The houses located at 4 and 6 Wiston Gardens, Double Bay are heritage-listed former residences and estate with vineyard and now residences located at 4 and 6 Wiston Gardens, Double Bay, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by Professor Leslie Wilkinson and built from 1932 to 1936. It is also known as Wiston Gardens; Sweetapple (#4); Parkinson (#6).
History
Originally known by its Aboriginal name Yarranabbee, this suburb on the south side of Sydney harbour was called Mrs Darling's Point in honour of his wife by Ralph Darling, the NSW Colonial Governor of 1825–31. At that time the area was heavily timbered, but after New South Head Road was built in 1831 timber cutters felled many of the trees, and the land was subdivided. Most of the plots, covering in this area, were taken up between 1833 and 1838. The "Mrs" was lost from the name and the suburb and point became Darling Point.
Wiston Gardens is located in the area of Double Bay which originally formed part of the "Mount Adelaide" estate established by William Macdonald in the 1830s. Although Macdonald did not build a house on the site he was responsible for a considerable amount of landscaping including the planting of a vineyard on the site of what is now Wiston Gardens, including No. 4 Wiston Gardens. The vineyard was reputedly designed by Thomas Shepherd, the first nurseryman and landscape designer in the colony. The Mount Adelaide Estate was extensively sub-divided between the time Macdonald departed for England in 1837 and the turn of the century.
In 1833 "Villa allotments" were advertised for sale at 'Mrs Darling's Point'. The land was auctioned on 11 October and the largest allotment No. 10, 13 acres 3 rods won the eastern side of the point was purchased by William Macdonald, an emancipist (transported for life for forgery) turned successful businessman and entrepreneur, dealing in general hardware. Macdonald named his purchase Mount Adelaide and spent considerable amounts of money on it, although no residence had been built by the time he put it up for sale in 1837.
Thomas Shepherd, landscape gardener
In the 1830s (1833–37) Macdonald was responsible for a considerable amount of landscaping including the planting of a vineyard on the Mount Adelaide estate (part of which is the site of what is now Wiston Gardens, including No.s 4 & 6). The vineyard was reputedly designed by Thomas Shepherd, the first nurseryman and landscape designer in the colony. The Mount Adelaide Estate was extensively sub-divided between the time Macdonald departed for England in 1837 and the turn of the century.
Thomas Shepherd (–1835) landscape gardener and nursery proprietor was NSW's first nurseryman, the first early writer and teacher on landscape design in the colony and one of the main proponents of vine cultivation in this period. His father was Principal Gardener to the Earl of Crawford and Lindesay at his property Struthers, where the young Thomas received his earliest horticultural education. He then trained in all aspects of landscape gardening and worked for the practice of Thomas White before setting himself up as a practising landscape gardener in both Scotland and England. In his English work he came in contact with Humphry Repton (noted landscape gardener) and in his writing criticised some of Repton's methods. Shepherd eventually established a nursery at Hackney (London) to support his business. Widowed (-2) and then remarried (1823) and faced with an unprofitable landscape and nursery business in the period after 1815 at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he took a position with the New Zealand Company. As Principal Superintendent he was charged with establishment of a colony on Stewart Island, New Zealand, with the intention of cultivating flax (Phormium tenax).