Monday, 14 April 2025
Government House, Sydney
Her Excellency the Honourable Margaret Beazley AC KC, Governor of New South Wales

Bujari gamarruwa

Diyn Babana Gamarada Gadigal Ngura

In greeting you in the language of the Gadigal, Traditional Owners of these lands and waterways, I pay my respects to their Elders past, present, and emerging.

President of the Legislative Council, Member for Goulburn, distinguished guests

Approximately 150 years ago a house was built on 143 acres on Portion 47 in the County of Argyle, District of Sutton^[1] by Robert Pemberton Richardson^[2], a Stock and Station Agent.  Despite the copied mangle of Scottish and Surrey locations, as was the want in colonial Australia, Lot 47 was and is in the Southern Highlands of New South Wales. 

Having partnered with Edward Wrench some years before, Richardson clearly had an eye for a good location, the mantra of all real estate, and Richardson and Wrench went on to become the real estate firm we still know today.

Richardson named his two-storey stone house with three main rooms, three bedrooms, a hallway and rear attached kitchen “Prospect”, which remains the central part of the main house we now know as “Hillview”.

In 1879, Lord Augustus William Frederick Spencer Loftus arrived in Sydney as the new Governor following a seven-year stint as an Ambassador in St Petersburg, in hope of “a more genial climate and less arduous duties.”  Not finding the then windswept corridors of this neo-Gothic building where we gather tonight, sitting on 11 acres, and the official residence of NSW Governors since 1845, to his liking - Loftus apparently ‘suffered from the salt air’ he ‘requested’ a summer residence.

The Government found a well-disposed vendor in Richardson and Hillview came into the legal ownership of New South Wales.  Loftus was the first of the 16 Governors to stay at Hillview over the succeeding 73^[3] years.

The remodelling of Hillview was extensive, expensive and contentious, resulting in some salty debate in the Legislative Assembly. When completed in 1883 the property had 46 rooms, including 9 bathrooms and over 3 acres of landscaped gardens.

Hillview’s importance as a summer residence was amplified in the early 1900’s when the Governors of New South were required to vacate Government House to make way for 5 Governors General in the first years of Federation and relocate to Cranbrook House.   It was during those years that Hillview increasingly established itself in the local consciousness.

In March 1915^[4] a grand fete hosted by Governor Strickland and Lady Edeline was held “in aid of the distress in Belgium”. There was a grand procession, a horse jumping event, stalls, side shows and a fortune telling tent where, and I quote, “Miss Reynolds (as Madame Hassum Nada) gathered in a lot of coin”. Ominously, the terrible distress of the Gallipoli landing, was only a month away.

The Davidsons followed in 1918 and were welcomed in what the local paper described as “the most successful social function ever held in Sutton Forrest”^[5]. School children were lined up to form a guard of honour, speeches delivered, and a welcome book bound in black Morocco leather with inscription in gold letters, was presented.

Sometime in that year, as reported in the Sydney Evening News, the Davidsons held a Fete in support of the Red Cross and the local children who took part in a floral parasol parade were each given five shillings by His Excellency. Today, the children we meet are given the precious but non-negotiable Governor’s coin. 

Davidson became so integrated with the local community that he promised the Rector he would read a lesson each Sunday he was at Hillview.

Local engagement continued although with some cautionary tales for Governors.  In 1932 Sir Philip Game gained notoriety, not, for the purposes of this story for the constitutional crisis which unfolded on 15 May that year with the sacking of Premier Lang, but during the All Saint’s Church Market Day held at Hillview.  Probably with a sense of colonial glee, the local newspaper reported that Sir Philip had been seriously ‘outwhipped’ by a young schoolgirl in the stockwhip competition.^[6] 

The last Governor to receive the keys to Hillview was the first Australian born Governor of New South Wales, Sir John Northcott. Closing this chapter of the story of Hillview, Sir John officially opened the original Hillview gates when they were installed at All Saint’s Anglican Church in 1959. Those gates are similar to, although a little smaller than, our magnificent sandstone and iron gates here at Government House Sydney.^[7]

The inscription added to the gates on that occasion eloquently distills the history of Governor’s at Hillview and their relationship with local people. It reads

In loyal and affectionate memory of the Governor’s Resident at Hillview, Sutton Forrest [named hereunder] who joined so freely in church and community life.

The keys then passed through other hands, initially to the enigmatic Edward Klein for some 27 years who gifted the property back to the NSW Government in 1985.  Since then, it has been leased on with requirements for heritage restoration.

Today, I’m delighted to say we mark the next step in the history of Hillview which has come into the leasehold possession of The King’s Foundation Australia, reconnecting the property to the Crown, opening the door to the regeneration of the property, and to the development of a range of activities - all inspired by the work undertaken at Dumfries House in Scotland, the flagship regeneration project and headquarters of The Kings Foundation.

Along with local people, I will be keenly following the restoration of Hillview to its former glory and looking forward its development as a hub for local culture and a location for education and training programs.

I expect those 16 Governors who were affectionately remembered by local people for joining so freely in church and community life, would be pleased about today’s proceedings, assured that the place they so loved has reconnected with the Crown^[8]. In Parliament, Minister Sharpe spoke enthusiastically about the project, cheekily referring to herself as the “King’s landlady”. Today we can all be assured that Hillview will be restored to its former glory and is set to make a significant contribution to the Southern Highlands Community and beyond.

[1] Historical information is sourced from the Heritage Register

[2] https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/richardson-robert-pemberton-13169

[3] Loftus first stayed at Hillview in June 1884 or in the following summer. Northcott is likely to have visited in January 1957 – his daughter recalls them going regularly for 5 weeks after Christmas.  https://amplify.gov.au/transcripts/statelibrarynsw/governors_consorts/elizabeth_nash

[4] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/133372181

[5] https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/132971558

[6] The journalist reports: Sir Philip Game entered wholeheartedly into the competitions, but his display with a stockwhip demonstrated that his training in the art of using it had been sadly neglected. A schoolgirl who followed him showed his effort up in severe contrast.

[7] https://monumentaustralia.org.au/themes/government/colonial/display/23115-all-saints-anglican-gates

[8]  https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Hansard/Pages/HansardResult.aspx#/docid/HANSARD-1820781676-97974