Russell’s Cottage, Warrandyte
The oldest house in Warrandyte stands on a hillside east of the town in Russell Road. James Russell built the cottage 120 years ago during the early gold rush days.James Russell came to Melbourne in 1354. Two years earlier at the age of twenty he had married Ruth Houghton in the historic Alvestock Church at Gosport in Hampshire. After working in a brickyard at South Yarra for a few weeks the Russells came to the Anderson’s Creek goldfield and camped in a tent.
At that time, the township was merely a collection of tents inhabited by men who had left homes, families and jobs to make their fortune on the goldfields. It was a rough life for a woman and Ruth Russell was the first woman to settle in Warrandyte. While they were living in the tent, a band of bushrangers went through the camp robbing the tents. As they heard the bushrangers approaching, Ruth was terrified and then her baby started crying. She heard a voice outside the tent say, "Leave that tent, there's a woman with a baby in it."
Soon a permanent population formed in the township and houses were being built. The Russell’s cottage was outside the area surveyed for the township. It was on the land pegged out for their mining claim. The holder of a miner's right on Crown Land is entitled to engage in certain consequential activities, which includes the erection of a house to live in. The miner could keep the house, while he worked the mine, but did not own the house. In 1890, Russell applied for and was granted a title to his land.
Russell’s cottage was a house that grew. Originally it was a hut built from bark and hardwood slabs. Slabs were fixed to both sides of bush timber posts. Later these slabs became internal wall and were covered with plywood from tea chests. They formed walls up he 12 inches thick. Extra rooms were added and a new roof of yellow box shingles covered the house. When she shingles split and started to leak, galvanised iron was nailed over the roof.
Other huts and houses were built during the gold rush days in the area. Russell’s house is the only one to remain. The 1939 bushfires claimed the other remaining houses.
A slab hut at the rear of Russell’s was used by his partner Harry Stiggants. In 1866, a bushranger, Robert Bourke, spent a night in this hut. Bourke arrived at Warrandyte on a cold wet night. Mrs. Russell reluctantly gave him a meal , and allowed him to sleep in Stiggants hut. Next morning, her brother, Harry Houghton, rowed Bourke across the river where he was later caught.
Russell planted a cherry orchard behind the house. The orchard yielded beautiful black cherries without needed water, for seepage from the hillside kept the trees moist, even in dry weather.
In 1922, Russell sold his home to McPerson who lived there till 1940. Then it went back to the original family when Pridman took it aver for many years.
The cottage had started as a bark hut and grew into a weatherboard house. The house is still growing, for even new extensions are being added to the front of Russell’s old home.
Irvine Green & Eric Houghton writing in 1975 08 DTHS Newsletter
8 Russell Road, Warrandyte - Heritage Listing
Historical SocietyStatement of Significance: Of local significance for its historical associations with James Russell and his family; potentially of regional significance should substantial elements of the original building remain.http://vhd.heritagecouncil.vic.gov.au/places/22658
8 Russell Road, Warrandyte - Sale: Oct 2015
8 Russell Road, Warrandyte - Heritage Study
Integrity Altered - major alterations. If anything original remains, it has been subsumed in the current house. Detailed internal examination is required.Built in the 1860s by James Gray Russell, this timber house has undergone major alterations.
Russell arrived in Melbourne in 1854, moving to the Andersons Creek goldfield soon after. With his wife and child he lived on his pegged mining claim. In 1890 Russell applied for and was granted title to this land [63]. He was still described as a miner in the Voters' Roll of 1899.
The cottage was originally a timber slab construction; as the dwelling was extended these slabs apparently become internal walls. Extra rooms were added and a new roof of yellow box shingles replaced the bark roof. These shingles are believed to remain underneath the corrugated iron roof.
Henry Stiggants, the original proprietor of the Pig Tail Mine, had a slab hut at the rear of this house; Stiggants was apparently Russell's partner.
Russell sold the house in 1922; in 1940 it was sold to a member of Russell's family. It is one of few Warrandyte buildings to have survived many bushfires, especially the 1939 fire which decimated the region and State.
Creation Date: c1860s
Associations: James Gray Russell. Also Henry Stiggan
Local Themes: 4.02 - Gold mining houses
Of local significance for its historical associations with James Russell and his family; potentially of regional significance should substantial elements of the original building remain.
Manningham Heritage Study, Context Pty. Ltd. Pg 474
BIBLIOGRAPHY [63] Doncaster Templestowe Historical Society Newsletter, 9(1), Aug. 1975.
http://images.heritage.vic.gov.au/attachment/3604
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