Perched on a hill overlooking a bend in the Manning River is the heritage-listed house ‘Belmont’ at 4 Washington Street, Tinonee. The Gollan family owned this property for over 100 years.
The land was first granted to Samuel Gibson in 1855 and then sold to a well-known surveyor of the region, George Ochs in 1874. In 1878 Captain Hector Gollan, Master Mariner of Sydney, bought the property.1 It is not clear who built the original house as both Ochs and Gollan were skilled builders.
Captain Hector Gollan was a well-known resident of Tinonee who first worked in the timber industry before turning his talents to shipbuilding.2 He and wife Margaret had five sons: Hector, George, John, Donald and William.3 Their middle son John (Jack) painted a picture of the original house circa 1900.
After Captain Gollan died in 1922, Margaret lived in the house until her death in 1930. The house was then briefly rented before it was transferred to son William Gollan in 1935.5 William, wife Martha and a retired builder Oswald Gaggin, who had worked for Captain Gollan in building the Federal Hall in Manchester Street, Tinonee dismantled the old home and rebuilt it using much of the original material. Large vertical planks of red mahogany are a feature. A couple of weeks before Christmas 1937, William and Martha moved into the house.6 The property finally left the Gollan family in 1998.
References:
1 Painting held by Hector Gollan’s grand daughter, Sue Langdown. Image used courtesy of Sue Langdown.
2 NSW Land Registry Service, Vol-Fol: 194-68.
3 Sydney Morning Herald, 17 July 1922.
4 NSW BDM, birth indexes 1884, 1885, 1887, 1889, 1894.
5 NSW Land Registry Service, Vol-Fol: 382-1.
6 Notes written by Hector Gollan’s grandson, James Gollan, held by his daughter Sue Langdown.
7 Photo courtesy of Sue Langdown.
