134 Australian Country HOMES
These pages: The property, with its outbuildings and cottages for family and workers, resembled a village.which included studies in architecture in
Europe. Upon his return, he was charged
with the responsibility of revamping the
homestead and it would appear that he
was given a blank cheque, as he added an
Italianate façade, a grand oak-furnished
entrance hall with dining room to one side
and a drawing room to the other. Upstairs
was a guest bedroom, named the Franklin
Suite, in honour of a planned visit by the
governor. (Unfortunately his tenure was
over before the room was completed,
so it’s unlikely the room was ever used
by him.) Features of the dining room
include a black Italian marble fi replace,
family portraits and a collection of Gillows
mahogany furniture, said to be the largest
in the Southern Hemisphere. The dinner
service is Worcester (pre-Royal Worcester,
and bears the Archer family crest and the
motto, Le fi n couronne l’oeuvre, which
loosely translates as “the end crowns
the work”. The crest also turns up on the
silverware, the glassware, sideboards and
even uniform buttons. Three eras of music
are also represented with a Collard &
Collard piano, an Edison phonograph and
a 1930s’ gramophone, while candelabra,
paraffi n wax and gas lights also record the
passage of the years. Astonishingly, the
homestead was only connected to mains
electricity in 1975.
Thomas II also applied his architectural
skills to other buildings on the estate,
including the coachhouse and stables,a coachman’s cottage and an octagonal
horse-drawn water pumphouse on the
banks of the river. Sadly, Thomas II died
of scarlet fever in 1844, and when his
father passed away in 1850, Woolmers
was held in trust until Thomas III grew
up and returned from studying in
England. By this stage Woolmers was
a substantial 12,271 acres (4880 ha) and
with other holdings, the estate totalled
34,272 acres (13,869 ha). Thomas III had
little interest in farming and the estate
that his grandfather had worked so hard
to develop was entrusted to the care of
tenant farmers. Thomas IV preferred
golf to farming and left his mark on
history by playing in the Australian
Open. By the turn of the century, good
farming land was becoming scarce and
absentee landlords were out of favour.
In 1911, a portion of Woolmers was
resumed under the Closer Settlement
Scheme. Thomas V did have a love for the
land and established an apple orchard,
sending fruit all over the state and to the
mainland. During his tenure, the chapel
was turned into an apple packing shed
and the property was reduced to 640
acres (259 ha) under the post WWI Soldier
Settlement Scheme.
The Brazilian rosewood drawing
room bears the imprint of Thomas V’s
wife, Marjorie, who chose the bold fl oral
upholstery in the 1930s. As the last female
occupant in the house, Marjorie also lefther mark on the front bedroom with its
fl amboyant pink scheme and a fl urry of fur
stoles and wraps.
Following his father’s death, Thomas
VI continued to maintain Woolmers for
20 years. When he died in 1994, having
never married and with no heir, he
bequeathed the estate to a public trust.
Today the property and its surviving
13ha are maintained by the Woolmers
Foundation, which employs a small staff of
managers, conservators and groundspeople
and a battalion of volunteers to maintain
the property and show visitors around
what has become an astohnishing time
capsule. Seven of the convict-built cottages
have been turned into self-catering
accommodation and visitors who fancy a
more immersive experience can spend a
night or two surrounded by this remarkable
remnant of colonial and convict history
and contribute to its preservation through ›