the hidden cottage The remarkable find of original building materials in an early timber cottage in Tempe and subsequent research by the owner have led to its listing on the State Heritage Register. Forty-four Barden Street, Tempe, is a timber slab cottage from the mid-19th century. It is a rare surviving example of the type of vernacular timber house built in early Sydney. The house is one of the oldest houses in Tempe and is on land that was part of an original land grant dating back to 1799. It was constructed in about1840 and was probably a worker's cottage on land owned by Alexander Brodie Sparke who built Tempe House in the mid-1830s.

A rare timber slab cottage was discovered behind the modern walls of this unassuming Tempe house.

The house had not been previously identified because modern sheeting materials had cocooned the original building fabric. Aluminium weatherboards on the exterior and masonite on the interior hid the original cottage. The slab walls of the early cottage were only uncovered when the owner, Brian Finn, began to undertake renovation work and realised that the building materials were of historic value. The original surviving fabric features vertical split hardwood slabs fixed with original 'Ewbank' nails, which were produced from 1838. The interior walls are timber lath and plaster and painted with many layers of lime wash. The floors are hardwood pit-sawn timbers, with visible saw markings and remnants of the original bark. The cottage was originally roofed with she-oak shingles that have since been replaced with corrugated steel roof sheeting. While there are other examples of timber slab huts in NSW - dating from as early as1820 - most were originally built on the ground. The cottage in Tempe is unusual in that the floor is set up off the ground with well-ventilated floor space underneath it. The cottage also shows how older buildings were often set on sites at a skew angle and do not always align with modern sub-divisions. The listing of this cottage on the State Heritage Register fulfils the wishes of the owner, Marrickville Council and the Heritage Council in seeking to protect and conserve such a rare and intact example of Tempe's history.

new additions to the state heritage register

Commonwealth Bank, 48 Martin Place The grand headquarters of the Commonwealth Bank in Martin Place was built in the mid 1920s. The size and splendour of the building symbolised the optimism and forward thinking of the 1920s, before the onset of the Depression years. The substantially intact building was conserved in the 1980s, bringing much of the public area back to near original condition. Murray Downs Homestead Murray Downs was once the heart of a vast grazing estate on the Murray River and is one of the few 19th century examples to have survived in the region. With much of the homestead in original condition, Murray Downs provides an exceptional record of rural life over the last 160 years. The complex of buildings was built between 1866 and 1891 with the centrepiece a grand two-storey Victorian Italianate house. Other buildings include sheds and stables, an armoury, lookout tower, school, chapel and the original gardens. Miss Porter's House and contents A freestanding Edwardian terrace, Miss Porter's House is the sole residential building in the business district of inner city Newcastle. Built by Herbert Porter in 1909 it remained in the Porter Family with minimal changes to its style and contents until the late 1990s. The house, which now belongs to the National Trust, contains many original features including stencilled timber ceilings, a fine Queensland maple staircase, art deco rugs, linoleum and art deco light fittings.