Mike Scanlon in a Newcastle Herald article on 12 May 2017 has an interesting story on Bull’s Garden, an exotic pleasure garden established by Edmund Bull on 60 acres of land in Whitebridge in the late 19th century. The gardens closed sometime in the 1930s.

Land title Vol-Fol 991-221, a “Grant of land conditionally purchased for the purpose of mining other than gold mining” shows an area of 60 acres in Whitebridge (portion 85), granted to Edmund Bull.

The date on this land title is 25 October 1890, however this is the date the title certificate was registered, and not the date the land was granted. The actual purchase of land may have taken place years before the paperwork was registered. The title certificate states that the grant was made under the “Crown Lands Alienation Act of 1861”, so that is the earliest the transfer to Edmund Bull could have occurred. This may be the reason why Mike Scanlon in his article states a date of purchase of “around 1860”, but other evidence points to a later date.

The name of these title certificates indicate they were “conditional purchases”. That is, a person could apply for a parcel of land and have it conditionally granted, but if they failed to follow through with the conditions (including making payment in the allotted time) then the grant could lapse or be forfeited. This appears to have occurred on portion 85, with an early historical parish map for Kahibah showing the name of G. Oakley on portion 85 crossed out, and the name “Edmund Bull” added in.

The advertised sale of another block of land in the Kahibah parish in June 1875 suggests that portion 85 was still conditionally granted to G Oakley at that time. Therefore Edmund Bull probably acquired the land after June 1875.

In a 17 January 1936 article in the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, Sydney Bull reminisces about the origins of Bulls Garden, established by his father Edmund. The article notes that Syd was 75 years of age, indicating that he was born sometime around 1861. Syd recalls that “over 60 years ago, my father acquired 60 acres of land in the bush, now in the town of Whitebridge,” which indicates the purchase was prior to 1876. He also stated that he was 14 years of age when his father first sent him and his brothers from Mayfield down to Whitebridge to work at clearing the land. Syd would have been 14 around the year 1875. Thus, the evidence points to 1875 as the year Edmund Bull acquired the land.

A 1911 map held by the National Library of Australia shows a shaded region labelled “Bull’s Garden” to the east of Bulls Garden Road.

This is a smaller 25 acre portion of the original 60 acre purchase, and probably indicates the area along the gully that Edmund Bull was developing as a scenic garden.

Update, August 2023

While browsing the Newcastle Library Hunter Photobank site, I came across a Ralph Snowball photograph titled simply “Bush scene”. After studying it for a while and noticing quite a number of landscaped elements such as rock walls, paths, bridges and steps, I realised that it was a photo of Bull’s Garden in Whitebridge.

Comparing the central rocky creek bed and precipice from Snowball’s photo, with an aerial photo of 76 Bulls Garden Rd Whitebridge from the SIX maps site, confirms the location of the Snowball photo.