Fairlight Homestead is a heritage-listed homestead complex located at 377-429 Fairlight Road in the western Sydney suburb of Mulgoa in the City of Penrith local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1821 to 1890. It is also known as Fairlight Homestead & Barn. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The Norton family have a history over many centuries in the County of Sussex, England, as owners of considerable landed property. James Norton was born in the mid-1700s at Hurstpierpont in County Sussex, England on the family estate Northend. He resided on that estate (one of his estates) marrying Rebecca Steel, of Newtimber, by whom he had one son and two daughters. His only son John and his (second) wife Mary had 10 children. Nathaniel, their second son, like eldest brother, John (born , also served in the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars, fighting against the French. Nathaniel's last ship was the 74 gun battleship HMS Tigre and in 1815, following the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo and the end of the wars, HMS Tigre was paid off and Nathaniel retired from the Navy on half pay before he departed for New South Wales.
The third son, James, had apparently qualified as a solicitor before he left England. He emigrated to Australia in 1818 and commenced practice as a solicitor, only to be followed the next year by his father John, his brother Lieutenant Nathaniel and three of his sisters, all of whom arrived in Sydney aboard the Harriet on 8 February 1819. One of the sisters, Emma, was to marry John Oxley the Surveyor General of NSW and leader of several successful journeys of exploration. James Norton the solicitor enjoyed an extensive practice in which he continued to be active for over 40 years.
Three Government grants were made on 5 April 1821 - Northend of to James, Fairlight of to Nathaniel, and Grovers of to their father John in the Bringelly district. Norton's Basin on the Nepean River is named after John Norton. Later the family acquired an extensive estate in the Kanimbla Valley in the heart of the Blue Mountains, where they carried on agriculture and stock breeding for many years.
A house was built at Fairlight and the whole family moved in late 1821, while the three grants were managed as one from Fairlight by Nathaniel. The original homestead of Fairlight was built . James continued to practise as a solicitor in the Leichhardt area and never took up residence on his own estate, and the father John, moved to a grant made later in the Kanimbla Valley. John Norton, with his younger son, James after a few years, moved down to the Kanimbla Valley to a large property on the Cox's River, leaving Nathaniel in possession of the Mulgoa grants, which henceforth became known under the name of Fairlight.
In 1821, the first house was built of slabs, plastered with clay, whitewashed, originally shingle-rooved. It had two wings, each with two rooms. According to the style of the period the rooms were only high, and the doors , a tall man having to stoop to enter.
Nathaniel, a bachelor, lived with one of his sisters as housekeeper until he married Ellen Barber in 1841. He died in 1851 aged 66 years, and Ellen died some 15 months later.
William Arthur Helleyer, a Sydney solicitor, bought Fairlight after Nathaniel's death (in 1863) and the property was eventually successfully managed by his son. Mrs Helleyer wrote in 1869 "We have lovely fruit growing there, all kinds, also two vineyards and made wine. We were overrun with deer belonging to our neighbour, Mr E. King Cox, which was a great annoyance to us...".
The vineyard at Fairlight flourished with a large stone wine cellar, which recently was demolished by developers, being built opposite the house. A photograph of the original house, a windmill on the estate and a sample wine label from the Helleyer days are shown. Other photographs on p. 133 show the winery, noting its use of gravity - with its construction running down the slope; the barn and a domed pig feeder structure).
Snakes, bushfires and poor road access made the property less desirable than one would imagine and eventually Mr Helleyer sold out to Mr W. Jarret, who overdeveloped the estate. He built a new homestead, large stables, meat-curing rooms, fruit-drying lofts and a large building of four-storeys to store wine. Overcapitalised, he was forced to sell up.