Deasland

Deasland is an historic homestead at Ginninderra (now called Gold Creek) in Canberra’s north on the Barton Highway. In 2015 press coverage revealed that it will be demolished due to 'Mr Fluffy' asbestos contamination.

Deasland was commissioned by Ginninderra storekeeper, George Harcourt, between 1890 and 1893 and built by contractors Lazarus and Holland. It was a six-room, single-story timber homestead with verandahs and iron roof. There is also a heritage-listed brick dairy.

George Harcourt was born in 1842 at Edgbaston, England. He seems to have named the property after ‘Deasland Farm’ in Worcestershire, where his parents were married in 1819. But he only enjoyed his new home for a short time, as he died in December 1893. Harcourt had started out as William Davis’ bookkeeper around 1860 and went on to serve as Ginninderra storekeeper and postmaster. The Harcourts also farmed in the district and were prominent in civic affairs. After George’s death, Millicent Harcourt (nee Ward) and her children, remained in Deasland and grew wheat and sheep on its 685 acres until the land was resumed in 1913 for the new Australian Federal Capital Territory. Deasland, along with many other buildings in Ginninderra, were almost destroyed by bushfire in 1905.

Two short-term tenants - Edward Boreham followed by Joseph Burgoyne - occupied Deasland after the Harcourts. Burgoyne had been prominent in the Ginninderra Farmers' Union. In 1916 John and Edith Edmonds took over the lease and farmed the area. The Edmonds family moved to Burrowa in 1926.

In January 1927, the Curran family purchased the Deasland lease. Henry Curran, known as ‘Babe’, was the local blacksmith’s son, who had married Amy Reid of Tallagandra in 1921. They had been living in the Ginninderra convict barracks with their two infant daughters, before they could afford to purchase the Deasland lease. Curran’s father’s blacksmith shop, which is also heritage-listed, has survived, next door to Deasland. The Currans owned Deasland for 44 years and built up its pasturage to 1,178 acres. Curran became one of Australia’s premier woolgrowers, setting a range of world, Commonwealth and NSW record prices for a flock, primarily pastured at Ginninderra in the late 1940s and throughout the 1950s. Curran was also an accomplished sportsman and benefactor of the local community.

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