By Cathy Jones (2012, updated 2025)
‘Greystanes’ 101-103 Redmyre Road Strathfield, is a two storey Victorian Regency style house. It is located on the original 1793 Thomas Rose land grant. ‘Greystanes’ was built in 1892. The house first appears in the Sands Directory for 1893 as occupied by Mrs Mary Hale Lawson. The property was originally numbered 97 Redmyre Road but renumbered 101-103 Redmyre Road in 1966.
In 1891 Charles William Lawson (c.1841-1891) acquired two lots of land (Lots 39 and 40) at the western end of Redmyre Road. Lawson died at aged 49 years in December 1891, leaving a widow, Mary Hale Lawson (nee Town) and large family. The house, which became ‘Greystanes’ was either under construction before Lawson’s death or completed shortly after as a house is noted on valuation records for 1892-1893 and also appears in the Sands Directory 1893, which usually refers to the prior year.
Lawson’s death was reported in various newspapers. An obituary appears in the Australian Town and Country Journal, 12 December 1891 on page 30.
The death is announced of Mr. Charles William Lawson, J.P., of Putta Bucca, Mudgee, which occurred at Summer Hill, near Sydney, on December 3. Mr. Lawson was aged 49 years, and was a son of Mr. Nelson Lawson, of Prospect, and grandson of Mr. William Lawson, who, with the late Messrs. Wentworth and Blaxland, explored and crossed the Blue Mountains, and were the first discoverers of the Mudgee district. Mr. Lawson lived in Mudgee for very many years, where his hospitality and kindness of heart were proverbial. He was engaged in squatting pursuits, and owned Premier and Boire Stations, on the Liverpool Plains. He was a splendid judge of stock, and was often selected as one of the judges of cattle at the principal shows. He was an excellent shot and a keen sportsman. He married Mary, daughter of the late Mr. William Town, of Richmond, and has left 10 children, six sons and four daughters. One son, Andrew, died of typhoid fever, aged 19 years in January last. Few men in the colony were better known or more highly respected than “Charley” Lawson, as he was familiarly called.
Lawson was the grandson of William Lawson, one of the Blue Mountains explorers, who received a land grant in 1808 for 500 acres which included Prospect Hill. Lawson’s father Nelson built a large home called ‘Greystanes House’ on this land. It is assumed the name of the Strathfield property is a reference to the family estate.
Mary Hale Lawson (nee Town) was the daughter of William Town (1817-1868) and his wife Mary Town (1819-1886), a pioneering family of Richmond and Windsor. She married Charles Lawson in 1865. Her brother Andrew Town was a famous racing and sporting identity, who died in 1890, however, his widow and many members of this family moved to Strathfield and Homebush. Mrs Lawson, after moving from ‘Greystanes’, continued to reside at Strathfield until her death in 1931.
In July 1913, ‘Greystanes’ was sold to Andrew Watt KC (1872-1950), a prominent Sydney barrister. Watt was educated at St. Joseph’s College, Hunter’s Hill and Sydney University. He was admitted as a barrister in 1894.
In October 1950, the property transferred to John Joseph Shanahan, railways clerk and Gregory Shanahan, public servant for £3300. In December 1951, the house was sold to Guiseppe Russo, a confectioner and his wife Venera. In November 1953, the house was sold to Salvatore and Carmela Spano.
From 1954, the Spano’s lived on site but operated a boarding house by leasing rooms to Italian migrants. In July 1969, Carmeta Spano sold the house to Felix Zammit for $42,000, who in October of the same year, sold the house for $44,500 to Aid Retarded Persons NSW, an organisation that operated a boarding house for trainees attending sheltered workshops in the Metropolitan Area. At this time, the house was known as ‘Mawarra Hostel’. The Council boarding house licence issued in 1985 stated the hostel had 14 separate bedrooms, housing 24 people. In 1988, Aid Retarded Persons was liquidated and its administrators Residential Care Inc, placed the property on the market.
The house again reverted to private ownership.
References
‘Andrew Watt’, Cyclopedia of New South Wales, p94, 1907
‘Andrew Watt’, Who’s Who in Australia 1935,1947 and 1950
Electoral roll electorate of Parkes [Strathfield Polling Place], 1903
Electoral roll Subdivision of Homebush, 1909
Fox & Associates, Strathfield Heritage Study, 1986
‘Greystanes House’, information from Holroyd Council at http://www.holroyd.nsw.gov.au
Strathfield Council building records
Strathfield Council valuation lists
Strathfield Council notices of land transfer.
‘The Marrying Habit’, Sydney Morning Herald, 13 December 1928 (Watt family wedding)
(c) Cathy Jones. You must not reproduce this article without obtaining permission from the author.
