Back to search results
DUNDONALD HOMESTEAD
WOODLANDS HISTORIC PARK, GREENVALE VIC 3059
DUNDONALD HOMESTEAD
WOODLANDS HISTORIC PARK, GREENVALE VIC 3059
All information on this page is maintained by Heritage Victoria.
Click below for their website and contact details.
Victorian Heritage Inventory
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
On this page:
Statement of Significance
(from Heritage Study) The former Dundonald property is of Regional heritage significance for its extensive parkland planting of exotic species, mainly large conifers, which may date to the 1850s or 60s; for its association with the Hon. Donald Kennedy MLC, and subsequently absentee Scottish landlords; for its evidence of granite
quarrying, including the first and most important granite quarry in Melbourne; and for the ruins of a large granite
stables on the site.
The exotic plantings are regionally significant. They include the finest Stone Pine (Pinus pinea) in the study area, and some of the most notable Norfolk Island Pine (Arancaria heterophylla), Hoop Pine (Arancaria cunninghamii) and Bunya Bunya Pine (Arancaria bidwilli), Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla). All are fine specimens in terms of size and form, and are significant landscape features, being landmarks from the Tullamarine Freeway and Mickleham Road. The only comparative trees in the study area, in terms of age and size, are to be found at the Glenara, Bulla (qv). Their conservation and interpretation is recommended.
There are many markings of granite quarrying around the site, most of which probably date to later in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The evidence of these, and the earlier, 1840s, quarrying area, needs to be documented, conserved and
interpreted. The stable was a large, double storey structure. Granite buildings are rare in the study area, and uncommon within Victoria, and it may be a relatively early example.
The property is also historically significant for its association with Donald Kennedy, MLC and leader in the establishment of local government in Broadmeadows. The Kennedy family owned most of the area between Pascoe Vale and Broadmeadows, and Donald's choice of the elevated Gellibrand's Hill to establish his homestead is significant. Along with the Greenes at Woodlands, Kennedy's presence is said to have bestowed an air of class on the district in the eyes of Melbourne society. Subsequent occupiers of the property, the Hatty and Attwood
families, were locally prominent. The site has the potential to provide information that will contribute to a greater understanding of the history of the post-contact occupation of Victoria, and the study area.
Show more
Show less
-
-
DUNDONALD HOMESTEAD - History
The original 984 acres of Section 8 of the Parish of Will Will Rook were sold to a John Terry Hughes and a John Hosking, both from Sydney, for £430 in January 1839. Section 8, along with Sections 1, 6, 9, and 10, was then involved in a variety of transactions culminating in their conveyance to Donald Kennedy in December 1847.
Kennedy was active in the Port Phillip Farmer's Society and, after the establishment of the separate Colony of Victoria, he was elected in 1854 to the Parliament as a Member of the Legislative Council; he held this position until his death on 29 January 1864. In his will, Kennedy left interests in his land to his wife Jessie, his brother Duncan Cameron Kennedy, and to Lachlan McKinnon and Charles McAlister Shannon. Lemon states that (in the 1880s) 'almost all of the land extending three miles pat Pascoe Vale and covering today's suburbs of Glenroy, Broadmeadows and Westmeadows had been for many years in the hands of the Kennedy family'. (In 1857 Donald and Duncan had divided this area between them.) In the Parish of Will Will Rook - the Broadmeadows district - Donald's properties included the adjacent Chandos and Dundonald, which he had purchased cheaply from the Hughes and Hosking estate during the 1840s depression. He had an interest in the science of agriculture, and these properties were regarded as showpieces. 'His presence, like that of the Greenes of Woodlands, bestowed an air of class on the district in the eyes of Melbourne society, ' states Lemon. His other main place of residence appears to have been in Glenroy. Hon. Donald Kennedy, MLC, chaired the meeting which called for the establishment of Road Board 'for the
Parishes of Will Will Rook, Euroke, and Meickelham (sic)'. The word Dundonald is Scottish for 'Donald's little hill'. The house may have been built in the 1850s, or perhaps even the late 1840s. Donald Kennedy is known to have been living at Dundonald in 1857, when he a politician. It is likely that the substantial garden, notable for its conifers, would have been planted by Kennedy during his establishment of the property, perhaps c.1850s-1870s. Over the years of his land ownership, Kennedy leased out much of his property to other farmers. His lease of 1826 acres to a William Postlethwaite in February 1857 for seven years included part of Section 8. By 1865, his executors were leasing a 'House and Land, Gellibrand Hill' to a John Lydiard. This would have been one of the two Gellibrand Hill farms (perhaps Chandos) into which the property was subdivided. The other farm remained in Jessie Kennedy's name; an 1868 directory referred to her living at 'Dundonald Hill', and the 1876/77 rate book entry refers to her ownership of Dundonald. Earlier evidence of the name Dundonald, was found on a gravestone in the Bulla Cemetery, which noted that one Archibald Hector Shannon had died at Dundonald in 1875. Shannon would appear to have been a relation of Jessie. In August 1877 Jessie Kennedy and Charles McAlister Shannon leased some 200 acres of Section 8 to a Thomas Jillett for £160 per year for five years - the land was described as having a farmhouse, called Dundonald, and stables, outhouses, yards and gardens. Jillett does not seem to have stayed for the whole of his lease, because rate entries show the property being leased to several different farmers from around 1879 until around 1888, when David and Matilda Hatty and their large family began their long-term lease of the property. The Hattys are said to have leased the property from 'the Kennedy sisters - absentee owners who lived in Scotland and owned a substantial amount of property around the Broadmeadows district.' Their son Jim raised his family on the farm until 1930. During Jim Hatty's time the eastern side of the property, and the flatter land on the western side were planted with wheat, oats and hay. They also ran a dairy, supplying cream for butter making. Jessie Kennedy died in 1890, and the property was managed by the Kennedy estate executors until it was subdivided into six farms and auctioned off in November 1929. The Dundonald house and farm, by this time comprising 399 acres was sold to James Gordon Attwood. In November 1943, the Commonwealth of Australia acquired 202 acres in the southern part of the farm; the remaining 197 acres were later reduced by the subdivision of land fronting Mickleham Road into ten 5 acre housing lots. Attwood died in October 1959, effectively ending the property's farming days, and the remaining 147 acres were bought by residential developers, Stanhill Development P/L who sold it to Factors (Victoria) P/L on the same day. The developers did little with the property - the homestead was burnt down during their ownership and the stables were vandalised for their stone - and in 1980 the land was bought by the State Government and included in the Gellibrand Hill Park.DUNDONALD HOMESTEAD - Interpretation of Site
Homestead and stables constructed c1847-1850s, garden laid out c1850s-70s, house burnt down in 1970s.
Heritage Inventory Description
DUNDONALD HOMESTEAD - Heritage Inventory Description
The Dundonald homestead, was a single storey timber house with a gabled roof, a verandah on the eastern side and stone steps leading up to it from the front garden. There was a detached kitchen and maids room on the west side of the house. Little remains of the house, just steps, stump footings, scatterings of bricks, a fireplace, paving, concrete, cement-sheet remnants, and the remains of a tank stand. A little to the north was a two storey granite stables, which had a loft upstairs accessible by external stairs, and a carriage room and stables on the ground floor. A timber dairy was built onto the back wall of the stables. Some of this, including the granite stairway, some lower walls, a massive granite lintel and pieces of timber beams and iron, survive. Around the homestead there is the evidence of a small ornamental garden (Cotoneaster Lilac Privet and a well established Cape Honeysuckle hedge), and a large area of parkland planting. The large area of parkland planting - mainly conifers - probably dates from the construction of the house, perhaps in the 1850s or 60s. The planting includes some outstanding specimens - a Stone Pine (Pinus pinea) which is of regional significance, Norfolk Island Pine (Arancaria heterophylla), Hoop Pine (Arancaria cunninghamii), Bunya Bunya Pine (Arancaria bidwilli), Moreton Bay Fig (Ficus macrophylla), and Italian Cypress (Cupressus sempervirens). All are fine specimens and significant landscape features due to their size and form. They are landmarks in the area being clearly visible from the Tullamarine Freeway and Mickleham Road. There are remains of granite quarrying all around the Dundonald site. These are of State significance. The most obvious marks of quarrying would appear to date to later periods, but some are likely to date to the 1840s period.
-
-
-
-
-
NORTH MELBOURNE POTTERYVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
STONY CREEK SLIPWAYVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
SEASONING WORKS SITE AND TERRACOTTA LUMBERWALLVictorian Heritage Inventory
-
-