St Aubin’s: History of a Home

AHEAD of Sunday’s auction of the contents of St Aubin’s, Kate Fraser the owner of the iconic Scone estate, gave a brief overview of the history of St Aubin’s and the time four generations of her family have spent there. See story: St Aubin’s Auction on Sunday.

Kate is the granddaughter of industrialist and one of the founding thoroughbred breeders in the Upper Hunter WJ Smith, who purchased the home in 1936:

My grandfather bought the place in 1936 he lived here then he moved out, my uncle and aunt Norman and Judy Smith moved in with their children then they moved out, my parents and I moved in, my parents moved out; I stayed got married and had a family here but interesting enough they must have only taken their toothbrushes and they all left all of the antiques and artworks behind.

It’s been a lovely house, we’ve enjoyed living here, the family has enjoyed living here, we’ve had some great parties but it is time to move on

This house was built in 1888, the original selection was I think 1832 by the Dumaresq family about three miles down they built a wattle and dub hut on the creek which flooded, so they then moved up the hill slightly and built a very traditional colonial house with hipped roof, verandahs and things.

Then through family deaths and things went back to live in England and St Aubin’s was run by a manager and things went downhill.

So eventually they sold it to the Bakewell’s who were potters from Sydney and they made their money making sewer pipes.

There is a little ashtray with Bakewell sewers which is in the catalogue.

So they bought the property, the house apparently was derelict and not grand enough for them, so they immediately decided they would become very grand and show off the money they had made.

They mined the clay on St Aubin’s, the brick works were out on the Gundy Road and if you know where to look you can still see a few bricks and when I was a child the remains of the kilns, there were two kilns were there.

Then they built St Aubin’s – now we figure not only were they owner builders, but owner architects because part of the house is very, very grand, then you get into the servants which is very, very plain.

One of the brothers died the partnership was dissolved it was put on the market in 1917, but it didn’t sell because of the depression the war.

In the late 1920’s a chap bought it who never actually paid for it and it went to a mortgagee sale in 1936 and my grandfather brought it.

According to my mother there wasn’t a pane of glass in the window there was lino on the floors and it was infested with feral cats, so they all got to work and did it up and then there have been four generations of us here.

The roof has recently been redone and the plumbing is sorted and it’s the original tin!

It’s been painted three times and about 18 months ago we went all over the roof rescrewed and did the whole thing.

WJ Smith started at the glass works as a water boy at 12 or 13 and then he worked his way up through there to management and he was one of the big industrialists of the 30’s, 40’s, 50’s.

He was mates with the Packers, mates with everybody and he was always interested in horses.

He looked at Woodlands at Denman, he looked here and he looked at another property, he was coming to the Upper Hunter, I mean even then it was known that the best horses came from the Upper Hunter.

In it’s time this was one of the biggest studs in Australia, there were 300 mares on the property in the season.

It was huge operation, he traded horses, he sold a lot of horses to America.

He was mates with Bing Crosby, Lewy, Mayer, raced horses with them, traded horses with them.

So then he retired and Norman and Judith (her uncle and aunt) came here and they went to live in Sydney but they still had the block down there and they decided to come back to Scone and they built St Aubin’s Without.

It’s a very corny family joke, George (Kate’s son) will tell you technically it is St Aubin’s without the walls, which is the old medieval term the house was within the wall and without the wall, but the family joke was it was the land without the house.

They built a beautiful house there that Alan Waldren knocked down when he brought it in 1984, when they had sold and went to live in England.

Waldren was DHL couriers and he knocked the house down, which was tragic because it was a lovely 1950’s house built in a Spanish Moorish style with verandahs, just beautifully built, lovely tiled areas, it was just lovely but a wrecking ball through it.

And when we bought Ilala back after Trevor Wadland sold it we found all this house debris up in the paddock and I was standing there saying ‘that’s the kitchen tiles, that’s from the blue bathroom’ it was really weird finding it all.

Then we came to live here and we’ve been here 65 years, but it’s time to move on.

It’s an interesting house to live in, you can do a lot to it; it’s a house that will make a lovely family home.

In the 1888 this was the height of fashion and you showed how important you were. Those fireplaces came out as ballast on the sailing ships, which then took wheat and wool back.

You showed how rich you were by this house demonstrated we’ve made our pile we’re up there, but you wouldn’t build this house today. It’s an easy house to live in.

It’s a great party house, there’s a tennis court, there’s a swimming pool.

We used to have fantastic dinner parties, with the fires lit and going, it’s a nice house, so I think there’ll be a family that come along and appreciate it.

I think the sale on Sunday will attract some serious antique buyers, but I also like to think that people who have a connection with St Aubin’s will buy a small piece of the history and there are items here from $50 through to $20,000.