MAXINE Farrelly was heartbroken as she prepared to move out of the 19th century mansion Heathcote Hall, which has been her home for her entire life of 57 years.
The sale of the 4.5-hectare estate at East Heathcote was due to be completed this week, with plans revealed for the dilapidated building to be restored and townhouses and apartments to be built alongside.
Built in 1887 in the Italianate style, Heathcote Hall is one of the oldest and grandest surviving buildings in Sydney’s south, and has a colourful past.
Isaac Harber, a wealthy Sydney brickmaker, commissioned it as country retreat.
One of the subsequent owners won the property in a Tattersall Lottery in 1896.
During World War I, there were rumours it was being used by spies when lights were reportedly seen flashing from the tower.
In 1996, it was the location for the movie The Munsters’ Scary Little Christmas.
Joseph Farrelly and his wife Mimina, together with her parents Angelise and Hose, bought Heathcote Hall in 1942, where they raised three children, Michael, Ramon and Maxine.
After her mother’s death in 1986, Maxine stayed on, caring for her father and nursing him before his death there in 2005 when he was 86.
The property was left to be shared by the children.
Ms Farrelly sought to preserve it as her home and carried out some renovation works.
However, the building began to crumble around her, rooms filled with a jumble of possessions and gardens grew into a jungle.
Locked gates closed Heathcote Hall to the outside world, and only a chosen few were allowed inside.
Ms Farrelly rejected many requests by the Leader to view its heritage treasures, but, as she prepared to leave, she threw open the gates and, for the first time, talked publicly about her family’s ownership.
Her pain was plain to see, but she shrugged off questions.
‘‘I am trying to move forward,’’ she said.
‘‘I can’t get emotional about it, or I will fall to pieces.’’
Ms Farrelly laughed at the suggestion that as a young girl, she must have felt like a princess in a castle.
‘‘[It was] more like Cinderella, and my brothers were the ugly stepsisters,’’ she said, only partly tongue in cheek.
Ms Farrelly said her favourite part was the tower, which is accessed by a narrow, winding timber staircase.
‘‘I think it’s gorgeous,’’ she said.
‘‘[Isaac Harber] built the tower to utilise the beautiful spaces that he found.’’
Before trees obscured the view, she said, it was possible to see waves breaking on Jibbon Beach at Bundeena.
Ms Farrelly said her father also loved the tower.
‘‘I was only knee high to a grasshopper, and he would say, ‘Come on honey’ — he called me that more than my name — and up I would go,’’ she said.
Ms Farrelly said they had a strong bond.
‘‘I never married because I was so close to Dad,’’ she said.
Ms Farrelly is not alone in having to move out. In a corner of the estate, next to the chooks, lived Percy, a monstrous size pig.
‘‘He was just a piglet when Tom [her partner] brought him home a few years ago,’’ she said.
Ms Farrelly is a well-known and, for some residents, a much loved, character in Heathcote East community.
Older residents say, as young woman, she was ‘‘stunningly attractive’’.
But Ms Farrelly had no wish to find an old photo of herself, requesting instead the copying of framed photos of her parents and grandmother.
Ms Farrelly’s solicitor, Malcolm Carr, of Metro Lawyers, said she should be seen as a hero.
‘‘She has been the custodian of that property and it has been an enormous emotional struggle for her to try to co-ordinate the environmental professions who have to be involved in preserving heritage listed properties,’’ he said.
FATE UNCERTAIN
Development plans have been discussed with Sutherland Shire Council.
A council spokeswoman said no development application (DA) had been lodged, but a pre-DA meeting was held on November 10 last year with FPA Architects International.
‘‘Discussion at this meeting concerned the restoration of Heathcote Hall and the development of townhouses and apartment buildings within the current landholding at numbers 1-21 Dillwynnia Grove,’’ she said.
‘‘It’s not known whether this proposal will proceed to development application stage.’’
The spokeswoman said Heathcote Hall had a very high level of heritage protection and was one of only a few state heritage items in the shire.
‘‘This means that development approval is required under the Heritage Act 1977,’’ she said.
‘‘The state government will determine the heritage aspects of any future development proposal and council must accept the heritage recommendations when it determines any DA.’’
The spokeswoman said council officers had held a number of meetings with prospective buyers over the years.
Nearby residents are concerned about the impact of the proposed development.
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