Graham Lodge, Colonial homestead in Nowra, Australia
Graham Lodge is a two-storey residence with a slate roof and detailed cedar woodwork, featuring multiple verandas that overlook the Shoalhaven region. The building displays typical Victorian Georgian architectural features with careful craftsmanship visible in every detail.
William Graham, an emancipated convict, took up the 100-acre Butler's Grant at Greenhills in 1826, and his sons William and James soon expanded the estate. The present Graham Lodge was built from 1860 to 1861 by stonemason Charles Moore and carpenter Willet Burry. It was later known as Prague Lodge and the Nowra Bomaderry Leagues Club, and was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 4 June 2004.
The name Greenhills, also recorded as Warragee, comes from William Graham's 1826 estate on the southern bank of the Shoalhaven. From 1841 Graham leased parts of the land to tenant farmers he brought from Britain, among them domestic servants, blacksmiths, tanners, brick-makers and labourers. The Greenhills Account Book records these families, and paintings by Samuel Elyard show the estate and its outbuildings.
The property is owned by Shoalhaven City Council. It stands on Pleasant Way in Nowra, near the 1881 bridge over the Shoalhaven River. The site is a heritage-listed former homestead and leagues club, so access to the interior is not guaranteed; check with the council before visiting.
The name Greenhills also covered the wider estate, which by 1856 held five stores, at least three hotels, a butcher, a post office, a school and a private burial ground. William Graham's 1829 letter to colonial secretary Alexander McLeay records his spending on clearing land, a cottage and stockyards.
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