Cooma Cottage
| Cooma Cottage | |
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Cooma Cottage
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 Cooma Cottage
Location in New South Wales
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| Former names | New Nordrach Institute for Consumption |
| Alternative names |
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| Etymology | Cooma |
| General information | |
| Type | Homestead |
| Architectural style | Colonial; Palladian |
| Location | Yass Valley Way, Yass, New South Wales |
| Country | Australia |
| Coordinates | 34°51′46″S 148°56′54″E / 34.8629°S 148.9484°ECoordinates: 34°51′46″S 148°56′54″E / 34.8629°S 148.9484°E |
| Construction started | 1830 |
| Completed | 1837 |
| Client | Cornelius and Rebecca O'Brien |
| Owner | National Trust of Australia (NSW) |
| Grounds | 40 hectares (100 acres) |
| Website | |
| nationaltrust |
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| Official name | Cooma Cottage |
| Criteria | a., c., f. |
| Designated | 1 March 2002 |
| Reference no. | 01496 |
Cooma Cottage is one of the oldest surviving rural houses in Yass, New South Wales. It has historic significance as a relatively intact complex of rural buildings. It has a variety of significant natural and built elements, including an example of an early tree called the Picconia, a relative of the olive and rare in Australia, which is almost extinct in its native Canary Islands.
Cooma Cottage stands as evidence of what the first settlers built for themselves, their families and servants. The handmade bricks and crafted woodwork are the result of local skills and manufacturing. The cottage grew from a bungalow through a series of additions over the 19th century. The cottage has important heritage values as the home of Hamilton Hume for more than 30 years from 1839, after he ended his travels and became a grazier. It is a valuable part of the early development of the merino wool industry in Australia.
The original section of the cottage is among the earliest remaining rural homesteads in New South Wales. To this colonial bungalow Hume added his own version of Palladian style wings and a Greek revival portico. The immediate landscape is virtually unchanged since the 19th century although fast-developing Yass spreads nearby and busy roads have started to intrude.
On 1 March 2002, Cooma Cottage was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register with the following statement of significance to the State:
Cooma Cottage was the home of the famous Australian explorer, Hamilton Hume. The house demonstrates a form, which has grown from a bungalow through a series of additions-idiosyncratic, apparently haphazard, or sophisticated - to be fully united in Palladian form. The variety and juxtaposition of building techniques and materials is exceptional. The house remains within its original unspoilt historic curtilage and retains visual links, and is integral with the adjacent landscape and early properties. Cooma Cottage's principal significance is for its composition of buildings which form a unique Palladian form often sought but rarely achieved in Australian colonial architecture, and for its historical association with the famous Australian explorer Hamilton Hume. It is one of the oldest surviving rural homesteads in the Yass district and southern NSW. The original cottage in planning and execution is a particularly good example of an early Australian house. The relative intactness of form and interior spaces make the buildings a rare survival of colonial architecture in Australia. It is a rare example in NSW of Moorwood & Rogers roofing. It is a good example of an early homestead group of buildings confirmed by photographic evidence to be in a very similar form to that which it had throughout its existence. Its stables and coach house are a particularly substantial and fine example of 19th century rural architecture. Both the immediate vicinity and the original 100 acre property are unspoiled by substantial later development and provide a compatible and potentially appropriate setting for the homestead group. The property is particularly evocative of an Australian pastoral pioneering outpost. The homestead forms part of a group of established homesteads of varying ages along the Yass River, those particularly within its catchment being Douro and Hardwicke. The property is an important archaeological resource to scholars interested in building construction, landscaping and usage patterns. The early part of the house and the land have associations of regional significance with the O'Brien family, who were important pioneer pastoralists of the area. One nationally rare feature of the site's landscaping is a palo blanco tree (Picconia excelsa) a relative of the olive, from the Canary Islands at the rear (original front) of the house. This species is rarely found in NSW, and Australia.
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