The slab-built cottage of Don Bank in North Sydney has become the Sydney home of the Lacemakers, and one of its treasures is the pocket garden that has survived 150 years - including a spreading magnolia grandiflora. Its survival has been largely due to the fact that it remained in the family home of one family until the 1970s.
The North Sydney Council, recognising its value as a window to the past then acquired it and to a large extent it has been protected by the sale of its 'airspace' - ie the building next door bought the 'airspace', allowing it to go many stories higher, but ensuring that the block on which Don Bank is built could only have a single storied building on it.
So Don Bank sits, tucked between two tall buildings, but with a delightful street of cottages immediately behind and in front of it - a little corridor of another time, filled with light and air.
There is, however a new threat to the area's well being.... many members have expressed alarm at these latest moves to alter its ambience and many have sent Tulle the article published in the Sydney Morning Herald. This is an opportune time to share this latest move with you.
Gillian Kelly
DON BANK is one of North Sydney's oldest surviving houses, an early timber-slab cottage, tucked away in a conservation precinct behind the Pacific highway. In 1854 it was described as having "grounds in front . . . which are delightfully laid out and planted with the choicest fruit and shrubs", including a still-surviving magnolia grandiflora and a stone garden bench reputedly carved by James Milson.
A council booklet on Don Bank published some years ago recorded proudly that "due to the surrounding large-scale developments, the garden is constantly under pressure but with careful tending and plant selection, we have maintained it as a Victorian-style garden".
But now a new development application is before the council for a 20-storey building which would completely overshadow the cottage and affect the neighbouring Edward Street conservation area, with its gardens and Federation character.
Under current rules, no floor space limits apply to residential developments in North Sydney's CBD, a situation that will change with a proposed new plan.
According to Councillor Shirley Colless, there has been a "flurry of applications" to beat the new rules, among them the one she says will "have an extremely deleterious effect on one of our most important buildings".
Peter Tranter, of the North Shore Historical Society, said Don Bank was saved in the 1970s by action by local citizens and the society, which raised funds and persuaded the council to acquire it
This week the normally mild mannered society members were fuming, and planning vigorous objections. "It will completely overshadow Don Bank," Mr Tranter said. "No ray of sunlight would penetrate down the canyon that would be created.
Sydney Morning Herald
3April 1999
