“Gowan Brae”, Pennant Hills Road, North Parramatta, NSW, now part of The King’s School Running along the northern side of Pennant Hills Road in the Sydney suburb of North Parramatta, stands an impressive estate called “Gowan Brae”, now The King’s School. It was developed by the businessman, shipowner, philanthropist and founder of Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd, James Burns (later Sir James). Despite its reuse by three organisations since 1925, many of the property’s structures remain remarkably intact. As well as Sir James’ Victorian mansion shown here, built between 1886 and 1889, there are stables, a gatehouse, sandstone aviary, cement fountain, rotunda and the original palisade fence.
James Burns (1846-1923) was born in Polmont, Stirlingshire, Scotland, and migrated to Brisbane in 1862 with his elder brother, John. They initially worked as jackaroos but in 1865 joined a Brisbane storekeeping firm, Burns & Scott. Two years later James rode 100 miles (161 km) to the Gympie goldfields as soon as the rush began, not as a miner, but a storekeeper. From the large profits supplying the miners with provisions, he opened three stores there of his own, at the age of twenty-one. After the death of his father, James returned home to Scotland in 1870 and two years later brought his mother, sisters and two brothers out to Queensland and opened a large wholesale and retail store. He also acted as an insurance, customs, forwarding and shipping agent in Townsville. From there, Burns supplied all the North Queensland goldfields. As his business grew it became imperative that supplies arrived on time from Sydney, so in 1873 he chartered the schooner “Isabelle” which became the nucleus of his eventual shipping fleet.
James financed his Townsville store manager, Robert Philp (1851-1922), later Sir Robert, in 1874 and made him a partner in 1876. In the same year James’ wife, Mary Susan (nee Ledingham) (1858-1876) tragically died in childbirth only a year after their marriage.
Continuous bouts of malaria forced James to move to Sydney, leaving Philp in charge in Townsville. Initially concentrating on a regular shipping service between Sydney and Townsville, James soon moved away from sail to steam. In 1881 he promoted the Queensland Steam Navigation Co. and soon forced the Australian Steam Navigation Co. to sell out. By 1880 he had expanded into a new trading firm at Normanton, and later the Croydon goldfield, and eventually branches were established in most of the North Queensland ports. These firms were amalgamated in April, 1883, into Burns, Philp & Co. Ltd and James continued in strict control and remained chairman and managing director until his death in 1923.
Philp had left the firm in 1893 and during the 1890s more branches were established in Geraldton and Fremantle, in Western Australia, and Samarai, an island off Papua New Guinea. The firm’s interests slowly extended throughout the Pacific Islands as far east as Samoa, linked by its extensive line of steamers. By 1907, they were operating to the New Hebrides, Solomon, Gilbert and Ellice Islands and Papuan ports. In 1910 the company owned twelve ocean-going steamers and nearly 100 pearling luggers. Trade extended over most of the Pacific and Indian Oceans and the company formed agencies all over the world. The emblem of the company was a thistle and the funnel of its ships were painted black and white plaid.
For his home, James chose a site overlooking Parramatta and its river valley. The house was called Gowan Brae, a Scottish term meaning a hillside of daisies. Building commenced in 1886 on land known formerly as Orange Grove and eventually James acquired a total of 304 acres (123 ha) for his estate. The house was constructed of Hawkesbury sandstone quarried on the north side of the Hunt’s Creek, which ran through the property, and completed in 1889. It was designed by Mark Cooper Day, a conservative and well-known architect of the day.
The house is a two-storey Victorian Classical building and when built had a ground plan in the shape of a “C” with a tower in one corner. The tower features three porthole windows as well as French doors opening onto a balcony. From here a telescope provided a clear view to the Sydney city where the time could be read from the GPO and Town Hall clock towers.
The main door of Gowan Brae fronts Pennant Hills Road and on either side of it are two-storey projecting wings connected by a two-storey triple-arched porch. Opening off the tiled front porch is a large, heavily carved two-storey Italian marble entrance hall. A grand staircase ascends from it, featuring James’ monogramed initials “J.B.” in an intricate design on the top and bottom posts. Lighting the first landing of the staircase is a stained-glass window recording the year of completion of the house and the coat of arms and badge claimed by Burns. The motto “Ready, Aye Ready”, and the badge of horn and lovers’ knot recurs throughout the furnishings and decoration both inside and outside the house, most strikingly above the first-floor parapet. It is not known whether James had any heraldic right to its use, but the same motto is used by the Royal Canadian Navy and by the Chief of the Johnston clan. Nevertheless, James was proud of his Scottish ancestry, was president of the Highland Society of New South Wales between 1903 until his death in 1923 and was nicknamed “The Chief”.
Early photographs of Gowan Brae’s entrance hall show it was furnished in typical Victorian splendour with pedestalled statues, a gun rack, portraits over panelled doorways and large bordered wall paintings of romantic subjects. Other rooms on the ground floor included the reception room, library, dining room and kitchen, while on the first floor was the main bedroom, guest bedroom and sitting room. Rooms at the back of the house were for servants. The estate had a staff of thirty-eight, seventeen of whom were domestics, four were gardeners and two were chauffeurs.
In the early 1900s additions were made to Gowan Brae between the wings of the building. A grand billiard room and trophy room featuring an impressive skylight were established in these rooms. Decorated in marble, the trophy room became a display area for James’ extensive collection of South Sea curios, shells, Australian minerals (especially opals) and seascapes by Australian, English and European artists. The collection had begun in 1880 and was originally located in the tower room but outgrew this space. Various objects were picked up on Burns’ numerous overseas tours and it was said that each Burns Philp vessel returning from a voyage was required to bring a contribution to the museum’s collection.
The estate also boasts an elaborate gatehouse, built in 1890, with a large classical portico and pediment from where a drive lined with Himalayan cedars leads to the house. There is also the remains of a Classical-style sandstone aviary, complete with rounded arches and Doric columns. In it Burns kept rare birds, many from the Pacific Islands. In front of the house stands a three-tiered concrete fountain which was constructed in 1893 as a memorial to James’ first wife. Water for the fountain was pumped from wells near the stables and drinking water for the house came from six tanks. The large stable building included quarters for stable hands and coachmen. Sir James rode in an elegant landau horse-drawn carriage driven by an Irish coachman, as he believed the Irish “had a way with horses”. His first automobile was a Scottish Albany tourer for which a Scottish chauffeur was employed to drive. He also owned a Belgium-made Minerva driven by a Belgium driver!
Other cottages and lodges were erected on the property for relatives and the lawns were immaculately maintained by a horse-drawn mowing machine drawn by two horses who were said to have worn padded boots to ensure a good finish. The grounds included a lawn tennis court, terraces, shrubberies and an artificial lake which became a haven for black swans and wild fowl. There was a palm house and palms were planted around the house, possibly to remind James of his Queensland beginnings and Pacific interests. As well as exotic plantings there were gums which James referred to with reverence as the “true Australians”.
Much of James’ spare time was devoted to volunteer defences. He joined the Parramatta troop of the 1st Light Horse Regiment (New South Wales Lancers) as a trooper in 1891 and rose to the rank of Colonel, retiring in 1907. Within the grounds of Gowan Brae he had two rifle ranges established and a kiosk or rotunda built for the convenience of his troops in wet weather. Around the perimeter of his 9-acre (3.6 ha) orchard, made up of citrus fruit, apples, pears and grapes, James had a small racecourse constructed with hurdles to train the men in his regiment which ensured their reputation as “crack riders” and “swordsmen”.
In 1904, James’ second wife, Mary Heron (nee Morris) (1851-1904), who he had married in Melbourne in 1880, passed away. She was only 53. James made Gowan Brae available for all sorts of fairs, afternoon teas, garden parties, festivals and State visits of dignitaries. He was knighted in 1917 and spent the last two years of his life in semi-retirement, suffering from stomach cancer. Sir James was interred in the family vault within sight of the towers of Gowan Brae in 1923. His eldest and only surviving son, James Burns, inherited Gowan Brae. (His other two sons had both died in World War I). After this, Gowan Brae was to pass to the Burnside Homes Trust, under the management of the Presbyterian Church.
James Burns the younger did not live at Gowan Brae as he found it too large to use as his private home and vacated it in 1925. On his father’s death, he succeeded him as Chairman of Directors of Burns Philp and held this position until his retirement at the age of eighty-five in 1967. As he did not want to use the house, he passed it and 240 acres (97 ha) to the Burnside Homes, though he stipulated that they were to look after his late father’s museum. Before this, in September 1930, some of Gowan Brae’s household effects were auctioned including Louis XVI gilt salon furniture and Persian carpets.
The Burnside Homes were established on Sir James’ initiative as a Protestant boys’ orphanage village. In 1910 he donated land in close proximity to Gowan Brae, for its establishment. The cottage system of homes was set up, each home being the gift of a charitable Scot or Scottish organisation. By 1942 there were eighteen homes each housing about thirty children. The derivation of the name Burnside is said to commemorate Sir James’ brother who owned a station in Queensland called Burnside.
From about 1930 until 1939 Gowan Brae was used as a Burnside Home to accommodate older boys training for a career on the land by working in the Burnside dairy and growing vegetables and cereal crops around the Burnside village and Gowan Brae. Thirty boys occupied the upstairs bedrooms and meals were taken in the main hall (the old billiard room). The downstairs front rooms were “out of bounds” to the Burnside boys, as most were used to store furniture. Similarly, the museum was locked, but visible from the hall. Some of the boys are reputed to have examined its contents by gaining access to the glass roof space and sliding down a rope lowered into the room!
Gowan Brae was not really suited for inclusion in the Burnside orphan village, being physically detached from the other homes and its interior arrangement did not lend itself to easy conversion. Consequently, during the Second World War the Burnside Trust agreed to the Australian Army’s 1940 request to use Gowan Brae for the headquarters of the First Division, Second Army Military Secretary, as well as branches of the Army legal service, education service, amenities service, catering service and provost corps. Officers and NCOs undertook special courses at Gowan Brae, including instruction in tactics and drill. On the disbandment of the First Division, Gowan Brae was used as a billet for personnel of the Second Army Headquarters.
Upstairs rooms were converted again to living quarters for the senior officers and the downstairs areas were filled with office equipment. Due to space requirements, the old reception room was partitioned with a false wall and the museum dismantled and stored in 280 cases. After a few years it was found that the cases had been opened and items removed, so James Burns sold the whole collection at auction and the proceeds were put back into the estate. While stationed at Gowan Brae, troops undertook considerable maintenance work around the grounds, especially roads and drainage work, as during the Burnside occupation things had fallen into disrepair.
After the war, Gowan Brae was not reopened as a Burnside home. By that time fewer children required care and post-war rationing, inflation and staff shortages took their toll on maintaining the Burnside Homes. To reduce the financial burden, Gowan Brae and over 300 acres of its estate, was sold in 1954 to The King’s School for use as a preparatory school. Sir James’ three sons had attended King’s, founded in 1831, and the prep school has been established in 1908. Minor structural alterations were drawn up by architects, Moore, Walker and Croaker, and army huts at the rear of the house were lined, renovated, painted and converted into five classrooms for boarders and day boys. The school office occupied Sir James’ old smoking room and study, the masters’ common room occupied the northern end of the reception area and the library the southern end. Upstairs the main bedroom, sitting room and guestroom became dormitories and the housemaster occupied the tower room.
In 1958 the new senior school was built at the eastern end of the Gowan Brae estate around the family cemetery in what was known as Wattle paddock and by 1968 the whole school had moved from its O’Connell Street, Parramatta, site out to the Gowan Brae estate. The prep school continued at Gowan Brae house and by the 1990s the old house was only used by prep school boarders. Today (2022) it is used by the year 7 boarders and day boys.
It is of interest to note that Gowan Brae house has the notoriety of being used in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film, “The Great Gatsby” as the home of Gatsby’s former lover, Daisy.
Major References
Hillard, Bruce “Gowan Brae: The First Hundred Years 1889-1989”, The King’s School Preparatory School, North Parramatta, NSW, 1989.
Simpson, Margaret “Old Sydney Buildings” unpublished manuscript.
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