Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage
Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage, 1996
Location	399 Kamerunga Road, Redlynch, Cairns, Cairns Region, Queensland, Australia
Design period	1940s - 1960s (post-World War II)
Built	c. 1920 - 1970s
Queensland Heritage Register
Official name: Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage (former), Sadie's House
Type	state heritage (built)
Designated	24 January 1997
Reference no.	601739
Significant period	1950s-1980s (historical) c. 1920, 1950s-1970s (fabric)
Significant components	residential accommodation - main house, other - residential: component, extension/s or addition/s, fence/wall - perimeter, trees/plantings
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The Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage is a special old house located at 399 Kamerunga Road in Redlynch, near Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It was built sometime between the 1920s and 1970s. This cottage is also known as Sadie's House. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on January 24, 1997, which means it's an important historical place.

A Writer's Home

Xavier Herbert, 1938

This simple wooden house was bought in 1951 by Xavier Herbert. He was a very famous Australian writer whose books were read all over the world. The cottage was meant to be a home for his wife, Sadie Norden. However, it also became Xavier Herbert's main home for more than 30 years.

While living at the Redlynch cottage, Herbert worked on almost all of his most important books. The only major book he didn't write there was Capricornia.

Redlynch Village History

The cottage is in the small village of Redlynch. This village is at the bottom of the coastal mountains, northwest of Cairns. In the 1870s, people started cutting down cedar trees in this area. Later, in the 1880s, more people moved here when a railway was planned. The railway would connect Cairns to the Atherton Tableland.

The Eight-mile Railway Station opened in 1887. Soon after, the area was renamed Redlynch. A small village grew around the train station. In the 1920s and 1930s, Redlynch became a key area for growing sugar cane. The cottage that the Herberts later bought might have been built in the 1920s.

Xavier Herbert's Journey

Alfred Francis Xavier Herbert (1901-1984) was born in Western Australia. He first trained to be a pharmacist. In 1925, he moved to Melbourne and studied medicine for a year. Around this time, his first short story was published. Herbert then decided to become a writer instead of a doctor.

He traveled a lot in the late 1920s, often walking across northern Australia. He also spent two years in England from 1930 to 1932. While in England, he started writing Capricornia. His future wife, Sadie Norden, helped him with this. He returned to Australia in 1932 and wrote short stories to earn money. This helped Sadie join him in Australia in 1933. Capricornia was finally published in 1938. It won a big writing competition and became a best-seller.

Life at Redlynch Cottage

After serving in the Second World War, Xavier and Sadie moved north from Sydney. In June 1951, they bought the cottage in Redlynch. Xavier received a special writing grant to help buy the house. He said the house was mostly for Sadie, as he didn't care much for "comforts." However, the house became their main home for the rest of their lives.

After moving to Redlynch, Herbert worked different jobs and wrote his books. His stories often explored what it meant to be Australian. He also wrote about how Aboriginal people were treated and how the environment was being harmed. Most of his stories were set in the Australian bush or small country towns.

Some of his later books include Seven Emus (1959) and Soldiers' Women (1961). His longest novel, Poor Fellow My Country, was published in 1975. It won the Miles Franklin Award that same year. This book is about 850,000 words long, making it the longest novel ever published in Australia.

Sadie's House and Writing

Xavier Herbert often said that Sadie Norden was the most important person in his life. He always called their Redlynch house "Sadie's house." This house became a very important place for him. Xavier would often go away to write his first drafts, camping in the mountains for weeks. But he always came back to Sadie and Redlynch to finish his work.

He once said, "I'd never go on writing anything if Sadie didn't like it." Sadie and the cottage gave him a stable place to live and work. Herbert later described Redlynch as "the most beautiful little town I ever set eyes on."

The Herberts became well-known in Redlynch. Xavier sometimes worked as a pharmacist in the village. He was also very fit and often jogged through the sugar cane fields. He even said he got the idea for Poor Fellow My Country while running. Xavier also tried to be self-sufficient. He experimented with special electricity for his home. In his backyard, he built a small "writer's shed." Local people believe this shed was made from two small sheds from the Kuranda Scenic Railway. Part of Poor Fellow My Country was written and revised in this shed. Sadly, this shed was taken down in late 1995.

Cottage Changes Over Time

With the money he won for Poor Fellow My Country, the Herberts made some changes to the cottage. They added a new bathroom and toilet. The inside was updated with new ceilings and wall panels. The outside was covered with new aluminum siding, and the front porch was enclosed. They also built a garage and a guest room for visitors in the backyard. A new carport was added next to the house.

After Sadie passed away in 1979, Xavier stayed in the cottage. He lived there until a few months before he died in Alice Springs in April 1984. In 1983, he gave the cottage to his friend, Robyn Pill, asking her to care for it. She owned the house until 1989.

Since the Herberts lived there, the cottage has been updated quite a bit. The inside was rebuilt in 1996. Most of the old trees and bushes in the garden were removed, except for some palm trees. The writer's shed, which was very important to Xavier, was also sadly removed in 1995-1996.

What the Cottage Looks Like

The former Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage is in the middle of Redlynch village. It's about 13 kilometers (8 miles) northwest of Cairns. The house is quite close to the front of its block, right next to busy Kamerunga Road. It faces the Redlynch railway station and is next to the Red Beret Hotel. From the house, you can see sugar cane fields and mountains. It's a very pretty spot.

The cottage is a small, one-story building made of wood. It has enclosed front and back porches. There's also a concrete block addition at the back. The house sits on low posts, mostly made of wood. Some have been replaced with concrete or steel. The outside of the house is covered with aluminum siding that looks like wooden boards. The roof is made of corrugated metal.

All the windows seem to have been replaced. The windows on the west side have new metal covers. The front of the house has new decorative wooden lattice work. On the east side of the house, there's a single carport with a sloped roof and a front garage door. A tall concrete block wall marks the eastern edge of the property. The other fences around the property are picket fences.

Inside the Cottage

The inside of the cottage has been changed over time. It originally had two rooms that opened onto the front and back porches. Now, the middle wall has been removed. Two new walls divide the main part of the house into three rooms. There's a bedroom on each side, and a living area in the middle. The living area has an archway that opens to the enclosed front porch. The bedrooms still have their original French doors leading to the front porch. However, all the other doors in the house are modern. The inside walls and ceilings are covered with plasterboard. It's not clear if any of the Herberts' old wood-look wall panels from the 1970s are still underneath the current walls.

The back porch might have been partly enclosed a long time ago. But it was fully enclosed when the Herberts lived there. It has recently been updated with a new kitchen on one end and a bathroom on the other. A door in the middle of the back porch leads to an attached addition. This addition is a concrete slab with a laundry room on one end and a toilet on the other. The middle part of this addition is enclosed with wooden lattice.

In the backyard, a garage has been built on the eastern side of the property. This building is covered in aluminum and sits on a concrete base. It has a sloped roof and is divided into two parts. The eastern half is the garage, and the western half is used as a workout area. It has windows on three sides and doors at the front and back.

The Herberts' garden is mostly gone now. The only big plants left are some palm trees in the backyard. The palm trees at the front of the property seem to be newer and might not have been there when the Herberts lived there.

Why It's a Heritage Site

The former Xavier and Sadie Herbert's Cottage was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on January 24, 1997. This means it's considered important for several reasons:

• It shows how Queensland's history has changed.
• It could give us more information to understand Queensland's history.
• It has a strong connection to a particular group or community.
• It has a special link to an important person or group in Queensland's history.

The cottage is very important because it's the only house in Australia strongly connected to the famous Australian writer Xavier Herbert and his work. It can also help us learn more about Xavier and Sadie Herbert's lives. The house is important to the local Redlynch community and to people who study Australian literature. It was Xavier Herbert's home and workplace for over 30 years.

The cottage has a special link to Xavier Herbert, an internationally respected Australian author. He worked on all his major books there, except for Capricornia. Even though much of his writing happened in the shed that is now gone, the house still has a strong connection to Herbert and his work. The cottage is still in its Redlynch setting. Some of the changes the Herberts made in the 1970s, paid for with his prize money, are still there. These changes used simple, affordable materials. This shows that Herbert didn't care much about fancy things. The Redlynch cottage also shows an important part of Herbert's life. It tells us a lot about him as a person, not just as a writer.