Rose Cottage, Wilberforce facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Rose Cottage |
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| Location | Rose Street, Wilberforce, City of Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia |
| Built | 1810–1820 |
| Owner | Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society Inc. |
| Official name: Rose Cottage | |
| Type | State Heritage(Built) |
| Designated | 2 April 1999 |
| Reference no. | 358 |
| Type | Cottage |
| Category | Residential buildings (private) |
| Builders | Thomas Rose |
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Rose Cottage is a very old house in Wilberforce, Australia. It was built between 1810 and 1820 by Thomas Rose, one of Australia's first free settlers. Today, Rose Cottage is a museum. It is owned by the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society Inc. This special building was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on April 2, 1999, because of its important history.
Contents
A Look Back: Rose Cottage History
Who Lived Here First?
Long before Europeans arrived, the Dharug people lived along the lower Hawkesbury River. This area was very important for them. The river, which they called Deerubbin, provided lots of food and was a key way to travel. The nearby Nepean River and South Creek also offered many resources.
How Wilberforce Began
European explorers first came to the Hawkesbury River in 1789. They were looking for good farmland for the new colony. Early explorers saw signs of huge floods, so Governor of New South Wales Arthur Phillip was careful about settling there.
However, in 1794, Lieutenant-Governor Major Francis Grose decided to give out land grants. He gave 22 grants in the Mulgrave Place district. Most of these first settlers were former convicts who had finished their sentences. Even with challenges, their farms did very well. The Hawkesbury area quickly grew to 546 people by 1795.
Big floods in 1799, 1800, and 1801 caused problems. They damaged crops and made food very expensive. To stop soil erosion, Governor King made rules in 1803. He said people could not remove trees near the riverbanks.
More big floods hit in 1806 and 1809. These floods caused huge damage and made food prices soar. Because of this, Governor Macquarie arrived in 1809. He quickly set up five new towns on higher ground. These were Windsor, Richmond, Wilberforce, Pitt Town, and Castlereagh. He wanted settlers to move their homes to these safer spots.
In 1820, an investigator named John Thomas Bigge visited the colony. He noted how incredibly fertile the Hawkesbury soil was. He said the land was "distinguished by its depth and inexhaustible fertility." However, he also mentioned that many farms and houses were "ill-built" due to costs and lack of skilled workers. Wilberforce had more free settlers than other towns.
The Rose Family's Land
Thomas Rose came to New South Wales in 1793 on the ship Bellona. He and other free settlers were given land near Strathfield, which they called "Liberty Plains." Thomas Rose was an experienced farmer, but the soil there was poor.
By 1802, Thomas Rose bought 15 acres of land called Laurel Farm near Wilberforce. Sadly, he lost everything in the floods of 1806 and 1809.
The land where Rose Cottage stands today was first given to William Mackay in 1797. Over time, it was sold to different people. In 1809, Joshua Rose, Thomas Rose's son, bought the land.
Thomas and Jane Rose had seven children in Australia. Many of them became farmers along the Hawkesbury River.
Building Rose Cottage
It's believed that Rose Cottage was built between 1809 and 1820. We don't have exact papers for when it was built. Instead, experts look at the way it was made. The cottage uses a special building style called "vertical timber slab construction." This means large wooden slabs were stood upright to form the walls. The old hinges on the doors also suggest it was built before 1820.
The cottage's original layout was similar to how it looks today. A back section, called a skillion, might have been added a bit later in the early 1800s.
Some people thought the cottage was built after 1810 because of Governor Macquarie's rules for new houses. Others thought it was built around 1817 because a minister, Samuel Leigh, was said to have visited "old Tom Rose's home." However, there's no clear proof for these dates. The cottage doesn't fully follow Macquarie's rules, and the visit might have been to a different house.
It's also not certain which Rose family members lived in Rose Cottage. Joshua Rose owned the land from 1809 to 1850. But in 1828, he was listed as living in Lower Portland.
In 1850, Joshua gave the land to his brother, Thomas II. In 1854, Thomas II wrote his will. He left Rose Cottage and Laurel Farm to his son, Charles. This is the first time we have a clear record mentioning buildings on the land where Rose Cottage is.
In the big flood of 1867, Thomas II and his partner Ann were safe in the attic. The water reached one metre high on the ground floor! After this flood, or when Charles inherited the cottage in 1869, some repairs were made. New wooden boards were added to the outside, and the roof was covered with metal sheets over the original wooden shingles.
Changes Over Time
Charles Rose owned the cottage from 1869 until he died in 1911. He was a carrier, and his first six children were born elsewhere.
In his will, Charles divided the land between his two sons, John Henry Rose and Richard Alfred Harold Rose. John got the part with the "Homestead and the other buildings" (Rose Cottage). Richard got the other part with a house he had built.
John Rose likely made more changes to the cottage after his parents died. Pine boards were added to some walls inside. The ladder to the attic was also rebuilt.
The Australiana Pioneer Village
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After John Henry Rose died in 1961, Dugald McLachlan bought Rose Cottage. He owned the Tropicana Hotel next door. McLachlan wanted to make Rose Cottage the main part of a theme park called the Australiana Pioneer Village. He bought most of the original land and moved other old buildings to the site. The village opened in 1970. It featured Rose Cottage, the Kurrajong railway station, and an old police station from Riverstone.
Repairs were made to the cottage to get it ready for the village. Walls were covered, rotten parts of the verandah were fixed, and a concrete floor was added. Old photos from 1965 show how the cottage looked before these repairs.
Over the years, the Pioneer Village changed owners several times. In 1985, Rose Cottage was given a special protection order by the Heritage Council of NSW. This meant it had to be preserved. The next month, Hawkesbury City Council bought the entire Australiana Pioneer Village.
In 1993, the Council leased Rose Cottage to the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society. Then, in 1995, they officially gave the cottage to the Society. Major repairs were done in 1994 to make sure the building was stable.
What Rose Cottage Looks Like
The Cottage Itself
Rose Cottage is a single-story house with an attic. It has four rooms and a verandah on the north side. It's built using a mix of old techniques: vertical timber slabs, timber frames, and mud infill. Some parts also have weatherboards.
The main roof is made with split rafters, which were originally for wooden shingles. A skillion roof at the back uses bush poles. There are two brick chimneys on the west side.
Gardens and Grounds
The property is about 2282 square metres. It sits on a flat ridge above the Hawkesbury River floodplain. Fences surround the property.
You can enter the property through a gate on the northwest side. There are also gates on the southwest that lead to a track in the Australiana Pioneer Village.
The cottage is surrounded by grassy areas with rose bushes and several trees. These include white cedar, false acacia, and citrus trees. A large pepper(corn) tree is on the southern edge. You can also see a rose shrub and a wattle tree. Most of the plants you see today were planted after 1961.
Other Features
There's an old water cistern near the Heritage Hotel-Motel. It's a brick dome structure from the late 1800s, possibly built over an even older one by the Rose family.
Outbuildings
Rose Cottage has a few smaller buildings nearby.
- Outbuilding - west: This building has slab walls and a sloping roof made of old corrugated iron. It was built around 1880.
- Outbuilding - east: This one has a sloping roof with corrugated iron and slab walls. It was built in the early 1900s.
- Shed 1: This shed was built in the mid to late 1900s. It has a pitched roof and is used for displaying birds.
- Shed 2: Built in the late 1900s, this shed is used for displaying animals.
Why Rose Cottage is Important
Rose Cottage is a fantastic example of an early 1800s timber slab house. It was lived in by the Rose family, who were among the first free settlers in Australia, from when it was built until 1961. The cottage still shows how early farms along the Hawkesbury River looked. Many people value it as the oldest timber slab house still standing in Australia.
Rose Cottage was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register in 1999 for several reasons:
Its Place in History
Rose Cottage helps us understand the early history of settlement along the Hawkesbury River. Even though we don't have exact building dates, the way it's built suggests it's from the 1810s or 1820s. It shows how rural areas developed in the earliest days of the colony.
The Rose family farmed this land from 1809 until 1961. This long family connection is very rare. The land around the cottage still shows signs of its past use, like old fence lines and groups of trees.
The land was divided into smaller farms very early on, and Rose Cottage's land stayed mostly the same for a long time. This shows how land was divided in the early 1800s in Wilberforce. When the Australiana Pioneer Village was created, it helped keep the cottage and its land connected.
Its Connection to Important People
Rose Cottage is strongly linked to the Rose family. They were among the first free settlers to arrive in Australia in 1793. Thomas Rose was a skilled farmer. David Collins, an important official, said Thomas Rose was "the most respectable of these people."
Thomas's wife, Jane Rose, gave birth to the first free child born to free settlers in the colony. She was also the first woman in the colony to become a great-grandmother!
The Rose family lived and farmed at Rose Cottage for a very long time, from 1809 to 1961. This continuous family connection makes the cottage very special.
Its Unique Style and Building Methods
Rose Cottage is a great example of early 19th-century building techniques. It's one of the oldest timber slab houses in Australia. Other old farm cottages exist, but they aren't built with timber slabs. This makes Rose Cottage unique.
The cottage's setting still feels like an old farm. The way the land was later used by the Australiana Pioneer Village helped keep this feeling. Some old fences and tree lines from the Rose family's time are still there. Even the trees near the river show how Governor King tried to stop erosion in 1803.
Its Importance to the Community
In 1975, descendants of Thomas and Jane Rose started the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society. Their main goals were to save Rose Cottage and to publish the family's history. The Society now has over 300 members, and they believe there are more than 20,000 descendants of Thomas and Jane Rose!
The community also sees Rose Cottage as very important. It's listed on several heritage registers, showing how much it's valued.
What We Can Still Learn from It
Because Rose Cottage was lived in for so long, there's a lot of information hidden in the ground around it. Digging in the area could tell us about past buildings, gardens, and how the land was used for farming in the early 1800s. We might find out about old crops, field boundaries, and water systems.
There's also a chance to find items left behind by the family in and around the cottage and outbuildings. This information would be very interesting because one family lived there for so many years.
Since it's such an old and well-preserved slab-built cottage, studying its structure can teach us more about timber building methods from that time.
See also
