The Bunyas is a heritage-listed residence and former church missionary and scout headquarters at 5 Rogers Avenue, Haberfield, Inner West Council, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was designed by John Spencer-Stansfield and built from 1900 to 1907. It is also known as Stanton Residence. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.
History
The Haberfield and Dobroyd Point area was used as farmland with scattered industries until after steam tramway came from Leichhardt to Five Dock. The 1893 Depression retarded subdivision.
The property now known as 'The Bunyas' has been occupied by two prominent local families, the Ramsays and the Stantons.
David and Sarah Ramsay took possession of the Dobroyd Estate, as Haberfield was then known, in the mid-1820s. Both lived at Dobroyd House on the corner of Parramatta Road and Dalhousie Street until David's death in 1860. After his demise, portions of the Dobroyd Estate were given to Ramsay children and Sarah continued to live at Dobroyd House until her death in 1889.
In 1901 Richard Stanton and W. H. Nichols, real estate agents of Summer Hill, purchased 50 acres of the Dobroyd Estate from the Ramsay family.
Stanton purchased parts of the Dobroyd Estate from members of the Ramsay family and on them developed his model "Garden Suburb". He is said to have named the area Haberfield after his mother's maiden name and this gradually replaced the Dobroyd Estate as the name of the area.
Stanton was an Irish immigrant (he and family arrived on 29 November 1862) whose father Patrick developed a furniture and auctioneer's business in Summer Hill (from 1882 it was a real estate agency called 'Stanton & Son'). Richard continued the business after his father's death in 1889. In 1893 he married Florence Nicholls. In 1901 he purchased that portion of the Dobroyde Estate that belonged to Margaret Ramsay and, on it, began development of the Haberfield Estate.
The first subdivision occurred by 1903.
In 1905 the Ramsay family vacated Dobroyd House. Stanton purchased the property, had Dobroyd House demolished and, in its place, built "The Bunyas", into which his family moved in 1907, showing his faith in the new development.
Stanton, the managing director of Haberfield P/L, placed his home in spacious grounds which extended from present day Rogers Avenue to Dalhousie Street, and from Parramatta Road to a line opposite Tinana Street. "The Bunyas" was the largest house in the Haberfield Estate. Under a massive, multi-gabled slate roof, the house features shingled gables, stone pillars on the eastern verandah and a large arch enveloping its entry porch covered in rough cast. It is entered by double doors from this porch. Leadlight glass was used in the front doors, their sidelights, the triple windows above the front door and in the vestibule lantern. The vestibule leads into large rooms suitable for entertaining. The original drawing room is to the left and beside it the dining room. A timber fretwork screen divides vestibule from the hall. Off the hall were bedrooms and to the left a staircase leading to servants' quarters. Also off the vestibule and beside the hall was the morning room which opens onto the eastern-facing verandah.
It was named after the Bunya pines which stood in the surrounding area during the days of the Ramsays. The present Bunya pines were planted by Scouts Australia, as seedlings, in 1986 (Scouts Australia, undated).
The house was designed by John Spencer Stansfield as the family home of Richard Stanton and it was home to the family from 1907. It was designed to face Parramatta Road and Dalhousie Street and the original area of the property was 15,864.64 square meters. Spencer-Stansfield was the architect for the Haberfield Model Suburb from 1905 to 1914 and according to 'Who's Who' of 1929, designed over 1000 houses, and "specialises in high-class domestic architecture". His correct name was Spencer-Stansfeld, but he gave his name as Spencer-Stansfield.
In 1908, with other estate agents, Stanton helped form the Western Suburbs Real Estate Agents' Association. Two years later he played a prominent role in establishing the Real Estate Auctioneers' and Agents' Association of NSW - this became the Real Estate Institute in 1921. He served on its board for many years and was president from 1922 to 1923. He attempted to improve the ethics of estate agents and raise their status in the community. In 1913 he became a fellow of the Auctioneers' and Estate Agents' Institute of the United Kingdom.
By 1910, Stanton controlled 200 acres.