Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Annie Wyatt House

2008
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Annie Wyatt House

The Annie Wyatt House at 26 Park Avenue, Gordon, was built by Annie Wyatt – the founder of the National Trust of Australia – and her husband, Ivor, in 1926.

The Wyatts moved to Gordon in that year with their two children and bought land overlooking the bush. The house was one of the early designs of architect Douglas Forsyth-Evans, Annie Wyatt's brother, with a substantial input from Ivor. The house is an interwar Georgian Revival cottage with white-painted render on brick construction with a deep recessed entrance portico now paved in terracotta tiles. The house remained unchanged during its occupation by the Wyatts, and is elevated at the rear with a deck overlooking the garden and the Gordon bush landscape. The land surrounding the house was originally much larger than it is now.

Annie Wyatt formed the Ku-ring-gai Tree Lovers' Civic League while living there, and the first unofficial meeting of the National Trust was held there in 1945.

A plaque was laid at the front of the property in 1995 by Barry O'Keefe, then president of the National Trust of Australia (New South Wales), to commemorate the National Trust's Golden Jubilee. The house is heritage-listed by Ku-ring-gai Council for its cultural significance.

References

Ivor F Wyatt, Ours in Trust: A personal history of the National Trust, Willow Bend Press, Sydney, 1987.

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