Miss Traill’s House was built by the Reverent Thomas Sharpe in 1885 and is one of the oldest houses in Bathurst. Over the years the house became filled with family treasures that reflect Bathurst’s pastoral heritage. Using family treasures as a theme, the program involves an interactive opportunity for
students to explore ideas about family and community heritage.
Learn more about Miss Traill’s House –
On the 29th January 1845 the Reverend Thomas Sharpe, the first Rector of All Saints Bathurst, was granted allotments 1 and 2 in Russell Street Bathurst on which he built his rectory. The construction on Reverend Thomas Sharpe’s Colonial Georgian styled house is believed to have begun around this time.
In 1932 Mrs Gertrude Traill and her daughter Ida rented the house, purchasing it in 1937. Soon after the purchase they modernised the kitchen and bathroom. Later changes were stylistic in character and aimed at giving the house a more colonial look. Ida Traill was a fourth generation descendant of William Lee and Thomas Kite, both of whom settled in Bathurst in 1818.
Lee and Kite were the most successful of Macquarie’s ten 1818 first Bathurst settlers who were each given grants of land
Through inheritance and purchase Miss Traill acquired a significant collection of artefacts relating to four generations of the Lee family in Bathurst. These items, together with her own furniture, furnishings, paintings and ceramics, were left to the National Trust in 1976 along with the house and grounds.
Miss Traill’s House with its garden and paddock is part of the early history of Bathurst. Its main significance however, was as the home of Miss Ida Traill who lived there from 1932 to 1976. The collection is an intrinsic part of her home, where it is presented today; a family treasure unique to the nation