Silverwater Prison Complex Conservation Area is a heritage-listed complex consisting of a historic house (Newington House) and various prison structures associated with what is now known as the Silverwater Correctional Complex, located at Holker Street, Silverwater, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Verge and Walter Liberty Vernon and built from 1829 to 1850. It is also known as Silverwater Correctional Centre, Mulawa Correctional Centre, Silverwater Gaol, Newington Estate, Silverwater State Hospital and State Hospital & Asylum for Women. The property is owned by Corrective Services NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History The site that became Newington estate formed part of the territory occupied by the Wangal clan (of which Bennelong is the best known) that formed part of the larger Darug (coastal) language group. The Wangal clan or tribe were documented as having occupied the southern side of the harbour from Long Cove to Parramatta and Rose Hill. Known archaeological sites along the Parramatta River and hinterland record fishing activities adjacent to the Newington Armory and bark from trees within the vicinity of the site were cut for use as shelters. Limited observations of Aboriginal life in the Homebush Bay area are recorded. Records from neighbouring areas would suggest that the Wangal would have actively participated in river fishing, eeling, gathering shellfish as well as hunting kangaroos, wallabies and other small land mammals, reptiles and waterfowl.
Land grants in the area started as early as 1797 after an exploration party with Governor John Hunter up the Parramatta and Duck and George's Rivers. Shortly after, two officers, formerly of , Lieutenant John Shortland and Captain Henry Waterhouse, each received a grant of 25 acres, which they stocked with animals especially brought from the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). A First Fleeter marine, Isaac Archer, was next lessee, receiving his 80-acre grant next to Shortland Farm on 26 August 1800. The Waterhouse grant was known as Waterhouse Farm and later formed part of the grounds of Newington. These earliest grants were made north of Parramatta Road, because the sole means of transport then was the Parramatta River, adjacent to the north.
In 1800 Richard Aitkens took out a lease on land east of Duck River and north of the Sydney-Parramatta Road, but it was soon cancelled. The area was included in a grant of 1290 acres made in 1807 to John Blaxland (1769–1845), who arrived in the colony that year, as a wealthy free settler. The grant covered all the land between the Parramatta River and Parramatta Road, Duck River and Haslam's Creek, except for land held by Waterhouse, Shortland, Archer and Haslam.
A farm or rural villa estate, factory and saltworks were established and Blaxland's "Newington House" built between 1829 and 1832. The name commemorated Blaxland's family property in Kent. John Blaxland and his younger brother Gregory (the explorer) began to develop a cattle industry, breeding fat cattle, and slaughtering and salting them. They were the first to produce usable salt, made from brine gathered from the marshes on the river near the house. The site of the Queen Victoria Building in George Street, Sydney was used by Blaxland to graze some of their herds of cattle. Blaxland had been promised 8000 acres before he left for NSW, but it was not until 1831 that he was finally given the full quota of his land, when he received 10,240 acres in different areas. He finally held 29,000 acres in the colony.
The present Newington house was built in the style of an English Regency-style mansion, with disciplined English gardens, and a private chapel (St.Augustine's) built in 1838. The house was and remains an integral element in a landscaped setting (with the chapel off to its eastern side) which has been somewhat altered over time due to its location in the grounds of a correctional centre. Elements of the landscaped grounds of the house are extant, including scattered individual and groups of mature tree plantings and the outline of the formal carriage loop north of the house. The carriageway fabric today is a mix of gravel and broken concrete. No original 1830s fabric remains on or near the ground surface.Erdelyi, 2010
In the 1840s a monolithic sandstone verandah colonnade was added to house. Blaxland died in 1845 and the family moved away, leasing the property to owners of a slaughtering industry. After Blaxland's death the property was used to manufacture salt and slaughtering, the home's kitchens were converted into a piggery and its once beautiful dining room used as a barnRoberts, 2013, 1- the house was considerably neglected.
The house had carriage loops to its east and north with 2 prominent hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and Norfolk Island (A.heterophylla) pines, garden beds cut into lawn areas and spikey plants (e.g.: Agave sp. in a pedestal urn and New Zealand cabbage trees (Cordyline australis) nearer to the house. A pond and 3 tiered fountain was site east of the house in the centre of a grass "island" between two drives. A 1953 photograph from the same location shows the hoop pines gone and 3 prominent Canary Island palms (Phoenix canariensis) east and north of the house.Read, Stuart, pers. comm. from photographs supplied May 2006 from Dpt.of Commerce
In 1863 Rev. John Manton, a Methodist clergyman, who had been engaged to undertake missionary pastoral work in the newly developed city of Parramatta, acquired (by lease) Newington on behalf of the Methodist Church to start a boys' school. By 16 July 1863, his objective had been achieved, and 19 boys formed the nucleus of what was to become the third of the GPS schools, Newington College. 16 boys enrolled on 16 July (ranging from age 7-16) from as far afield as Goulburn and Yass (two already lived on the Newington Estate), with several more enrolling on the following days.Roberts, 2013, 4 Two who entered on 20 July were the first Theological students.
While the new school was a major undertaking for the Wesleyan Methodists, they had already been involved in developing education in the colony for more than two decades. A short-lived Wesleyan Grammar School was founded in 1840, followed by a number of day schools based on existing Sunday Schools. From 1849, the Wesleyans, along with the other major churches, operated many denominational day schools, which continued until the NSW Public Schools Act of 1866. Newington College's founding was part of the developments that transformed the education landscape in New South Wales from the 1860s to the 1880s. While Manton and his colleagues advocated for a secondary school, some Wesleyans were more concerned to see a university college, while still others advocated for an institution for training ministers.
A week later some two hundred people, many travelling by chartered steamer from Sydney, gathered there for the formal inauguration. The opening was the culmination of years of advocacy and fund raising within the Wesleyan community across NSW. One of the most tireless advocates was Rev. Marnton, a Wesleyan minister who had served as chaplain at the penal colony of Port Arthur and later founded Horton College at Ross, in Tasmania's midlands. He was appointed Principal when the establishment of the new school was finally approved by the Church in January 1863 and served in this role until his untimely death in the following year.
The College's first home was the Georgian mansion built by Blaxland. Extensive repairs were just one task completed before the school could move in. Another was securing teachers. Masters sought from England had not arrived before the opening day. Mantion regarded the arrival in Sydney of 22-year old Rev. James Egan Moulton at the end of May 1863 as a gift from God. Moulton served as initial "Head Master" until November 1863. The college's location meant that all the early period students were boarders.
The old bell, which had summoned Blaxland's convict servants, now called the boys to lessons, and free hours could be spent roaming the surrounding gardens and parklands. The chapel was later used as a school room for Newington College from the 1860s. During the College's occupation the house was restored.
The site at Silverwater was only leased and provided no long term security for a growing school. In 1869, the Methodist Conference decided to use land bequeathed to the Church at Stanmore, in Sydney's inner west, as a permanent home for the College. Between 1876 and 1880, the Gothic sandstone building familiar to later generations of students was built, financed through fund raising and a massive loan. The school moved to Stanmore in July 1880.
In 1880 the school was moved to its present site at Stanmore (Canterbury Road). The 19 original pupils had by then swelled to several hundred, but the first headmaster, John Manton, did not live to see the changeover. He died in September 1864 and was buried at Parramatta, the pupils of the first Newington forming a marching guard of honour along the whole route.
Part of the site was bought by the NSW government in 1880 as an asylum for aged destitute women. In 1881 the site was subdivided. By 1887 the house was the centre of the Silverwater State Hospital/State Hospital & Asylum (retaining this role until 1969). The Dormitory Block built in 1896 was intended for this purpose.
Between 1911 and 1918 the asylum was converted for use as a State Hospital. Irwin House and the Engineer's Cottage were built at this time.
A 1911 photograph taken east of Newington House looking west shows carriage loops east and north with 2 prominent hoop (Araucaria cunninghamii) and Norfolk Island (A.heterophylla) pines, garden beds cut into lawn areas and spikey plants (e.g.: Agave sp. in a pedestal urn and New Zealand cabbage trees (Cordyline australis) nearer the house. A pond and 3 tiered fountain was east of the house in the centre of a grass "island" between two drives. A 1953 photograph from the same location shows the hoop pines gone and 3 prominent Canary Island palms (Phoenix canariensis) east and north of the house.Read, S., pers. comm. from photographs supplied 5/06 from Dept.of Commerce
In 1968/9 the Department of Corrective Services took over management of the site for use as the Silverwater Correctional Centre (SCC), a new minimum security men's prison and women's prison (Mulawa Correctional Centre MCC). Development occurred on the site throughout the next 20 years, although it was not until 1985 that a major redevelopment of the site took place when an expansion of the present built form was undertaken to the north and west. Significant buildings were constructed between 1986–88 to enable additional accommodation at Mulawa.
In the early 1990s additions to the facility included a minimum security facility and periodic detention centre.
The topography of the surrounding site to the north and north west, namely Millenium Parklands, has substantially changed as part of the preparation for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, and development of the Parklands. This has included large areas of ground grading and addition of extensive amounts of fill (contaminated soil and subsoil), formed into landscaped spiral mounds. The Parklands now physically cut off the former connection of the Newington Estate to the Parramatta River.
A new Mental Health Assessment Unit and Clinic was approved in early 2004 as part of a current program to improve facilities at MCC.NSW Department of Corrective - Services Heritage and Conservation Register, 1995BBC, 2004
Modifications and dates 1807: 1290 acre grant made to John Blaxland 1829–32: A farm, factory and saltworks established and c.1832: house built c.1832: Newington house built in the style of an English mansion, with disciplined English gardens 1838: a private chapel (St.Augustine's) built