Dame Eadith Walker Hospital
The Dame Eadith Walker Hospital is of outstanding cultural significance for NSW. It comprises a unique complex of 19th and early 20th century buildings in an essentially rural landscape setting and is an exceptionally rare complete example of a large Edwardian private residential estate in Australia and one in close proximity to the city. The estate has direct historical links with the early days of the colony of NSW and is strongly associated with an important mercantile and philanthropic family.
The estate contains an exceptional group of late 19th century buildings, some of them rare examples, which clearly demonstrate the workings of a farm of this period. Its core is a substantial Italianate villa designed by Edmond Blacket & John Sulman and also of architectural and historical significance for its associations with Thomas Walker, a prominent Australian. It is of great significance for its landscape, as an intact estate on the Parramatta River, with extensive mature mangroves fringing the shore and mature plantings in an extensive but deteriorated garden. The estate has a large collection of rare and important trees and shrubs, many over a century old, some of individual botanical and horticultural significance and rarity as well as herbaceous and climbing plant specimens. Whilst not of exceptional design, as a component of the estate the garden with its extensive late Victorian or Edwardian grotto-work, picking, flower garden and entertaining areas is of much interest, and demonstrates a lost way of life.
The Dame Eadith Walker Estate comprises approximately 37 hectares of land, comprising a peninsula fronting the Parramatta River at Concord. It is a large estate which retains its rural elements such as grazing fields with horses, former orchard and vegetable garden areas (now lawn), extensive garden layout including parkland, rose garden, picking garden, extensive grotto work,a rockery, and extensive gardens.
