Birralee is the name of two mansions in Adelaide which were associated with William Burford.
Birralee is the name of two mansions in Adelaide which were associated with William Burford.
"Birralee" at Belair, South Australia at 49 Sheoak Road, adjacent to Belair National Park, and overlooking the Adelaide Plains, was originally named "Willa Willa" when it was built in 1887 by Thomas Kinley Hamilton. [1] On his death the estate was subdivided, and that portion containing the main house was later bought by William Burford, who renamed it "Birralee". After Burford's death in 1925, it became the home of his various descendants, then Scotch College, Adelaide, then Belair TB sanatorium, then Repatriation Hospital "Birralee", and then in the 1980s it was used as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre.
The well maintained beautiful house, located in well maintained grounds, is now once again a private home.
 Main entrance |  The front gates |  West face |
 Rear (North face) |  From Sheoak Road (South-West) |  Gardens (WSW) |
Thomas Kinley Hamilton (1853-1917) [2] was an Irish doctor who practised as an ENT surgeon, initially at Laura in the South Australian Mid North. He was also a member of the governing board of the adjacent National Park while he lived at Belair. Hamilton made his money from land speculation and lost significant sums later on Yorke Peninsula land. The estate was extensive in his time, extending all the way to Brownhill Creek, and west to James Road and Old Belair Rd.
His brother built the smaller house to the east on a corner of the estate, and Hamilton donated the land for the Church of the Holy Innocents to be built.
On his death in 1917, the estate was vacant for some time until bought by Gil Culley, an architect who divided the land, converting the stables to an asymmetric Tudor bungalow and attaching the name "Willa Willa" to that house. The coach house was converted to a home, but the infills for the coach stall doors can still be seen.
The whole of the house and its ancillary buildings were connected by an internal road parallel to Sheoak Rd, of which traces are still visible.
The balance of the estate was later bought by William Burford, but was initially used as a summer residence only as the family's main home was on the foreshore at Glenelg. It was they who renamed it Birralee, a name which occurs frequently in connection with the Burfords and W. H. Burford & Sons, their major soap and candle manufacturing enterprises. This business, which was Australia wide, later became a part of Lever and Kitchen.
After Burford's death in 1925, various of his children, and/or their families, continued living in the house. The following is an incomplete list of people who, at one time or other, lived in the house during this period:
It was announced in the Advertiser of 2 November 1939 that Mrs. H. Cansfield Park, Mrs. Bruce Harper Robertson, and Miss Burford will be "At Home" at Birralee, Belair, on 10 November. [10]
On 1 April 1942, Australian Army officer Captain Lewis, together with two U.S. Army officers, arrived at Scotch College in Torrens Park and informed the Headmaster that they wished to inspect the college and its facilities to determine its suitability as an American army hospital. Lewis recommended that the American Army take possession of the college from 8 May (at the end of first term) until the cessation of hostilities. After considerable searching and investigation, two adjacent houses at Belair, Birralee and Brierley Lodge, were discovered, inspected and found to be suitable. It appears to have become accepted wisdom that Brierly Lodge was the house to the east of Birralee which was built by TKHamilton's brother, but according to the Scotch College old boys, it was the asymmetric Tudor bungalow to the west as modified by Culley and now named Willa Willa. The old boys tell of having the dorm on the open back balcony facing the city. The move from Torrens Park to Belair was executed during the school holidays, and the boarders and domestic staff moved in during the first week of second term. Four large marquees with wooden floors were erected on the drives and front lawns of the properties as classrooms. The arrival of 176 students, including 66 boarders, and 14 resident staff, "put a great strain on the water supply, the plumbing and the septic tanks". [11]
Within a few weeks of the move to Belair, the tide of war in the Pacific turned with the allied naval victory at the Battle of the Coral Sea in May 1942. The American military hospital never eventuated - "The Americans hauled down the stars and stripes at Torrens Park on 15 August". However, they were replaced by the Royal Australian Air Force, and the Torrens Park site became "RAAF Embarkation Depot No.4". In 1943, the tide of war changed again, and the college council asked the RAAF if it could look forward to the college reopening at Torrens Park in 1944. As late as 6 January 1944 the RAAF had still not made a decision, but the college council took "direct action" and the RAAF vacated by 15 January. Teaching resumed at Torrens Park on 15 February 1944. [11] [12]
After the war, the Burfords/Parks/Robertsons/Beales were offered the place again, but declined because of the major changes which had been made to render the place suitable for a school, (some of which, like the ablution block attached to the base of the tower, were really disfiguring.)
In February 1944, the Minister for Repatriation inspected proposed sites for the new TB Sanatorium. The President of the RSA, Major Millhouse, urged the Minister to acquire property at Birralee, Belair, which was formerly occupied by Scotch College. The Minister inspected the site and said that he was favourably impressed. [13]
The Repatriation Sanatorium was opened on 2 June 1945 by His Excellency the Governor, Sir Willoughby Norrie. [14]
In the period 1 Jan 1952 – 31 Dec 1976, the house was known as Repatriation Hospital "Birralee".
In the 1980s, it was used as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre, named St Anthony's.
The well maintained beautiful house, located in well maintained grounds, is now once again a private home, currently belonging to Hans Ehmann [15] and Valmai Spicer. [16]
 Main entrance |  Looking North over the Adelaide Plains |  West face |
 Rear (North face) |  Front (South face) |  Front (South face) |
It is not clear when the house was built, or who built it. Burford lived at Birralee, Glenelg at least until the turn of the century.
Eldest daughter Lilian May married Thomas, eldest son of Thos. Eyres Esq. of Perth, W.A. "on 13th October 1899 at the residence of the bride's parents, Birralee, Glenelg". [17]
The notice for the wedding on 11 November 1914 (also the Burford's 47th wedding anniversary) of youngest daughter "Allie Marian" to Octavius Cyril Beale, eighth son of Mr and the late Mrs Beale of "Llanarth", Burwood, NSW, mentions "Mr. and Mrs. William Burford of Birralee, Glenelg". [18] Alice Mary died only 11 years later "at her home Birralee, Belair".
The notice for the wedding on 11 November 1918 (also the Burford's 51st wedding anniversary) of second daughter Evaline to "Sergeant Horace Cansfield, third son of Mr. Thomas Park, West Bridgford, Nottingham, England", is dated 15 January 1919, and mentions "Mr. and Mrs. Wm. Burford of Birralee, Albert Terrace, Glenelg". [19]
After his wife's death, Burford sold the Glenelg beachfront mansion "Birralee", at 16 Albert Tce (now "Broadway") on the corner of "Seawall", (now called "The Esplanade"), in September 1921. [20] The property had been mostly used by Mrs. Burford and her daughters. The sale notice suggests that the house would not remain intact; it is not clear when the house was demolished.
Sir Robert Richard Torrens,, also known as Robert Richard Chute Torrens, was an Irish-born parliamentarian, writer, and land reformer. After a move to London in 1836, he became prominent in the early years of the Colony of South Australia, emigrating after being appointed to a civil service position there in 1840. He was Colonial Treasurer and Registrar-General from 1852 to 1857 and then the third Premier of South Australia for a single month in September 1857.
Sir Robert Grant GCH was an Anglo-Indian lawyer and politician. He was born in Bengal, India in 1779. His family relocated to England in 1790.
Scotch College is an independent, Uniting Church, co-educational, day and boarding school, located on two adjacent campuses in Torrens Park and Mitcham, inner-southern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia.
Glenelg East is a residential suburb 9 kilometres (5.6 mi) south-west of the centre of Adelaide, South Australia. It is characterised by quarter-acre blocks with heritage homes and parks intermingled with contemporary modern homes and low-rise multi-dwelling units.
Hugh Reskymer "Kym" Bonython, was an Australian politician, World War Two veteran, musician, gallery owner, and racing driver.
Phelan Beale was an American attorney and sportsman in New York City who was married to Edith Ewing Bouvier, an aunt of former First Lady of the United States Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Beale is probably best remembered as the absent father chronicled in the Grey Gardens saga portrayed in a 1975 movie documentary, 2006 Broadway musical, and 2009 HBO film, all of which were named for his home in East Hampton, New York.
Adelaide Educational Institution was a privately run non-sectarian academy for boys in Adelaide founded in 1852 by John Lorenzo Young.
He avoided rote learning, punishment and religious instruction, but taught moral philosophy, physiology, political economy and mechanical drawing ... (and) surveying on field trips.
Andrew Tennant was a Scottish-born Australian pastoralist, businessman and politician. He was a member of the South Australian House of Assembly from 1881 to 1887, representing Flinders, and a member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1898 to 1902, representing Northern District.
Thomas Caterer was a pioneer schoolteacher of Adelaide, South Australia who founded in 1862 a private school for boys which in 1866 became Norwood Grammar School.
W. H. Burford and Sons was a soap and candle-making business founded in Adelaide in 1840 by William Henville Burford (1807–1895), an English butcher who arrived in the new colony in 1838. It was one of the earliest soapmakers in Australia, and up to the 1960s when it closed, the oldest. In 1878 he took his two sons Benjamin and William into partnership as W. H. Burford & Sons. Its expansion, accompanied by a number of takeovers, made it the dominant soap manufacturer in South Australia and Western Australia. Its founders were noted public figures in the young city of Adelaide.
William Finlayson was a churchman and farmer in the early days of South Australia, and father of nine children including two sons prominent in the early days of that colony.
William Henville Burford was an apprenticed butcher with some experience as a tallow merchant and chandler in Cannon Street, St George's East, in the East End of London. In 1838 he emigrated to South Australia for his health's sake with his wife and three daughters on the Pestonjee Bomanjee, arriving at Glenelg on 11 October. Initially he found work as a painter and glazier, and soon had one of the larger businesses in the Colony. In 1840, when a recession had made those trades unprofitable, he was able to start a soap and candle factory, W. H. Burford & Sons, in 134 (154?) Grenfell Street. The business failed several times, but revived with the opening of the Burra copper mine in 1848, then the Moonta and Wallaroo mines around 1863.
Hurtle Binks Willsmore was a South Australian first-class cricketer and Australian rules footballer for West Torrens Football Club.
Edith Agnes Cook, was in 1876 the first female student at Adelaide University, and second principal of the Advanced School for Girls in Adelaide, South Australia. She was later, as Edith Agnes Hübbe, principal of her own school in Knightsbridge, now Leabrook.
Knightsbridge School was a school for girls in Knightsbridge, South Australia, which ran from 1886 to 1921.
Mary Gwenyth "Gwen" Fleming, FRACP, was an Australian medical doctor who specialised in thoracic medicine and served in the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps during the Second World War.
The Cheer-Up Society was a South Australian patriotic organisation founded during The Great War, whose aims were provision of creature comforts for soldiers in South Australia. Much of their activity was centred on the Cheer-up Hut, which they built behind the Adelaide railway station, and almost entirely staffed and organised by volunteers.
It is sufficient to know that we are all doing something to give pleasure and comfort to the brave soldiers who are going from Australia to fight for King and Empire; and that we hope to receive them on their return in this Cheer-up Hut of theirs – for it belongs to the soldiers and not to the members of the Cheer-up Society – where they will enjoy the comforts and rest of home. Nothing we can do is too good for these heroic soldiers of ours. The sphere of work of the society is kept within definite and specific limits, which do not overlap in the slightest the splendid patriotic work which is being carried out successfully by the S.A. Soldiers' Fund, the Red Cross, the Wattle Day League, the Y.M.C.A., the S.O.S., the Belgian Fund, and other like organizations. The desire of the members of the Cheer-up Society is to co-operate in the most amicable manner with all such societies.