Camelot, Kirkham

Camelot circa 1900

Camelot

The stables of the original Kirkham property

Camelot is a large brick home near the town of Camden, New South Wales, situated approximately fifty kilometres south-west of Sydney, Australia. It was built in 1888 and has been used as a television location. It is heritage-listed at state and federal levels.^[1][2]

History

Camelot is located in the suburb of Kirkham, just outside Camden. This area was originally home to the Muringong, southernmost of the Darug people. In 1805 John Macarthur established his property at Camden where he raised merino sheep. In 1810, explorer John Oxley was granted 600 acres (2.4 km²) nearby, which he named Kirkham,^[3] after his birthplace in Yorkshire. Oxley died at Kirkham in 1828. The house was demolished in 1882; the stables, which date from 1816, are all that remain. They are heritage-listed.

Camelot was designed by the Canadian-born architect John Horbury Hunt for James White, New South Wales politician and great-uncle of Patrick White. It was built circa 1888, on the site of Oxley's old Kirkham Mill, and partly on its foundations. Folklore has it that the house was financed by the winnings from one of James White's horses, called Chester, who won the Melbourne Cup in 1877.^[4] It was originally called Kirkham, but the name was changed to Camelot by a new owner, Frances Faithful-Anderson, wife of William Anderson, who bought the house in the 1890s. When she saw the house, she was reminded of lines in Tennyson's poem The Lady of Shallot, which make a reference to Camelot.^[5]

Camelot was used extensively as a location in the 2013 television series A Place to Call Home, in which it is known as Ash Park. It was also used in the 2008 Baz Luhrmann film Australia.^[6]

Description

Camelot was the last of the "red brick" buildings by John Horbury Hunt, who favoured brick as a building material. The main building is distinguished by a large number of bay windows, chimneys, kitchen stacks, balconies, gables, turrets and stepped wings. It is complemented by a beehive-shaped smoke house, an octagonal aviary that started life as a hen's house, and the largest stables ever designed by the architect. There is also a gardener's lodge that is considered a notable building in its own right. The house is set off by an extensive Victorian-style garden and has been described as "a monument to the skill of its creator."^[7]

References

1. State Heritage Register
2. The Heritage of Australia, Macmillan Company (1981) p.2/17
3. "The History of Camden". Camden Council. Retrieved 2007-06-10.
4. Camden History.org
5. A Place to Call Home
6. Dictionary of Sydney
7. The Heritage of Australia, p.2/17

External links

• Colour photos of Camelot
• Kirkham at Dictionary of Sydney

Coordinates: 34°02′15″S 150°42′22″E / 34.0375°S 150.7062°E