HOMES Australian Country 59LANDMARK AND LEGEND
Camden Park on Sydney’s south-western periphery is Australia’s oldest
private residence. It’s been continuously occupied by the descendants
of John and Elizabeth Macarthur since 1835.
by KIRSTY MCKENZIE photography KEN BR ASSY
ou could create a timeline
of Camden Park homestead
through the china collections
dotted throughout the house.
There’s a Chinese exportware service
ordered from Guangdong probably
about 1812 and emblazoned with John
and Elizabeth Macarthur’s initials. Then
there’s a Coalbrookdale porcelain service
imprinted with the family motto, Fide et
Opera (By Faith and Work), and purchased
by their older son, James, in 1838, on the
occasion of his marriage to Emily Stone.
Remarkably, the receipt for this purchase
from John Mortlock (China Man to Their
Majesties Royal Family) also survives,
and records that it set the couple back
£100 4/- 11p. In a basement cellar there’s
an astonishing array of bedroom china
(chamber pots, jug and basin sets, hot
water bottles), while in the kitchen there
are remnants of everyday and special
occasion tableware that chronicle the
Macarthur family’s 184-year occupancy of
the imposing sandstone house.
“What’s remarkable is that this is not
a museum,” explains John Macarthur-
Stanham, who became the seventh
generation of Macarthurs to live at Camden
Park when he moved in with his wife,
Edwina, and six-month-old baby William in- Victoria was born in 1991 and George
in 1994. “This is a family home so things
get used and inevitably, things get broken.
But that’s one of the strengths of Camden
Park, the layering of contributions of the
diff erent generations.”
Acknowledged as the father of
Australia’s wool industry, John Macarthur
arrived with the Second Fleet in 1790 as
a captain in the New South Wales Corps.
In 1793 he received a grant of 100 acres
(40 ha) at Parramatta and became the fi rst
in the colony to clear and cultivate virgin
land when he built Elizabeth Farm. His
life’s journey was not all smooth sailing,
however, and he was also known as the
Great Perterbator for his frenetic political
and entrepreneurial activities. He managed
to fall foul of both Governors John Hunter
and Philip Gidley King and was exiled to
London for duelling in 1801. Macarthur
made powerful friends in London and the
case against him was dismissed. In 1804 he
petitioned Colonial Secretary Lord Camden
for a land grant in NSW to develop the wool
industry. Offi cial approval took the form
of a grant of 10,000 acres (4046ha) of the
best pasture land in the colony at what was
known as Cowpastures. Although political
intervention back in Australia resulted
in the grant being reduced to 5000 acres
(2023ha) until the venture proved a success,
Macarthur’s friends in high places meant
he arrived back in NSW with a fl ock of rare
Spanish Merinos from the royal fl ock at ›