Upjohn House - A Rare Reminder of Victorian Residences of the Period

Front view of ‘Upjohn House’, 1993, Parramatta Heritage Study: Inventory Photo No-335

The house at 59 (formerly 55) Kirby Street, Dundas, known as “Upjohn House”, is significant because it is one of the earliest houses built in the area and is a rare reminder of the Victorian residences of this period.[i]

The original 11 acres along Subiaco Creek was granted to James Warman on 7 July 1835.[ii] Warman was one of the first settlers in the district and possibly the organist at St Anne’s Church in neighbouring Ryde.[iii] 

The 1880s saw the first encroachment of suburbia into this otherwise rural setting. “Upjohn House”, or as the house was originally called, “Netherlands” [iv]  was constructed around 1885.[v] It was one of three villas built by a Mr. Brown which are all situated within view of each other. One is located at Marsden Road, Mobbs Hill, the second is used as a Cumberland Builders Bowling Club, in Dora Crescent, and the third is Upjohn House.[vi]

The History of The Vineyard and Subiaco Estate – Rydalmere

View of Vineyard, Parramatta, between 1851 and 1858, image State Library of New South Wales

The Darug people

The Darug people, who are also referred to as the Dharruk, Dharung, Dharrook, Darrook, Dharug and the Broken Bay tribe, are the traditional owners of the Rydalmere area [1]. The Darug nation spans from Broken Bay to the northeast, the lower Blue Mountains to the west, the Southern Highlands to the southwest and the Illawarra to the southeast. John McClymont relates that "the traditional landowners, the Darug speaking Aboriginal Wallumetta clan, had subsisted for hundred's of centuries along the northern banks and hinterland of the Parramatta river… The clan ranged westward as far as the Subiaco and Vineyard Creeks where the Wallumettagal held corroborees on land granted to Phillip Schaeffer."