Booloominbah, Victorian mansion in Armidale, New South Wales, Australia.
Booloominbah is a Victorian mansion in Armidale, New South Wales, built in the Federation Arts and Crafts style with stained glass windows spread across many of its rooms. The building sits at the heart of the University of New England campus, surrounded by open lawns and old trees.
The mansion was built by pastoralist Frederick Robert White between 1884 and 1888 as a private country residence. In 1938 it became the first building of New England University College, forming the starting point for what is now a full university.
The grand rooms of Booloominbah display decorative details drawn from Jacobean, Renaissance, and Japanese sources, which is unusual for a rural Australian property of this period. Visitors who walk through the accessible spaces can see these different visual influences directly in the woodwork, windows, and ornamental details.
The building now houses administrative offices for the University of New England, but a cafe and bar inside are open to visitors who want to look around. Weekdays are the best time to visit, as more of the spaces tend to be accessible then.
One of the stained glass windows inside tells the life of General Charles George Gordon, the British military officer who died at Khartoum in 1885, through a series of detailed scenes. This window rarely appears in guides and is passed by most visitors without a second glance.
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