Please Note:
Photography is not permitted in the house.

ree guided tours of the house and garden are held on most Open Weekends - please see the What's On page for details. Groups of 10 or more are welcome to visit Eryldene by arrangement on weekends or mid week and are provided with a tour of the house and garden. For further information and bookings, phone 9498 2271.

Click here for a map of Eryldene

ryldene was named for Janet's family home in Kilmarnock, Scotland, where she and E.G. (Gowrie) Waterhouse were married in 1912.

The house, garden buildings and layout were designed by William Hardy Wilson whose colonial revival style of architecture and restrained sense of aesthetics was admired by Waterhouse. Eryldene reflects their shared visions and a rare collaboration between architect and owner over a period of almost twenty years.

The garden was planned as an extension of the house, and divided into a series of spaces or open air rooms, each leading into the next. It is furnished with trees, shrubs, garden buildings and structures, garden pots, flowers and fantail pigeons.

Large individual trees were valued for their permanency, shape and foliage, and the ever-moving pattern of shadows which they cast on walls and roofs. The jacaranda in the front garden was especially shaped and pruned, providing a moving shadow on the roof while leaving the horizontal lines of the house clearly visible.

The garden pots are a distinctive feature of Eryldene: in these the soil mixture for camellias could be appropriately controlled, and a very large number could be accommodated without competition from the trees or from each other.

The flagged entrance pathway is the axis around which the house is symmetrically designed. It is bordered with beds of red china roses, sweet alyssum, other cottage garden plants, and anchored at corners with lavender and heliotrope (once hebes).

To the left of the front path is the temple, built at the same time as the house, using six cast-iron Ionic columns rescued from the demolition of Lyons Terrace, built 1840 in Liverpool Street, Sydney.

The eastern garden is planted with camellias, azaleas and Japanese windflowers. Note the seventy year old cut leaf Japanese maple (Acer Palmatum Dissectum Atropurpureum) and behind it Angels' Trumpets (Brugmansia x candida) grown for its perfume at night and its contrasting foliage.

In the back garden the study, with its fountain to the front and oriental tea house behind, forms another axis across the allotment from east to west. The study was designed by Hardy Wilson in 1921, to provide a spacious and peaceful retreat for Gowrie, away from the interruptions of the telephone and his four young sons. The blue kylins in the garden and on the wall of the fountain, are mythical creatures, whose role was to protect and guard. The nearby pigeon house was designed by Hardy Wilson, and the tool shed by his partner, John Berry.

The most dramatic approach to the tennis court is through the moon gate, designed by R. Keith Harris of Wilson's architectural firm, Wilson, Neave and Berry, in the 1930s, after Wilson had moved to Tasmania. In September the gate is covered by the single white climbing rose - the Cherokee Rose (Rosa laevigata).

The tea house was built in 1927, after Wilson's visit to China. It combines oriental and western architectural elements. Wilson found it more personally satisfying than most other buildings he had designed. Dragons support the roof: their tongues can be seen under the eaves; while elephants support the corners. Both beasts are symbols of strength and good fortune. The shutters show the bat, for happiness, and the peach, for longevity. Gowrie enjoyed both, living and working happily for 96 years.

The tennis court is surrounded by camellias and azaleas, many in large tubs. Note another Japanese maple near the tea house, and the nearby hybrid camellia Eryldene Excelsis, a great favourite of Gowrie's and often for sale in Eryldene's gift shop.

Between the tennis court and the garage is a corner of the garden where Gowrie would pause and meditate, seated on a glazed ceramic drum. Another maple is the focal point of this corner, and a naturally sculptured rock provides a tiny pool for rainwater, and a private wishing well.

The flagged courtyard at the back of the house is enclosed by cast iron columns also from the demolished Lyons Terrace. Here are tubbed azaleas, camellias and bamboo, with iris around the base of the columns. Glimpses of the courtyard, framed by the twelve paned windows, provide an ever-changing scene from the hallway and the internal study, bringing house and garden together.

The garage, to the west of the house, was not added until the 1930s. It is linked to the house by a bold timber screen, designed by R. Keith Harris.

The western front garden includes a clipped plumbago hedge, a regrowth sucker from the original olive tree, and white painted timber garden furniture, designed by Wilson.

The shared aesthetics of Waterhouse and Wilson over many years are reflected in this house and garden. It has great cultural value to the people of Sydney and Australia and is listed on the National Estate and the State Heritage Inventory.

aterhouse planted six camellias in 1914 in his new garden at Eryldene at a time when the camellia was an unfashionable plant. His extensive research on their origin and nomenclature and his pioneering work in propagating new varieties rescued the camellia from neglect. The extensive garden plantings of camellias in Australia and particularly on Sydney's north shore is largely the legacy of his love for this plant.

The camellia collection at Eryldene is of historical importance to Australia. It includes camellias associated with colonial New South Wales, those Waterhouse raised from seed, and those he distributed internationally and to friends.