Rose Cottage, Wilberforce facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Rose Cottage

Location	Rose Street, Wilberforce, City of Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia
Built	1810–1820
Owner	Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society Inc.

New South Wales Heritage Register
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. Today, it is a museum that shows what life was like long ago. The Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society Inc. now owns and cares for this special place. Rose Cottage was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on April 2, 1999, because of its important history.

A Look Back in Time

First People of the Land

The land around the Hawkesbury River was originally home to the Dharug people. They called the river Deerubbin. This area was very important for them. It provided lots of food and was a key way to travel. The Darkinjung people also lived nearby.

Early Days of Wilberforce

European explorers first came to the Hawkesbury River in 1789. Governor of New South Wales Arthur Phillip was looking for good farming land. He wanted to grow food for the new colony. But he saw that the river flooded very high. So, he didn't want people to settle there at first.

However, in 1794, Lieutenant-Governor Major Francis Grose started giving out land. He gave 22 land grants in an area called Mulgrave Place. Most of these first settlers were former convicts. They were given 30 acres each, right by the river. Even though they were new to farming, their crops grew very well. The Hawkesbury area quickly grew to 546 people by 1795.

Floods were a big problem. They happened often and caused a lot of damage. In 1803, Governor King tried to stop soil erosion. He made a rule that people couldn't cut down trees near the riverbanks. He also set up common areas for animals to graze.

Big floods in 1806 and 1809 caused huge losses. Food became very expensive. This made people wonder if the Hawkesbury could really feed the colony.

Macquarie Towns: Building on Higher Ground

After the big flood of 1809, Governor Macquarie arrived. He decided to build five new towns on higher ground. These were Windsor, Richmond, Wilberforce, Pitt Town and Castlereagh. He wanted settlers to move their homes there to avoid floods. These towns were planned with straight streets and a central square. This brought more stability to the Hawkesbury settlers.

In 1820, an investigator named John Thomas Bigge visited the colony. He noted that the Hawkesbury soil was incredibly fertile. But he also saw that many farm buildings were in poor condition. He thought this was because building materials and skilled workers were hard to find. Wilberforce had more free settlers than other towns. A school and church were built there in 1819.

Land for the Rose Family

Thomas Rose arrived in New South Wales in 1793. He was one of the first free settlers. He first received land near Strathfield, but the soil was poor. By 1802, he bought 15 acres near Wilberforce called Laurel Farm. 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. In 1809, Thomas Rose's son, Joshua Rose, bought this land. The Rose family had many children. Most of them stayed in Australia and started their own farms along the Hawkesbury River.

Building Rose Cottage

We don't have exact papers saying when Rose Cottage was built. But experts believe it was constructed between 1809 and 1820. This is based on how it was built. It uses a special method called "vertical timber slab" construction. The old hinges on the doors also suggest it's from this early period. The house looked much like it does today, though a back section might have been added a bit later.

For a long time, people thought Governor Macquarie's rules for new houses in 1810 helped date the cottage. Also, a story said a minister visited "old Tom Rose's home" in 1817. But later research couldn't fully confirm these stories. So, the exact date is still a bit of a mystery, but the building itself tells us it's very old.

It's also not clear which Rose family members lived in the cottage at first. Joshua Rose owned the land from 1809 to 1850. But records show he lived in other places sometimes. In 1850, Joshua gave the land to his brother, Thomas II. Thomas II's will in 1854 is the first clear document mentioning buildings on the land where Rose Cottage is.

In the huge 1867 Hawkesbury flood, Thomas II and his partner Ann were safe in the attic. The water reached one meter high on the ground floor! After this flood, or when Thomas II died in 1869, the cottage had some repairs. New wooden boards were added, and the roof was covered with metal sheets over the original shingles.

Dividing the Farm

Charles Rose, Thomas II's son, owned Rose Cottage from 1869 until he died in 1911. We don't know if he lived there all the time. He was a carrier, and his first children were born far away.

In his will, Charles divided the farm between his two sons, John Henry and Richard Alfred Harold. John received the part with the "Homestead and the other buildings," which included Rose Cottage. Richard got the other half with a house he had built. This division created two long, narrow pieces of land, both reaching the river.

In the early 1900s, John Rose likely made more changes to the cottage. He added more wooden boards inside and rebuilt the ladder to the attic. These changes made the cottage more comfortable.

Australiana Pioneer Village

After John Henry Rose passed away in 1961, a man named Dugald McLachlan bought Rose Cottage. He owned the hotel next door and had a big idea. He wanted to create a theme park called the Australiana Pioneer Village, with Rose Cottage as its main attraction. McLachlan bought most of the original land grant and moved other old buildings to the site. The village opened in 1970. It featured Rose Cottage, an old railway station, and a police station from the 1850s.

Repairs were done to the cottage to get it ready for the village. Walls were covered, rotten posts were replaced, and a concrete floor was laid on the verandah. Old photos from 1965 show how the cottage looked before these repairs.

Over the years, the Pioneer Village changed owners. In 1985, Rose Cottage was given a special protection order by the Heritage Council of NSW. This meant it had to be preserved. Soon after, the Hawkesbury City Council bought the entire Australiana Pioneer Village. In 1995, the Council gave ownership of Rose Cottage to the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society. Major repairs were done in 1994 to make sure the cottage would last.

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. These include vertical timber slabs, timber frames, and mud infill. The main roof is made with split rafters, which were used for shingle roofs. There are two brick chimneys on the west side.

Gardens and Grounds

The property is about 2282 square meters. It sits on a flat ridge above the Hawkesbury River. It's surrounded by fences. The entrance is a gate on the northwest side.

The cottage is surrounded by grassy areas with some rose bushes and trees. You can see white cedar trees, false acacia, and citrus trees. There's a big pepper tree on the southern edge. Other plants include a rose shrub, a wattle tree, gum trees, and a quince tree. Most of the plants you see today were planted after 1961. The cottage feels cozy because it's on a slightly raised area.

Other Features

There's an old water cistern near the Heritage Hotel-Motel. It's a brick dome structure, likely from the late 1800s, and was reportedly built by the Rose family.

Outbuildings

Rose Cottage has several smaller buildings nearby. These are called outbuildings or sheds. They were built at different times:

Outbuilding - west: This one is from around 1880. It has slab walls and a sloping roof made of old corrugated iron. It has a concrete floor.
Outbuilding - east: This one is from the early 1900s. It also has slab walls and a sloping roof made of corrugated iron. It has an earth floor.
Shed 1: Built in the mid to late 1900s, this shed has a pitched roof and is made of timber slabs, iron, and steel mesh. It was used to display birds.
Shed 2: This shed was built in the late 1900s to display animals.

Why Rose Cottage is Special

Heritage boundaries

Rose Cottage is a fantastic example of an early 1800s timber slab house. It was home to the Rose family, who were among the first free settlers in Australia, from when it was built until 1961. The cottage still looks like it did when it was part of a farm. It helps us imagine what early farming life was like along the Hawkesbury River. 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 on April 2, 1999, because it meets several important rules.

Showing History

Rose Cottage helps us understand the history of New South Wales. While the exact building date is debated, its physical features show it was built before 1820. This makes it one of the oldest buildings of its kind. It shows how farms were developed in the earliest days of settlement on the Hawkesbury River. There are no other similar old farmhouses in the Wilberforce area that still have their original land around them.

The Rose family farmed this land from 1809 until 1961. You can still see parts of the old farm on the grounds of the Australiana Pioneer Village. This includes old fences and lines of trees that marked the farm's boundaries. The way the land was divided into long, narrow plots is also a good example of how land was shared in the early 1800s.

When Bill McLachlan bought Rose Cottage in 1961, he created the Australiana Pioneer Village. This idea of bringing old buildings together to create a heritage theme park was popular in the 1970s and 1980s.

Connected 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 an experienced farmer. He was seen as a very good settler. No other buildings built by the first two generations of the Rose family are known to still exist.

Thomas's wife, Jane Rose, had a son six months after they arrived. He was the first free child born to free settlers in the colony. Jane Rose was also the first woman in the colony to become a great-grandmother.

The Rose family lived in Rose Cottage and farmed the land for a very long time, from 1809 to 1961. This long connection makes the cottage very special and rare in New South Wales.

A Unique Building Style

Rose Cottage is an amazing example of early 1800s building techniques. Even though its exact age is debated, its style suggests it's from the 1810s or 1820s. There are other timber slab buildings nearby, but Rose Cottage might be the oldest timber house still standing in Australia.

Other old farm cottages from that time exist, but none are built with timber slabs like Rose Cottage. This makes it a unique and important example of how people built homes back then. The area around the cottage still feels like an old farming landscape, which helps us understand its history.

The way the land is used today, as the Australiana Pioneer Village, helps keep the cottage's historical setting. Some old fences and tree lines from the Rose family's time are still there. Even the trees along the river reflect an old rule from Governor King to prevent soil erosion.

Important to the Community

In 1975, some of Thomas and Jane Rose's descendants started the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society. Their main goals were to save Rose Cottage and to write a history of the Rose family. They hold family reunions every three years. The society now has over 300 members, and they believe there are more than 20,000 descendants of Thomas and Jane Rose!

This strong connection between the Rose family and the cottage is very special for the local area. The community also shows how much they care about Rose Cottage. It is listed on several heritage registers, showing its importance.

Learning from the Past

Because Rose Cottage has been 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 old buildings that were once there. It could also show us what plants were grown and how the land was used for farming in the early 1800s.

There's also a chance to find old items in and around the cottage and its outbuildings. The cistern near the hotel might also hold clues. This information would be very interesting because one family lived in the house for such a long time.

As a very old and complete timber slab cottage, studying its structure can teach us even more about how people built things in that period.