East Bank Farmhouse

East Bank Farmhouse

Farmhouse built in 1855 by architect S S Teulon for the Crown Commissioners, located on the south-east side of Sunk Island East Bank Road.

The building is constructed in banded brown and orange brick laid in Flemish bond, with ashlar dressings (mostly painted) and a concrete tile roof. It is L-shaped in plan, with a 2-room arrangement, central entrance hall to the south front, a double-depth wing to the rear right with adjoining outhouse range, and an entrance porch to the rear left.

The south front is 2 storeys with 3 first-floor windows arranged asymmetrically. A canted bay window projects to the left, and a gabled wing projects to the right. The plinth is chamfered brick with ashlar angle blocks flanking the bay window. The recessed south entrance door has segmental-pointed boarding with strap hinges, set within a double-chamfered brick reveal with an ashlar head beneath a rubbed-brick arch. The ground-floor bay window has a quoined ashlar surround with 3-light mullion-and-transom window to the front and single-light windows to the sides, featuring chamfered mullions and broach stops. The projecting wing to the right has a 4-light mullion-and-transom window beneath a segmental brick arch with flush brick key. The first-floor windows are 3-light mullioned beneath segmental arches: the left window sits beneath a gable with yellow brick lozenge panel, the right beneath a recessed pointed-arch panel with herringbone brick infill. All windows except the bay window have painted sills and chamfered mullions with broach stops in chamfered brick reveals. The eaves are stepped with tumbled-in brick to the gables. End stacks project partly forward, with tumbled-in brick to the offsets and square pots.

The west entrance front, formed by the left return, comprises a gabled range to the right, a narrow gabled full-height entrance porch on the left, and a 2-window wing set back further left. The porch has a diagonal buttress with tumbled brick offsets and a double-chamfered entrance with pointed outer order and segmental-pointed inner order, both with ashlar arch. Above the arch sits a relief tablet bearing a crown, royal cypher and date within a quatrefoil panel. The inner door is half-glazed with Gothic panelling in a similar double-chamfered pointed reveal. A first-floor cross window and tumbled-in brick to the gable light the porch upper storey, while a pointed brick arch of 3 orders, supporting corbelled-out first-floor section across the angle to the rear, frames a single-light ground-floor window to the left return. The range to the left has a pair of ground-floor cross windows and a first-floor cross window to the right beneath raised eaves. A narrow single-light window and 3-light window sit beneath the gable with tumbled-in brick to the left. A truncated projecting end stack is corbelled-out to the left gable. A single-storey, 3-bay outhouse range to the left has a verandah supported on chamfered wooden piers and arch braces with pierced trefoils.

The right return displays 3 first-floor windows. A projecting central section contains a 5-light ground-floor window and a 4-light window to its right, with 2-light and 3-light first-floor windows, the latter beneath raised eaves. All except the 2-light windows are mullioned and transomed.

The interior contains an open well staircase with closed string, moulded handrail, chamfered newel post and Corinthian-style splat balusters with pierced trefoils and quaterfoils. Doors are panelled within architraves.

This is one of a series of mid-19th-century Crown estate buildings designed by Teulon.