Bungarribee Homestead Site
The Bungarribee Homestead Site is a heritage-listed archaeological site at the location of the former Bungarribee Homestead. The site is located at Doonside Road, Doonside, New South Wales, a suburb of Sydney, Australia. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 8 December 2000.
History
Darug people
The traditional owners of Bungarribee estate were the Warrawarry group of the Darug people. They were based around Eastern Creek and the surrounding forest and grassland and used these for food and shelter, hunting and gathering a wide array of animal and plant foods including fresh water fish, crayfish and shellfish.A close examination of the documentation of Governor Phillip's first exploration of Parramatta's western hinterland in April 1788 reveals that the orthodox view that he went only as far as Prospect Hill or a little beyond is deeply flawed. His party is much more likely to have traversed Toongabbie, Seven Hills and Blacktown to climb Bungarribee Hill, Doonside and reaching Eastern Creek and Rooty Hill.
By the time of European settlement in the western regions after 1790, the original Aboriginal groups had been severely affected by an outbreak of smallpox that had first devastated the groups closest to the European settlement but rapidly spread through the entire Sydney district. Many of the surviving groups in the west had likely begun to come together to form amalgamated bands in order to survive.
Once European settlers began to move into the west, conflicts began to occur between them and the Warrawarry. The clearing and alienation of land by Europeans and consequent reduction in native foods led to clashes between surviving Aboriginal groups and the settlers. By the late 1790s, violence was becoming a feature of the interaction between the two cultures. In 1801 Governor Hunter ordered Aboriginals to be kept away from settlers' areas because of the perceived threat. By 1814 the population had dwindled and the survivors were forced to rely heavily on Europeans for food. A number of groups were reported camped on estates at Mamre, South Creek and Eastern Creek.
Although bands of Aboriginal people continued to live around the estates and growing settlements up to the 1840s, by this time there were less than 300 recorded Darug people left, 10% of the 1788 population. This equated to less than 10% of the estimated population at the time of European arrival.
For many years "Bungarribee" was thought to mean "the burial place of a king" and was derived from the name of an Aboriginal man named "Bungaree". Bungaree reputedly died in the vicinity of Bungarribee. King Bungaree was a Guringai man who lived to the north of Sydney in the Broken Bay area. He was well known around Sydney, particularly for the role he played in key voyages of both Matthew Flinders and Phillip Gidley King during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the first Aboriginal man to be presented with a breastplate by Governor Macquarie, in 1815. According to Philip Clarke, Bungaree died in 1830 and is buried in Rose Bay. It is now thought that the name "Bungarribee" is derived from joining together two Darug words which in combination can be translated as "creek with cockatoos" or "creek with campsite". Neither Bungarribee or Bell's creeks are permanent water sources so this interpretation of the name appears plausible.
Government Depot Site, Rooty Hill
From 1802 until about 1815, the site of the Bungarribee estate was included within the 38,728 acres that made up the much larger Rooty Hill Government Farm. Established by Governor Philip Gidley King to ensure the supply of good pasture for government herds. King saw the farms also as a way to keep the fledgling colonial economy out of the exclusive hands of profiteers and market manipulators.The farm remained unaltered from its natural state, save for an overseer's hut and scattered huts for convict shepherds and labourers, as well as stockyards and fences to enclose grazing areas, until 1810 when the-then Governor Lachlan Macquarie subdivided the farms into smaller parcels of land for free settlers. Macquarie also believed that the worst was over for the colony in terms of food production and that the need for large Government Farms to supply the colony was no longer so pronounced. At Rooty Hill much of the development was to the north-west of the although fencing may have been erected within its area.
Among the settlers was John Campbell of Argylshire, Scotland who is mentioned in the Colonial Secretary's Papers on 8 February 1822 as having taken possession of two thousand acres in the district of Prospect. The Land and Stock Muster of this same year records that Campbell's estate included "2000 acres at Parramatta with 130 acres cleared, 15 acres of wheat, 5 acres of barley and 2 acres of potatoes".
The estate, was bounded by Eastern Creek in the west, the existing Bungarribee Road in the north, what is now the Great Western Highway in the south, and the approximate line of Reservoir Road in the east.
John Kingdon Cleeve
John Kingdon Cleeve purchased Bungarribee in 1851. He died in 1883, with the property remaining part of his estate until sold off. Both father and son, served as trustees of St. Bartholomew's Church of England, Prospect, NSW, where members of this family are buried.John Campbell
From 1815 Macquarie began to grant parcels of land from the Rooty Hill Farm to settlers, which marked the beginning of organised European agricultural activity in the area. The largest portion in the subject area was that of John Campbell's 2000 acres which he took up in.John Campbell, a major in the British Army and for whom Bungarribee Homestead was built, arrived in Sydney on 30 November 1821 with his wife, Annabella, and their nine children aboard a sailing ship called the Lusitania. A son, Charles James Fox Campbell, became one of the first European settlers in Adelaide, South Australia. Campbell, accompanied by his wife and nine children and bearing a letter of introduction from the Earl of Bathurst to Governor Macquarie, was intent on making his fortune by taking up land and farming. A great-grand grandson, Sir Walter Campbell, would later become a judge of the Supreme Court of Queensland, chancellor of the University of Queensland, and Governor of Queensland.
No more than four months after their arrival a notice of caution appeared in the classifieds section of the Sydney Gazette, undersigned by Campbell and his neighbour Mr Robert Crawford, asking for the immediate removal of all cattle grazing on "the farms of Armady and Milton, situate on the East Creek, in the District of Prospect … having been lately marked off and located to ".
Despite being described by Broadbent as an "unappealing man" and an "unconscionable self-interested sponger", Campbell appears to have had considerable knowledge of farming and was relatively highly regarded by the colonial government at the time. Campbell's knowledge and status are reflected in his appointments as a committee member of the Agricultural Society of NSW and later "Joint Commissioner of Crown Lands"
Campbell's land grant was bounded by Eastern Creek in the west, in the north by the current Bungarribee Road, in the south by the Great Western Highway and in the east by the approximate line of Reservoir Road. Campbell erected a temporary residence on the high point of his land and began to clear and cultivate, with the help of 22 convict labourers.
An 1821 Colonial Secretary's record notes authorising John Campbell to select 22 convicts, 'having 80 acres cleared at Prospect under conditions of the notice of 17 November 1821. "Until the party have hutted themselves at a central spot on your estate they are to continue drawing rations from Parramatta...".
The 1822 Land and Stock Muster lists John Campbell as granted 2000 acres with 130 acres cleared, 15 acres wheat, 5 acres barley and 2 acres potatoes. Stock are 24 cattle, 28 hogs and 1 horse. In the General Muster of 1822 he is no. A03201 with sons 3202, -03, also wife No. A3178 and 6 children 3179–3184, all "came free" on "Lusitania". He was assigned 6 convicts for 6 months victualling from the King's Stores, and applied for 5 mechanics and 4 labourers.
Between March 1822 and July 1824 Campbell consolidated his landholdings and renamed the estate "Bungarribee", which at the time was understood to mean the burial place of an Aboriginal king. This has subsequently been disproven and the word 'Bungarribee' is now thought to have been derived from two Darug words which together can be translated to mean 'creek with cockatoos' or 'creek with campsite'.
Almost immediately after Campbell received his grant he began building a homestead on that land "suited to his status as a former officer and colonial gentleman". The homestead and estate were named Bungarabee which was also the name of the creek which cut east-west through the grant. It is an Aboriginal composition, a derivation of which was briefly associated with the Black Town native school. He built on the western slope of Bungarribee Hill in 1822. Construction work utilised assigned convict labour and was preceded by or occurred in concert with clearing sections of the natural vegetation on Campbell's land. The main portion of the house was circular, with one room on the ground floor and one above, both a full circle in shape. Thus all windows, doors and mantelpieces had to be curved, and the difficulty of properly carrying out such accurate work with the labour available must have been very great. Yet it was done, and stood for over 100 years, testimony to the skill involved.
Campbell's temporary residence was enlarged in 1825 and incorporated into his grand new home. He positioned his new house on the top of the highest hill on the property, with the main living section facing to the west, providing views to the Blue Mountains in the distance. Situated on the highest point, the house was clearly visible to travellers passing along the Western Road and in time it became a landmark in the area., hoop pine, Mediterranean cypress / pencil pine, Port Jackson fig and peppercorn tree. As well as the house, a number of large outbuildings and farm structures were erected on the raised area, including a brick convict barracks, a large brick barn, a number of stables, blacksmith's shop, carpenter's shop and other associated buildings.
The first recorded mention of a kitchen garden at Bungarribee appears in a sale notice for the estate following Campbell's death, who had established the property in 1823. An auction notice for the estate in The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser from August 1828 until its sale in September 1828 described the property as including "a garden consisting of 8 acres with a great number and variety of young fruit trees well watered". Of interest is the description of the trees as "young fruit trees", suggesting at least part of the garden was a recent addition. The size at 8 acres represents two types of garden likely to have been on site: the kitchen garden itself and an associated orchard. A garden of that size would be able to support the entire household, staff and convict labourers on the site. A letter in the Maitland Mercury and Hunter River General Advertiser of 23 March 1846 reported that 63 people lived at Bungarribee. This probably represents roughly the number employed on the estate throughout the 1830s. A workforce this large goes some way to explaining why the garden would cover an area as large as 8 acres. A second sale notice from 1882 also mentions the existence of a kitchen and flower garden, vineyard and orchard, but gives no further description of plantings or size
The problems encountered by Campbell during the construction of the estate were considerable. In 1824 approximately one year after beginning work on Bungarribee, Campbell was in debt to his creditors including Simon Levey and John Macarthur.
Campbell was appointed a magistrate for the district, and in those days this was a real distinction. Governor Brisbane, Macquarie's successor, on one occasion found it necessary to give some samples of the penalties inflicted by various magistrates, and he quoted one wherein Mr Campbell figured. The bench consisted of Lieutenant William Lawson, of Prospect, Donald Macleod, and John Campbell, Esquires. Christopher Lawler, a convict employed at Rooty Hill, was the culprit, and was charged with 'having a quart tin in his possession stolen from the Huts on Mr Campbell's farm.' Lawler was sentenced to receive 25 lashes every second morning until he produced the remainder of the property stolen. This was evidently a customary sentence, as others are cited, but Lawler evidently would not or could not produce the remainder, for a note states that after receiving 100 lashes he was returned to his gang.
In November 1826, it was reported that Annabella Campbell died at Bungarribee "after a severe indisposition". Her death was followed less than twelve months later by that of her husband on 10 October 1827, at the age of 56, also at the homestead. Both are buried in the grounds of the Old St John's Church in Parramatta. Their tragic deaths and the invention of Chief Bungaroo and other stories involving the murder of a convict and the firearm suicide of an officer in one of the bedrooms led to a proliferation of stories about the house being cursed or haunted.