Broughton Hall is a heritage-listed former residence, convalescent hospital and psychiatric clinic situated in Callan Park, which has its main entrance on Balmain Road, Lilyfield, Inner West Council, New South Wales, Australia. The house, Broughton House or Broughton Hall, was built 1841 and variously served as a residence for prominent businessmen and public figures (1841–1914). It is situated within the Callan Park Conservation Area, in Church Street, Lilyfield, near the corner of Wharf Road. It was used as No. 13 Australian Army Hospital during World War I. Other buildings were constructed over time and the precinct was used as the Broughton Hall Psychiatric Clinic (1921–1976). It was merged into Rozelle Hospital along with the adjacent Callan Park Hospital for the Insane in 1976, during which time it became the first premises for the Rivendell Child, Adolescent and Family Unit. Broughton House fell into disuse, suffering severe damage from fire and vandalism. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
Indigenous settlement and early European colonisation
Before European settlement the Wangal clan or band lived at the site and their territory extended along the Parramatta River from about Petersham westward. The Wangal were part of the Eora or Dharug tribes. Due to a smallpox epidemic between 1789 and 1790 and European land development, only about 50 people from Dharug families were living in the Sydney area by 1900.
European settlement formed in the Leichhardt area with 15 land grants assigned between 1789 and 1821. The areas west of the peninsula were slow to develop; however, the later land grants were instrumental in developing the future Rozelle Hospital site. Francis Lloyd received 50 acres in 1819 and Luke Ralph received 50 acres in 1821, these adjoining grants stretching from Long or Iron Cove to Rozelle Bay. To their west, Lawrence Butler received 100 acres in 1819. These grants were in common ownership by the 1840s, becoming the Garry Owen Estate, later to become known as Callan Park.
To the west of Butler's grant was a 100-acre grant assigned to John Austen in 1819, initially known as "Spring Cove Estate" but by the 1840s known as "Austenham". The estate had two significant houses on it: Austenham or Kalouan (demolished 1932) and Broughton Hall or Broughton House. John Keep changed the name from Broughton House to Broughton Hall. In 1884 and 1885 the property appeared in Sands Sydney Directory as "Broughton." Then, in the 1886 directory it appeared as "Broughton Hall." The Broughton House/Austenham estate was separated from the Garry Owen Estate by a line formed by the extension northward of Wharf Road.
The Garry Owen Estate was originally owned by Crown Solicitor and Police Magistrate John Ryan Brenan. His house, Garry Owen House, was built about 1839, possibly designed by Colonial Architect Mortimer Lewis. Brenan, a man of keen horticultural interests, developed a large garden and lived at Garry Owen until 1865.
Broughton Hall as residence
For many years, Garry Owen was a focus for social life in the area. In 1841, Brenan bought an additional three acres west of his estate and built Broughton House (on the opposite side of Wharf Road from his own large estate, Garry Owen), which he then sold with its extensive grounds in 1845. When Brenan advertised for lease in December 1842 the advertisement mentioned: "A house near Garry Owen, consisting of four sitting rooms, six bedrooms, housekeeper's room, house closet and store, wine cellar, butler's pantry, kitchen and back hall, coach house and stables...abundance of water on the land. The house is completed, and can be given immediately...stands in a position which commands a beautiful view of the Parramatta River and Lane Cove" and in 1856 "...never-failing water hole and pump...". It is believed that water for Broughton House's fountains and ponds was originally fed from a natural spring, from between the clay and sandstone stratum.
The construction of Pyrmont Bridge in 1857 and Glebe Island Bridge in 1862 and the Iron Cove Bridge in 1880 opened up land to the west of Rozelle and generated speculative subdivision. Although large estates were rapidly subdivided, the houses and original curtilage of Broughton House and Garry Owen House remained rare survivors. In 1871 there were just 112 houses in the municipality and 614 residents. By 1885 there were 2100 houses and 10,550 residents in what were solidly working-class suburbs.