Overseer's Cottage

The Overseer’s Cottage was built in the 1840s during the convict building period at Woolmers. It was designed in Gothic style as a picturesque element in the landscape on the drive between Woolmers Cottage and the main house. The overseer held one of the most prestigious positions on a colonial property, and this cottage reflects that. Small, but carefully placed and architecturally considered.

An important role for the overseer, beyond supervision of convict and free workers, was to manage all aspects of the estate’s agricultural production. In the 1840s it was overseer, William Allensby, who oversaw all aspects of cider production at Woolmers down to the price that should be charged per hogshead.

Allensby, a former member of London’s first professional police force, the Bow Street Runners, arrived in Van Diemen’s Land in March 1829 after being sentenced to 14 years at Middlesex in October 1828 for stealing from the person. Allensby was appointed a police constable shortly after arrival, when policing was largely carried out by those convicts deemed suitable.

Despite a far from clean convict record and time spent in chain gangs, by 1836 Allensby was working as a flagellator inflicting corporal punishment on other convicts. After involvement in the capture of bushrangers Steers and Walker in November 1838 he received a conditional pardon in January 1840.

By 1842 Allensby was overseer at Woolmers and remained in that position for around a decade. His family bible records his attendance at the funeral of Thomas Archer I, with an inscription in Allensby’s hand recording of Archer “a good and faithful master”. The description of Allensby in the diary of Thomas I’s son, William, a few years prior was less flattering, stating “Allensby misbehaving himself… he is in his element if making mischief… What a character, malicious, lying, scurrilous, quarrelsome and coarse…; on the other hand, he is sober, honest, useful, industrious… What an excellent servant if a Christian.”

The building has been altered over the years as its use changed, but the basic form remains as it was built. It appears to have been occupied as late as the 1930s before its restoration as guest accommodation.