| Historical notes: | Aboriginal land
Material in rock shelters reveals that Aboriginal people inhabited the surrounding region at least from the last ice age some 20,000 years ago. Several different languages and dialects were spoken in the Sydney Harbour area before the arrival of the First Fleet. 'Kuringgai' was the language spoken on the north shores (DEST & DUAP, 1996, 42, 135, 138). When Europeans chose the south side of the harbour for the settlement of the First Fleet in 1788, they chose the territory of the Darug-speaking people, who inhabited the region from the southern shores of Sydney Harbour west to the Blue Mountains. Both the Darug and the Kuringgai groups suffered catastrophic loss of life in the smallpox epidemic that swept through the indigenous population in 1789, with a death rate estimated to have been between 50 per cent and 90 per cent. Over the following century there were numerous documentary recordings of the movements of surviving Kuringgai people within the Ku-Ring-Gai locality, both attending Aboriginal gatherings and collecting European rations such as blankets. There are also several oral history accounts of small clans travelling through the district in the late nineteenth century. In the 1950s at least a few local Aboriginal people were known to be still living within their traditional territory (Kur-Ring-Gai Historical Society, 1996, 12-13).
Early Europeans in the district
Before the railway (constructed late nineteenth century) and later the Sydney Harbour Bridge (opened 1932) made the north shore easily accessible, the Kur-Ring-Gai area was remote from Sydney Town and consisted mainly of isolated white rural communities earning their livelihood from agricultural activities such as timber-getting and market gardening. Wahroonga first experienced suburban development after the railway line from Hornsby to St Leonards was opened in 1890, when the first suburban roads were constructed followed by the first homes, built around 1896. The Shire of Ku-Ring-Gai was first constituted in 1906 with just six councillors, who took temporary offices in the grounds of St John's Church at Gordon (Kur-Ring-Gai Historical Society, 1996, 12-18).
Evatt House history of land ownership
The property was orginally part of 2000 acres (809 hectares) granted to John Terry Hughes in 1842. In the 1890s a consortium of businessmen (Smith Burns and Withers) acquired acreage in Wahroonga and sold off lots in Junction Road and Kintore Street that included this land. A small part of the Evatt House site formed part of a larger property facing Kintore Street at the back of Evatt House, known as 'Grantham', built by Christiana Hordern c1895. The land was further subdivided c.1929. In 1937 three blocks were purchased by Clive Raleigh Evatt Snr (1900-1984; LL.B., Q.C., MLA for Hurstville 1939-1959), a prominent NSW Labor politician. With his wife Marjorie (nee Marjorie Hannah Andreas, 1903-1984), Clive commissioned architect Stuart Traill to design a Georgian Revival house for the property, built in 1940. Daughters Elizabeth and Penelope remember that their mother was also particularly influential in the design of the house.There is no known landscape designer associated with the property. The decision to retain the native vegetation, rather than plant an English-style garden more typically associated with Georgian residences, was unusual and progressive for its time.
'Bush garden became a fashionable term after the publication of 'Designing Australian Bush Gardens' (1966) by Betty Maloney and Jean Walker. They were not the first, however, to advocate a design approach exclusively using native plants. . . . In the 1920s Walter and Marion Griffin encouraged those who moved into their new subdivision at Castlecrag (NSW) to plant local species, and Edna Walling, in her book 'The Australian Roadside' (1952), championed the retention of remnant roadside vegetation. Among the first publications to include garden plans featuring only Australian species, was 'Australina Plants for the Garden' (1953) by Thistle Harris . . . '(Aitken & Looker, 2002, 119)
'Recognition of the indigenous flora and its use in the vernacular, decorative and applied arts was characteristic of the federation period between 1890 and 1914, when Australia was searching for symbols of its new identity and independence. . . Strangely, all this artistic representation of Australia's native flora was not matched by interest in using it as a horticultural subject. . . It was another fifty years or so before the next wave of attention brought native plants into Australian suburban gardens in great numbers. . .' (Crone, 2001, 76, 92)
The Evatt family and associates
Ken Cable's biographical sketch on Clive Raleigh Evatt explains that he was born in Maitland in 1900, the younger brother of the famous Labor politician and jurist, Herbert Vere Evatt (also known as H.V. Evatt or Doc Evatt). Clive's career was distinguished although 'it lacked the extraordinary achievement of his brother's'. After education at Fort Street Boys High, he entered the Royal Military College at Duntroon and graduated with a King's Medal in 1921. He enrolled in the Law Faculty at Sydney University and was a Kings Counsel barrister by 1935. In 1939 Clive Evatt was elected to NSW Parliament as Labor MP for Hurstville and his party led by W.J. McKell won the election in 1941. Evatt served as Minister for Education (Cable, 2002), where he tried to introduce unpopular reforms such as banning corporal punishment in schools (Godfrey, 1989), but was more effective as Minister for Housing in the early years of large-scale public housing. Evatt was highly intelligent, personable and witty. An effective speaker, he nevertheless did not conform to the traditional Labor type. He was essentially a middle-class Protestant radical, as was his brother. The postwar years were a time of unease and tension for Evatt. He rapidly lost seniority in Cabinet, taking 'bread and butter' portfolios. . . He left the Ministry of J.J. Cahill in 1954 and quitted Parliament in 1959. Already he had returned to the bar, specialising with great success, in libel and personal injurty cases. While inevitably living in the shadow of his famous brother, whom he held in great esteem, Clive Evatt was a man of talent and singificance in his own right (Cable, 2002).
Cable remarks that with his qualifications and connections, Clive Raleigh Evatt was representative of a new generation of non-union, liberally minded men who stressed the need for Labor to appeal to a broad electorate. 'A patron of the Arts, he entertained widely in his Wahroonga home' (NBRS, 2003, 12) which was frequented by significant artistic, academic, legal and Labor figures. John Gordon writes: 'Evatt, a colourful King's Counsel, a graduate of Duntroon Military Academy and younger brother of H.V.Evatt, showed himself to be a humanitarian reformer with a highly personalised style. . . Evatt was. . . Before his time anticipating the spirit of the early 1970s.' (Godfrey, 1989, 120, 123)
Famous people associated with the household included Clive's brother H.V. Evatt, artist Sidney Nolan, actors Lawrence Olivier and Vivien Leigh and numerous musicians and artists patronised by the Evatts. Michael Bogle notes that in the early 1950s as Minister for Housing, Clive Evatt overturned Willoughby Council's rejection of Seidler's design for Meller House in Castlecrag, authorising its construction as a demonstration home (Bogle, 1993). Seidler has described his first visit to 69 Junction Road in 1950 as 'momentous' and cites Evatt's support as persuasive in his decision to remain and work in Australia (Seidler, 2003). This was some years before he married Evatt's youngest daughter, Pennelope. Nonetheless Harry Seidler's outstanding career was supported by the social connections forged through this prominent family, and initially at least, within this house.
Furthermore, the Evatt children who grew up in Evatt House are likely to be considered historically significant in their own right: Elizabeth Evatt, first woman Chief Justice of the Family Court; Penelope Seidler, an architect who married the noted architect, Harry Seidler in 1958; and Clive Evatt, well known as a Sydney art dealer. The prominent careers of all three siblings evidence a continuation and extension of the family's interests in the law and the arts within NSW.
The ownership of the property was passed to grown up off-spring of Clive and Marjorie Evatt in 1970, although both parents continued to live in the house until their deaths, a few months apart, in 1984. The house was sold out of the Evatt family by 1986. Minor alterations and renovations were carried out c1987 included installation of the clay tennis court on the western block (Seidler, 2004; Earthscape, 2003, 4) and modifications to the semi-circular driveway and garaging on the eastern block.
Assessing the historical association of the property with Clive Raleigh Evatt and his family
The Heritage Information Series "Assessing Historical Association" (2000) outlines the method for meeting Criterion B - historical significance - for SHR listing.
A. The item must have an identifiable association with a significant person or group.
B. Eligible items should be associated with a significant aspect of a person or group's thematic contribution.
C. The analysis must make it clear how the item represents or demonstrates a significant aspect of a person or group's thematic contribution.
D. The item associated with a person or group must be compared with other items associated with the person or group to demonstrate that this item is a good example that clearly articulates that association and which is still surviving.
It must be made clear in any analysis whether an association is significant at the State or local level.
There are five basic steps involved in determining whether an item meets the SHR threshold through the 'association' criterion. Each of these steps must be addressed in order for a nomination for SHR listing to be considered.
Step 1. The item and the person or group must be specifically identified.
Step 2. Work out the historical development of the item and its thematic contexts, then determine the significance of the person or group associated with the item by archival and/or field research concerning their lives and the thematic contexts within which they have made a significant contribution.
Step 3. Contributions by a person or group must be compared to those of others who were active, acknowledged, or influential within the same theme or themes to establish their comparative significance. The comparisons should be contextual, such as within a local area, a family network or an institutional structure, and should consider the question 'who else was doing the same thing?'.
Step 4. Determine the nature of a significant person's or group's relationship with the item and to other historical resources, then assess why the item is a significant representation or demonstration of the accomplishments of that person or group.
Step 5. Determine whether the item retains enough integrity to convey its significant associations.
Biographical notes on Clive Evatt's older brother, 'Doc Evatt'
(Biographical notes by Robyn Walden at http://www.lib.flinders.edu.au/resources/collection/special/evatt/evattbiog.html#Childhood)
Herbert Vere Evatt, known as Bert, was born on 30 April 1894 in East Maitland, NSW, the fifth son of a publican, John Evatt, and his wife Jeanie. John Evatt died when Bert was seven leaving him to play a major role in the upbringing of his three younger brothers. Two of them, Ray and Frank, were killed in the First World War.
Evatt was educated at Fort Street High School, Sydney, and the University of Sydney. He was a brilliant scholar and attained the degress of B.A. (triple first-class honours and University Medal), M.A., LL.B. (first class honours and University Medal), LL.D. and D. Litt.
Evatt joined the Labor Party in 1925, entering NSW State Parliament as the MLA for Balmain. He left state politics when in 1930, at the age of 36, he was appointed a justice of the High Court of Australia, the youngest person to be appointed to such a position. Evatt quickly distinguished himself as a brilliant and liberal judge and a respected author in the fields of law and history. In 1940 Evatt resigned from the High Court, standing as a federal Labor Party candidate and winning the Sydney seat of Barton at the elections of the same year. When Labor gained power under John Curtin in 1941, Evatt was appointed Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs. From 1946 to 1949 he was Deputy Prime Minister to Ben Chifley. Evatt led the Australian delegation to the United Nations in 1946, 1947 and 1948 and was elected President of the General Assembly at its Third Session from 1948-49.In 1949 Labor lost the federal election to R.G. Menzies and the Liberal Party and the rest of Evatt's parliamentary life was spent in opposition.
When Chifley died in June 1951, Evatt was elected the new leader of the Labor Party and held this position throughout a tumultuous period of Australian political history. Evatt successfully campaigned for the "No" vote in the Referendum of September 1951 in which the Menzies Government sought to ban the Communist Party of Australia. The split which occurred in the ALP in the mid 1950s and which led to the formation of the Democratic Labor Party weakened the ALP's chances of regaining power.
In 1960 Evatt retired from politics and took up the position of Chief Justice of New South Wales. Ill health forced him to retire in 1962. He died in Canberra on 2 November, 1965, aged 71. |
