This is the 12th article in a series of monthly columns written by Alan Henderson about Deniliquin district historical events and issues. Alan’s grandfather purchased ‘Warragoon’ on the Finley Road in 1912. Alan was born in the Deniliquin Hospital in 1944 but moved to Canberra in 1967. In retirement he has written a family history, Boots, Gold and Wool, and will share some of his research in this local history column.
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The court house is the grandest building in Deniliquin. An inheritance from our nineteenth century forebears.
Tour groups visiting Deniliquin frequently include the court house in their itinerary.
Deniliquin was proclaimed as a place for a court in 1846, with proceedings initially conducted in hotels until the first court was constructed in 1858.
A replacement was built in 1863.
The tender for the current court house was gazetted in 1883 and awarded to local builders, Hunter and Son.
It was designed by the NSW Colonial Architects Office, headed by James Barnet.
The grandeur of public buildings is influenced by the economic times.
The Australian colonies experienced a long boom beginning with the 1850s gold rushes, continuing to the early 1890s.
In his definitive Historic Court Houses of New South Wales, Peter Bridges observes that “… the great court houses, such as Bathurst, Goulburn or Deniliquin, could not have been built as they were, far beyond the immediate needs of utility, without the existence of a compelling urge for conspicuous public spending and a ready supply of public revenue …”. (Pages 11-12)
The doubling of Deniliquin’s population to 2506 in the decade to 1881, stimulated by the arrival of the railway in 1876, would have contributed to its inclusion among a group of “especially favoured places”.
As Bridges notes, “the need for a symbol of state authority in the Riverina where the encroaching influence of Victoria was strong”, also contributed to the “great size” of the Deniliquin court house. (Page 73)
Construction commenced in 1884. It was not practical to construct or transport conventional circular columns, so square columns were constructed of brick.
The building structure, unfurnished, was completed in 1885.
Deniliquin Court House has distinctive square columns.
In November 1886, Charles Cowper, the Sheriff of NSW (administrator of courts) visited and assessed the requirements for finalising the building and the surrounding grounds, but nothing happened and controversy ensued.
The reasons for the delay maybe documented in official files in the NSW State Archives, but I have not made the effort to search.
The previous court building was at the corner of Cressy and Edwardes Streets.
In the 1880s, the site for the new court house at the corner of Poictiers and Wellington Streets was considered to be ‘out in the bush’ (Bushby. Saltbush Country, page 98).
In October 1887, the Pastoral Times described the incomplete building as “our white elephant” and in October 1888, as an “extravagant edifice” and a “hideous fifteen thousand pound building … dumped … in the centre of a barren waste, unfenced and unimproved”.
Visiting Deniliquin in April 1892, the Chief Justice, Sir Frederick Darley, assured the mayor that “he had made up his mind that something should be done in rendering the court house fit for occupation”.
Finally, it was ready for occupation late in 1992 (Pastoral Times, 26 November 1892, page 2).
Peter Bridges observes that the government architect “Barnet paid little attention to climatic conditions …. [although] … The wide verandahs of Deniliquin … and Wilcannia are evidence of more realistic attempts to counter summer sun …” (page 87).
To no avail according to Judge Bevan in 1922, finding “the atmospheric conditions at the Deniliquin court house rather trying” and offered the further gratuitous observation that “something like £20,000 had been spent on the Deniliquin court house, and there was not a room in it that was really hygienic”.
Mercifully, the building is now air conditioned.
Activities at the court building extended beyond hearings to include, for example, the issue of licenses.
In 1898, 144 licence applications were received, including for auctioneers, pawnbrokers, hawkers, and coaches.
The administration of various licenses and births, deaths and marriage records continued well into the twentieth century.
Ken Smith, the coroner from 1975-2005, recalls queues down the steps and out to the front gate on the day applications for duck shooting licenses opened.
Recreational duck hunting in NSW ceased in 1995, and most other licensing is now administered online rather than over the counter at the courthouse.
Frequently, when I mentioned I was preparing a column about the court house, people would tell me it was meant to be built in Wagga Wagga.
The idea that grander buildings should be destined for Wagga Wagga may sound logical in the 21st century - with Deniliquin’s population around 13 per cent of Wagga Wagga’s - but in 1881, Deniliquin’s population was equivalent to 63 per cent of Wagga Wagga’s.
I have found no evidence to support this suggestion, and historian Peter Bridges has provided good reasons for its construction in Deniliquin.
The idea of our grand court house being built in the wrong town can be classified as a Deniliquin urban myth.
