A Squatter's Castle

Ten years ago Trish and I came through Grafton on a driving holiday up from Sydney. At that stage I had read Squatter's Castle but done little other research on my family history in these parts. We figured that seeing as we were in the area we should take a drive up and see what could be seen of the house. We found our way to what we figured were the gates into the place but they were clearly pretty secure. It was obvious they were monitored by CCTV and while we were stopped on the roadside trying to see if we could get a glimpse of anything, a 4WD arrived quick smart and a pleasant young farm hand asked if he could help. I explained that an ancestor had built the place and I was wondering if I could have a look. "Not without permission", he said. I asked who I could get permission from and he told me the Myer family in Melbourne, so that put paid to that.

A view of the Big House at Yulgilbar in the late 19th century. The house was photographed and painted frequently over the years and if you google Yulgilbar Castle you will probably come up with a variety of images over the years.

This time I did a bit more preparation and about a year ago I established contact with the Yulgilbar archivist Sue Ibbott. Sue has been very helpful and arranged for us to join in with a group of Grafton seniors on a tour today. The Myer family are clearly interested in preserving and developing the property's history and have established archives and a museum in the cellars of the house. Once a month they have a tour of the gardens and the archive and such is the interest in the place that the tours are booked out a couple of years in advance.

In the early 20th century the Big House deteriorated to such an extent that when the Myer family came to renovate it, removing the upper storey seemed the best solution.

On a hill overlooking the Big House is a folly, where the ladies of the house used to go to sketch & do needlework. Here Trish who often eoans her own lack of a castle, does a little sketching.

As family, Sue also arranged for the house caretaker John Denny to take us on an extra tour down to the family cemetery (known as The Vault) and to the manager's house which is built over and around the original homestead. For the purposes of my trip, this homestead is of greater interest than the Big House because it was where Edward left from in 1854, the Big House not being built until after his return.

We put some wattle on Edward's grave because I figured it might've been a while since he'd had flowers. The headstone to  the left rear is Mary Tindal, my Grans mother. Immediately behind Edward is his brother Fred and to his right, the smaller cross is a memorial to Theodosia. Behind her is their last child Hubert who died in infancy and in front of her are headstones for Mabel & Charles Lillingston. 

A painting done by Edward's sister Ellen in 1852 of the original Yulgilbar homestead. My mother found a print of this painting in an op shop in the 1970's and bought it for me, which was really when Yulgilbar first entered my consciousness. 

Trish & I in front of the old homestead. Somewhere under this building is the original cottage which over the years has been built over and around.

While Edward had hopes that Yulgilbar would become a dynastic family property (in fact it was in great part due to his complex will, leaving the place to his daughter Mabel Lillingston & her husband -with the proviso that future inheritors maintain the name of Ogilvie, which never happened - that it ended up being sold out of the family) I think that he would be reasonably pleased to see it today. While it hasn't become the Ogilvie country seat, it has become that for another dynasty, the Hordern-Baillieu-Myer family. They run it as a working cattle and horse stud and family retreat, which I think would please Edward as they have the resources to maintain both its agricultural and heritage values. In the 1930's the property passed into the hands of the family of Sam Hordern who for Albany readers, was the great nephew of Anthony Hordern who built the Perth to Albany railway, has his monument at the top of York St and is buried in the Albany cemetery.