This is an early settler’s house which has had relatively few alterations: as a result, it is a rare survivor.
It is in an area originally known as ‘There and Nowhere’ in the 1800s, because it was a wild, open land that had to be crossed on the way to one of the original Macquarie towns, Windsor, that was settled in 1810. This is near the head of navigation on the Hawkesbury River and took advantage of the fertile river flats for agriculture. It later became famous as the outdoor filming location for the television series A Country Practice.
The Macarthur family were prominent landowners in Kellyville from 1802 breeding Merino sheep located on what has become today Old Windsor Rd opposite Meurants Lane. Eventually by the late nineteenth century they established orchards and vineyards.
By 1830 it was known as ‘Irish Town’, as a large number of Irish people lived in the district.
In 1884 it became the “Kellyville Estate”. Much later, in the “Bird-In-Hand Hotel”, a large rowdy meeting was held to debate the proposal of renaming Kellyville to escape the unsavoury connotations associated with the name of the notorious bushranger, Ned Kelly.
There are two versions of its history of this building.
Version 1: It’s the old “Bird in Hand” pub.
This is the version the heritage listing gives.
It’s an Inn on land owned by the convict Hugh Kelly who arrived in Sydney in May 1803 (here’s a shocker – apparently he was from Ireland). He married his older widowed mistress Mary Evans and established a licensed inn ‘The Half Way House’ that in 1826 that became ‘The Bird in the Hand’. It quickly became a stopping place for travellers between Parramatta and Windsor and a place to change horses.
The rear half is a totally separate pub – with the heritage listing saying the bricks and fittings came from The Emu and Kangaroo Inn in Rouse Hill, which was demolished in 1880. Three further extensions were built, giving a laundry, and later offices.
I’m not sure if I totally believe the heritage listing though: the entire listing is based on the recording of some old biddy in her 80s, who says she “heard” that this was what happened.
Version 2: It’s the old “Nowhere Here” inn.
This is the version the heritage society gives.
This building was an inn.
There were in total five inns along Windsor Road prospered until 1860 when the railway was built. There was Mr Kelly's inn, which was known as the Half Way House, or the The Bird in the Hand, but it was actually on the corner of Wrights and Windsor Roads, and nowhere near this building. The Emu and Kangaroo Inn was at the corner of Aberdeen Avenue and Windsor Road (a famous building as depicted in one of the Rouse family's paintings). The Royal Oak built in 1845 (which is now the notorious pub the Mean Fiddler), further along the Windsor Road (opposite Maryvale Road) the White Heart Inn built in 1830 (owned by a man named Cross). The Stanhope Arms, and the Nowhere Here.
The Nowhere Here inn was one of two other inns run by John Hillas who received two grants on the present Old Windsor Road in 1802 and 1804. He farmed the land as well as operating the inns, the Stanhope Arms and the Nowhere Here - apparently this was the standard reply to authorities looking for people who had no business to be in the area!
After Kelly's death in 1884, John Fitzgerald Burns, James Green and George Withers purchased a large subdivision of fifteen old grants to create 100 acre lots, which were subdivided into farmlets as part of the ‘Kellyville Estate’, thereby giving the suburb its name.
In 1884 at this point the old inn was turned into a farmhouse, built that year by a Mr Robinson and bought by John Stranger in 1893.
It was bought and restored by a construction company in 1993 and established as their business office.
