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| Mullanee (formerly Gardenhurst), Photograph by Shirley Arabin |
Recently I visited the house known as Mullanee and earlier as Gardenhurst. It stands empty among long grass, and the trunks of old exotic trees that have been chopped down to make way for a new highway. The doors and windows are boarded up as it awaits its fate of demolition or removal.
The house is a single storied weatherboard building with an iron roof. It began as a cottage with a single gable and ridge line, with a brick chimney that has survived for at least 140 years. An addition with a matching gable was added at some point and then in the twentieth century further additions provided a kitchen dining area on the west side and a large living room on the east. The complete interior has been modernised, probably in the 1960s, with the interior walls lined with wall board and wallpapered. The only interior features that may have remained unchanged are the interior wooden doors. As well as additions to the house, rooms were also removed and used for other purposes.
A member of the last family to own the land believed it began its European occupation as a Crown Grant to a militia veteran, but that is an item for further research. This house could well be one of the earliest European houses extant in Tauranga.
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| Richard Henry Farrar, c.1863-1864, Dublin Image courtesy of the family |
The first mention of Gardenhurst in the newspaper occurred when R H Farrer wrote to the editor concerning the supply of town milk from his dairy farm of that name. He also supplied vegetables to the town. Farrer’s occupancy ended not long after for he died in September 1883 aged 60 years. An Irishman from Queen’s County (since 1922 known as County Laois), who served with the 18th Royal Irish Regiment, Farrer arrived in New Zealand on the Lady Jocelyn in 1878 with the George Vesey Stewart settlers. Mrs Farrer still resided in Gardenhurst in January 1884 as the newspaper acknowledged that she donated two books to the Mechanics Institute.
By 1885 William V and Charles F Tuthill and J P Whelan were partners in Gardenhurst Farm until William Tuthill withdrew from the partnership the following year. In June 1889 R C Jordan rented 300 acres from Mr Tuthill, on 150 of which the Maori were to grow wheat. Several stock auctions were held on the property including one of Mr Jordan’s “live and dead stock” in June 1891 when he proposed to move closer to town to live and carry on his businesses. R C Jordan had a varied career in Tauranga as contractor, engineer, surveyor, founder of the Judea saleyards, and Mayor of Tauranga twice.
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| Plan from Title Deed |
In July 1892 Gardenhurst lots 78 and 83 Te Papa comprising 300 acres with an eight-room dwelling went under the hammer of D Lundon, Auctioneer at the Haymarket in Devonport Road. The purchasers were the sons of Mr John Thomas Bull the postmaster who had recently bought Topcroft.
In 1897 the property changed hands again to a Mr Howard, formerly of Johannesburg and was described as in Omanawa Road. It was during his time that an extensive garden was planted including the exotic trees that have recently been felled. There were oaks, chestnut, cypress, the ginko, camellia, a plum tree, and a huge persimmon.
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| Photograph by Julie Green |
Howard sold the property in 1901 to Charles Turner Wallis previously of Hokianga who called for tenders for alterations to the house immediately. In 1908 Wallis died of typhoid fever at the age of forty-eight, leaving a wife and eight children under fourteen. Mrs Wallis and her sons Roland (Roy) aged fourteen when his father died and Marshall aged nine worked the farm. Mrs Wallis suffered a significant loss when her milking shed and equipment were destroyed by fire and she was uninsured. The Council had engaged with Mrs Wallis concerning land to be taken for a road but when she saw the agreement did not include matters verbally suggested she withdrew from the arrangement. Mrs Margaret Wallis died aged 96 in 1957 but after being farmed by Roy and Marshall for many years the property was sold.
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| Photograph by Julie Green |
As a returned soldier from WW2 Samuel William Gilmer, a shepherd from Gisborne qualified for a rehabilitation loan and with that he bought the farm from the Wallis family. Sam and his brother Hugh farmed the land and brought their father, also Hugh up from Gisborne. Marshall Wallis continued to live in the house and the Gilmers lived in a tent for some years. The Gilmers called the property Mullanee after the place in Ireland Mullahanee from where the family originated. In 1967 they built a brick house nearer the road for Hugh senior and that later became the home of his grandson David Gilmer and his family and their horticultural business. Later Sam and David Gilmer swapped houses with the last occupant being Sam’s grandson and his family. After Sam Gilmer gave up dairying Richard (Dick) Smith took over the farm and subdivided parcels of land that have become Westridge Views, Takitimu Toll Road, and New Zealand Transit Agency Waka Kotahi property for highway extension.
Sources:
Bay of Plenty Times through Papers Past. https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/
Tauranga 1882-1982 The Centennial of the Gazetting Tauranga as a Borough. Edit. A C Bellamy. TCC 1982
Interview with David Gilmer by Julie Green
