The House that gave Waverley its name

Eager for their adopted land they may have been but our earliest migrants still exhibited strong cultural ties with their old homeland.

Barnett Levy, a businessman of note in the city, owned a 60-acre farm on the [Old] South Head Road in 1827. He commissioned what the Sydney Gazette in its October 15 issue described as “a handsome dwelling house” and in a later issue reported had been “[named] ‘Waverley House’ in honour of Sir Walter Scott”. Scott was the author of the Waverley Novels, which illustrated some of the history of Scotland.

There seems to have been in the young colony an element of hero worship of personalities from what was then the old country. Waverley House later fell victim to demolition by developers but Bronte House survives and carries a name associated with another hero of Britain, Lord Nelson of Trafalgar fame.

The naval hero rescued an Italian royal family and was rewarded with the duchy of Bronte in Sicily for his trouble, hence Bronte House.

On occasions such as this sesqui-centenary we are reminded of the sad fact that the handsome and gracious Waverley House, which gave the municipality its name, was destroyed by philistine elements that had little regard for our heritage.

– BY PETER McCALLUM