Overthorpe is a heritage-listed former residence and grounds and now multi-unit residential complex and grounds at 337-347 New South Head Road, Double Bay, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1900 to 1906. It is also known as part of the former Sir John Hay's garden. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The site was formerly part of Sir John Hay's experimental garden, which covered much of the eastern hill face of Edgecliff/Double Bay (an unusual listing in the 1880 Sands Directory, at the time Sir John Hay resided in Rose Bay Lodge (now Rose Bay Cottage)), running from Ocean Street on the ridge (western boundary) to Manning Street, Double Bay (in the east). Hay was the NSW Colonial Treasurer and owned the property prior to the construction of Overthorpe. He was also vice-president of the Agricultural Society of NSW (1860–1865; 1868–1881; 1888–1889); and vice-president of NSW commissions for International Exhibitions at Philadelphia, Paris, Sydney and Amsterdam, roles consistent with 19th century ambitions to cultivate an "experimental" garden.
Sir John Hay
Sir John Hay (1816-1892), pastoralist and politician, was born on 22 June 1816 at Little Ythsie, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, son of John Hay, farmer, and his wife Jean, née Mair. Educated at King's College, Aberdeen (M.A., 1834), he studied law in Edinburgh but abandoned it. In 1838 he married Mary, née Chalmers. They arrived in Sydney on 1 July in the Amelia Thompson, and soon settled at Welaregang on the Upper Murray. In partnership with his brother-in-law, James Chalmers, he was a very successful squatter. In 1840 Philip Gidley King arranged for Strzelecki to visit Welaregang and wrote to Hay: "I fancy your zeal for such excursions will induce you to accompany him". Active in local affairs, Hay strongly opposed border duties on goods crossing the Murray River. In 1856 he was elected as "a conservative and squatting representative" for the Murrumbidgee to the first New South Wales Legislative Assembly. He carried a motion of no confidence against Charles Cowper's first ministry and attacked the legality of appointing James Martin attorney-general. Hay declined to form a ministry himself and recommended (Sir) Henry Parker, whom he joined as secretary of lands and works in 1856–1857. His squatter-oriented land bill was stillborn but in 1857-59 he retained his seat and in 1859 won the Murray. In 1860 he strongly opposed (Sir) John Robertson's land bills and carried his amendment to ensure survey before selection. At the ensuing general election he was one of Robertson's few opponents to be re-elected.
David Buchanan deplored Hay's "artificial and affected" manner, but admitted that "as an Opposition leader, Mr. Hay conducts his opposition in a manly, dignified, and honourable way If he attacks the NSW Government, it is on some great and constitutional question-not on the appointment of two or three policemen". When Hay was elected Speaker on 14 October 1862 Governor Sir Henry Young reported that he was of the "very first standing in the Colony in point of fortune, manners, education and character". Hay won the respect of all parties for impartial discharge of his duties. In 1864 his opposition to Riverina separation led him to give up his Murray seat and he won Central Cumberland. He resigned as Speaker in 1865 and from the assembly in 1867 when appointed to the New South Wales Legislative Council.
Although Hay had lived in Sydney since 1856 he maintained his Murrumbidgee runs. He was chairman of the Mercantile Bank of Sydney and a director of the Australian Mutual Provident Society and the European Assurance Society. In 1872 he refused to join Henry Parkes' ministry but next year became president of the Legislative Council on Parkes' recommendation. Worried by the frequent lack of a quorum, in 1874 he had the size of the council increased In 1879 he told Sir Edward Deas Thomson of "unpleasant relations with the Assembly, partly from a little injudicious management of details by those who have taken the lead amongst us, but chiefly I fear from a spirit of hostility to the Council on the part of leading men in the House". Believing that the duty of the council was to assist the government unless some important principle was involved, Hay was unremitting in his efforts to get "laws passed in the best form possible". Ever jealous of the council's dignity, he complained to the governor of "sacrilege" after (Sir) Alexander Stuart's government had put seventy-five beds in the council chamber during an all-night debate on the land bill in 1884.