| Vaucluse Sydney, New South Wales | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 Clifftop neighborhoods in the East of the suburb | |||||||||||||||
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| Population | 9,510 (SAL2021)[1] | ||||||||||||||
| Elevation | 76 m (249 ft) | ||||||||||||||
| Location | 9 km (6 mi) east ofSydney CBD | ||||||||||||||
| LGA(s) | |||||||||||||||
| State electorate(s) | Vaucluse | ||||||||||||||
| Federal division(s) | Wentworth | ||||||||||||||
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Vaucluse is aneastern suburb ofSydney, in the state ofNew South Wales,Australia. It is located 8 kilometres (5 mi) east of theSydney central business district, in thelocal government areas ofWaverley Council and theMunicipality of Woollahra.
Vaucluse is located on theSouth Head peninsula, just South ofThe Gap withSydney Harbour on the west and theTasman Sea to the east. The Sydney Harbour side of the suburb commands views across the harbour to theSydney Harbour Bridge. The adjacent suburbs areWatsons Bay to the north andRose Bay andDover Heights to the south.
Vaucluse is a mainly residential suburb. For many years it was the most affluent suburb in Sydney and as of May 2017, in terms of houses and properties, was in the top five most expensive suburbs.[2]Tahiti, aHawaiian-style residence in tropical gardens above Hermit Bay, set an Australian residential record when it sold to a trio of South Africans (the Krok brothers) for more than $29 million in September 2007.[3] The Australian residential record was overtaken by Leon Kamenev, the founder ofMenulog, purchasing four waterfront properties on prestigious Coolong Road for a combined $80 million in April 2016.[4]
The vast majority of extensively high-worth properties in Vaucluse are located on the western side ofNew South Head Road towards the harbour, with less expensive housing and property being found closer east of New South Head Road, aroundSouth Head General Cemetery.[5]
Before European settlement, the area where Vaucluse is now located was inhabited by theBirrabirragal people, anAboriginal clan who belonged to the coastalDharug language group. The first European activity in the area took place not long after settlement, when a makeshift signalling station was set up on the ridge overlooking the ocean. Its role was to signal the colony if a ship was approaching. Pilots based at Camp Cove,Watsons Bay, could then meet the ship and guide it through the harbour. A formal signal station was established in 1790, serviced by a bridle trail that later becameOld South Head Road in 1811.[6]
Macquarie Lighthouse was constructed on the ridge, a little south of the signal station, in 1816, having been designed byFrancis Greenway, the first notable architect in the colony. Residential use of the area also developed.
The originalVaucluse House, from which the area derived its name, was built bySir Henry Browne Hayes, who had been transported toNew South Wales for kidnapping the granddaughter of a wealthy Irish banker. When he arrived, in 1802, he was allowed to buy land from that which was granted to Thomas Laycock in 1793 and Robert Cardell in 1795. The house was then acquired byCaptain John Piper in 1822. Sir Henry Browne Hayes, an avid admirer of the 14th-century poetPetrarch, named the house after Petrarch's poem about the famousFontaine de Vaucluse near the townL'Isle-sur-la-Sorgue, currently in the Department ofVaucluse in southernFrance. In 1827, the small but charming cottage was bought byWilliam Charles Wentworth (1790–1872), barrister and explorer and one of the men who had crossed theBlue Mountains in 1813. Many structural changes and additions were made while he lived there until 1853. The building has fifteen bedrooms, is in the 1830sGothic style and sits on 27acres (11 ha) of gardens. It still survives and is listed on the (now defunct)Register of the National Estate.[7]
In the early 1840s, the present signal station was built by the Colonial Architect,Mortimer Lewis. It has continued to be used up to the present day for controlling shipping in and out of the harbour. Later in the same decade, more residential development occurred with the construction of Greycliffe House at Shark Beach by a son-in-law of William Charles Wentworth. It was a large, sandstone house in the "Victorian Rustic Gothic" style, attributed to the architectJohn Frederick Hilly.[8] A succession of prominent Sydney identities leased the house during the 19th century. It was gutted by fire in the 1890s but fully restored. It is now used as the visitor centre for the Sydney Harbour National Park.
Another substantial residential development was the construction, in 1854–56, of Carrara on the harbour foreshores. Carrara was designed by John Frederick Hilly for John Hosking, the first Lord Mayor of Sydney. The house featured verandahs with Doric columns and was situated to take advantage of the harbour views. Its name was changed to Strickland House in 1915, when it was turned into a convalescent home for women.[9]
By 1871, the colony was experiencing the "Russian scare" that prevailed at the time, as a result of which fortifications were built at Steel Point, just a little north-west of Carrara. Cannon emplacements, powder magazine and embrasures, plus a store and barrack rooms, were constructed at this strategic point overlooking the harbour. The buildings were made of sandstone found at the site and still survive today; they are listed on the Register of the National Estate.[10]
Not long afterwards, Mortimer Lewis was designing a tomb for the Wentworth family. William Charles Wentworth died in England in 1872 and his remains were interred in the Victorian Gothic mausoleum that was constructed in Chapel Road, Vaucluse. Made of sandstone, the building featured a stained glass window in the west end and a clerestory window above the door.
Around about the same time,Edward Mason Hunt was busy designing a Victorian Gothic mansion south of Carrara. This two-storey sandstone home incorporated a much smaller home built at that site by Alexander Dick, circa 1840; that home changed hands in 1868 and enlargement proceeded. The new mansion, known asThe Hermitage, featured multiple gables, a castellated tower and prominent fretwork. It was damaged by fire in 1936 but was restored by Emil Sodersten. It was bought in 1964 by the Woolworths company, which used it for some time as a training facility.[11]
Just a little East of The Hermitage, St Michael's Church of England went up in 1877, after being designed byEdmund Blacket. Located in St Michael's Place, this new sandstone church would later be enlarged in the 1930s, with the addition of a new spire, by ProfessorLeslie Wilkinson. The new design would eventually win theSir John Sulman Medal for architecture in 1942. In 1928, the largest property purchase in the history of Vaucluse was completed by Bariston and Decima Ashton joining 8 adjoining blocks into one large single block of 2.25 acres. This record was surpassed in 2011 with the Department of Foreign Affairs purchase of 3 acres in lower Vaucluse.
By the 1880s, Greenway's Macquarie Lighthouse was in bad repair. In 1883, the Colonial Architect of the day,James Barnet, built a new lighthouse which was virtually a perfect replica of the original one, and the original was demolished. Other buildings making up the group were the assistant lighthouse keepers' cottages, built circa 1881, and Greenway's keeper's cottage, dating from circa 1840. There are also remains of courtyards to earlier cottages and the stone base wall of the original lighthouse. The entire group is listed on the Register of the National Estate.[12]
Severaldefensive fortifications are located on the shores and cliff tops of Vaucluse, such as theSignal Hill Battery, constructed in 1892; it was intended to defend the town of Sydney from bombardment by an enemy vessel standing off the coast. Although the fortification has been heavily vandalised, it is still intact and lies adjacent to the Signal Hill, signal station.[13]
TheSteel Point fortification in Nielsen Park was constructed in 1871; it originally accommodated three 80-pounder rifled muzzle-loaders (RMLs) that were replaced in the 1890s with5 inch breech-loading guns. The fortification was built at a time when fears of a Russian attack seemed imminent, as well as other concerns such as withdrawal of British garrison troops, threats to British dependencies and increasing self-reliance in defence matters. The battery consisted of three sandstone gun emplacements with embrasures for the guns to fire through. The gun emplacements were connected to underground chambers, as well as a gunpowder magazine, by open passages and underground passageways leading into the complex.[14][15]
In the 1950s, theRAN degaussing station was constructed over part of the Steel Point fortification.[16] Thedegaussing station was a countermeasure against magnetic mines.Shark Island was used for this purpose duringWorld War II. Naval ships would pass over cables laid under the harbour and were effectively demagnetized.
Vaucluse has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
At the2021 census, 9,510 people were recorded in Vaucluse. 58.7% of people were born in Australia, the next most common counties of birth includedSouth Africa 8.0%,England 5.2%,China (excludingSpecial Administrative Regions andTaiwan) 3.2%,New Zealand 1.7% andthe United States of America 1.3%. 75.9% of people only spoke English at home, the next most common languages spoken at home included Mandarin 3.4%, Greek 2.5%, Hebrew 1.4%, Russian 1.3%, andSpanish 1.3%. The most common responses for language included No Religion 27.4%, Judaism 24.0%, Catholic 18.3% and Anglican 10.1%, a further 6.5% of respondents elected not to disclose their religion. The average incomes in Vaucluse were $3,418 household compared to $1,746 nationally, $1,393 personal compared to $805 nationally, and $4,560 for families compared to $2,120 nationally. Median monthly mortgage repayments were $4,200. Types of dwellings in Vaucluse consisted primarily ofseparate houses at 48.4%, there was a similar amount ofFlats or apartments at 40.4%, other housing types in Vaucluse includedsemi-detached, row orterrace house,townhouse etc at 8.4%, and all other dwellings at 2.1%.[24]
TheMacquarie Lighthouse sits prominently on the eastern side of the suburb, at Dunbar Head.Vaucluse House is an historic home managed by theHistoric Houses Trust. It is situated in Wentworth Road, with views across Sydney Harbour.
South Head General Cemetery is situated at the junction of New South Head Road and Old South Head Road in Vaucluse. The cemetery is administered by Waverley Council and is a companion cemetery to theWaverley Cemetery atBronte.
The cemetery was established in 1868 to cater for the needs of the population in the growing Vaucluse area. It was run for some time by a private trust, but management was transferred to Waverley Council in 1941. It covers an expanse of 1.6 hectares (4 acres) and contains the graves of 6,000 people as of 2008.[25] There are a number of well-known people interred at the cemetery including Australia's firstPrime Minister,Sir Edmund Barton.[26]
ArchitectJohn Horbury Hunt's last commission was a memorial toSir John Robertson, formerPremier of New South Wales. The memorial is shaped like a cone with two sections, the bottom of which commemorates Robertson's wife, while the top half commemorates Robertson himself. Also interred in this cemetery are members of theFairfax,Norton,Packer, andStreet families; and NSW Governors SirWalter Edward Davidson and SirRoden Cutler. The cemetery also contains the graves of 22 of the forty victims of the 1927Greycliffe ferry disaster.
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4. Vaucluse – $4,300,000
THERE'S nothing laid-back about Sydney's prestige property market, with Tahiti, the Hawaiian-style residence in tropical gardens above Hermit Bay, Vaucluse, selling for more than $29 million.
From those early days in Sydney learning English by day and delivering pizzas at night he last week spent just shy of $80 million for four properties in Vaucluse to build his own private compound. Kamenev's rise to become part of Australia's ultra high net worth community was given a significant boost last year when the online takeaway delivery service Menulog he co-founded was sold, lining his pockets to the tune of $470 million.
SIGNAL HILL - Old South Head Road, Watsons Bay. The fortifications there were originally built to accommodate a 9.2 inch breech loading disappearing gun' as part of Sydney's coastal defence - two others were installed, one at Bondi North (still in position but buried) and the other at Clovelly. It was housed in the centre of the group and had a steel canopy with a slot through which the barrel protruded in the firing position. It was hydraulically jacked-up to the firing position with the recoil pushing it down under the canopy for reloading. The gun was commissioned in 1893, the last firing there was in 1933 and it was removed in 1937 and replaced by two 6 inch MK 11 guns placed in each of the outer pits - these were removed after World War II. The barrel of the 9.2 inch disappearing gun can be seen at the Artillery Museum at North Head. A memorial was placed there in November, 1992 by the Royal Australian Signal Corps Association on behalf of its members while two plaques were also placed on March 30, 1993 placing the Reserve in proper historical perspective.
A sturdy sandstone complex commanding spectacular views of the Heads and occupying some of Australia's most desirable real estate, the Steele Point Battery in Nielsen Park, Vaucluse, was built in 1871.
Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence. Text is licensed by State of New South Wales (Department of Planning and Environment) underCC BY 4.0licence.But most of all, he loves his job. Up at 5 each morning, he begins the day voraciously consuming media, vigorously exercising with weights and often travelling from his Vaucluse home in Sydney to two or three different cities each week. "It's a seven-day-a-week job," he says, with the air of a man who wouldn't be happy with anything less.
33°51′21″S151°16′16″E / 33.85583°S 151.27111°E /-33.85583; 151.27111