The Swifts

Swifts
General information
Type	Heritage listed house
Architectural style	Gothic Revival
Town or city	Darling Point
Country	Australia
Coordinates	33.8695°S 151.2383°E
Groundbreaking	1874
Completed	1877
Renovated	1997
Design and construction
Architect	G.A. Morrell
Awards and prizes	Governor Lachlan Macquarie Award (2012)
Designations	Federal and State Heritage Listings

Swifts (also known as The Swifts) is a late-Victorian castellated Gothic Revival mansion located in the suburb of Darling Point, Sydney. Swifts is a rare survivor of a group of similar grand private residences sited on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. It is described by the Australian Heritage Council as “perhaps the grandest house remaining in Sydney”. It has federal and state heritage listings.

Designed by G. A. Morrell, Swifts was built in 1875–82 by Sir Robert Lucas Lucas-Tooth, the distinguished Australian brewer. In the 1880s, Sir Robert Lucas-Tooth had the house significantly remodelled in the style and likeness of his family home, Great Swifts Manor in Cranbrook, Kent. The house was subsequently purchased by the Resch family, also brewers, and eventually bequeathed by Edmund Resch Jnr to the Roman Catholic Church upon his death in 1963. In 1997, Swifts was acquired by the Moran family and underwent total restoration and renovation.

In 2013, Dr Shane Moran bought out the last remaining interest from his family members and became the sole owner of Swifts through a wholly owned company.

Darling Point is located within the area of the Cadigal people, one of the Aboriginal clans of the Sydney region, and was known from at least 1795 as "Yarranabbe". The plan of land for sale at Darling Point in 1856 cites the Indigenous name for the point, and the name is listed in the Town and Country Journal’s ‘Aboriginal names of places’ of 1878.

By the 1830s the vast majority of the harbour fronting land east of Darling Point was held by a small number of landholders, being principally the Cooper and Wentworth families, while at Double Bay, a government village had been reserved. At Darling Point, Governor Darling reserved the promontory for sale in 1831 at the suggestion of the Surveyor General, Thomas Mitchell. The area was subsequently surveyed into large villa allotments and referred to the promontory as ‘Mrs Darling’s Point’ in respect to Eliza Darling, the wife of the Governor.

The first auction on the northern part of the promontory came on 11 October 1833 under the direction of Governor Darling’s successor, Governor Bourke. At the sale, nine allotments varying in area between six and 15 acres were offered. The reserve price per acre was £10 but the average price actually paid was much higher at £34. Swifts is located on allotment four which was originally nine and three quarter acres in size when it was purchased by Thomas Barker in November 1833. Barker also purchased the adjoining allotment of seven and three quarter acres at the same time. The total purchase price for the 17 acres was £573.

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