Life at Tulloona

What a life they had at Tulloona! Beautiful grounds, richly furnished interiors, three maids inside wearing uniforms, and two men employed to care for the grounds. Indoor activities such as needle arts, reading, and music were made possible by illumination from an acetylene gasometer and power generating plant.

As the children grew into adults, there were social activities like tennis parties and picnics, with scenic views of the landscape. My mother tells a story about (Great) Aunt Anne who kept a pet sheep. She washed the sheep on Sundays and put the blue-rinse bag in the water to make the sheep’s fleece whiter than white! The little sheep even made its way up the back stairs to visit her.

It was this very elegant lifestyle that followed the Northcott family to Sydney. (Father) William died shortly after moving in 1915, but (Mother) Jessie lived another 17 years with Linda, Annie and Doris in their new home ‘Guntawang’ in Mosman which looked out to the Sydney Heads.

Clare Northcott, the youngest in the family, married Harry Warby in Sydney in 1916. They moved to Tully where they worked a sugar cane farm, a life far removed from the strict formality of Jessie’s household. (Clare was my Grandmother.)

My Grandmother died when my Mother was 11 so she was taken in by her Aunts Linda and Anne. She had to adjust to wearing gloves and hats and stockings. She had roamed freely in Tully, sucking on raw sugar cane on her walks home from school. Now it was maids and pre-dinner drinks, and starched and ironed cotton sheets.
The (Great) Aunts sold ‘Guntawang’ and built a more modest home in Ryrie Street, Mosman and called it ‘Tulloona’ after their childhood home. This is the ‘Tulloona’ that I remember.