Fernhill is a heritage-listed former chicken hatchery, plant nursery, guest house, farm, residence, stone mason's yard and piggery and now residence and horse stud located at 1041 Mulgoa Road, in the western Sydney suburb of , New South Wales, Australia. Completed in as a residence for Captain William Cox and family, the house was completed in the Old Colonial Greek Revival style with its design attributed to either Mortimer Lewis, John Verge or Francis Clarke. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
Set on , Fernhill was built as a much grander residence with associated gardens following Cox's earlier construction of The Cottage, that dated from . Following Cox's death in 1837, Fernhill was completed under the supervision of one of his sons, Edward.
History Aboriginal land The traditional owners of the land now occupied by Cox's Cottage were the Mulgowie people, who became known as the "Mulgoa tribe".Karskens, 2009, 9
There is a reference to an attack on the Cox property by Aboriginal people in 1814.Sydney Gazette, May 1814.
Colonisation The Mulgoa valley has played an important part in the history of the development of New South Wales. From 1810 Mulgoa was a key area of settlement in the colony.Anderson, 2008
The first land grant was made by Governor Macquarie to Lieutenant William Cox, a colonial magistrate who promptly registered the property in the parish records in the name of his infant son, Edward.
Cox's Cottage is part of early colonial land grants and purchases to members of the Cox family in the Mulgoa Valley, south of Penrith, eventually totalling some .Kinhill Stearns, 1983; Bertie 1930, p51 The first of the grants, of , made in 1809 to the infant Edward Cox and confirmed by Governor Macquarie the following year,Watson, 1917 became known as Fernhills or Fernhill.
Fernhill estate is located principally on the first land grant made in the Mulgoa Valley (to the infant Edward Cox) dating back to 1809. The name Fern Hills seems to have been given it as early as 1810.Stapleton, for Dept. of Planning, 1983
Lieutenant William Cox is perhaps best known for supervising the construction of the first road over the Blue Mountains in the second half of 1814.Betteridge, 2009 He sailed to New South Wales on the Minerva in 1799. During his 37 years of residence in the early colony, he made a substantial and enduring contribution to its progress in the fields of public administration, building and agricultural development. The Cox family were remarkable "house and garden" people. During the middle years of the 19th century, William Cox Sr. was at Clarendon, near Windsor; his eldest son William, lived at Hobartville, Richmond; his sons Henry, George and Edward were to build and occupy their respective houses of Glenmore, Winbourne and Fernhill at Mulgoa. Another son, James, settled in Van Dieman's Land, where he built his own magnificent Clarendon. Around all these houses the Cox families created beautiful gardens.Chippindall/Broadbent, 1979, 2
For some time the property of was managed jointly with that of William Cox by the overseer James King with occasional help from Cox's sons, George, Henry and Edward.
Edward Cox (1805–68) returned from schooling in England (since 1821) and established his separate estate at Fernhill. In 1827 he married Jane Maria Brooks (of Denham Court estate, Ingleburn) and the family lived at The Cottage, Mulgoa (to the east) for many years.
By the late 1830s Fernhill was one of the principal estates in the Mulgoa Valley and included The Cottage site to the east. At this time it was one of five properties that had expanded to occupy virtually the entire Mulgoa Valley.
In 1842 Edward Cox began building the sandstone house. It was planned on a large and sophisticated scale and in the Greek Revival style, possibly by colonial architect Mortimer Lewis. The house was completed in 1843 and Edward and Jane Cox moved in then. Above the door is a date of 1842.Stapleton, 1983 The architect of Fernhill is not known with any certainty. The house bears features suggestive of the work of Mortimer Lewis and John Verge. The less-well known architect, Francis Clarke, was working in the area at the time of Fernhill's construction and the house may have been designed by him.Report to Heritage Council, 1978
Lewis' private commissions show a dependence on published sources, identified in recent year by architectural historian James Broadbent. Fernhill and Tomago boast separate entrance and garden fronts at right angles to each other, the garden fronts marked by bay windows. Their plans are probably adapted from the British architect William Wilkins' design for "Oxberton House", Nottinghamshire, as published by George Richardson in the New Vitruvius Britannicus (1802-8).Carlin, 2012
Elements of the house suggesting the involvement of Mortimer Lewis are: narrow "slit" side light windows flanking the front door; internal skirting boards with "window-panelling" insets; papier mache ceiling friezes and roses (from Bealerfeld & Co. in London) (much used in the 1840s, e.g. by Surveyor-General Sir Thomas Mitchell at Parkhall in Douglas Park; who influenced Lewis; and at Government House, Sydney (which Lewis supervised construction of) (NB: these were later removed and the ceilings stencilled); the "Gothic" black marble fireplace in the major room; the niches and arched vault openings in and off the entrance lobby (as at Garry Owen house in Lilyfield, by Lewis).Griffin, 2013
The house appears to have been designed as a two storey building. The recession of the 1840s is said to be the reason for its unfinished (one storey) state.
Twenty Irish stone masons were brought out to Australia under the bounty system of immigration for the specific purpose of building the Fernhill house, using sandstone quarried from the local hills. Edward Cox and his family lived in the house from 1843 until his death in 1868, when the property passed to his eldest son, Edward King Cox.
The surviving stable at the rear (west) is said to be built in 1839 and is certainly of the same period as the house.
In the early 1850s the estate was singled out by Governor FitzRoy's aide-de-camp, Col. Godfrey Mundy, for the way in which its landscape had been moulded by thinning the native species. Other ket developments include:
It was described as "a modern mansion situated on rising ground with well kept shrubberies, lawns and a well kept ... vineyard". Following Edward Cox's death in 1863the property passed to his eldest son, Edward King Cox (1829-1883) of Rawden, Mudgee, who until 1885 carried out at The Cottage, Mulgoa, a noted racehorse stud producing several Melbourne Cup winners.Stapleton,1983 E. K. Cox was a breeder of fine race horses and Fernhill Stud produced the first Sydney Cup winner and several Melbourne Cup winners. Following E. K. Cox's death in 1883 the estate seems to have been divided. In 1888Standish Cox sold the house and surrounding land to Mr Wright of Wright Heaton. For some years possibly due to the recession of the 1890s the house is said to have been uninhabited. By 1911the property was owned by R. B. Baynes, Mayor of Mulgoa. About 1931the house and 1000 acres was bought by Mr & Mrs Moyse who ran it as a guest house. At that time the building had a galvanised iron roof and a large stone reservoir holding 45,000 gallons. Mr John Darling bought the estate. Darling was a World War II fighter pilot, a banker, director of resource companies, accomplished international agri-business pioneer and Australian film industry visionary. After World War II Darling married Susie Yencken and they settled at Vaucluse. Weekends were often spent at Fernhill, Mulgoa, which Darling bought in 1956 and gradually restored.Lee, 2015 Darling and garden designer Paul Sorensen reworked the garden around the house. In 1980the house was sold with 1000 acres to the property developer, Warren Anderson for $2.8 million.Dawson, 7/1980, 91 and earlierthe house was extensively restored and renovated by former owner Darling and then Anderson. The most notable addition has been the sandstone columns (ex the Union Club, Sydney) in the northern pergola. December 2001-January 2002bushfires damaged the property down to Mulgoa Road, but had some benefits in killing some of the cypress hedging obscuring/blocking views. Bushland is recovering.July 2002, Stuart Read, pers. comm. 2007-8Warren Anderson acquired adjoining properties on Fernhill's northern flank, lying uphill and visually prominent to its setting, when seen from the house/drives. 2010an auction of the collection (1400 lots, reputedly the largest such sale in Australia) of antiques, furniture and artworks belonging to the owners (Warren & Cheryl Anderson) held in June 2010.SMH, 24-25/4/2010 2011property put on real estate market by receivers Korda Mentha.SMH/Blok, 2012 October 2012Simon & Brenda Tripp are tipped to buy (have put an option to buy) Fernhill for $45 million. The Tripps have been using the estate as a venue for functions, such as picnic race events on the racetrack, "Tough Mudder" endurance events, concerts and the like.
Fernhill has reputedly been sold for redevelopment as a cemetery.Lucas, 2017, 2 Rookwood General Cemetery Trust confirmed in May 2017 that a sale has not yet occurred, but it has entered into a six-month exclusivity period which will allow the trust to conduct the required due diligence process, commencing with a period of community consultation, the trust's spokeswoman told the Penrith Press.Petrinic, 2017
Description Setting Fernhill is in (on the western side of the middle of) the Mulgoa Valley, a picturesque rural landscape retaining a number of significant colonial and later 19th century farm estates, building complexes and areas of natural bushland. The valley is bounded to the west by the Nepean River and the Blue Mountains National Park, to the east it slopes down to Mulgoa Road and merges with the undulating slopes of Western Sydney. It is characterised by predominantly rural landscape and comprises creek flats, gently sloping agricultural land, wooded hills and escarpment areas.Anderson, 2008, modified, Stuart Read, 30/7/08
Landscape Fernhill is a consciously created rural landscape in the English landscape tradition, formed by: the process of elimination rather than planting; the removal of natives regarded as unpicturesque; and thinning to create a park like scene with clumps of rough-barked apples and Angophora trees left along the drive to the house.
Beyond the avenue of trees the drive crosses the wall of a dammed watercourse. The road continues across two small decorative but massively constructed balustraded bridges and winds upwards below the now partially obscured garden front of the house.
Significant elements are the hill setting of the house and original (southern) entrance drive including the drive, bridges, pond and estate landscaping in English landscape park style. The house, garden and modern works are not significant elements. Mundey's nineteenth century description of Fernhill's landscape being the finest piece of English park like scenery, but with Australian species, in New South Wales, is still arguably true.RNE, based on National Trust (Broadbent), 1981.
Driveway The original entrance drive was designed to provide visitors with constantly changing glimpses of the house and its estate. Two damaged but still trafficable sandstone arch bridges on the drive exist. They were unnecessary in an engineering sense as the drive could have been constructed higher up the hill to avoid the shallow gullies which the bridges cross. They were an obvious attempt by the designer to increase the grandeur of the entrance. This contrived landscape is an integral part of the setting of the house and outbuildings.