Help us achieve our mission to protect and conserve our treasured heritage today and for future generations, while remaining an independent, non-government community advocate.

Alternativley to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

We are currently running the following appeals:

• Woodford Academy Appeal
• No Time to Spare Appeal
• Catherine Hill Bay Heritage Appeal
• National Trust Summer Appeal
• National Trust Sustainability Program
• Cooma Cottage
• S.H. Ervin Gallery
• Experiment Farm Cottage
• Everglades Gardens
  
  

WOODFORD ACADEMY APPEAL - HELP US CREATE AN ENDOWMENT FUND FOR THE OLDEST BUILDING IN THE BLUE MOUNTAINS

We write to you now to ask for your help in a crisis that threatens the future of heritage. Heritage protections are vulnerable on multiple fronts. The latest blow came in February with the announcement that the Heritage Office will effectively be dismantled. The Heritage Act and the Heritage Council are also being reviewed. The recommendations of the Heritage Act review were released last week after a long delay. Amongst other things, the recommendations concentrate decision making on heritage in the hands of the Minister for Planning, and propose that organisational representatives including the National Trust be removed from the Heritage Council. Part 3A of the Planning Act already allows the Minister to override the Heritage Act and other legislation that protects places of special environmental and heritage value. The proposed “streamlining” of the State planning system, which is currently under review, is another threat. For example, the mooted state wide planning codes lack the detail to ensure the conservation of local heritage precincts. The situation is urgent with new State planning legislation due to be passed in June, and decisions imminent on major developments like the proposed 900 homes which would destroy the idyllic 1870s village Catherine Hill Bay. The Trust has mounted a major media and lobbying campaign to save our heritage from further assault. This crucial work is very costly. At the same time, we continue to campaign for special places that are under imminent threat. Once such place is Catherine Hill Bay on the central coast of NSW. This former mining village dating from the 1870s comprises about 100 homes set in rolling green hinterland fronted by a pristine, crescent shaped surf beach. Half the homes are still occupied by miners and their descendants. Two developers – Rosecorp and Coal & Allied – independently plan to develop 900 houses, engulfing the tiny township (600 for the former, 300 for the latter). The houses may be sold for up to $1 million each. The developments will increase the population of Catherine Hill Bay by tenfold. They will destroy the unique character, amenity, environment and heritage of a place where there is no infrastructure to support this scale of development, nor should there be. Catherine Hill Bay is a rare relic of our fascinating history: the original houses and historic buildings can be seen in the coherent setting of the townscape and its natural surrounds. Its rich social and built heritage in its spectacular setting makes it a special place. Catherine Hill Bay also has great environmental significance as the habitat for endangered fauna and flora, such as the Powerful Owl, the Sugar Glider and the native Black-eyed Susan. Catherine Hill Bay is a Conservation Area, and has been nominated for State Heritage Listing. In 2006, the Land and Environment Court rejected Rosecorp’s earlier development proposal for Catherine Hill Bay’s headland. The Department of Planning in 2006 unequivocally recommended against development at Catherine Hill Bay on environmental and heritage grounds. In 2007 the Commonwealth Department of the Environment recognised the presence of threatened species and communities at Catherine Hill Bay. Catherine Hill Bay’s potential destruction is a symptom of broader failures of the planning system. If it can happen in Catherine Hill Bay, it will happen elsewhere. Many precious sites which we had believed were made safe from unsympathetic development by policies such as the state’s coastal protection policies are threatened. Under Part 3A of the Planning Act the Minister for Planning has the power to override environmental and planning policies by declaring a site ‘state significant’. The Catherine Hill Bay developments are being considered under Part 3A. Catherine Hill Bay’s destruction will symbolise the triumph of development over the environmental and social values we, as a community, hold dear. Please help us stop these proposals before the machinery rolls in. Will you help us to vigorously campaign to save Catherine Hill Bay? Simply call (02) 9258 0156 (9-5 Mon-Fri) with credit card details or donate online for an instant receipt. Thank you sincerely for helping us to protect our shared heritage for future Australians. Kind regards Dr Zeny Edwards President Stephen White Acting Executive Director       Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

Outside Woodford Academy Today   Woodford Academy c1800   Woodford Academy Classroom

An open letter from Mrs Cherry Jackaman,
First Woman President of the National Trust (NSW) 1977-1981

NO TIME TO SPARE

‘No Time to Spare’ was the first National Trust exhibition held in 1962. Unfortunately then, there was not enough time to save from demolition Australia’s most important buildings such as Subiaco.
With the present rapid rate of development in this country many historic places are threatened.
The National Trust is trying very hard to protect our heritage but with minimal government funding and rising inflation the Trust’s work is in trouble.
On behalf of the National Trust I ask you to make a one off donation which is tax deductible.

Thank you for your help.

Yours sincerely,

Cherry Jackaman
Past President
National Trust of Australia (NSW) 1977-1981

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

We write to you now to ask for your help in a crisis that threatens the future of heritage. Heritage protections are vulnerable on multiple fronts. The latest blow came in February with the announcement that the Heritage Office will effectively be dismantled. The Heritage Act and the Heritage Council are also being reviewed. The recommendations of the Heritage Act review were released last week after a long delay. Amongst other things, the recommendations concentrate decision making on heritage in the hands of the Minister for Planning, and propose that organisational representatives including the National Trust be removed from the Heritage Council.

Part 3A of the Planning Act already allows the Minister to override the Heritage Act and other legislation that protects places of special environmental and heritage value. The proposed “streamlining” of the State planning system, which is currently under review, is another threat. For example, the mooted state wide planning codes lack the detail to ensure the conservation of local heritage precincts. The situation is urgent with new State planning legislation due to be passed in June, and decisions imminent on major developments like the proposed 900 homes which would destroy the idyllic 1870s village Catherine Hill Bay.

The Trust has mounted a major media and lobbying campaign to save our heritage from further assault. This crucial work is very costly. At the same time, we continue to campaign for special places that are under imminent threat.

Once such place is Catherine Hill Bay on the central coast of NSW. This former mining village dating from the 1870s comprises about 100 homes set in rolling green hinterland fronted by a pristine, crescent shaped surf beach. Half the homes are still occupied by miners and their descendants.

Two developers – Rosecorp and Coal & Allied – independently plan to develop 900 houses, engulfing the tiny township (600 for the former, 300 for the latter). The houses may be sold for up to $1 million each. The developments will increase the population of Catherine Hill Bay by tenfold. They will destroy the unique character, amenity, environment and heritage of a place where there is no infrastructure to support this scale of development, nor should there be.

Catherine Hill Bay is a rare relic of our fascinating history: the original houses and historic buildings can be seen in the coherent setting of the townscape and its natural surrounds. Its rich social and built heritage in its spectacular setting makes it a special place. Catherine Hill Bay also has great environmental significance as the habitat for endangered fauna and flora, such as the Powerful Owl, the Sugar Glider and the native Black-eyed Susan.

Catherine Hill Bay is a Conservation Area, and has been nominated for State Heritage Listing. In 2006, the Land and Environment Court rejected Rosecorp’s earlier development proposal for Catherine Hill Bay’s headland. The Department of Planning in 2006 unequivocally recommended against development at Catherine Hill Bay on environmental and heritage grounds. In 2007 the Commonwealth Department of the Environment recognised the presence of threatened species and communities at Catherine Hill Bay.

Catherine Hill Bay’s potential destruction is a symptom of broader failures of the planning system. If it can happen in Catherine Hill Bay, it will happen elsewhere. Many precious sites which we had believed were made safe from unsympathetic development by policies such as the state’s coastal protection policies are threatened. Under Part 3A of the Planning Act the Minister for Planning has the power to override environmental and planning policies by declaring a site ‘state significant’. The Catherine Hill Bay developments are being considered under Part 3A.

Catherine Hill Bay’s destruction will symbolise the triumph of development over the environmental and social values we, as a community, hold dear. Please help us stop these proposals before the machinery rolls in.

Simply call (02) 9258 0156 (9-5 Mon-Fri) with credit card details or donate online for an instant receipt.

Thank you sincerely for helping us to protect our shared heritage for future Australians.

Kind regards

Dr Zeny Edwards

President

Stephen White

Acting Executive Director

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

The National Trust (NSW) is determined to care for our shared heritage and to keep it accessible for everyone. But the fact is, as a charity, we urgently need to raise funds to keep up with rising costs.

Because we receive no ongoing government funding we need your help…

…to maintain our 38 priceless properties across NSW including icons such as Old Government House, Parramatta; Norman Lindsay Gallery, Springwood; Experiment Farm, Parramatta; and Dundullimal, Dubbo. Then there are our extensive bushland properties and gardens with great conservation significance, such as Wirrimbirra Sanctuary in Bargo, the magnificent Everglades Gardens, Leura, and Blackwood Sanctuary, Beecroft, some of which are home to threatened species such as Blue Gum High Forest and the Powerful Owl.

We are again appealing to people who believe in the Trust as much as you do to support us in caring for these wonderful places. We very much hope you will help us today with a donation.

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

Everglades Gardens

Windmill at Dundullimal

Experiment Farm Cottage

During May 2007, we launched an exciting new program that reaffirms the Trust’s commitment to ecological sustainability - the National Trust Sustainability Program.

The Program will enable us to:

• Continue our 62 year history of advocacy for the environment
• Begin retrofitting our 38 wonderful heritage properties with energy efficient and water conservation technologies, to make them community models of environmental sustainability.

For example right now we are working hard to save the critically endangered Blue Gum High Forest in Ku-ring-gai, the small, last remaining tract of this forest type, once prolific in Sydney. And, with enough support, we can put environmental talk into action in our own backyard.

We will undertake to:

• Drought proof and establish an environmental education centre at Everglades – five hectares of magnificent formal gardens and pristine native bushland in the Blue Mountains.

• Establish a hands on Regional Study Centre for Renewable Energy at Dundullimal in Dubbo, restoring the 1840s slab homestead’s windmill and water tanks, installing underground water storage, and using solar panels to generate all the property’s electricity

• Go back to the future at Experiment Farm in Parramatta, where, in 1789, James Ruse sustainably farmed wheat a mere year after the First Fleet’s landing. We will develop a contemporary experiment farm demonstrating water conservation and sustainable agriculture.

You can be sure that your donation will go directly to the Sustainability Program and make a real difference. Alternatively, you can direct your untied donation to where the Trust needs it most, as on the form overleaf.

Or simply call (02) 9258 0156 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri) with credit card details.

Thank you for helping us to protect our natural heritage. With you, we will do our bit to look after the natural world we borrow from our children.

If you have already donated to this appeal, many thanks.

Yours sincerely

Steve White
Acting Executive Director

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

It’s 1824, only 30 or so years after the arrival of the First Fleet. The explorer Hamilton Hume, with William Hovell, makes the first epic journey overland from Lake George in NSW to Port Phillip Bay, discovering the Murray River and opening up this lush quarter of the Australian continent. On the way, he falls in love with the site of Cooma Cottage, Yass, on the banks of the Yass River, in the heart of the rich sheep grazing country of the 19th century pioneers. In 1839 he buys the cottage on its 100 acres for ₤600, and makes it his home and life’s work for 34 years, until his death.

Hume creatively and lovingly developed the house, adding 20 rooms, Palladian style wings and a Greek Revival portico. By 1850, a second storey was added to the fine mid 19th century stables. He planted beautiful extensive gardens. Today, the estate contains many stately 19th century trees, in sweeping pastoral vistas.

By 1970 this wonderful place, so evocative of our early history, was sadly derelict. It was purchased by the National Trust, and in 1988 significant restoration works took place. Now, with the inevitable effects of 170 years of wear and tear, we need your help to save Cooma Cottage again from disrepair.

The National Trust is a charity which receives no ongoing government funding. Without your support, the Trust will simply not be able to employ the skilled tradesmen required to care for this important heritage site, and cover the costs of the urgent restoration work which will help ensure that this place
will live for future generations of Australians.

Right now, the property needs significant conservation, including  replastering of several rooms, repairs to the roof structure, limewashing of external walls and improvements to the adjacent acreage.

Plans are also well underway to repair the nearby Shepherds Cottage to allow Trust members to stay overnight, and help generate much needed revenue for the property. It is conservatively estimated that these works will cost $50,000 to $60,000 to complete.

Please help us conserve this wonderful place for all to enjoy, today and forever.

Your contribution (wholly tax deductible) will go directly to the above mentioned projects, to protect the unique history of Cooma Cottage for the future. Please help us continue this vital work.

Alternatively, you can direct your untied donation to where the Trust needs it most. Or simply call (02) 9258 0156 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri) with credit card details or donate online where you will receive an instant receipt.

Thank you sincerely for helping us to protect our cultural heritage.

Yours sincerely

Steve White
Acting Executive Director

Your tax deductible donation will be used to conserve Cooma Cottage for future generations to enjoy. Please send your donation today.

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

Margaret Olley AC

As an artist with a warm, longstanding relationship with the National Trust S.H. Ervin Gallery, I would personally like to ask you to join me in supporting this important and dynamic exhibition space for the appreciation and conservation of Australian art.

Last year the S.H. Ervin Gallery celebrated my friendship with Donald Friend by presenting our work together – I hope many of you had the opportunity to visit the exhibition. In 2000 with my old friend Barry Humphries and again in 2002 with artist Jeffrey Smart, we were invited to exhibit our favourite works from collections throughout Australia. The S.H. Ervin Gallery also organised the first ever survey of my work in 1990, which brought wide acclaim and recognition of my artistic career. Through the National Trust I have had the honour of being voted a National Living Treasure.

You may not know that the S.H. Ervin Gallery, as part of the National Trust charity, relies largely on donations, National Trust memberships and sponsorships to continue its wonderful work. Unlike most public galleries, it receives only a minority of its income from government grants; nor is it a commercial gallery able to make income from sales. So financial support from donors is the key to making sure this important centre for art and cultural heritage conservation has a bright future.

The work of the Gallery under these challenging conditions is truly marvellous. It hosts an impressive line up of must-see exhibitions including the annual Salon des Refusés, the Portia Geach and the Year in Art, and also presents the work of leading Australian artists. The regular public program of guest talks and creative art workshops, educate and delight children and adults alike. In addition, the S.H. Ervin Gallery plays a vital role as an arts custodian: on behalf of all Australians, it cares for and conserves a collection of 19th and 20th century art including works by von Guerard, Heysen, Preston, Rees and Smart.
 
However as the Gallery approaches it 30th anniversary, it is in urgent need of funds to upgrade its lighting system, and to carry out pressing conservation work. As a patron of the arts with a deep concern for our culture, I urge you to donate now to help the S.H. Ervin Gallery do this work, and to ensure that it continues to exhibit and conserve the best in Australian art.

Be assured that any tax-deductible donation you make will go directly to the upkeep of the gallery and its conservation and exhibition programs. Simply call (02) 9258 0156 (9am-5pm Mon-Fri) with credit card details, or print and complete the form below (open link) and mail or fax.

Thank you so much for joining me in supporting this gem amongst galleries.

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Olley AC

Your tax deductible donation will be used to conserve S. H. Ervin Gallery for future generations to enjoy. Please send your donation today.

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

Please help conserve Experiment Farm Cottage: a unique historic asset

Experiment Farm Cottage, Parramatta, needs your help. Please don't allow wear and tear and the dereliction of old age to destroy this uniquely rich historic site, an example of an early colonial home and the cradle of Australian farming. Help us hold Experiment Farm in trust for future generations by sending your tax deductible donation today.

In 1793 Colonel Surgeon John Harris purchased James Ruse's pioneering wheat farm and later built an Indian style bungalow on the site. The building is now one of the nation's oldest, and most significant properties and a precious early example of a middle class colonial household.

However time is taking its toll and the property needs urgent structural and other conservation works - which we cannot undertake without additional funds.

There is little sadder than seeing our collective inheritance, our historic estates with their compelling stories, slide into disrepair for want of resources. We are doing all that we can to care for Experiment Farm, but we cannot do all that is needed without support. We must repair deteriorating brickwork and cracked masonry. All exterior walls need to be limewashed, and further landscaping work is required. External security lighting must be upgraded. These essential repairs will cost approximately $85,000.

Everglades a Heritage Jewel Under Threat

Will you help us preserve Everglades? Phone 9258 0156 or send your cheque to the Trust at the address below.

Photos by Joan Wheeler and Mojove Productions. Click to enlarge

Our current appeal is for Everglades House and Gardens in the Blue Mountains township of Leura, the fruit of a unique partnership between its Belgian owner, Henri van de Velde and renowned Danish landscape designer, Paul Sorensen. Set in stunning mountains vistas, this magical estate evokes the enchantment of the fairytales of yore. It comprises an Art deco-inspired 1930s house with intact original features on an expansive 5.2 hectares of grounds.

The gardens incorporate both a formally landscaped European-style cool climate garden, reminiscent of the verdant glades of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and pristine native bush bordering the World Heritage Listed Blue Mountains National Park. This rare and surprising juxtaposition is possible only in our uniquely Australian landscape. The estate has been cited as “one of the most significant set pieces of Australian modernist garden design”.

Everglades welcomes about 38,000 visitors yearly. People of all ages come to be entranced by the house and its magnificent setting and to participate in educational and recreational events, such as the celebrated annual Easter egg hunt, enjoyed this Easter Saturday by over 1,500 visitors, its mediaeval Winter Magic Quests, its Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties and its highly popular plein air art workshops.

The threat to Everglades’ future
The scope, size and complexity of this outstanding property creates particular challenges for the Trust in ensuring that Everglades is preserved, presented and interpreted for the benefit of future generations.

Everglades’ integrity, beauty and heritage value are under real and imminent threat right now.
Substantial work to structural elements and original features and fittings is urgently required to prevent further degrading of the building’s fabric and of the grounds. The stunning garden, featuring impressive mature plantings of a wide range of spectacular tree species, needs immediate drought protection.The estate also requires a continuous stream of funds to simply maintain the house and gardens in presentable good order.

For example, interior and exterior painting of the house is long overdue, a fact which shows in the patchwork daubs and peeling paint on some walls. The carpeting is worn and requires replacement. Repairs are needed to stonework, paths and statuary in the vast formal gardens – an expensive enterprise. And simply to care for and maintain safely and in good health the many towering mature trees that stand in the beautiful grounds is a substantial ongoing cost.  So too, is the cost of replacing those trees which have reached the end of their natural life with new mature plantings, to preserve the original landscape design.

Between 2006 and 2009 we need to spend an estimated $500,000 undertaking urgent repairs and upgrading visitor facilities. The Trust, with advice from specialist consultants, has prepared a three year conservation program designed to meet the property’s specific needs for which special funding is required.

Help us preserve this unique heritage gem

Please do not stand by and let this outstanding heritage estate fall into disrepair and decline for want of funding. The Trust is committed to a program of works which will ensure Everglades retains its beauty and status as a special place, a place of enduring heritage value, for ever, for everyone.

Please donate by calling the Trust on 02 9258 0156, or make out your cheque to National Trust of Australia  (NSW), and send to National Trust of Australia (NSW), GPO Box 518, Sydney, 2001.

Or to make a donation by post or phone please click here.

Everglades: fascinating people and history

Everglades House and Garden at Leura in the Blue Mountains was developed between 1933 and 1939 by Belgian born industrialist Henri Van de Velde and renowned landscape designer, Paul Sorensen. Henri Van de Velde (1878 – 1947) was a part owner and General Manager of the carpet manufacturing firm Feltex which had its headquarters in Feltex House in George St, Sydney. Thoroughly modern in outlook, Van de Velde sought to create in Everglades the ultimate weekend retreat for his family and business colleagues. Sparing no expense he utilised the most contemporary design philosophies in both the Art Deco inspired house and a surrounding garden which sought to establish a dialogue between a formal designed landscape and the surrounding Australian bush.

The combination of Van de Velde’s drive and the skill of Danish born and trained landscape designer Paul Sorensen created a unique environment which arguably has never been recreated elsewhere in the nation. The gardens’ essence was captured by photographer Harold Cazneaux in c 1938. With the death of the owner, the property went into gradual decline and in 1962 Everglades was acquired by the National Trust for the nation.

To make a donation by fax or post, please download a donation form by clicking here and mail or fax it back to The National Trust with your cheque/money order or your credit card details.

Alternately, you can also call us on (02) 9258 0156, and we will take your donation over the phone.

• *Other country donations are processed in Australian Dollars. Use a currency converter to help you calculate the approximate value of any foreign currency donation.
  
  
• Tax deductible? Individuals who make donations to The National Trust may be entitled to claim a rebate. Companies who make donations to The National Trust may be entitled to a deduction for income tax purposes. The amount and eligibility to claim a rebate or deduction will depend on certain criteria being satisfied.