Lansdowne Park is a heritage-listed homestead at Bungonia Road, Goulburn, Goulburn Mulwaree Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1822 to 1825. It is also known as Lansdowne. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Jonas Bradley had settled previously at Windsor Road (Sydney) on a grant of 25 acres. For this property, he had been granted stock from the Government Herds in 1811. In return he was a regular supplier of meat to the Government Stores at Windsor. In this location he initiated the growing of tobacco in commercial quantities.
The first award ever made by the fledgling Agricultural Society was a silver quart tankard given to Jonas Bradley in 1823 "in recognition of his cultivation of tobacco and his offer to lay before the Society a statement of his mode of culture, cure and manufacture". A hundredweight of tobacco was presented to the Society to be sent to England in the brig "Bathurst". This statement to the Society was published in the Sydney Gazette on 2- February 1823 and again on 22 May.
The land which Jonas occupied at this time was considered by him to be "too poor and limited in size" to enable him to cultivate tobacco to the extent he wished. As a consequence he petitioned Governor Brisbane in 1822 for a grant of land in the Burragorang district where he proposed to "cultivate tobacco to a considerable extent, as the soil is extremely suitable for that purpose". Jonas Bradley then went on to become the first to plant and harvest tobacco as a crop in the Goulburn district. In 1836, 1.5 tons of tobacco was harvested from Lansdowne.
In 1836 William Bradley opened a brewery complex at the base of the hill below Lansdowne homestead and between 1836 and 1840 a steam-powered mill had been added. This was one of the first steam powered industries in the colony. The mill, when completed in 1838, processed about 100,000 bushels of wheat per annum. In 1852 the price of flour in Goulburn rose from 21 to 29 pounds whilst wheat was selling at 10/- a bushel. Flour milled at Bradley's mill in 1854 realised "first 35 pounds per ton, second 34 pounds, third 33 pounds, Bran 3/- per bushel". Due to collusion the price from the other major mill in the town, Byrnes and Oaker's was the same. Both the brewery and mill were managed by William Shelley who was in partnership with Bradley. Shelley died in 1844, aged 39, at Lansdowne Park. After Bradley's death in 1868 the complex was sold to Messrs Walford, Sparks & Emanuel who continued the milling but ceased the brewery operation. Emanuel was also the purchaser of Lansdowne at this time. The new owners sold on to Messrs Bartlett and Oddy who operated only the brewery.
Jonas' scientific approach to agriculture was shared by William - inspired by his father's interest in and knowledge of tobacco, he is reputed to have developed a nicotine based treatment for scab in sheep that led to the eradication of scab from NSW flocks. Bradley's work on scab and catarrh for the sheep industry is ranked equal in importance to that of Farrar's for rust in the wheat industry.
Bradley also introduced the first Southdown (coarse haired) sheep to NSW in the Monaro.
Description
Lansdowne Park is Goulburn's oldest homestead and property, and includes ballroom, convict built coach house and stables, convict jail and guests' quarters.
Estate
Reduced in scale, but still an agricultural property with paddocks of grass running adjacent to Bungonia Road and the Mulwaree Chain of Ponds (river), and more recently a vineyard block north of the house. Homestead complex is on a small hill above the river and north of the road. Former property straddled the river with the Flour Mill & Brewery & Malt House complex to the west and further fields to the north. Shelter belts of Monterey pine (Pinus radiata), Monterey cypress (Cupressus macrocarpa), black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia), stone pine (Pinus pinea)
House
Single storey colonial style hipped roof (corrugated iron today, shingles originally) U-shaped house in lapped timber boards, cedar fireplace mantels and much internal joinery, stringybark/spotted gum floorboards, open verandahs on three sides, two side verandahs filled in (south) and part-filled in (north). Rear north-east corner has brick additions for kitchen/pantry/office. South side verandah infilled for bedrooms. Several fireplaces in brick.