Author: Dr Sue Rosen

Client: Private Client

This statement formed the heritage justification for alterations and additions to the western side and to the rear of the client's property which is a listed heritage item.

Neutral Bay had been occupied by First Nations people for thousands of years, however its European development began when Alfred Thrupp, Assistant Naval Officer for the Port of Sydney, was officially granted 700 acres between Long Bay and Neutral Bay taking in the whole of Kurraba Point in 1830. Kurraba Point was the site of a quarry 1840s-1860s, which yielded the stone for Fort Denison 1850-8, later it was used as the site for a soap works and then as a ferry depot. 

From the 1850s leasehold properties became available and a number of large mansions were built on Kurraba Point and on the slopes above Neutral Bay in the 1860s and 1870s. Residential development on the North Shore was slow, due to the difficulties of access. It remained compact until the latter decades of the nineteenth century when developments by way of transport and utilities made the area a more amenable and accessible place to live.

The North Sydney Rate Assessment Books indicate that by 1904 a two storey six-room house had been erected at 57 Kurraba Road in the preceding twelve months. The Sands Directory of 1905 reveals that the house had been named “Chelmsford”, with the occupants for the next three years being Julia and William Noss.