Rose Cottage is a heritage-listed former cottage and now museum at Rose Street, Wilberforce, City of Hawkesbury, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1810 to 1820 by Thomas Rose. The property is owned by the Thomas and Jane Rose Family Society Inc. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Indigenous occupation
The lower Hawkesbury River was home to the Dharug people. The proximity to the Nepean River and South Creek qualifies it as a key area for food resources for indigenous groups. The Dharug and Darkinjung people called the river Deerubbin and it was a vital source of food and transport.
Early history of Wilberforce
Early European exploration of the Hawkesbury River began in 1789 with a series of expeditions initiated by Governor of New South Wales Arthur Phillip in his search for fertile land to serve the new colony's agricultural purposes. Although the Hawkesbury River valley was penetrated from Broken Bay to the site of present-day Windsor by 1790, evidence of very high floods observed by Phillip and other explorers prevented Governor Phillip from consenting to make land grants in the area.
Despite Phillip's unwillingness to settle the Hawkesbury, Lieutenant-Governor Major Francis Grose proceeded in making 22 land grants in the district of Mulgrave Place in 1794, less than two years after Phillip departed the colony. Grose may have resorted to settling the Hawkesbury due to a lack of land available in the area between Sydney and Parramatta, after Grose had made numerous grants there to members of the New South Wales Corps. Grose reported in a dispatch in 1794, "I have settled on the banks of the Hawkesbury twenty-two settlers, who seem very much pleased with their farms. They describe the soil as particularly rich, and they inform me whatever they have planted has grown in the greatest luxuriance."
The first land grants consisted of 30 acres each, all with frontage to the river. Nineteen of the original 22 settlers were former convicts who had finished serving their sentences. Despite the challenges posed by inexperience, poor seed stock, and a lack of livestock to drive ploughs, it was reported that within the first 12 months, the average yield at the Hawkesbury settlement was 25 bushels per acre, double the yield elsewhere in the colony. Spurred on by the initial success, further grants of 25 to 30 acres were made to former convicts, with larger grants going to men from the New South Wales Corps. The European population of the Hawkesbury area increased to 546 inhabitants in the 1795 muster.
Despite a rise in water recorded in 1795, which caused many early Hawkesbury settlers to leave the area, farming of the fertile floodplains by a new influx of settlers continued to increase. These early farmers concentrated their activities on the low lying land along the river, ignoring the ridgelines in favour of the more fertile land below. Floods recorded in 1799, 1800 and 1801 severely impacted the colony's economy, leading to vastly inflated prices for food and stores. However, the farming returns in 1802 were good enough for most farmers to pay off the debts incurred in the preceding three years.
Soil erosion, caused by livestock, farming practices, and the recent flooding, began to be noted as a problem by 1803. In that year, Governor King introduced a measure to prevent erosion, prohibiting the removal of trees and shrubs within ten metres of the riverbanks. In 1804, King further established six commons for stock grazing, including Wilberforce Common.
Despite these steps, the impact of the floods of 1806 and 1809 was immense. The river rose three times in 1806 and twice in 1809, causing damage to thousands of hectares of crops and losses amounting to tens of thousands of pounds. Again, food and grain prices became highly inflated, and government rations were reduced. Questions as to the feasibility of relying on the Hawkesbury as the main food source of the colony began to be posed by William Paterson, who was administering the colony in 1809.
Governor Macquarie arrived in the colony in the wake of the 1809 flood disaster, and within 12 months of his arrival, had established the five 'Macquarie Towns': Windsor, Richmond, Wilberforce, Pitt Town and Castlereagh. He sited the towns on higher ground and induced the settlers to relocate their dwellings to higher land in order to minimise the threat of damage from flooding. The towns were laid out on a rectangular grid plan, with a major public square in a central position. Each town was to have a combined school house/church building, with separate land grants set aside for the school master and clergyman. Under the leadership of Macquarie, the Hawkesbury settlers experienced a heretofore unknown level of stability.
Commissioner of Inquiry John Thomas Bigge arrived from England in 1820 in order to investigate the state of the colony on behalf of the Crown. Bigge's comments on the farming industry in the Hawkesbury River region reflect both the challenges faced by the settlers and the incomparable fertility of the soil. In his 1823 Report, Bigge referred to the flood plain soil as "distinguished by its depth and inexhaustible fertility. It lies on both sides of the rivers Nepean and Hawkesbury, and the largest tract is that which is formed by a bend of the latter river between the town of Windsor and the township of Wilberforce." Bigge reported that in 1820, the towns of Windsor, Wilberforce and Richmond had 10,000 acres of wheat or maize sown in a total 16,856 acres of cleared land, the most in the colony.
In contrast to the fertility of the soil, Bigge commented on the poor state of the farms in the region, stating that "the farms, or rather allotments, in these districts [of the Hawkesbury] are small; the houses generally ill-built and exhibiting traces of former inundations...[the] more opulent settlers have begun to fence their estates with strong railing made of stringy and iron bark trees." He attributed the poor state of farm buildings in the colony to the cost and lack of "mechanical labour," as well as the carelessness of many of the settlers.
Wilberforce tended to have a higher proportion of free settlers to former convicts than the other Macquarie towns. The Reverend Cartwright reported in 1819 to the Bigge Commission that church attendance was good at Wilberforce, and the congregation was composed mainly of the "regular families." The combined school house/church was constructed in 1819 and is now the last building of the original school house. A steam mill was established by Buttsworth in 1835 near the river facing Buttsworth Lane. From the end of Buttsworth Lane, a punt crossed the Hawkesbury to Pitt Town Bottoms from as early as 1812.
Land grants Upon Thomas Rose's arrival in NSW in 1793, he and the other settlers from the ship Bellona were given land grants in an area near present day Strathfield, which they named "Liberty Plains" after the fact that they were all free settlers. Thomas Rose selected 120 acres on the right bank of Powell's Creek. Despite being an experienced farmer, Rose struggled with the poor soil at Liberty Plains, and by 1802 purchased 15 acres of land known as Laurel Farm on the banks of the Hawkesbury River near Wilberforce, approximately one mile from the site of Rose Cottage. Thomas Rose lost everything in the floods of 1806 and 1809.
The land on which Rose Cottage is now situated is part of a 30 acre grant to William Mackay made by Governor Hunter in 1797. In January 1806 Mackay transferred the north-eastern half of his grant, described as "that part to Howarth's Farm" to James Roberts. Two months later, Roberts sold this land to W. M. Nowland, a blacksmith, who then sold the land to Joshua Rose in 1809.
Thomas Rose and his wife had been accompanied on their voyage from England on the Bellona by their four children, Thomas (to avoid confusion, herein referred to as Thomas II), Mary, Joshua and Richard, aged 13, 11, 9 and 3 respectively. After arriving in the colony, Thomas Rose had three more children. Most of Thomas and Jane's children remained in Australia, many establishing farms of their own along the Hawkesbury River. The family appears to have retained a patriotism for England, as Thomas II and Joshua returned to England -1806, and father and sons contributed subscriptions to the Waterloo fund in 1816.
Construction of Rose Cottage Despite widespread secondary sources indicating that it was Thomas Rose who acquired the subject land, there is no primary documentary evidence to support this. It was certainly his son Joshua Rose who was the first Rose family owner of the land. There is no firm documentary evidence relating to the construction of Rose Cottage; our dating is based on the physical evidence remaining at the cottage. The vertical timber slab construction technique and the pre-1820 gudgeon hinges used in Doors 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 provide a strong indication that the main part of the cottage (Spaces 1, 2, 5, 6, and the verandah) was built in the period 1809-1820. The original plan form of the cottage was much the same as it is today; however the rear skillion may have been added at another time in the early 19th century. The physical evidence for this later addition includes the use of weather boards inside the skillion, and the use of bush poles for refters, whereas the rafters of the main swing are split.
Previous attempts to date the cottage through documentary sources have generally relied on two historical events: Governor Macquarie's General Offer stating requirements for the size and materials of new dwellings in the five Macquarie towns made 15 December 1810, and the reputed visit of Reverend Samuel Leigh to 'old Tom Rose's home' in 1817. In his report on Rose Cottage in 1982, Alan Roberts, Field and Research Officer for the Royal Australian Historical Society, concluded that this evidence for the date of the cottage is questionable, neither proving nor disproving the claim that Rose Cottage was built in the period 1811-1817. Roberts points out that Rose Cottage is not in full compliance with Macquarie's promulgation of 1810, and no source for Rev. Leigh's reference to 'old Tom Rose's home' was found. Additionally, this reference does not necessarily indicate Rose Cottage, merely whichever house Thomas Rose Senior was occupying at the time.
The question of which members of the family occupied Rose Cottage is also open to speculation. Thomas Rose's land at Laurel Farm was rented to one J. Armstrong in the 1821 Return of Land in Wilberforce. Although he owned the farm at Rose Cottage between 1809 and 1850, Joshua Rose was listed in the 1828 Census as a resident of Lower Portland head. An 1818 surveyor's field book makes reference to 'Rose's hut' at that location, which indicates that Joshua had built a dwelling on his Portland head holding by this time. The muster records of 1818, 1819, 1821 and 1822 do not provide conclusive evidence as to which member of the family was farming the land. The 1841 census records both Joshua and Thomas II as residents of Wilberforce.
In 1850, Joshua transferred the subject land to his brother, Thomas II, in an unregistered dealing recited in a 1913 conveyance. Joshua retained a small strip of land bordering the subject land to the southwest, which remained in the Rose family until 1955. In 1854, Thomas II composed his will, leaving Rose Cottage as well as Laurel Farm to his son Charles: