Cox's Cottage is a heritage-listed pasturing land and residence located at 2 St Thomas Road in the outer western Sydney suburb of Mulgoa, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1810 to 1811 by James King. It is also known as Mulgoa Cottage; The Cottage, Coxs Cottage, and was formally known as Fern Hill and Estate of Mulgoa before the new house was built. The property remains privately owned and is the oldest house in Australia still in residence. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History Aboriginal land The traditional owners of the land now occupied by Cox's Cottage were the Mulgowie people, a group of Aboriginal Australians who became known as the "Mulgoa tribe".Karskens, 2009, p9
There is a reference to an attack on the Cox property by Aboriginal people in 1814.Sydney Gazette, May 1814.
Colonisation Cox's Cottage is part of early colonial land grants and purchases to members of the Cox family in the Mulgoa Valley, south of Penrith, eventually totalling some .Kinhill Stearns, 1983; Bertie 1930, p51 The first of these grants, of , made in 1809 to the infant Edward Cox and confirmed by Governor Macquarie the following year,Watson, 1917 became known as "Fernhills" or Fernhill.
Edward's father, Lieutenant William Cox, is perhaps best known for supervising the construction of the first road over the Blue Mountains in the second half of 1814.Betteridge, 2009 Lt. William Cox sailed to New South Wales on the Minerva in 1799. During his 37 years of residence in the early colony, he made a substantial and enduring contribution to its progress in the fields of public administration, building and agricultural development. The Cox family were remarkable "house and garden" people. During the middle years of the 19th century, William Cox Sr. was at Clarendon, near Windsor; his eldest son William, lived at Hobartville, Richmond; his sons Henry, George and Edward were to build and occupy their respective houses of Glenmore, Winbourne and Fernhill at Mulgoa. Another son, James, settled in Van Dieman's Land, where he built his own magnificent Clarendon. Around all these houses the Cox families created beautiful gardens.Chippindall/Broadbent, 1979, 2
The Cottage/Mulgoa Cottage or Fernhill was built for Lt. William Cox under the supervision of James King, a retired sergeant of the New South Wales Corps, on land granted to the infant Edward Cox in 1809–10. Surveyor James Meehan apparently sighted boundaries for neighbouring grants from "Mr Cox's house" in July 1811,Meehan, Field Books and the earliest part of the house - (verandah-less, with jerkin-head gables, intact in the roof space today) - may date from this time.Chippindall/Broadbent, 1979, 3 The house noted by Meehan, probably built –11, is most likely to have been the building known as The Cottage or Cox's Cottage. The farm was well established by 1815 when Mrs Cox prepared for the visit of Governor Macquarie with "an excellent cold collation". For some time James King, a servant of the Cox family, managed their Mulgoa properties from the site of The Cottage, with the occasional help of William Cox's fourth, fifth and seventh sons, George, Henry and Edward.
Between 1821 and 1825 George and Henry Cox lived in turn at The Cottage with their new wives before moving to their own houses in the Mulgoa area. At about this timeChippindall/Broadbent, 1979 says . The Cottage was extended from a simple three room house with jerkin head gabled roof by the addition of another room, at the western end, and an encircling verandah. Adding a verandah was an innovation of architectural significance: the former vernacular English weatherboard box became a colonial bungalow. The cottage was the nucleus of the Mulgoa Settlement and was also the site of religious gatherings before the construction of St. Thomas' Anglican Church nearby.
About 1825 Edward Cox, who had been only four years old when he was granted the land, returned from schooling in England.Roxburgh, pp.239-40 In 1827, at the age of 22, he married Jane Maria Brooks and they lived at The Cottage for the next sixteen years.Cox, Jane Maria, "Reminiscences", B391
By the late 1830s Fernhill, including The Cottage and Lot 2 was described as one of the five principal estates in the Mulgoa Valley.Riley, W E, JRAHS, vol.XXXII, p.251 et al. In 1843 Edward Cox built and moved into a much grander Greek Revival style house, Fernhill, on the hill to the west of The Cottage on the western side of Mulgoa Road. Apparently designed as a two-storey building but built as single storey, possibly by colonial architect Mortimer Lewis, Fernhill was not finished, possibly as a result of the economic recession of the 1840s.
Perhaps also as a result of the recession The Cottage and of land were put up for lease. At this time the property was described as:
In 1847 a medal was won by Edward CoxAustraliana, November 2008 for wines produced on his property, Fernhill, competing against his brother and neighbour Henry at Glenmore also at Mulgoa and Sir John Jamison at Regentville. Competition in 1847 for the West Cumberland Agricultural Society (now Royal Agricultural Society of NSW) medal for the production of the best wine, was keen. The magnificent diameter, medal by Richard Lamb is a reflection on the status of the prize, possibly engraved by the colony's leading exponent Samuel Clayton, then living close by at Windsor. A case could be made for this medal being amongst the earliest and possibly the grandest of all surviving New South Wales agricultural medals and one of the great objects of Australian silver.
Historical archaeologist Judy Birmingham1979, p.158 has listed the literature on wine making that would have been available to the early European settlers of the colony, including William Macarthur's comprehensive Letters on the culture of the vine (1844). She cites William Cox's vineyard at Mulgoa as being planted in 'deep trenches, and their parallel lines can still often be seen clearly as "crop marks".Birmingham, 1979, p.158 The vineyard terracing on Lot 2 was very evident in 1983 when the Mulgoa Valley Regional Environmental Study was prepared and is still obvious today. It is likely that the vines that produced the medal winning wine in 1847 were grown on Lot 2, since terraces have not been identified on the property now known as Fernhill to the west of Lot 2.
In the early 1850s Colonel Godfrey Mundy, aide-de-camp to Governor Fitzroy singled out Fernhill for the way in which the Cox family had manipulated the landscape by removing or thinning eucalypts and retaining the local angophoras, which had more of the appearance of English trees.Mundy, pp.150-151
Edward Cox died in 1863 and the property passed to his oldest son Edward King Cox (1829–1883) of Rawden, Mudgee, who until 1885 operated a noted racehorse stud at The Cottage, producing several famous horses including 1880 Melbourne Cup winner Grand Flaneur.Clibborn, 1926, pp.16, 23 In late 1982 the once-fenced gravesites of Grand Flaneur and famous sire, Yattendon, were no longer evident.Mulgoa Valley RES appendices item C14 The stables behind The Cottage were still evident in 1917.Watson, 1917, p.187
Following the death of Edward King Cox, his third son, Alfred Edward Cox and a J. Blaikie formed a partnership and ran a dairy on the property during the period to 1913.Palmer, 1972
After the Cox family In 1913 the property was sold to Fowler and Baylis of Penrith, then to a Mr Max Lam for a short time. In 1920 it was purchased by H. J. Davey. Mrs Davey and J. Love had a short partnership, then Mrs Davey and Mrs Love ran the dairy farm until about 1969, when Mrs Davey retired to a fibro house she had built to the west of The Cottage. The Cottage was then leased to a Mr Sheehan until 1972.
Rescue and revival The Cottage endured years of neglect with the inevitable consequence of the serious deterioration of its fabric. An important step was taken when Miss Valerie Cox made a donation to the National Trust of Australia (NSW): payment was made for the eradication of termites and the boarding up of its windows. The house thus was given some protection, but unfortunately the stone verandah flagging was removed shortly before Mr. Broadbent purchased the house.Chippindall/Broadbent, 1979, 4
The Cottage has been owned by James Broadbent and his family since the 1970s. Dr James Broadbent is a noted architectural and landscape historian who has preserved the house and reconstructed/ recreated the garden to retain the significance of the building and its setting. Broadbent has embarked on a lengthy scheme of restoration. His plan was to work from the outside in: therefore his attention was given firstly to the repair of the verandah and roof.
Beautifully sited on a small rise near Mulgoa Creek, The Cottage is one of the earliest and most important colonial houses, and still retains its fine rural setting. It formed the nucleus of the Mulgoa settlement.Proudfoot,1987 It is perhaps the oldest weatherboard house in New South Wales, in proportion and roofline being one of the first early colonial bungalows. It is the oldest building in the Mulgoa/Wallacia Valley, and the oldest surviving of the numerous Cox family houses.
Description Cox's Cottage Cox's Cottage, dating from 1810 or 1811, is probably the oldest inhabited residence in Australia (other earlier surviving domiciles are now typically run as museums). It is probably also the oldest weatherboard cottage in New South Wales. The cottage is an early colonial bungalow which retains its rural setting and remnants of its original garden (including white cedar trees (Melia azedarach var.australasica) and the striking succulent "century plants" (Agave americana), both documented as growing here in the mid 19th century). Post 1980 plantings include a number of species typical of Cumberland Plain colonial gardens, such as bunya-bunya pine (Araucaria bidwillii) and silky oak (Grevillea robusta).Stuart Read, pers.comm.5/3/2012 It has a rectangular, asymmetrical plan with double pitched roof. Appears to have reached present form by 1820. It was originally shingled but this was replaced by zinc coated roofing tiles.AHC entry for RNE, 1978
The original SHR listing for Cox's Cottage included two ten hectare lots of land, Lots 3 and 4 DP 241971. The Cottage is located on the northern end of Lot 3 and a contemporary home with associated outhouses has been built on Lot 4 DP 241971 to the north and out of sight from the cottage. Mulgoa Creek runs from north to south near the eastern boundary of both Lots 3 and 4. Most of the 20 hectares comprising Lots 3 and 4 is pastoral in appearance.
The Cottage is oriented to the north-east and positioned at the end of its ridge (a pattern of development through the immediate area) with views along the creek to the north and over the river flats.Davies, 2007, p2
The still intact historical and visual relationships between Cox's Cottage, St Thomas's Church to the south and Fernhill to the west are important.AHC
Lot 2 Lot 2 DP 241971 is an undeveloped lot of adjacent to Cox's Cottage to the north, with its narrow western end fronting onto Mulgoa Road. It is L-shaped and extends to the north along the river flats on its eastern boundary.
The block generally slopes from Mulgoa Road to the creek with a small rise of saddle near the road. The site features two small dams located on the natural watercourse along the northern boundary which are fed by rain and not by a watercourse.Davies, 2007