Wooloomooloo from Domain Road

Very rare detailed early etching of Woolloomooloo looking east with three windmills and fine colonial villas by John Carmichael (1811-1857).

The villa at centre with its distinctive colonnaded veranda was built by Alexander Baxter and named Springfield House 

In 1828 Governor Darling had ordered the subdivision of Woolloomooloo Hill into suitable “town allotments” for large residences and extensive gardens. He then issued “deeds of grant” to select members of colonial society (in particular, his senior civil servants). The first 7 grants were issued in 1828, with the other allotments formally granted in 1831. The private residences that were built on the grants were required to meet Darling’s so-called “villa conditions” which were possibly determined and overseen by his wife, who had architectural skills. These ensured that only one residence was built on each grant to an approved standard and design, that they were each set within a generous amount of landscaped land and that, in most cases, they faced the town.  Of the 17 villa estates laid out by Darling on the ridge line, six fell within the area now referred to as Kings Cross: James Dowling’s Brougham Lodge, Alexander Baxter’s, Springfield Lodge, Augustus Perry’s Buona Vista, Thomas Macquoid’s Goderich Lodge, Thomas Barker’s Roslyn Hall estate with its windmills, and Edward Hallen’s nine-acre grant on which he did not build.  The owners were required to landscape their properties and the villas, when completed.

References:
Butler, Printed Images in Colonial Australia 1801-1901, p. 69-70
Ferguson, Bibliography of Australia, 2390
Kerr, Dictionary of Australian Artists p.134-135