Silverwater Prison Complex Conservation Area is a heritage-listed complex consisting of a historic house (Newington House) and various prison structures associated with what is now known as the Silverwater Correctional Complex, located at Holker Street, Silverwater, Cumberland Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Verge and Walter Liberty Vernon and built from 1829 to 1850. It is also known as Silverwater Correctional Centre, Mulawa Correctional Centre, Silverwater Gaol, Newington Estate, Silverwater State Hospital and State Hospital & Asylum for Women. The property is owned by Corrective Services NSW. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The site that became Newington estate formed part of the territory occupied by the Wangal clan (of which Bennelong is the best known) that formed part of the larger Darug (coastal) language group. The Wangal clan or tribe were documented as having occupied the southern side of the harbour from Long Cove to Parramatta and Rose Hill. Known archaeological sites along the Parramatta River and hinterland record fishing activities adjacent to the Newington Armory and bark from trees within the vicinity of the site were cut for use as shelters. Limited observations of Aboriginal life in the Homebush Bay area are recorded. Records from neighbouring areas would suggest that the Wangal would have actively participated in river fishing, eeling, gathering shellfish as well as hunting kangaroos, wallabies and other small land mammals, reptiles and waterfowl.
Land grants in the area started as early as 1797 after an exploration party with Governor John Hunter up the Parramatta and Duck and George's Rivers. Shortly after, two officers, formerly of , Lieutenant John Shortland and Captain Henry Waterhouse, each received a grant of 25 acres, which they stocked with animals especially brought from the Cape of Good Hope (South Africa). A First Fleeter marine, Isaac Archer, was next lessee, receiving his 80-acre grant next to Shortland Farm on 26 August 1800. The Waterhouse grant was known as Waterhouse Farm and later formed part of the grounds of Newington. These earliest grants were made north of Parramatta Road, because the sole means of transport then was the Parramatta River, adjacent to the north.
In 1800 Richard Aitkens took out a lease on land east of Duck River and north of the Sydney-Parramatta Road, but it was soon cancelled. The area was included in a grant of 1290 acres made in 1807 to John Blaxland (1769-1845), who arrived in the colony that year, as a wealthy free settler. The grant covered all the land between the Parramatta River and Parramatta Road, Duck River and Haslam's Creek, except for land held by Waterhouse, Shortland, Archer and Haslam.
A farm or rural villa estate, factory and saltworks were established and Blaxland's "Newington House" built between 1829 and 1832. The name commemorated Blaxland's family property in Kent. John Blaxland and his younger brother Gregory (the explorer) began to develop a cattle industry, breeding fat cattle, and slaughtering and salting them. They were the first to produce usable salt, made from brine gathered from the marshes on the river near the house. The site of the Queen Victoria Building in George Street, Sydney was used by Blaxland to graze some of their herds of cattle. Blaxland had been promised 8000 acres before he left for NSW, but it was not until 1831 that he was finally given the full quota of his land, when he received 10,240 acres in different areas. He finally held 29,000 acres in the colony.
The present Newington house was built in the style of an English Regency-style mansion, with disciplined English gardens, and a private chapel (St.Augustine's) built in 1838. The house was and remains an integral element in a landscaped setting (with the chapel off to its eastern side) which has been somewhat altered over time due to its location in the grounds of a correctional centre. Elements of the landscaped grounds of the house are extant, including scattered individual and groups of mature tree plantings and the outline of the formal carriage loop north of the house. The carriageway fabric today is a mix of gravel and broken concrete. No original 1830s fabric remains on or near the ground surface.
In the 1840s a monolithic sandstone verandah colonnade was added to house. Blaxland died in 1845 and the family moved away, leasing the property to owners of a slaughtering industry. After Blaxland's death the property was used to manufacture salt and slaughtering, the home's kitchens were converted into a piggery and its once beautiful dining room used as a barn- the house was considerably neglected.