Law and order over the mountains was initially a military matter, concentrated at stockades. In 1834, two years after the opening of the Victoria Pass, it was decides to form a police district with a courthouse near the River Lett Bridge. The Courthouse was designed by the Colonial Architect, Mortimer Lewis, in the Greek Revival style and completed in 1837.
The sandstone used to build the Courthouse was quarried at South Bowenfells, some 8 kilometres from Hartley. It contained a court oom, a clerk's room, a magistrate's room and a lockup. Solitary confinement cells were added in c. 1839. The Courthouse was the focus for government and legal administration in the Kanimbla are for almost 50 years.
At one stage the building was also the residence for the Clerk of the Bench and his family, constables and servants. It also functioned as the Post Office until 1846, and the Land Office and Registry of Births, Marriages and Deaths. With the abandonment of the convict system and the subsequent bypassing of Hartley Valley by the railway line the need for a courthouse in Hartley declined. Police and court operations were transferred to Lithgow by 1887. The Courthouse was used as a community hall after WWI and was the social centre of the village up tot the early 1960s.
The early identification of the building as an historic structure is significant in the development of a growing awareness of Australia's colonial heritage. In 1914 the Courthouse was declared a public recreation reserve and it was officially opened to the public in 1937 to celebrate the centenary of its construction. It was managed by Blaxland Shire Council and in 1972 the building was transferred to NPWS.
Source: National Parks & Wildlife Service; New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: building rustic ruin decay history historic heritage harltey hartley village new south wales australia
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The Shamrock Inn, built as a group of residences in the 1840s, was licensed by 1856 to take advantage of increased traffic through Hartley to the goldfields and Bathurst.
The rear skillion addition is of timber slab construction. This addition, designed to provide additional accommodation, is one of two examples of slab construction surviving in Hartley.
Photographs, dating from the 1870s, show that there were a large range of slab and weatherboard buildings which no longer exist. The sag in the roof of the Shamrock Inn is due to wall movement caused by an underground water course, and the spreading of bush timbers used in its construction.
Original timber shingles can be seen under the later iron roof at the rear of the building. DEC, Parks and Wildlife Division has stabilised this fragile vernacular building to demonstrate the range of building techniques used in the 19th Century.
Source: National Parks & Wildlife Service; New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: inn building rustic ruin decay history historic heritage harltey hartley village new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
The Shamrock Inn, built as a group of residences in the 1840s, was licensed by 1856 to take advantage of increased traffic through Hartley to the goldfields and Bathurst.
The rear skillion addition is of timber slab construction. This addition, designed to provide additional accommodation, is one of two examples of slab construction surviving in Hartley.
Photographs, dating from the 1870s, show that there were a large range of slab and weatherboard buildings which no longer exist. The sag in the roof of the Shamrock Inn is due to wall movement caused by an underground water course, and the spreading of bush timbers used in its construction.
Original timber shingles can be seen under the later iron roof at the rear of the building. DEC, Parks and Wildlife Division has stabilised this fragile vernacular building to demonstrate the range of building techniques used in the 19th Century.
Source: National Parks & Wildlife Service; New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: inn building rustic ruin decay history historic heritage harltey hartley village new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
The Shamrock Inn, built as a group of residences in the 1840s, was licensed by 1856 to take advantage of increased traffic through Hartley to the goldfields and Bathurst.
The rear skillion addition is of timber slab construction. This addition, designed to provide additional accommodation, is one of two examples of slab construction surviving in Hartley.
Photographs, dating from the 1870s, show that there were a large range of slab and weatherboard buildings which no longer exist. The sag in the roof of the Shamrock Inn is due to wall movement caused by an underground water course, and the spreading of bush timbers used in its construction.
Original timber shingles can be seen under the later iron roof at the rear of the building. DEC, Parks and Wildlife Division has stabilised this fragile vernacular building to demonstrate the range of building techniques used in the 19th Century.
Source: National Parks & Wildlife Service; New South Wales Heritage Register.
Tags: inn building rustic ruin decay history historic heritage harltey hartley village new south wales australia
© All Rights Reserved
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