Windradene

Windradene is a rare example of Victorian period, Georgian architecture in Shellharbour Village. The home was built on a part of Walter Allen’s estate c.1871.

Walter Allen was an important pioneer of the area. He and his family lived in a residence next door to Windradene and also operated a store and post office in the town. Reputedly Windradene was built as a holiday house and leased out to visitors and tourists.

After Walter’s death in 1876, his wife Charlotte and son Edward carried on operating the store and post office in Addison Street, Shellharbour Village.  In 1891 the Allen estate was sold at auction, shortly after Charlotte’s death.

The Norfolk Pine to the rear of Windradene dates to Arbor Day 1895, when pioneers planted pines along the Shellharbour foreshore and village to beautify the area.

Windradene, Addison Street, Shellharbour Village c.2003

Green Valleys

‘Green Valleys’ is an old weatherboard cottage with cedar foundations and turpentine posts. The site of the house was originally part of Henry Osborne's Estate, Marshall Mount.

The house is reputed to be the oldest in the district; said to have been by convicts who were later found hanging on a nearby tree, however, no evidence of this has ever been found.

The farm and residence was leased by Archie Graham until 1920, when George and Maryanne Fleet purchased the property.

 

Killarney

Kiama builder Ettinghausen built ‘Killarney’, for Archibald Fuller, son of prominent land owner George Laurence Fuller, of Dunmore. It is a lovely Victorian farmhouse that now lies beside The Links Golfcourse at Shell Cove. 

George Laurence Fuller was born in Dunmore, Ireland in 1832. He arrived in Sydney with his parents and siblings in 1839 and eventually settled in the Illawarra in 1858 when he bought the Post Office Store at Gerringong. He married Sarah Cunningham Miller on the 20th April 1859 and purchased a new store in Kiama.

In 1865 he purchased 2560 acres, part of the Peterborough Estate on the Minnamurra River, and built 'Dunmore House'. By 1880, he had acquired other portions of the Estate and owned about 9000 acres. He started the blue metal industry on his property at Bass Point in 1880 and made a huge contribution to the development of Shellharbour Municipality.



Killarney at Shell Cove



Killarney in the 1980s with no surrounding development
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries




Killarney in the 1980s
Shellharbour Images, Shellharbour City Libraries





Aronda

‘Aronda’ is a fine example of late Victorian architecture in the Shellharbour area. Originally part of D’Arcy Wentworth grants, the house was built c.1890 on land owned by George Laurence Fuller and reputedly by Fuller. The property passed to Miss Edith Fuller when her father died in 1917, where she lived c1920-1922.

Ellen Arnold purchased this and the adjoining property c.1923-25, where she conducted a boarding establishment from the adjacent wooden building. Ellen Arnold and her sisters continued to live at Aronda. Upon his retirement, George Cubitt Arnold (Ellen’s Arnold’s father, local baker, bacon curer, formerly of ‘Beau Vista’, Shellharbour married Mary Ann) moved in with his daughter until his death in 1926.

Ellen’s nephew, John Thomas James (son of Rachel James (nee Arnold) and Thomas James) inherited the property upon the death of Ellen in 1964.

 

Aronda, Shellharbour c.2003

Aronda, Shellharbour Images
Shellharbour City Libraries

Aronda, Shellharbour Images
Shellharbour City Libraries