By Cathy Jones 2024
‘Munna’, 26-28 Carrington Avenue Strathfield, is situated on the south-west corner of Carrington Avenue and Nichol Parade Strathfield and is a Victorian house built c.1888.
‘Munna’ is located on the 1810 James Wilshire Crown Land grant. This land was subdivided into residential lots in 1867 by solicitor William Whaley Billyard and offered for sale as the Redmire Estate (deposited plan 35). Nearly twenty years later, Wynne subdivided Lot 36 into smaller residential lots. This estate was marketed as Wynne’s Paddock (deposited plan 1588). Lots 15 and 16 in May 1886 were transferred to Florence Ferguson (née Mackenzie, 1863-1941), wife of Percy Ferguson (1862-1936), a merchant.
A house first appears in the 1887 Sands Directory as occupied by Percy Ferguson and named ‘Dunbarton’.
The house was originally numbered 20 Carrington Ave but renumbered 26-28 Carrington Avenue in March 1957.
It was rented until 1891 to John Storer, a druggist, according to Sand Sydney Directory.
In March 1891, the property ownership was transferred to Dr William Quaife, Bachelor of Medicine. Quaife called the house ‘Clitheroe’. Dr William Quaife (1858-1935) was well known Sydney medical specialist and the brother of Dr Frederick Harrison Quaife (1840-1922), who founded the British Medical Association and the Astronomical Society in Australia. The Quaife brothers were the sons of the Rev. Barzillai Quaife (1798-1873), a dissenting minister in England, who challenged traditional class structures. He migrated to Australia in 1840 and was known as Australia’s first philosopher, a newspaper editor and an advocate of Aboriginal rights stating ‘Men may be foreigners but they are men. One nation may not oppress another. The natural rights of man are universally the same’. The Quaife family home was ‘Hughenden’, Queen St, Woollahra, a heritage listed Victorian mansion, which now operates as a boutique hotel.
Dr. William Quaife was born in Sydney, and educated at Sydney Grammar School and Sydney University, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts. He later continued his studies abroad and gained his M.D. and Ch.M. degrees at the University of Glasgow. Returning to Sydney, he practised for many years as a nose, ear, and throat specialist, and subsequently joined the service of the Education Department as an eye specialist, continuing in that service until he retired. He married Emilie Slade and his family included sons Alan and Philip. Dr. Quaife was devoted to the art of watercolour painting and was a lover of classical music.
Other members of the Quaife family with a Strathfield connection included his niece Aldythe Quaife, who lived in Broughton Road Homebush and her sister Winifred Quaife who married Charles Lloyd Jones in 1900, later the Chairman and Managing Director of David Jones Ltd. Their sister Viola married Sydney Ure Smith.
In October 1913, William Quaife transferred ownership to William Green, of Strathfield, a builder. However, in May 1916, the property transferred to Charles Woods and Margaret Woods, as tenants in common. By 1941, ownership had transferred to Wiliam Osborne Woods, likely their son. His widow Priscilla was registered as the property owner in 1978.
The house was named ‘Clitheroe’ for most of its history, but more recently named ‘Munna’.
References
G. L. Lockley, ‘Quaife, Barzillai (1798–1873)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, https://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/quaife-barzillai-2567/text3505, published first in hardcopy 1967, accessed online 24 August 2024.
DR. W. F. QUAIFE. (1935, October 22). The Sydney Morning Herald, p. 13. Retrieved August 14, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article17238405
BACK TO GRAFTON ‘ (1930, September 20). Daily Examiner (Grafton, NSW : 1915 – 1954), p. 4. Retrieved November 15, 2024, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article195427446
NSW Lands Registry Certificates of Title
Sands Sydney Directory
Strathfield Council Rates Lists
