South East Corner

Sunlight falls across the south east corner of Mountain View Homestead and General Store, picking out the layers of paint and plaster that have separated from the wall over decades. The render, originally applied to give the exterior and interior surfaces a finished appearance, has crumbled and pulled away. In places, the material beneath it is now visible: the wattle and daub construction that David Smith Todd used to build this two-storey homestead at Wisemans Creek, NSW, between 1880 and 1894. Todd was an owner-builder. He harvested timber from his own property, sourced mud from nearby Levy's Gully, and drove bullocks around a revolving pole to mix the material to the right consistency. Vertical poles were set 400 to 600 millimetres apart, crossed with lathwork, and packed with mud and stone. The external and internal walls were then finished with lime plaster render, which concealed the construction method entirely. The building that resulted was assessed by the late Professor J.M. Freeland, Professor of Architecture at the University of New South Wales, as probably the only two-storey wattle and daub building in Australia. The NSW State Heritage Register listing, granted on 10 March 2006, describes it as probably the only such building in NSW, if not Australia. The homestead was occupied by Ross and Betty McKinney from 1974 to 1983, without electricity. After that the building became vacant. By the time of a 2005 heritage inspection, the lime render was deteriorating with substantial loss from the walls, internal walls required repair, and the roof had sustained damage. This photograph, made in 2018, records the south east corner as that process continues. The render holds in some places. In others, it does not.