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Tranby is
heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and human-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In ma ...
former residence located at 13 Mansfield Street in Glebe, Sydney.
New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...
. It was designed by A. L. & G. McCredie and built from 1858 to 1910, and is also known as Toxteth Cottage. Since 1958 the house and grounds have been the main campus of Tranby National Indigenous Adult Education and Training, and they are owned by Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative Ltd. The property was added to the
New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...
on 2 April 1999.


History


History of the area

The Leichhardt area was originally inhabited by the
Wangal The Wangal people (; Wanngal or Won-gal) are a clan of the Dharug Aboriginal people whose heirs are custodians of the lands and waters of what is now the Inner West of Sydney, New South Wales, centred around the Municipality of Strathfield, ...
clan of Aboriginal people. After the
colonisation of Australia 475px, Map of the year each country achieved List of sovereign states by date of formation, independence. Colonization (British English: colonisation) is a process of establishing occupation of or control over foreign territories or peoples f ...
in 1788, diseases such as
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
, along with the loss of their hunting grounds, caused huge reductions in their numbers, and they moved further inland. Since European settlement the foreshores of
Blackwattle Bay Blackwattle Bay is a bay located to the southeast of Glebe Island and east of Rozelle Bay on Sydney Harbour, in New South Wales, Australia. The bay was named in 1788 after the black wattle tree found at the bay, which was used for housing const ...
and
Rozelle Bay Rozelle Bay is a bay located to the south of Glebe Island and the west of Blackwattle Bay, on Sydney Harbour. The naming of the bay is derived from either the Rosella, Rosella bird or the Roselle (plant), Rosella plant, with the latter being m ...
have developed a unique maritime, industrial and residential character - a character which continues to evolve as areas which were originally residential estates, then industrial areas, are redeveloped for residential units and parklands. The first formal
land grant A land grant is a gift of real estate—land or its use privileges—made by a government or other authority as an incentive, means of enabling works, or as a reward for services to an individual, especially in return for military service. Grants ...
in the Glebe area was a grant to
Richard Johnson Richard or Dick Johnson may refer to: Academics * Dick Johnson (academic) (1929–2019), Australian academic * Richard C. Johnson (1930–2003), professor of electrical engineering * Richard A. Johnson, artist and professor at the University of ...
, the colony's first chaplain, in 1789. The Glebe (land allocated for the maintenance of a church minister) comprised rolling shale hills covering sandstone, with several sandstone cliff faces. The ridges were drained by several creeks including Blackwattle Creek,
Orphan School Creek Orphan School Creek is a storm drain located in inner Sydney, New South Wales. It is a tributary of Johnstons Creek (New South Wales), Johnstons Creek which flows into Rozelle Bay. The creek moves through the University of Sydney and in parti ...
and Johnston Creek. Extensive swampland surrounded the creeks. On the shale ridges, heavily timbered woodlands contained several varieties of eucalypts while the swamplands and tidal mudflats had mangroves, swamp oaks (
Casuarina glauca ''Casuarina glauca'', commonly known as swamp she-oak, swamp buloke, swamp she-oak, marsh sheoak, grey she-oak, grey she-oak, native pine, or guman by the Gadigal people, is a species of flowering plant that is endemic to eastern Australia. It ...
) and blackwattles (
Callicoma ''Callicoma'' is a plant genus that contains just one species, ''Callicoma serratifolia'', a tall shrub or small tree native to Australia. ''Callicoma serratifolia'' is commonly known as black wattle. One explanation for the name is the similarit ...
serratifolia) after which the bay is named. Blackwattle Swamp was first mentioned by surveyors in the 1790s and Blackwattle Swamp Bay in 1807. By 1840 it was called Blackwattle Bay. Boat parties collected wattles and reeds for the building of huts, and kangaroos and emus were hunted by the early settlers who called the area the Kangaroo Ground. Rozelle Bay is thought to have been named after a schooner which once moored in its waters. Johnson's land remained largely undeveloped until 1828, when the Church and School Corporation subdivided it into 28 lots, three of which they retained for church use.City Plan Heritage, 2005, quoting
Max Solling Max Charles Solling ( OAM; b. 1942) is an Australian urban and sports historian. Biography Max Solling was born the second child and only son of Jessie (née Webb) (1917-2017) and Rex Erie Solling (1909-1980). His father was an accountant, and t ...
& Peter Reynolds "Leichhardt: On the Margins of the City", 1997, 14
The Church sold 27 allotments in 1828 - north on the point and south around
Broadway Broadway may refer to: Theatre * Broadway Theatre (disambiguation) * Broadway theatre, theatrical productions in professional theatres near Broadway, Manhattan, New York City, U.S. ** Broadway (Manhattan), the street ** Broadway Theatre (53rd Stre ...
. The Church kept the middle section where the Glebe Estate is now. On the point the sea breezes attracted the wealthy who built villas. The Broadway end attracted slaughterhouses and boiling down works that used the creek draining to Blackwattle Swamp. Up until the 1970s the Glebe Estate was in the possession of the Church. On the point the sea breezes attracted the wealthy who built villas. The Broadway end attracted slaughterhouses and boiling down works that used the creek draining to Blackwattle Swamp. Smaller working-class houses were built around these industries. Abattoirs were built there from the 1860s. When Glebe was made a municipality in 1859 there were pro and anti-municipal clashes in the streets. From 1850 Glebe was dominated by wealthier interests. Reclaiming the swamp,
Wentworth Park Wentworth Park is a park near the suburbs of Glebe and Ultimo in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. The park contains several multi-purpose sporting pitches, cricket nets and a number of fitness installations. There is a playground in the s ...
opened in 1882 as a cricket ground and lawn bowls club. Rugby union football was played there in the late 19th century. The dog racing started in 1932. In the early 20th century modest villas were broken up into boarding houses as they were elsewhere in the inner city areas. The wealthier moved into the suburbs which were opening up through the railways. Up until the 1950s Sydney was the location for working class employment - it was a port and industrial city. By the 1960s central Sydney was becoming a corporate city with service-based industries - capital intensive not labour-intensive. A shift in demographics occurred, with younger professionals and technical and administrative people servicing the corporate city wanting to live close by. Housing was coming under threat and the heritage conservation movement was starting. The Fish Markets moved in in the 1970s. An influx of students came to Glebe in the 1960s and 1970s.Murray, Dr Lisa, ''Central Sydney'', 5 August 2009.


History of Tranby

"Tranby", originally known as "Toxteth Cottage", was first listed in the Sands Directory in 1858 and is thought to have been completed in that year. It was situated in the grounds of George Allen's Toxteth Park Estate. Allen, a founding member of the legal firm Allen, Allen and Hemsley, President of the
Bank of New South Wales The Bank of New South Wales (BNSW), also known as The Wales, was the first bank in Australia. It was established in 1817 in Sydney. During the 19th century, the bank opened branches throughout Australia and New Zealand, expanding into Oceania ...
1860-66,
Mayor of Sydney The Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of Sydney is the head of the Council of the City of Sydney, which is the local government area covering the central business district of Sydney in the State of New South Wales, Australia. The Lord Mayor has be ...
1844-5 and Member of the
Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...
1845-73, owned the property. The cottage was the residence of Allen's daughter Mary and her husband
George Allen Mansfield George Allen Mansfield (15 June 1834 – 20 January 1908) was a prominent Australian architect of the nineteenth century who designed many iconic buildings in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Life Born in 1834 in Sydney, his father, the Rev ...
. Mansfield was the son of Ralph Mansfield, a Wesleyan Minister and the secretary of the
Australian Gas Light Company The Australian Gas Light Company (AGL) was an Australian gas and electricity retailer. It was formed in Sydney in 1837 and supplied town gas for the first public lighting of a street lamp in Sydney in 1841. AGL was the second company to list on ...
from 1837 to 1879. He and Mary lived in the house until 1861. The cottage became known as Tranby in the 1870s when Allen's other daughter Elizabeth and her husband
William Binnington Boyce William Binnington Boyce (9 November 1804 – 8 March 1889) was an English-born philologist and clergyman, active in Australia. Early life Boyce was born at Beverley, Yorkshire, England, his mother's family were Wesleyans. Boyce studied commerce at ...
lived there. On the death of George Allen, Toxteth Park Estate was subdivided and in 1887, ''Tranby'' was purchased by Allen's brother, William Boyce Allen. In 1910 additions were made to the house to accommodate William Allen's large family.Cracknell and Lonergan 1994: 5-13 In 1931 Tranby became a hostel for the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
and was the home of John Hope of
Christ Church St Laurence Christ Church St Laurence is an Anglican Church of Australia, Anglican church (building), church located at 814 George Street, Sydney, George Street, near Central railway station, Sydney, Central railway station and Haymarket, in City of Sydney, ...
. The property remained in the Boyce Allen family until 1946. In 1957 Tranby became a Training Centre for the "development of co-operative practices for Aborigines", under the control of the
Australian Board of Missions Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...
Christian Community Co-operativeCracknell and Lonergan 1994: 14 and run by the Rev
Alf Clint William Alfred Clint (8 January 1906 – 21 April 1980) was an Australian priest in the Church of England in Australia (as the Anglican Church of Australia was then called). He established a number of Aboriginal co-operatives on behalf of the ...
. In 1971 the name "Tranby Co-operative for Aborigines Ltd." was registered. Tranby is now an Aboriginal-managed, community-based, non-profit co-operative, with the college forming the largest part of the facility. It is a meeting place for senior community members and has been the scene of key issues in the history of Indigenous activism, including meetings which led to the Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody.Cracknell and Lonergan 1994: 18-19 The college was redeveloped in 1997-98 to accommodate the increasing demands on community and educational programmes. Cracknell Lonergan Architects collaborated with Merrima Design Unit to design a series of new buildings and classrooms around a courtyard. The design was inspired by the concept of Indigenous learning circles. The building was officially opened in 1998.


Description

''Tranby'' is a post-Regency style cottage, designed on an asymmetrical plan. It retains the low lines and broad proportions of early colonial dwellings. The front elevation describes three stages of building. The original section, containing six rooms, is central to the facade describing a Georgian character recessed into the whole. A central door opening and
French doors A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide securit ...
either side open to a
veranda A veranda (also spelled verandah in Australian and New Zealand English) is a roofed, open-air hallway or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front an ...
h which is supported by cast iron
columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member ...
. The front verandah is flanked on either side by later editions. The later edition of a smaller
parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...
-fronted wing adds an Italianate flavour to the whole. The whole is covered with a slate
hipped roof A hip roof, hip-roof or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downward to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope, with variants including tented roofs and others. Thus, a hipped roof has no gables or other vertical sides ...
with metal ridge capping and
box gutter A box gutter, internal gutter, parallel gutter, or trough gutter is a rain gutter on a roof usually rectangular in shape; it may be lined with EPDM rubber, metal, asphalt, or roofing felt, and may be concealed behind a parapet or the eaves The e ...
s. Wall fabric varies from cement rendered brick
ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...
, to
sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...
lime rendered ashlar coursing. Tranby has fifteen rooms.


Condition

Generally sound structural condition.


Modifications and dates

*1880s - northern wing addition *1910 - eastern wing addition


Heritage listing

As at 1 October 1997, ''Tranby'' and its history can be viewed as reflecting the evolutionary changes which took place on the Glebe Peninsula in architecture, land allocation and the growth and diversity of society. It is a fine example of a post-Regency picturesque cottage and one of the earliest buildings in Glebe to have an asymmetrical plan. The property is the focus for the Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative, the first and only independent, Aboriginal controlled adult education centre in Australia. It has been the scene of a number of key issues in the history of indigenous activism. Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative has contributed significantly to policy development and other initiatives facing Aboriginal peoples, presently and over the last 36 years. It has become a landmark for Australia's Aboriginal people and the world's indigenous peoples. ''Tranby'' was listed on the
New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...
on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. ''Tranby'' and its history can be viewed as reflecting the evolutionary changes which took place on the Glebe Peninsula in architecture, land allocation and the growth and diversity of society. It was the first house built on the Toxteth Estate after Toxteth House and remained in the Allen family until the 1840s. Two of the boundary streets (Boyce and Mansfield) are named after notable inhabitants of the cottage.Cracknell and Lonergan 1994 The property is also the focus for the Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative, the first and only independent, Aboriginal controlled adult education centre in Australia. It has been the scene of a number of key issues in the history of Indigenous activism, including meetings which led to the Royal Commission into Black Deaths in Custody. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. ''Tranby'' is a fine example of a post-Regency picturesque cottage and one of the earliest buildings in Glebe to have an asymmetrical plan. It has a harmonious and unspoilt stylistic unity.Cracknell and Lonergan 1994: 87 The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. Tranby Aboriginal Co-operative has contributed significantly to policy development and other initiatives facing Aboriginal peoples, presently and over the last 36 years. It has become a landmark for Australia's Aboriginal people and the world's Indigenous peoples. It is a local and regional landmark for the non-Aboriginal community which has established a relationship with Tranby through education in Aboriginal culture and involvement with human rights movements. It has become a symbol of the integrity of Aboriginal culture within a European social and political structure.Cracknell and Lonergan 1994: 88-89


See also

*
Australian residential architectural styles Australian residential architectural styles have evolved significantly over time, from the early days of structures made from relatively cheap and imported corrugated galvanised iron, corrugated iron (which can still be seen in the roofing of ...


References


Bibliography

*


Attribution


External links

* *{{cite web , title=Aboriginal organisations in Sydney , website= Barani , url=https://www.sydneybarani.com.au/sites/aboriginal-organisations-in-sydney/ New South Wales State Heritage Register Schools in New South Wales Articles incorporating text from the New South Wales State Heritage Register Victorian Regency architecture in New South Wales Houses in Glebe, New South Wales Houses completed in 1910 1910 establishments in Australia