Fernleigh

Fernleigh is a heritage-listed former boatshed and homestead and now residence located at 44-46 Fernleigh Road, Caringbah South in the Sutherland Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia.

Fernleigh is a heritage-listed former boatshed and homestead and now residence located at 44-46 Fernleigh Road, Caringbah South in the Sutherland Shire local government area of New South Wales, Australia. It is also known as Mandalay and York House. The property is privately owned. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

Fernleigh is believed by Sutherland historians to have been completed in 1821 for Thomas Laycock Jr., who, while himself mostly resident at his property Kelvin at Bringelly, built the house for his second wife, Margaret Connell, and the six children of his first marriage to Isabella Bunker of Collingwood, Liverpool. The home is believed to be the first constructed in the Sutherland area and has been an envied point of interest for one hundred years. However, in 2012 it was claimed that the Thomas Connell Laycock, espoused by Bruce Watt in Magnificent Fernleigh, was a typographical error and the correct name is in fact John Connell Laycock.The first Crown Land sales took place in the Caringbah-Miranda area (then unnamed) in 1856-88. During this period (in 1858) John Connell Laycock bought this (parcel number 58) block of land, Lot 13, 16 hectares (40 acres), for A£45. He also bought other large tracts of land in the Caringbah/Burraneer Bay areas, as did his uncle John Connell Junior.In 1860 Laycock sold it to Holt who began acquiring as much land in the Shire as he could. Eventually Holt controlled most of it (c.?5,100 hectares (12,500 acres)), including the majority of Laycock's estate and the land where Fernleigh is located. The date on which a large portion of his Sutherland Estate was acquired was 31 December 1862. Holt was a life member of the NSW Legislative Council and served on over twenty committees. He was also a successful wool buyer, investing in property, and farmed near Liverpool. He was a director of gold mining, insurance and railway companies. Throughout his life he acquired pastoral interests with others totalling 1,200,000 hectares (3,000,000 acres) in NSW and Queensland from 1851-80. Retired from business as a wool buyer in 1854 he retained pastoral interest and most directorships. He was Colonial Treasurer for a brief time. He sold some of his runs after the gold rush and in 1861 bought an estate extending from Botany Bay to Port Hacking including James Cook's landing place, where he erected an obelisk in the centenary year. He also tried raising sheep on pastures sown with imported grass and then cattle, scientific oyster-farming, timber-getting and coal-mining, each without success. He campaigned for the damming of the George's River to supply Sydney with water but the NSW Government rejected his scheme.A report Holt commissioned his property manager, R. C. Walker to prepare in 1868 on the extent and viability of his large estate summarised the Burraneer Bay property thus:

"40 acres on east side of Dolan's Bay, in Burrameer Bay. This is a block of very thickly timbered land, with a great deal of scrub on it. Nothing has yet been done to it either in ringbarking or scrubbing. The soil is ironstone clay and sandy soil but very rocky. There is a fine view of the Port Hacking River from it and it would make a very good building site".Mr and Mrs Errol Alcott bought the property from Peel in 1947; and it has been in the Alcott family since then.The property has water access.

Part of Fernleigh is known to have operated as a commercial marina and slipway since the early 1940s. At that time the site was known as "The Three Pines Boatshed". There is anecdotal evidence of the slipping of vessels from 1949. The first tender owned by the boatshed was built in 1945 and is still in use by the marina today. It is believed that during the 1950s and 1960s the NSW Police regularly called upon the vessel to assist with search and rescue activities on the Port Hacking River.Apparently the launch of "Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport", the quintessential Australian folk song of Alcott family friend Rolf Harris, was held on Fernleigh's front lawn. The present Fernleigh Road was named after the house. A proposed additional 35 new berths and refurbishment of the marina was proposed in 2012.