Tulloona Estate

Tulloona, 48-50 Park Road, Burwood

This grand two-storey mansion was built in Burwood, New South Wales, c.1875 by the well known iron founder John Robert Bubb ('JR') when the western railway between Sydney and Parramatta was just twenty years old. There were only four stations on the line and Burwood was one of them.

Today, Tulloona and the surrounding Californian bungalows are an important link with Burwood’s history and heritage. J R Bubb was a founding father and Mayor of Burwood. Tulloona also belonged to the Sydney Mayor and MP, Alban Riley, and his wife Sydney Mayoress, Eleanor Riley.


The first mayor of Tulloona

J R Bubb, as with many wealthy merchants and industrialists in the Victorian era, was drawn to Burwood's county lifestyle and easy access to Sydney. Others like Bubb included Anthony Horden who built the magnificent Shubra Hall near Croydon Station in 1869 and E T Penfold who built Woodstock in 1870 at 22 Church Street, Burwood.

Tulloona was originally built facing Winnie Street (now Gloucester Avenue) in the east and bounded by Victoria Street in the north, George Street in the south and Riverview Street (now Park Road) in the west. The Estate stretched far beyond these rough streets but it would be several years before these extended lots were sold to the public.

In 1875 there was a large semi-circular entrance to Tulloona framed by two Norfolk Island pines. These stunning specimens are protected by a Burwood Council Local Environmental Plan. 132 years later, in 2007, they tower over the Estate and are only dwarfed by a massive crane that sits on the looming Elsie Street development just one block to the east.

J R Bubb would have been able to easily stroll from Tulloona to Burwood station and board a steam train to his city foundry in Pyrmont, Bubb & Son Victoria Foundry. From the 1850's the foundry made decorative cast iron railings, columns and fancy lacework for the booming housing and commercial industries. Examples of Bubb & Son's iron posts can be found at Elizabeth Farm in Parramatta (installed when the Farm was renovated in the 1860's) and Tawa in Toowoomba, Queensland and Lansdowne House, Concord.

Bubb & Son's prized post office boxes

In 1855 Bubb & Son was awarded the tender to make letterboxes for the NSW Postmaster General. An employee, T. W. Levinge, designed the circular cast-iron letterboxes that stood 5 ft 10 inches high with an ornate top adorned with acanthus leaf mouldings. The Australian bronze post office boxes bearing 3 vertical slots for easy posting on horseback were incredibly successful, especially after they were painted in Royal pillar box red in the early 1870's.

Few examples remain and where they do they have become heritage items in their own right. An example is found in Wellington NSW. Bubb & Son also made cast iron post office boxes that were exported to New Zealand between 1864 and 1878. The New Zealand version had two horizontal openings on each side of the post box.

Bubb becomes Mayor of Burwood

While the Bubb & Son foundry is likely to be always rembered for its prized post office boxes it is J R Bubb’s part in making Burwood a suburb is why the Tulloona Estate is so important. He was one of the original petitioners in 1873 with Anthony Hordern which led to the 27 March 1874 proclamation making Burwood a municipality. It was to be known as the Borough of Burwood.

During his final years at Tulloona Bubb served on Burwood Council as an alderman from 1876 to 1879. He became Mayor of Burwood in 1879.

Eleanor's sanctuary

The Tulloona Estate also caught the eye of another prominent businessman and politician, Alban Joseph Riley. Joe Riley, as he was known, was born in Balmain in 1844 on 8 June 1844 and educated with Samuel Griffiths at a private school in Maitland from about 1850. In 1859 he attended the School of Arts in Sydney and studied logic and Greek. Riley became an apprentice draper to Farmer & Co and went on to establish a very successful drapery business with his brother Philip Riley who had worked with David Jones & Co. The Riley Bros had branches in Bathurst and Maitland.

Joe Riley married the very beautiful Eleanor Birkenhead Riley on 4 October 1870. Eleanor was born in London on 27 September 1851 and sailed with her parents to Australia in December 1858. The Riley's had a rapidly growing brood. Indeed, they had fifteen children although, as was typical in the Victorian era, only ten were to survive them.

Urgently needing a large residence, at the beginning of the 1880's the extremely wealthy Riley’s bought the whole of the Tulloona Estate. However, the Rileys still needed a house much bigger than the one built by Bubb. Following a voyage of discovery in 1878 to India, Palestine, Europe, Italy and England, Joe Riley was so taken with Roman architecture that on his return he completely remodelled Tulloona. Instead of facing Gloucester Avenue, it now adorned Riverview Street in the west with a classic symmetrical Italianate façade at the centre of a semi-circular drive that can still be seen today.

Riverview Street was changed to Park Road in 1886, the same year that the newly built MLC School in Burwood enrolled its first girl students. MLC's grand Schofield Hall was being built at the opposite end of Park Road and was eventually completed in 1891. The grand mansion ‘Ilfracombe’ lay half way between Tulloona and Schofield Hall. Opposite Burwood Park, this was the home of Robert William Hardie who was Mayor of Burwood in 1887.

Joe Riley had plans for the extended Tulloona Estate. Like today, there is great demand for large homes close to excellent schools, so on Saturday December 14, 1889 the Riley's sold two large blocks that lie to the west bounded by Railway Crescent, Gladstone Street, Park Road and Gordon Street. Victorian and Federation Villas began to dot the west side of Park Road and, miraculously, most survive to this day. Joe Riley’s drapery business grew phenomenally and it was soon both exporting and importing as A J Riley & Co. But Riley increasingly had his eye on politics. In 1883 he became a magistrate and in the following year, 1884, was nominated by Governor Loftus to fill an extraordinary vacancy on Burwood Council. His first attempt at becoming an MP was unsuccessful when he stood for the seat of Canterbury. Undeterred, in December 1885 Joe Riley became an alderman on Sydney City Council. Then in 1887 he became Mayor of Sydney.

In the same year Joe Riley was finally elected to the New South Wales Parliament as a ‘free trader’ and became the MP for South Sydney. Riley was appointed as a Special Commissioner to organise the New South Wales Centenary Celebrations in 1888. He lost his lower house seat in the 1889 elections but on 19 May 1891 he became a member of the upper house, the NSW Legislative Council.

Alban Jospeh Riley, former MP, Mayor of Sydney and Director of Sydney Hospital died at Tulloona in Burwood on 24 July 1914. He was survived by his wife, 5 sons and 5 daughters.

The Tulloona Estate

Eleanor also died at Tulloona in 1922. Shortly after her death in 1923 the original estate surrounding Tulloona was subdivided and 16 Californian bungalows were built around the mansion. They all have gable ends that mirror the classic symmetrical Tulloona facade. Remarkably, 15 of the original 16 Californian bungalows survive to this day. The Tulloona Estate was built about the same time as the Ilfracombe Estate on Park Road opposite Burwood Park, but unlike the latter, the Tulloona Estate still retains its original mansion by which the area has gained its name. The street scape surrounding Tulloona is still in tact with classic return veranda Victorian villas and federation houses overlooking the estate on the west side of Park Road.

After the Second World War Tulloona went into slow decline eventually becoming a nursing home known as Rossmoyne Private Hospital. There were plans to demolish Tulloona in the 1980's to make way for a multi-storey apartment building. Fortunately for our future generations Tulloona was saved. It was gazetted for inclusion on the Australian Heritage Register in 1988 and formally registered in 1991. It was also listed on Burwood Council's heritage register in 1989.

The restoration begins


In 1998 Margie Blok wrote a feature story in Domain on Park Road, Burwood under the banner "TIMELESS BEAUTY: The elegance of a bygone era still prevails in Burwood." In the following year, 1999, Tulloona was bought by its current owners who immediately reinstated its original name and set about restoring this grand Sydney residence to its former glory.

There are many other homes on and around the Tulloona Estate that are now being restored.