1892 she put out a tender for the front fence, with its "stone pier and dwarf wall and iron railing". That was the fence and those gate posts everyone remembers.

The Crown Hotel in Church Street. The street was Parramatta's main shopping strip in Annie Gallagher's day. rcbutcher (talk · contribs), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The 1890s were brutal for business, with more than a hundred bankruptcies in Parramatta between 1890 and 1895, but Annie kept going. In April 1894 she advertised a "Great Winter Fair", boasting that while banks had collapsed, "Gallagher's Arcade stands unrivalled". In 1899 she rebuilt the arcade, more than 150 feet long and nearly 30 feet high, with skylights. She did that partly on borrowed money, including debts to the firm of W. & A. McArthur Ltd. She was also fined at Parramatta Police Court in 1895 for putting stock out on the footpath.

In early 1903 the creditors moved in. On 3 March the contents of Willow Grove were auctioned. The sale notice described a brick villa with drawing, dining and breakfast rooms, a kitchen and six bedrooms, plus a coachhouse, stable and man's room, on a block with a 100-foot frontage to Phillip Street that ran about 420 feet deep. W. & A. McArthur Ltd, one of the creditors, bought it in July 1903. Annie was declared bankrupt in 1906. She died at Darlinghurst on 9 January 1924 and was buried with Thomas at Rookwood.

Rookwood Necropolis, where Annie and Thomas Gallagher are buried. J Bar, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The Melhuishes

McArthur's rented the house out for a while. Then on 1 November 1906 it went to Elizabeth Melhuish, the second wife of Henry Dutton Melhuish of Granville. Henry had made his money from an engineering business, H. D. Melhuish and Son of Spring Hill near Orange, and he patented improved farm machinery. Elizabeth, the widow of Thomas Hubbard of Maryvale near Wellington, owned rental properties in her own right. They married at Granville in 1898.

The council says the couple lived at Willow Grove from 1906 to 1915. Henry preached with the Baptist church and took services at aged care homes around Parramatta. After that the house seems to have been let. The Sands Directory has a Mr and Mrs S. Hoffman there in 1915, and a Mrs Brown was the occupier in 1917. Elizabeth died at Taringa in Granville in 1924, aged 79. Henry went back to Wellington and died there in 1929, aged 95.

Old Government House in Parramatta Park in jacaranda season. The council lists jacarandas among the trees in Willow Grove's garden too. Michael Cleary, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Babies on Phillip Street – Willow Grove as a Private Hospital, 1919 to 1953

This is the part of the story that a lot of Parramatta families are personally tied to. The title passed on 5 February 1919 to Evangeline Estelle Davidson, a matron and midwife, the wife of Robert Davidson of Ashfield. She opened it as Estella Private Hospital, licensed for "medical, surgical, and lying-in" cases, with no more than fourteen patients in six wards. That was the same year the influenza pandemic hit Sydney. The council history says 129 private lying-in hospitals were recorded in Sydney in 1920, most of them run by trained midwives. The Private Hospitals Act of 1908 brought in yearly licences and inspections.

'Lying-in' meant a mother was kept in bed for a stretch before and after the birth. Birth notices in the local papers named Estella Private Hospital or Sister Davidson's Private Hospital, and some grateful families placed thank-you notices too.

St John's Church, Parramatta, in 1913, a few years before Willow Grove became a hospital. Anglican Church, Australia,1913, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

On 23 July 1923 Sister Davidson sold to nursing sister May Victoria West, who renamed it Westcourt. Sister West kept ownership until August 1949. In October 1925 she leased it to Sister Amy Agnes Allen and Sister (Elvira) Maud Lowe, who called it Aloha, and the lease said it could only be used as a private hospital. By 1927 the lease had passed to two sisters, Hannah Florence McLachlan and Mary McLachlan. They had come from Inchneuk Private Hospital on the corner of Smith and George Streets, which their former partner Mary Helena Watson kept running.

Green Left quoted the campaigner Suzette Meade saying the house was always owned by women until the 1950s. The NSW Nurses and Midwives Association backed the green ban because of that midwifery history.

The Roxy in Parramatta in the 1930s, photographed by Sam Hood, while Willow Grove was still a hospital around the corner. Sam Hood (1872-1953), No restrictions, via Wikimedia Commons

Post Office Engineers, a Car Park and Forever Living

The hospital closed in 1953. Part of the land went to Parramatta Council for a car park and open space. The rest went to the Commonwealth and was handed to the Postmaster-General's Department in June 1953 for engineering offices. In March 1987 part of the land went to Agostino Bros Pty Ltd. In 1994 Rex Maughan, the owner of the American company Forever Living Products, bought the house, renovated it and ran his business from it. From June 2015 it belonged to Parramatta City Council, until the land was resumed for the Powerhouse.

The Parramatta ferry wharf at the end of Phillip Street. Abesty, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

A RiverCat docking at Parramatta wharf in 2013. user:rcbutcher, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Powerhouse, the Green Ban and the Dismantling

When the Berejiklian Government picked the riverbank for the new Powerhouse Museum, Willow Grove and St George's Terrace were both in the way. Green Left reported that the government's response to submissions in October 2020 still planned to "deconstruct and relocate" Willow Grove, but would keep St George's Terrace. The Save the Powerhouse group said 1,232 of the 1,299 submissions to the inquiry objected. Green Left also noted that the Premier and Don Harwin had pledged before the election to save the house.

The North Parramatta Residents Action Group, led by Suzette Meade, took the fight to the CFMEU. She told Green Left she went to the union's Committee of Management with letters of support from the National Trust, and within twenty minutes she had a phone call saying an interim green ban was on, by unanimous decision. Meade had worked with the union before, on its green ban over the old Cumberland Hospital site, and she told Green Left that the late BLF leader Jack Mundey had been beside her on that one.

Floodwater at the Parramatta Wharf bridge on Phillip Street, 21 March 2021. The Powerhouse's riverside site sits on this floodplain. SHB2000, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The residents lost a court bid in July 2021 to stall the removal by challenging Infrastructure NSW's environmental impact statement, the Guardian reported. Then, on 24 August 2021, with western Sydney locked down for the Delta outbreak, the union lifted its ban. In return the government agreed to save St George's Terrace and fold it into the museum design. The deal also set up a committee to oversee the dismantling and rebuilding, and promised the house would stay in public hands. Meade accused the government of using COVID as cover. Arts Minister Don Harwin said Willow Grove would be rebuilt brick by brick at a site still to be announced.

The planning consent made the builders draw up a Relocation Framework and Methodology Plan before any work started, and update it within twelve months of the dismantling to name a new site. A Willow Grove Community Reference Group was formed in November 2021. The National Trust walked out of it in April 2022, saying the house couldn't be authentically rebuilt.

The Parramatta River from the air near Rosehill, downstream from the Powerhouse site. Beau Giles, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

"Fake Heritage" – Willow Grove Will Not Be Rebuilt

On 10 September 2023 the Minns Government drew a line under it. Arts Minister John Graham said the former government had never allocated money or found a site for the rebuild, and that heritage people were calling a rebuild "fake heritage". "Willow Grove will not be rebuilt," he said. The ABC reported that more than 90 per cent of the original bricks were in secure storage, along with the slate roofing, the windows, the front door, the timber framing and the fence. Suzette Meade said, "Thankfully sanity has prevailed, no Willow Grove Frankenstein will be resurrected." The government said it would turn its attention to places like the Roxy Theatre instead.

Hoyts Roxy Theatre, Parramatta, in 1993. The Minns Government named the Roxy as its Parramatta heritage priority in place of the rebuild. lindsaybridge from Sydney, Australia, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

On 25 September 2023 Parramatta Council resolved to ask that the rebuild money be redirected to the Riverside Theatres and other heritage projects. It also asked the government to consult the council before any parts of the house were reused or thrown away.

Where Things Stand Now

As far as I can find, the salvaged pieces of Willow Grove are still in storage, and I haven't found any announced decision on what will become of them. Infrastructure NSW says the Powerhouse Parramatta building was finished in April 2026 and the museum opens on Saturday 7 November 2026. St George's Terrace is part of it. Willow Grove isn't.

Church Street, Parramatta, after the light rail was finished in January 2025. Parramatta is changing fast. Nick-D, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Parramatta Square in 2020. Xing Lin, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Other Old Parramatta Places Worth a Visit

Willow Grove is gone, but these older Parramatta places are still standing, and they give you a feel for the town Annie Gallagher knew.

Old Government House, Parramatta Park. Yewenyi at English Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Elizabeth Farm, Harris Park. Sardaka (talk) 06:15, 23 January 2013 (UTC), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Experiment Farm Cottage, Harris Park. Sardaka (talk) 06:07, 21 January 2013 (UTC), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Lennox Bridge, which carries Church Street over the Parramatta River. inas, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Timeline

• Before 1788 – The riverbank is a foraging place of the Burramattagal clan of the Darug people.
• April 1879 – Benjamin Lee dies aged 91, and his Phillip and Church Street lots are auctioned.
• 1879 – Thomas Ellis buys Lots 11 to 15 for £360, with the title in Rebecca Ellis's name.
• July 1883 – Annie Hanly opens her drapery, "The Sydney Gem", in Church Street.
• April 1884 – Annie marries Thomas Gallagher.
• November 1890 – Annie Gallagher buys the land for £1,000.
• 3 December 1890 – Tenders are called for the house, designed by Sydney Moore Green.
• 3 November 1891 – Thomas Gallagher dies at Willow Grove, aged 35.
• August 1892 – Tenders are called for the stone piers and iron front fence.
• March to July 1903 – The contents are auctioned, and W. & A. McArthur Ltd buys the house.
• 1 November 1906 – Elizabeth Melhuish buys the house.
• 5 February 1919 – Evangeline Estelle Davidson buys it and opens Estella Private Hospital.
• 23 July 1923 – May Victoria West buys it, and it becomes Westcourt.
• October 1925 – It is leased to Sisters Allen and Lowe and renamed Aloha.
• 1927 – The McLachlan sisters take over the lease.
• 1953 – The hospital closes. The PMG takes the house, and the council takes part of the land.
• 1994 – Rex Maughan of Forever Living Products buys and renovates it.
• June 2015 – Parramatta Council becomes the owner.
• 2020 – The CFMEU puts a green ban on Willow Grove and St George's Terrace.
• 24 August 2021 – The green ban is lifted, and St George's Terrace is saved.
• Late 2021 – Willow Grove is dismantled and put into storage.
• April 2022 – The National Trust quits the Community Reference Group.
• 10 September 2023 – The Minns Government says Willow Grove will not be rebuilt.
• 7 November 2026 – Powerhouse Parramatta is due to open on the site.

Where the Sources Disagree

• When it was built. The NSW Government's 2023 media release and the ABC both say Willow Grove was built between 1870 and 1880, and the Guardian called it a 140-year-old homestead in 2021. The City of Parramatta's research, drawing on Terry Kass's 2020 history, puts it at 1890 to 1891, from Annie Gallagher's purchase and the December 1890 tender. The council's architecture page calls it a design of the 1880s to 1890s. The deeds and tender notices point to the early 1890s.
• When the green ban went on. Green Left Weekly, writing in October 2020, said the CFMEU placed the ban in April 2020, with the announcement held back by COVID. The Guardian said it went on in November 2020.
• When it came down. The Guardian reported on 24 August 2021 that dismantling had already begun. The NSW Government said it was demolished in late 2021. The council's Part 1 history says it stood until December 2021, and its Part 2 history dates the resumption for Powerhouse construction to January 2022.
• Demolished or dismantled? The ABC, the Minns Government and Parramatta Council all say "demolished". The former government and the union deal called it dismantling for relocation.
• How to spell it. The house is "Willow Grove" in the council and government sources, but it's often written "Willowgrove", as in my title and one of the council's own headings.

My Earlier Posts

• The Castle Hill Rebellion – Battle of Vinegar Hill – 5 March 1804
• Ultimo House – Ultimo – New South Wales
• Mundarrah Towers – The Lost Castle of Clovelly

Sources

• City of Parramatta, Willow Grove: 34 Phillip Street Parramatta: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/willow-grove-34-phillip-street-parramatta
• Cathy McHardy, The Story of Willow Grove (Part 1), City of Parramatta, 2022: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/local-history/story-of-willow-grove-34-phillip-street-parramatta-part-1
• Cathy McHardy, The Story of Willow Grove: From Home to Private Hospital (Part 2), City of Parramatta, 2022: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/buildings-and-structures/story-of-willow-grove-home-private-hospital-part-2
• Emma Stockburn, Willow Grove: Architecture and Design, City of Parramatta, 2022: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/buildings-and-structures/willow-grove-architecture-and-design
• Willow Grove as a Hospital: 1919 to 1953, City of Parramatta: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/buildings-and-structures/willow-grove-hospital-1919-1953
• Emma Stockburn, Willow Grove: Elizabeth and Henry Dutton Melhuish, City of Parramatta, 2022: https://historyandheritage.cityofparramatta.nsw.gov.au/research-topics/local-history/willow-grove-elizabeth-and-henry-dutton-melhuish
• NSW Government media release, Willow Grove, September 2023: https://www.nsw.gov.au/media-releases/willow-grove
• ABC News, Willow Grove won't be rebuilt in Parramatta, 10 September 2023: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-10/willow-grove-wont-be-rebuilt-nsw-government/102837152
• The Guardian, Three-year battle to save historic Willow Grove ends in union backdown, 24 August 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2021/aug/24/powerhouse-parramatta-three-year-battle-to-save-historic-willow-grove-ends-in-union-backdown
• Green Left, The battle to save Willow Grove, 2020: https://www.greenleft.org.au/2020/1285/analysis/battle-save-willow-grove
• CFMEU NSW, Green Ban on Parramatta Powerhouse sites: https://nsw.cfmeu.org/green-ban-on-parramatta-powerhouse-sites/
• City of Parramatta Council, Minutes, 25 September 2023: https://businesspapers.parracity.nsw.gov.au/Open/2023/09/OC_25092023_AGN_856_AT.htm
• NSW Planning, Powerhouse Parramatta development consent SSD-10416: https://majorprojects.planningportal.nsw.gov.au/prweb/PRRestService/mp/01/getContent?AttachRef=SSD-10416-MOD-4%2120251020T053830.967+GMT
• Infrastructure NSW, Powerhouse Parramatta news and updates: https://powerhouseparramatta.insw.com/insw/powerhouse-parramatta/news-and-updates
• Images: Wikimedia Commons, credited under each picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/