Greg and Marguerite Evans on Lynburn’s front verandah. They have researched, restored and repainted inside and out of their historic home in Goulburn. Photo: John Thistleton.
Built in 1883 in Bradley Street, Goulburn, Lynburn has been restored, repainted and crowned with a new iron roof, giving the two-storey mansion a new lease of life.
Farmer Greg Evans, whose forebears lived in the Goulburn, Crookwell and Binda districts, and his wife Marguerite bought Lynburn last year.
“We have a farm at Cowra, Marguerite works in Queanbeyan and we have a child in Sydney, one in Queanbeyan and one in Cowra, so this is a good central location for us,” Greg said. Marguerite runs a small business.
Convict builder Thomas Lee built Lynburn – for some years known as Linburn – for Jessie Barber, a noted educator who used it as a school. She was the daughter of George Barber and Isabella Hume, the explorer Hamilton Hume’s sister. They lived at the colonial mansion Glenrock, Marulan, where Jessie was born.
“Hamilton Hume died in 1873, didn’t have children and left money to his nieces and nephews,” Marguerite said. “So, we like to think some of them may have come through here.”
Lynburn with its new roof and freshly painted exterior. A new fence is in the pipeline, more in keeping with the beautiful home. Photo: John Thistleton.
Called the Alma School, Miss Barber’s new establishment became well known in Sydney and the colonies. The house was specially adapted for a school, and the rooms in which pupils were prepared for university examinations, were described as lofty and well ventilated. A playground outside occupied one-and-a-half acres.
The Evans said the pioneering Chisholm family’s children, including Mattie and Vera attended the school when that family lived in another grand home, ‘Carrawarra’, across the street.
They sought information from History Goulburn, and did their own research as well, uncovering Richard Thomas Ball who built Lynburn’s lace and verandah columns. He had established an engineering and foundry works nearby in Goulburn. He became an alderman and later a Member of Parliament and minister for works, railways and state industrial enterprises.
Newspaper records indicate Alma School accepted boarders and in 1897 was known as Goulburn High School for Girls, when a Miss Studdy and Miss Davis were principals.
Rate records show Lynburn changed ownership in 1931/32 and was then owned by Clarissa Buckland (and had its current spelling) and in 1941 it was owned by Margaret Chapman.
Standing on the balcony upstairs brings sweeping views of Rocky Hill War Memorial, the Post Office clock and Saviour’s Cathedral tower which all reflect a city steeped in history. Photo: John Thistleton.
Electoral rolls indicate a succession of owners and occupiers.
Neighbours recall Minnie Spinks running a boarding house from the 1960s until the early 1980s. For a time, it was a halfway house for newly released inmates from Goulburn Jail.
In the 1980s new owners and arrivals in Goulburn Dirk Godijn and his wife Lidia bought and substantially upgraded Lynburn from a boarding house to their residence, while raising their children. They also planted two elms out the front which today stand higher than the home.
More recently subsequent owners Donna and Paul Chapman ran a curtain-making enterprise from Lynburn, and Donna’s lovely period curtains still adorn the front living rooms and upstairs bedroom windows.
Aware of the Evans’ interest in Goulburn heritage homes, Ray White Real Estate principal Justin Gay invited them to inspect Lynburn before it came onto the market.
The couple then set about bringing Lynburn up to its elegant best. Finding contractors in Goulburn who appreciated the city’s old buildings was a bonus, Greg said.
They have replaced the roof, guttering and downpipes, unstable timber floors on the front upstairs balcony, and replastered walls, replaced many of the ceilings, and re-sanded and polished the floorboards inside.
The lobby entrance opens to an ornate archway and timber staircase which leads to upstairs bedrooms. Photo: John Thistleton.
Goulburn restorers ‘Australian Roundhouses’ did much of the upgrades, including dismantling the wrought iron on the verandah, labelling each piece before reassembling it at a slightly higher level. “Visually it does not look any different than what it was, but it is structurally sound now,” Greg said.
One of the upstairs bedrooms that was divided into two rooms is now restored as one big bedroom. Three bedrooms on one side of a broad hallway upstairs mirror the bedrooms on the other side of the hallway.
Downstairs has four separate living areas, including one that may have been a classroom. Once a separate building behind Lynburn, the kitchen is now part of the main house via an extension. A small maid’s quarters off the kitchen has been turned into a butler’s pantry.
Once again Lynburn is a fresh reminder of Goulburn’s preeminence in Australia’s early European history.
Original Article published by John Thistleton on About Regional.
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