Earlsferry

Statement of Significance

The following statement is taken from the Register Entry for the place compiled in 1994
Earlsferry has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
• the building is a prominent landmark in the Guildford/Bassendean area;
• the building is a fine example of the grand homes built close to the river in West Guildford during the gold boom years;
• the building is important for its close association with John Short, Sir Edward Wittenoom, and Karl Drake-Brockman, three important persons who contributed significantly to the development of the State of Western Australia;
• the building demonstrates the form and ambience of the lifestyle of wealthy Western Australians at the turn of the century; and,
• the building is one of the few remaining grand turn-of-the-century properties situated along the Swan River on the outskirts of Perth.

Physical Description

Two storey brick, iron and timber house in the Federation Queen Anne style. The brickwork is laid in Flemish bond with a tuckpointed finish. The house has decorative timber verandahs and a turreted corner facing the river frontage. The roof originally had roughcast gables with decorative iron finials which have since been replaced. The tall brick chimneys with terracotta flues remain extant. Wide verandahs surround three sides of the house with timber balustrading and friezes. Windows are a combination of 1-over-1 sashes and casement openings. In 1989 the house was badly damaged by fire: the roof and upper storey of the building was gutter, five bedrooms and an office were destroyed. The ground floor was damaged by smoke and water but the main reception rooms remained substantially intact. The damage was repaired by no restoration works were undertaken. The original roofing to the billiard room remained but the roofing in other areas was replaced in a form similar to the original but the original cast iron finials and half-timbered and roughcast gables were replaced with a simplified form.

History

Earlsferry, formerly known as Briarsleigh, was built for John Tregerthen Short in 1902. John Tregerthen Short (1858-1933) purchased a plot of land south of the railway line on 13 November 1902. At the time he purchased the property, Short was Chief Traffic Manager of the Western Australian Government Railways (W.A.G.R.) and married with four children. His choice of location recognised the future relocation of the Eastern Railway headquarters to Midland in 1904. The locality was also popular many leading citizens who built large houses with river frontages in Guildford. Short commissioned a two-storey red brick house, set back from the roads and railway, and facing the river. The architect and builder of the house are unknown, however Carter has suggested the house may have been built by Henry Duval who built Cyril Jackson's house (Daylesford) nearby. Short combined his W.A.G.R. career with active participation in civic affairs. He was elected Chairman of the West Guildford Road Board in 1903 (the meetings being held in his newly built house) and was a Justice
of the Peace for Western Australia. By 1906/07, he had been appointed Commissioner of Railways, a position he held until his retirement in 1919. In July 1923, Briarsleigh was bought by Sir Edward Horne Wittenoom. Wittenoom was sixty-nine years of age, and nearing the end of a distinguished career, having been Acting Premier of Western Australia in 1897,
and Western Australia's Agent General in London. He did not live in the house all the time and it seems likely that the house was let out for residential purposes from the late 1920s. Following Wittenoom's death in 1936, control of the estate passed to the West Australian Trustee Executor and Agency Company Ltd., which managed the property until 1941. Three years later, in November 1944, the property was sold to Mrs Mildred Foster, who lived there with her husband and her daughter until 1946. It was during this period that the
property was renamed Earlsferry. On 4 April 1946, the property was purchased by Karl Edgar Drake-Brockman. In addition to his achievements as a Rhodes Scholar, Oxford law graduate, solicitor, and judge, Drake-Brockman was an accomplished gardener who cultivated the gardens at Earlsferry in part to sell the produce to a Perth Florist.
In April 1950, an application by Drake-Brockman to the State Licensing Court to turn Earlsferry into a hotel was rejected and the property was sold to the Crown shortly thereafter. Under the ownership of the Crown, Earlsferry was converted to a home for mentally handicapped girls. At this time, Earlsferry underwent a number of changes that altered its original residential function. In September 1988, ownership of Earlsferry passed to the "Authority for Intellectually Handicapped Persons." In April 1989, the roof and upper floor of
the building were gutted by fire. The damage was repaired but not restored to its original state. In 1990, Earlsferry was Classified by the National Trust of Australia (WA) and in the same year the place was sold to Lesley-Anne Thomas. In 1993, a conservation plan was prepared to manage the future development of the place and in 1994 Earlsferry was included on the State Register of Heritage Places. The landholding has subsequently been subdivided with a covenant to protect the heritage values of the place. In April 2009, the current [2016] owners purchased Earlsferry House. They started a restoration program which
was guided by the conservation plan which including tuck pointing of external brickwork and the reinstating of wooden verandahs at ground floor level.

Integrity/Authenticity

High
High

Condition

Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.