Australian Heritage Database
Places for Decision
Class: Historic 

Identification	
List: 	National Heritage List	
Name of Place: 	Brickendon Estate	
Other Names: 		
Place ID: 	105977	
File No: 	6/03/071/0046	
		
Nomination Date: 	17/01/2007	
Principal Group: 	Farming and Grazing	
 		
Status		
Legal Status: 	19/01/2007 - Nominated place	
Admin Status: 	20/02/2007 - Included in FPAL - under assessment by AHC	
 		
Assessment		
		
Recommendation: 	Place meets one or more NHL criteria	
Assessor's Comments: 		
Other Assessments: 	: 	
 		
Location		
Nearest Town: 	Longford	
   Distance from town (km): 		
   Direction from town: 		
Area (ha): 	458	
Address: 	Woolmers La, Longford, TAS, 7301	
LGA: 	Northern Midlands Municipality TAS	
Location/Boundaries:
About 458ha, Woolmers Lane, Longford, comprising the whole of Lot 1 Title Reference 27652.
Assessor's Summary of Significance:
Brickendon Estate is a remarkably intact example of a farming property dating from the 1820s with its convict built farm complex , Georgian country house and formal garden. The estate is of outstanding national significance for its association with the convict assignment system and as a designed landscape providing a significant record of continuous farming practice at the place. 
 
The assignment system was set up to provide convict labour to settlers in exchange for food and clothing. Masters were responsible for the physical and moral wellbeing of assigned convicts. Male convicts provided the labour to make the building materials such as bricks, sawn timber and quarrying stone from the estate, constructing the timber and brick buildings and working as agricultural labourers, gardeners and shepherds on Brickendon while female convicts worked in domestic service. Workplaces where convicts were employed continue to be used on the Estate as are the living quarters of female convicts. The chapel built for the convicts also survives at Brickendon. It illustrates the role placed on religion, seen as an important part of the reformation of convicts. 
 
Convicts provided the labour necessary to establish and operate prosperous agricultural estates. Brickendon Estate represents an outstanding example of the successes of an industrious 1820s settler family and the productivity of convict labour.  This established the groundwork that enabled six generations of the Archer family to continue to successfully farm the estate.
 
The farming property and historic buildings of Brickendon Estate illustrate a continuity of mixed farming practices in Tasmania from the 1820s. The colonial economy grew substantially in the years before transportation ceased and mixed farming made a significant contribution to this growth. At Brickendon intensive mixed farming specialised in grains, wool and animal husbandry, and the farmed landscape is confined within extensive boundary hedges, estate buildings, including the pillar granary and the brick granary constructed later, the two Dutch barns, the cottages, woolshed and stables, cart shed, the brick poultry house, cook house, blacksmith’s shop, outhouse, wells, drainage systems and access roads. Together these embody a significant record of farming practices.
 
Brickendon is uncommon in the diversity of original colonial features that survive within the boundary of a single property. The estate survives intact as the original 420 hectare property which has been continuously farmed by the descendents of the William Archer family for six generations. It retains evidence of its original use and demonstrates the importation of British farming practices into northern Tasmania by the Archer family and the way that the use of assigned convicts facilitated the establishment of these practices in the northern Tasmanian area. The original operation of the early Estate remains legible in the layout and farmed landscape.
 
Brickendon is also uncommon in that the range of buildings demonstrate early colonial agricultural and pastoral farming practices based on British practice and techniques imported by the Archer family and developed over six generations. This uncommon range of building types and construction methods are represented by the timber pillar granary raised on staddle stones to protect the stored grain from vermin, the Dutch barns, the poultry house and the blacksmith’s shop with its associated collection of tools.
 
Brickendon Estate with its farm buildings, main Georgian house in its garden setting, hedges and land use patterns is a rare source of information about the living and working conditions of colonial settlers and the convicts assigned to rural estates from the 1820s to the cessation of transportation in 1853. The property has been lived in by the same family for seven generations and it contains related documentary records including farm diaries, correspondence, agricultural machinery and other moveable objects which detail the layout and development of the estate. These records provide opportunities for research on the operation of the estate and the convict assignment system Archaeological remains at the place including the site of the convict barracks building provide the potential to reveal information about the lives and working conditions of convicts on Brickendon Estate.
 
Brickendon contains archaeological sites, layout and buildings associated with convict use which have the potential to add to our understanding of the assignment system and the living and working experiences of convict men and women on a large estate during the assignment period..
Draft Values:	
Criterion	Values	Rating	
A Events, Processes	Brickendon Estate is a farming property dating from the 1820s, with intact convict built farm buildings, Georgian country house and formal garden. It is nationally outstanding for its association with the convict assignment system and for the continuity of farming practice at the estate. Assignment was the most common experience for convicts with 85% of those transported to Australia being assigned.
 
The assignment system was set up to provide convict labour to settlers in exchange for food and clothing. Masters were responsible for the physical and moral wellbeing of assigned convicts. Male convicts worked as blacksmiths, tanners, bricklayers and agricultural hands on Brickendon while female convicts worked in domestic service. Convict workplaces are extant on the Estate as are the living quarters of female convicts. Also extant is the chapel built for the sole use of convicts – religion being an important part of the reformation of convicts. 
 
Convicts provided the labour necessary to establish and operate prosperous agricultural estates. Brickendon Estate represents an outstanding example of the successes of an industrious 1820s settler family and the productivity of convict labour which established the basis for six generations of the Archer family to develop the estate.
 
The farming property and historic buildings of Brickendon Estate illustrate a continuity of mixed farming practices in Tasmania from the 1820s. Mixed farming contributed significantly to the growth of the colonial economy in the years before transportation ceased (Butlin 1986). At Brickendon intensive mixed farming specialised in grains, wool and animal husbandry, and the farmed landscape is confined within extensive boundary hedges, estate buildings, including the two barns, cottages, two granaries, woolshed and stables, cart shed, poultry house, cook house, blacksmith’s shop, outhouse, wells and drainage systems and access roads. Together these embody a designed landscape resulting in a significant record of farming practices.
 	AT	
B Rarity	Brickendon is uncommon in the diversity of original colonial features that survive within the boundary of a single property. The estate is uncommon in that it contains the original 420 hectare property which has been continuously farmed by the descendents of the William Archer family for six generations. It therefore retains evidence of its original use and demonstrates the importation of British farming practices into northern Tasmania by the Archer family and the way that the use of assigned convicts facilitated the establishment of these practices in the northern Tasmanian area. The original operation of the early Estate remains legible in the layout.
 
Brickendon is also uncommon as a designed cultural landscape where the range of buildings demonstrate early colonial agricultural and pastoral farming practices based on British practice and techniques imported by the Archer family and developed over six generations. This uncommon range of building types and construction methods are represented by the timber pillar granary, Dutch barns, the poultry house and the blacksmith’s shop with its associated collection of tools.	AT	
C Research	The Brickendon Estate with its farm buildings, Georgian house in its garden setting, hedges, and land use patterns, provides a rare source of information about the living and working conditions of colonial settlers and the convicts assigned to rural estates from the 1820s to the cessation of transportation to Tasmania in 1853. The research potential of the place is enhanced by documentary records associated with the operation of the estate and the convict assignment system, including family diaries and records and early maps which detail the layout and development of the estate. Archaeological remains at the site provide the potential to reveal information about the lives and working conditions of convicts at the estate.
 
Brickendon contains archaeological sites, layout and buildings functionally associated with convict use, which have the potential to add to our understanding of the assignment system and the living and working experiences of convict men and women on a large estate during the assignment period.	AT	
Historic Themes: 
Nominator's Summary of Significance:
Description:
Brickendon Estate is a 458 ha mixed farming property with the boundaries corresponding closely to the 1820s land grant. The property contains a set of pre-1850s farm buildings and a Georgian country house dating from 1829-30. Since William Archer commenced farming in 1824 the property has remained in the ownership of his direct descendants, has been lived in by seven generations of the Archer family and is still managed as a working farm on the extensive alluvial soils of the Macquarie River flood plain.
 
The farming estate is bounded by the Macquarie River to the east and partially to the south while to the north and west the boundaries are delineated by hawthorn hedges. Similarly the field divisions of the farm and the access roads are defined by around thirty kilometres of trimmed hawthorn hedges. Gaps through the hedges or gateways create views across the farmed landscape to neighbouring properties, including Woolmers directly across the river to the east or the imposing mountain ranges, the Great Western Tiers, to the west.
 
Located on level ground separated by one field from the Macquarie River the farm village comprises a large group of timber or brick buildings in vernacular style, set out along roadways framed by hawthorn hedges. The outstanding range of early colonial farm and estate buildings still extant at Brickendon is uncommon. The buildings include:
 
Weatherboard Cottage: Built with convict labour. Two roomed beaded weatherboard and brick nogged cottage with a central hallway and veranda. The original shingles are still in place under the corrugated iron roofing. Probably the oldest of the Brickendon structures, it was the original homestead from the property (1820s) which was probably later used as quarters for an overseer of convicts. 
Pillar Granary: c.1827. Built with convict labour. A rectangular, Dutch gabled two storey plus loft building of weatherboard and brick nog construction elevated on curved sandstone straddle stones with circular capping stones to prevent vermin reaching the stored grain. The pitched corrugated iron roof, originally shingled, has jerkin head gables. Original beaded boards remain on the exterior of the southern wall and split boards on the other walls, with brick nogging internally
Dutch Barn No 1: c. 1827. Built with convict labour . A high pitch Dutch gabled timber frame construction, weatherboard barn. The building is a single storey structure, standing approximately 4.8 metres at plate height. The corrugated galvanised roof was previously shingled. Sections of earth floor have been concreted. The barn has a single internal space constructed in a cruciform plan. The building stands between the granary and its twin barn. 
Dutch Barn No 2: c. 1827. Built with convict labour. A high pitch Dutch gabled timber frame and weatherboard single storey structure, with a corrugated galvanised iron roof, previously shingled. The building stands approximately 4.8 metres at plate height. The barn has a single internal space constructed in a cruciform plan. A concrete floor has replaced the original timber board and earthen floor. The barn is located on the southern side of the quadrangle, and stands opposite the granary. The buildings form an intact and exceptionally significant group of barns.
Implement Shed: c.1830s. Built with convict labour. A timber framed L shaped weatherboard and vertical split board building open on the south. Timber posts with beams support a galvanised iron hip roof. The floor is earthen. A 19th century photograph held by the Archer family shows further buildings infilling the space between the implement shed and the group of barns. Sub surface remains exist for these buildings. 
Smoke House: 1831. Built with convict labour. Solid square brick building with a hipped shingle roof and one door and no windows. The roof has been reconstructed. An external bakers oven is located on the northern side of the building covered by a new awning. 
Poultry Shed: Late 1830s Built with convict labour. Single roomed rectangular brick building with a galvanised iron tile gabled roof, richly moulded fascias, decorative brickwork for the pigeon loft at the gable ends and in a course along the top of the door head and brick pilasters at all four corners. There is a remnant brick paved floor and brick nesting boxes in the corners. The building may be later in date, c1840s if the iron tile roof is original. The building is reputed to be based on a contemporary pattern book design. 
Granary. A rectangular two storey brick and stucco building with a galvanised iron jerkin head roof. A single storey skillioned section on the east side of the brick granary with associated timber stock yards. 
Woolshed and stables. A rectangular weather board and corrugated iron building with a galvanised iron jerkin head roof attached to the granary extends to the north. Part of the former stables was modified to enlarge the wool shed to accommodate mechanical shearing equipment. Adjacent to the granary is a grain pickling room. The upper level is lined with blackwood boards.
Farm cottage: c.1830s. Built with convict labour. Split gable rendered brick cottage with a galvanised iron roof, originally constructed as two buildings for a dairy and overseer’s cottage. The building has been extended to the rear. 
Outhouse: c.1830s. Built with convict labour. Single roomed brick building with a corrugated iron hip roof, once shingled. Internally the walls are plastered, the ceiling is beaded timber lining boards with a timber floor . The original two hole pine seat is still in place.
Cookhouse: c.1830s. Built with convict labour. Part brick/weatherboard building with a Dutch gable roof lined with metal patent iron tiles over earlier shingles. Internal brick oven and fire place and timber floor with concrete block hearth.
Blacksmiths’ shop: c.1830s. Built with convict labour. Brick rectangular building with a high pitched hipped roof of corrugated iron sheets with widely spaced pressed grooves, once shingled, with forge, bellows, charcoal vent, and associated tools and equipment still in situ. Outside the building is an iron hoop bed and tyre plate.
Chapel: c.1840s. The brick single room chapel has a high pitched shingled gable roof, belltower and gabled foyer. Built in Victorian Picturesque Rustic Gothic style the chapel is highly decorative with many neo-gothic features including brick buttresses and decorative fascias and stained glass windows. All but two original stained glass windows are in situ and the eastern lead light window relocated to Entally chapel forty years ago is to be returned to the chapel. Repairs have been undertaken to the chapel and the original pews reinstated.
Tanks. There are three interconnected brick and concrete lined in-ground tanks, one located east of the second timber barn, one rectangular tank located at the rear of the woolshed/stables building and one oval shaped tank east of the chapel and cookhouse, later used for household and farm rubbish.
Convicts barracks site. Built with convict labour. The site of the former barracks building c. 1829-30 has had no subsequent disturbance and subsurface remains appear to be in situ. A 19th century photograph of the building taken prior to demolition is in the possession of the Archer family.
Sawyer’s pit and site of carpenter’s shop. A site of convict labour. On level ground east of the barracks site is the site of the sawyer’s pit, carpenter’s shop and an additional residential building, all c.1929-30. The site is undisturbed and subsurface archaeological remains are likely to be in situ.
Bull pen. A wooden slab and corrugated iron shed east of the blacksmith’s shop. The building was erected after the 19th century photograph of the farm buildings was taken. 
Carpentry shop (dairy). A 1950s rectangular building with a corrugated iron gable roof.
Landscaping. Within the farming estate the farm buildings precinct is sheltered by several mature plantings of pine trees and remnant eucalypts, and framed by hawthorn hedgerows which border both sides of  the farm lanes and access roads. A very large Bay tree (Laurel) overshadows the privy. Assorted fruit trees grow in the vicinity of the Cookhouse and in back gardens of the cottages. Later plantings have been introduced into the cottage and chapel gardens. 
Drainage system. The drainage has an extensive system of clay pipe drains of differing sizes and open channels, and a collection of associated tools.
Sites of wool washes. Marked on an 1843 map as the wool wash on the bank of the Macquarie River, the site is also evidenced by archaeological features. The site of a later wool wash, further upstream is indicated by timber footings. 
 
The Brickendon House precinct is located on the estate a kilometre distant from the farm buildings and the river, and separated from the farm buildings by the public road, known as Woolmers Lane. The complex comprises the manor house in its garden setting, stables, coachman’s and gardener’s cottages.
 
Brickendon House, built using convict labour and constructed in 1829-30, the two storey Colonial Georgian brick residence has stepped two-storeyed wings on both sides which partially form a stone paved courtyard. The house contains a front staircase, two back stairs and a service wing including servants’ quarters and a cellar. A well in the cellar stores water collected from the roof while the hand pump is in situ in the courtyard. An original bell, marked 1836, in place over the courtyard gate was used to mark the hours of work and probably to sound the alarm in the case of attack. The windows are twelve or six panes with shutters and the doors six panelled. The front door was also shuttered and features an iron trellis portico custom designed by William Archer, son of Thomas Archer, manufactured and imported from London in 1857 for 70 pounds. The hipped roof is of slate and patent iron tiles. Windows are twelve or six panes, with shutters; the building has six panelled doors, and a front door with curved fieldings, which is also shuttered. The western corner of the servants' wing was rebuilt in 1845 following a fire. An iron trellis portico is positioned above the entrance gate of the rear courtyard. The conservatory adjacent to the house has been removed. 
 
The house is surrounded by a 7ha parkland garden with many exotic trees sourced from around the world and planted during the 1830s. There is an extensive tree lined carriageway with formal avenue approaches to the back and the front of the house lined with a mixture of elms and hawthorn. The main approach terminates in an elliptical carriage turning circle. The centrepiece of the front garden is an ornamental sundial with an axial view from the main entrance. The grounds have been planted out with a mixture of native and exotic broadleaf trees and conifers. In the central formal area several interesting Victorian and Edwardian trees. The garden has later period overlays of planting which contribute to the variety of species. Later features include the metal gates.
Water reservoir. Timber frame, with iron tank, 7 metres above ground used to provide water for the house and garden.
Access roads to service buildings at the rear of the house are framed by high hawthorn hedges.
Stables: Rectangular, two-storey Old Colonial Georgian style brick building with hip roof and intersecting centre gable. The use of a central projecting gable shows Palladian influences. The ground floor is divided into three sections: stables, coach house and tack room with loft areas above. There are twelve pane windows on the ground floor and louvred windows with a fanlight above the upper floor door. The roof is clad with iron patent tiles c. 1840. A small metal Archer insignia is attached to one of the stable doors. An interconnecting workshop links the stable building with a weatherboard machinery shed. 
Coachman’s Cottage: Built using convict labour c. 1830s a two storey painted brick building with a later extension to the back. The building has a high pitch gabled corrugated iron roof.
Gardener’s Cottage: Painted four room brick cottage with rear service wing built using convict labour c. 1830s. Reconstruction work undertaken in 1991 included an extension to the rear. 
Landscape. All the early 19th century field systems can be identified and around thirty kilometres of hawthorn boundary hedges remain in place. The plantings of European trees and the maintenance of the hedge rows demonstrate clearly the intention to modify the colonial landscape to conform to the aesthetic values of an ‘antipodean England’. The collection of pre-1850s farm buildings remain largely intact and provide direct evidence of the continuity of farming practices from the 1820s. The remains of early drainage, water collection and distribution schemes are evident. Although some crops grown at Brickendon are relatively new arrivals, notably poppies, many others have been grown on the estate since its early days including barley and wheat. Just as it did in the 1820s, Brickendon continues to function as a mixed farm and in addition to agricultural produce approximately 2 000 sheep are run on the property.
 
Modern farm structures have been sympathetically sited so they do not detract from understanding the original layout and feeling of the property.
Analysis:
CRITERION (a) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in the course, or pattern, of Australia’s cultural history;
 
Brickendon Estate is important for its strong association with the use of the assignment system of early convict administration in the establishment of a large scale agricultural estate, and for the continuity of farming practice at the estate over six generations of the Archer family.
 
The assignment system was set up to provide convict labour to settlers in exchange for food and clothing. The government saw the employment of convicts as a cost effective measure to develop colonial infrastructure and assist settlers in establishing rural and commercial enterprises, while at the same time reforming the convict through industry. In its ideal form, assignment was beneficial to all three parties: the government transferred the upkeep of the convict; the master gained cheap labour; and the convict gained reformation through industrious labour’ (Tuffin in Alexander 2005:30). The assignment system continued in NSW and Tasmania until the cessation of transportation to NSW in 1840 (Shaw 1971:272, Kercher 2003). It was the most common experience for convicts transported to Australia.
 
The large country estate quickly became established as the archetypal symbol of the assignment system (Maxwell-Stewart 2006a). Estate architecture was regarded as vital in achieving the aims of the system. The estates were places where many sections of colonial society interacted, a process which estate architecture was deliberately designed to control. Clearly defined areas were established. Unlike in the public sector where male and female convicts were generally kept apart, housed in barracks or female factories, the estates were places where they occasionally worked alongside each other
 
From the early 1820s onwards, the convict administration put much weight in the reformative power of ‘proper’ master servant relations. In the assignment period estate architecture was thought to be vital in furthering the aims of a well ordered estate by clearly defining master/servant relationships. Separate quarters for female assigned servants within the house, clearly defined service areas, service staircases, separate quarters for an overseer and detached barrack-like accommodation for male servants were all considered to be features of the well-ordered estate. Ideally the estate complex also included a chapel where the convict population could be mustered each Sunday. All of these features are still extant at Brickendon, with the exception of the male convict barracks, the site of which can readily be identified and remains undisturbed. Since assignment (or work on a property as a ticket-of-leave or pass holder) was far more common than the experience of punishment for convicts in Tasmania, Brickendon exemplifies the typical experience for both male and female convicts of this era. 
 
Together with the extensive associated documentary records, Brickendon presents a rare opportunity to examine the organisation of a large 19th century rural property. It is possible to use musters and other classes of records, such as the family diaries, to reconstitute the convict population, identifying the male and female prisoners who worked there. 
 
Brickendon demonstrates the success of a settler family pioneering in northern Tasmania in the 1820s who contributed to Tasmania’s rapid economic growth. Their prosperity was due in large measure to the climate and soils which were more suited to the English farming practices they brought with them than elsewhere in the colonies which required greater adaptation. It was also due to the availablility of cheap convict labour supplied through the assignment system. Although many other examples of 19th century pastoral and agricultural stations in Australia, there are few that remain from the convict era which retain a high degree of integrity:
 
The Camden Park Estate is comparable to the Brickendon. It is the oldest pastoral sheep stud in Australia and also made use of assigned convicts. However, while the house and garden, movable cultural collections and outbuildings remain in Macarthur family ownership the estate land has been significantly reduced. Maxwell-Stewart in his reports (2006a and 2006b) did not identify any surviving pre-1840 estates in New South Wales which possess the same range of features evident at Brickendon. While male convict quarters (one feature no longer extant at Brickendon) can still be found at several properties in New South Wales including Oakleigh, Bathampton, Strathallan and Coombing Park, none of these survive together with the estate houses with which they were originally associated. Lanyon Homestead, located in the ACT, features many impressive convict era outbuildings, including accommodation for male convicts. However the present house dates from the 1850s. Maxwell-Stewart found much the same to be true of large estate complexes in Tasmania. Although Clarendon House was completed in 1838 most of the associated outbuildings date from the 1840s, not the assignment period. While Entally House has been described as probably the most complete estate complex in Tasmania, most of the current buildings are post convict era in date. There is a very extensive range of outbuildings at Connorville, however, the original house was demolished and replaced by a Arts and Crafts style house. A notable exception is the neighbouring property of Woolmers which contains a range of structures completed by convict labour that date from the early 1820s to the late 1840s. Like Brickendon, Woolmers house retains many of its original features, including its service quarters where female convicts would have resided (Maxwell-Stewart 2006b). The fifty seven structures at Warrock in Victoria, the most important collection of colonial farm buildings in that state, post date the assignment period (Heritage Council of Victoria 1997:12)
 
Brickendon and Woolmers share several features relating specifically to the assignment period. At both properties the convict men’s barrack accommodation have been removed, although the Brickendon building is visible in a late 19th century photograph. The chapels constructed specifically to fulfil the masters’ obligations to provide religious instruction for the assigned convicts fell into disuse after the assignment system had ceased operating, but the chapel at Brickendon has recently been repaired for use as a chapel.
 
At Brickendon the original house with the driveway, carriage turning circle, formal garden, stables, gardener’s cottage and service areas demonstrates the intention to establish status and authority. Siting of the house at a distance from the working farm buildings and the use of architecture within the house to shape master servant relations is very clearly demonstrated at Brickendon. While many elements at Brickendon are found in other places the estate is unusual in the diversity of original features that survive within the boundary of a single property.
 
Together the farmed landscape and buildings of Brickendon illustrates mixed farming and continuity of farming practices in Tasmania from the 1820s. Mixed farming was an important factor in the economic growth of Tasmania in the era of transportation (Butlin 1986: 118). At Brickendon intensive mixed farming specialised in grains, wool and animal husbandry. Three timber barns and a brick granary indicate a greater dependence on grain production than the woolshed. The estate is outstanding in two particular respects: the longevity of ownership in one family; and the nucleus of a large rural property. The development of Brickendon is nationally significant as the estate provides important evidence of the evolution of large scale colonial farming, and the use of an assigned convict labour force in this evolution.
 
Establishing a large successful estate entailed implementing and experimenting with farming practices, building infrastructure and managing master/servant relationships. Brickendon, operating as a working farm, continues to illustrate farming practices initially introduced and experimented with in the 1820s. The farm layout, its river frontage, paddock subdivision, hedges, drainage channels and uses with mixed farming, combining agriculture and pastoralism, grain and wool production and stock breeding clearly represents a working property established during the assignment period and which has continued to be managed by six successive generations of Archer family descendents.
 
Brickendon Estate exemplifies an early 19th century assignment period estate and has outstanding value to the nation for criterion (a).
 
CRITERION (b)
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Australia’s cultural history
b.2 Processes, activities, beliefs, or other aspects of culture that are rare, threatened or no longer practised

Brickendon is uncommon in the diversity of original features that survive within the boundary of a single property. The layout and design of the farm at Brickendon is rare, and represents the infrastructure and farming practices of a large rural estate dependent on assigned convict labour for its establishment. The outstanding range of early colonial farm and estate buildings built during the assignment period of the 1820s and 1830s and still extant at Brickendon is also uncommon.
 
Rural homesteads and their related farm setting with a high degree of integrity are becoming increasingly rare as unused buildings are removed and agricultural landholdings are increasingly being reduced in size. Maxwell-Stewart (2006a and 2006b) did not identify any surviving pre-1840 estates in New South Wales which possess the same range of features evident at Brickendon. While male convict quarters (one feature no longer extant at Brickendon) can still be found at several properties in New South Wales including Oakleigh, Bathampton, Strathallan and Coombing Park, none of these survive together with the estate houses with which they were originally associated. Lanyon Homestead, located in the ACT, features many impressive convict era outbuildings, including accommodation for male convicts. However the present house dates from the 1850s. 
 
Maxwell-Stewart found much the same to be true of large estate complexes in Tasmania. Although Clarendon House was completed in 1838 most of the associated outbuildings date from the 1840s, not the assignment period. While Entally House has been described as probably the most complete estate complex in Tasmania, most of the current buildings are post convict era in date. There is a very extensive range of outbuildings at Connorville, however, the original house was demolished and replaced by a Arts and Crafts style house. A notable exception is the neighbouring property of Woolmers which contains a range of structures completed by convict labour that date from the early 1820s to the late 1840s. Like Brickendon, Woolmers house retains many of its original features, including its service quarters where female convicts would have resided (Maxwell-Stewart 2006b).
 
At Brickendon the range of buildings demonstrate early colonial agricultural and pastoral farming practices and the degree of specialisation in the manufacture and provision of equipment and services. Unlike Woolmers which has been divested of much of the original land granted to Thomas Archer, Brickendon has remained a working farm. The boundaries of the property as they were established in the 1820s still lie within the curtilage of the present farm and many of the 19th century field systems as displayed in estate maps are still recognisable. As well as 19th century hedgerows, the property also contains evidence of past irrigation systems, carriage driveways and formal gardens. There are many aspects of Brickendon that are reflected in other sites. What makes this place unusual, however, is the diversity of original features that survive within the boundary of a single property. An uncommon range of building types and construction methods are represented by the timber pillar granary, Dutch barns, the poultry house and the blacksmith’s shop with its associated collection of tools. The Brickendon cultural landscape with its farm buildings, Georgian house in its garden setting, hedges, drainage, subsurface archaeological remains together with the documentary records provide a rare source of information about the living and working conditions of colonial settlers and convicts assigned to rural estates from the 1820s to the cessation of transportation to Tasmania in 1853.
The place has outstanding value to the nation for criterion (b).
 
CRITERION (c)
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Australia’s cultural history
 
There are numerous estates of the landed gentry throughout New South Wales, Victoria and Tasmania with the potential to reveal archaeological information about the living and working conditions of convicts as assigned servants from British settlement in Australia until 1853. Excavations at several estate houses including First Government House Site, Jamison’s estate at Regentville, Major Innes’ house, the Australian Agricultural Company have revealed extensive information about convict living and working conditions within large houses. As a complex of buildings within a property with a continuity of farming practices and minimal subsequent development, Brickendon contains the potential to reveal information of national significance about the assignment system and the living and working experiences of convict men and women on a large estate during the assignment period. It is believed that students from the University of Tasmania may have conducted some preliminary investigation of the estate, but this has not been published. Otherwise, no consistent archaeological investigation has been undertaken to date on Brickendon Estate.
 
Brickendon Estate contains an array of related collections including farm diaries, farm machinery, associated equipment, tools and other movable objects. Family diaries and records, including early maps, have the potential to provide important information on living and working conditions at the estate. This exceptionally rich and diverse assemblage illustrates the history of ownership and farming practices of the estate from the 1820s to the present. No cataloguing or recording of the documentary or movable cultural heritage collections have been undertaken to date at Brickendon Estate.
 
The archaeological resources and the related documentary and movable cultural heritage collections form an important record associated with the place. 
The place has outstanding value to the nation for criterion (c).
 
CRITERION (d) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of: a class of Australia’s cultural places; or a class of Australia’s cultural environments; 
 
Brickendon is important for its outstanding ability to demonstrate the principal characteristics of a colonial estate house and its associated gardens and outbuildings established in the assignment period in the early 19th century. This class has a number of members. Maxwell-Stuart has identified several olonial estates from the same era in New South Wales including Oakleigh, Bathampton, Strathallan and Coombing Park, Lanyon Homestead located in the ACT, and several in Tasmania includingWoolmers, Clarendon House, Entally house and Connorville. 
 
The principal characteristics include:
1. a prominently sited impressive estate house and interior features, set in an extensive garden;
2. large mixed farming, agricultural and/or pastoral land holdings
3. established with cheap convict labour;
4. well defined features include clear separation between the gentry housing and their assigned convicts;
5. an extensive evolving range of infrastructure demonstrating the expansion of the agricultural and pastoral industries.
 
Brickendon exhibits these characteristics to a high degree:
1. Elevated above the Macquarie River and with a view over Norfolk Plains, Brickendon is perhaps the outstanding surviving example of a Tasmanian colonial mixed farming estate with associated gardens and outbuildings. The buildings and historic landscape at Brickendon are a fine example of a two story colonial Georgian brick residence with stepped wings on both sides. The house is separated into zones. The front being the family residence contains a main staircase. The back is a service area with two back stairs and servants’ quarters in a service wing. The house is surrounded by 7 hectares of parkland gargen containing many imported exotic trees. Brickendon reflects the architectural and aesthetical expression of the aspirations of the colonial landed elite in the late 1820s. The evolution of the house and its associated buildings and agricultural and pastoral land provides evidence of the changing economic and social fortunes of this branch of the Archer Family.
 
2. Unlike other colonial properties, Brickendon remains a working farm. Brickendon was established by William Archer as a mixed farming enterprise and remains so. This is reflected in the layout of the estate. Brickendon contains a remarkably complete complex of farm buildings including a pillar granary and other ‘Dutch’ barns, poultry shed, blacksmith’s shop shearing shed and stables, as well as the main estate house, accommodation for assigned convicts and the chapel. The intactness of the pillar granary with its rare Dutch gable and the two matching dutch barns form an outstanding suite of barns. The purpose built poultry shed is one of the oldest surviving and most decorative purpose built sheds in Australia (Corney & Lyngcoln: 46). Purpose built poultry sheds from the 19th century are very rare.
 
3. Like Woolmers, large scale farming at Brickendon was labour intensive. Rural agricultural development was dependent on the availability of cheap labour. Since convicts and ex-convicts constituted 80 to 90 percent of the potential male labour force in the colonies between 1820-1835 (Butlin 1985:19), convicts were instrumental in the expansion of farming in the colonies. The large country estate quickly became established as the archetypal symbol of the assignment system. With a combined convict population of over 100, Brickendon and Woolmers formed the second largest pool of convict labour in private hands in the colony, after the Van Diemen’s Land Company. 
 
4. Estate architecture was thought to be vital in furthering the reformative aims of establishing good master/servant relationships. Landscape and spatial elements reinforced the social and moral concepts underpinning the layout of the estate complex. Well defined features included clear separation between the gentry housing and their assigned convicts. Brickendon shows a clear separation of the various levels of society at the estate, the gentry, the house servants and the estate workers. Separate quarters for female assigned servants, clearly defined service areas, service staircases, separate quarters for an overseer were considered to be features of the well-ordered estate. While there were no specific regulations regarding convict accommodation during the assignment period male convicts were frequently housed in detached barrack-like accommodation on large land holdings, particularly on agricultural estates where large numbers of men worked in close quarters (Altenburg 1988:112). The house interiors demonstrate the division of gentry and servants, with a purpose built wing containing servants quarters. Ideally the estate complex also included a chapel where the convict population could be mustered each Sunday. It is noteworthy that Brickendon retains the buildings constructed as a chapel during the assignment period. The chapel was not used by the Archer family itself and appears not to have been used in the 20th century. Religion was an important part in the reformation of convicts and masters were required to supply religious instruction.
 
5. The fine group of Colonial estate buildings similarly demonstrate the sequential development of the estate, commencing with the earliest buildings such as the woolshed, blacksmith’s shop, store and bake houses built in the 1820s. 
 
Of the other large country estates established in the early 19th century identified by Maxwell-Stuart which contain many of the principal characteristics of assignment era estates, the neighbouring property of Woolmers compares most closely with Brickendon. It contains a range of structures completed by convict labour that date from the early 1820s to the late 1840s. Like Brickendon, the Woolmers house retains many of its original features, including its service quarters where female convicts would have resided. Both houses are also unusual in that they remained in the hands of different branches of the Archers family for many generations and as a result have retained many of their original fittings, items of furniture and other examples of moveable heritage. Unlike Woolmers, however, which has been divested of much of the original land granted to Thomas Archer, Brickendon has remained a working farm. The boundaries of the property as they were established in the 1820s still lie within the curtilage of the present farm and many of the 19th century field systems as displayed in estate maps are still recognisable. As well as 19th century hedgerows, the property also contains evidence of past irrigation systems, carriage driveways and formal gardens There are many aspects of Brickendon that are reflected in other sites. What makes this place unusual, however, is the diversity of original features that survive within the boundary of a single property. The farmlands demonstrate continuity of farming practices established by the convict labour force in the 1820s.
 
The extant layout of the estate, the availability of records detailing the evolution of its development and staffing, combine to provide the capacity to read the way in which the original estate was laid out to take advantage of the labour force supplied through the assignment system. However, a lack of comparative material on the characteristics of early colonial estates across Australia makes it difficult to assess the extent to which Brickendon maps on to  the characteristics on which large scale rural estates were developed in the early 19th century, and whether it does so in a way that is nationally significant.
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding outstanding value to the nation for criterion (d) as an example of an assignment era property.
 
CRITERION (e) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics valued by a community or cultural group;
 
The Brickendon Estate forms a cultural landscape of significant aesthetic value. Defined by Hawthorn hedged-lined (Crataegus monogyna) boundary fences and the Macquarie River, the farm village placed in the alluvial flood plain, the manor house in its garden setting and outbuildings framed by mature trees on a small rise evoke the rich visual imagery of an early 19th century farming estate. Using the natural advantages of topography, soils and climate the Brickendon landscape illustrates the successful introduction of 19th century English farming practices, contemporary social attitudes and aesthetic tastes. 
 
The topography of the Midlands of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) was praised in 19th century immigrants guides for the manner in which it was said to resemble a gentleman’s park. It was ideal country for grazing. There was no accident in this since the grassland interspaced with eucalypts was not a natural phenomenon, but a landscape created over centuries by Aboriginal fire management practices designed to favour habits that would suit the larger members of the kangaroo family. Many migrants attempted to further transform the landscape in order to enhance its credentials as an ‘antipodean England’. As well as the clearing of native vegetation, this process included the introduction of European species of fauna and flora. Brickendon estate is located within the Norfolk Plains, an area that was particularly affected by this process. 
 
Strzlecki’s 1845 comparison between pastoral and agricultural landscapes in both colonies reflects contemporary aesthetic values on rural beauty and the prevailing fashion for an ‘antipodean England’  
‘….for the scenery of the Old World, - towns, villages, comfortable homesteads, tilled and enclosed fields, and gardens. (Strzlecki, 1845:386).
 
In his estimation the agricultural districts of Tasmania provided the best example, so that 
‘…no country reminds the traveller so much of the old one as Van Diemen’s Land. There, the tasteful and comfortable mansions and cottages, surrounded by pleasure grounds, gardens and orchards, the neat villages, prominently placed churches, forming as it were the centres of cultivated plains, divided and sub-divided by hedgerows, clipped or brushed, and through which an admirably constructed road winds across the island, are all objects which forcibly carry back the mind to similar scenes of rural beauty in England and Scotland’ (Strzlecki, 1845:381).
 
Maxwell-Stewart found that 
‘it is widely regarded as a, if not the, quintessential Australian farming landscape’ (2006b).
 
The Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens identifies the Midlands, especially the Archer properties (Brickendon, Panshanger and Woolmers) as containing 
‘a concentration of homestead gardens and designed landscapes and form an outstanding cultural landscape’ (Aitken and Looker 2002:408). The various elements of the grounds were described in 1883 as a miniature park, landscaped garden, lawn and fruit and vegetable gardens. Specimens planted by William Archer were mature trees, and 
‘the pines and hollies were considered to be the oldest in Tasmania and ‘gnarled and ancient’ hawthorns. …Many trees had historical and personal associations – a very typical feature of the period. The garden had many features of the Victorian pleasure garden including shady nooks, winding paths and a famous nut walk’ (Aitken and Looker 2002:27).
 
The garden is a good representative example of the scale, layout and specimen tree plantings of the early 19th century. However the garden design and plantings have been modified to reflect current management practices. Many 19th century features of the Victorian pleasure garden have been removed while others, such as a ha-ha have been introduced for management purposes. 
 
Brickendon forms a cultural landscape of significant aesthetic value. Defined by hedged-lined boundaries and the Macquarie River, the farm with its open grazing, hedge-lined fields and lanes, farm village in the alluvial flood plain, manor house with its garden setting and outbuildings framed by mature trees evoke the rich visual imagery of an early 19th century farming estate. It exemplifies the early colonial settlers’ adaptation of the Australian environment to reflect the aesthetic values of an ‘antipodean England’. It is widely regarded as a quintessential Australian farming landscape by the nation’s garden historians. 
 
However, while its aesthetic characteristics have been established, there is little evidence to show that these characteristics are valued by a community or cultural group in a way that is significant at the national level.
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (e).
 
CRITERION (f) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s importance in demonstrating a high degree of creative or technical achievement at a particular period;
 
There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the place might have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (f).
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (f).
 
CRITERION (g) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group for social, cultural or spiritual reasons; 
 
Brickendon Estate is valued by the Tasmanian community, as demonstrated by its listing in the Tasmanian Heritage Register and also in the Register of the National Estate. While it may be significant at the State level, there is however insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the place might have outstanding heritage value to the nation to be above threshold for criterion (g
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (g).
 
CRITERION (h) 
The place has outstanding heritage value to the nation because of the place’s special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Australia’s cultural history
 
There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the place might have outstanding heritage value to the nation to be above threshold for criterion (h).
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (h).
 
CRITERION (i) 
There is insufficient evidence to demonstrate that the place might have outstanding heritage values to the nation to be above threshold for criterion (i).
 
Brickendon does not have outstanding value to the nation for criterion (i).
 
History:
The penal colony of Van Diemen’s Land was established in 1803 with a small population of convicts, soldiers and some free settlers. From 1788-1830s free grants of land were distributed to settlers in the colony. A small but wealthy farming and trading community emerged (Petrow 2000:4). However, unlike NSW very few ex-convicts, known as emancipists, prospered and became prominent in public life (Petrow 2000:5). Through grants and purchases of land free settlers in Tasmania owned ‘a very large proportion of all the property’ and became very influential. The wealthier settlers in the north ‘could build pastoral empires at the expense of their struggling neighbours’ (Morgan 1992:34).
 
Brickendon Estate is located in the Norfolk Plains, a district that wis well watered by the Macquarie and South Esk rivers. Originally known as 'Wattle Park', the estate was granted to William Whyte, but was taken over by Thomas Archer (1790-1850) of Woolmers and subsequently by William Archer (1788-1879) who in 1824 had migrated to Van Diemen's Land to join his brother Thomas. Located across the Macquarie River from Woolmers, William Archer renamed the farm Brickendon after a village near his birthplace in Hertfordshire, England. 
 
The topography of the Midlands of Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) was praised in 19th century immigrants’ guides for the manner in which it was said to resemble an English gentleman’s park. This view was fostered by the fertile alluvial soil well watered by river systems and an absence of heavy scrub. These factors facilitated the importation and adoption of traditional British farming practices, and many migrants attempted to further transform the landscape in order to enhance its credentials as an 'antipodean England'. Clearing native vegetation, introducing European species of fauna and flora and drainage schemes all contributed to the creation of a park like landscape. Located within the Norfolk Plains, Brickendon is an estate where this process is particularly evident.
 
The agricultural and pastoral potential of the area meant that it was quickly exploited. Many early land grants were made in the area, the most significant being that awarded to Thomas Archer. Having arrived in Australia in 1811 aged 21 to take up a posting with Commissariat Department in Sydney, Thomas Archer was later transferred to Port Dalrymple in northern Tasmania where he was granted Woolmers in 1817. His brother William arrived in the colony in 1823 and settled on adjoining land, Brickendon which remains in Archer family ownership. 
 
In the 1820s, at a time when the Bigge Report was encouraging pastoralism as an economic base for the colony, the British woollen industry was expanding. Its promotion of colonial wool stimulated the industry in Australia. By 1817 there were more sheep in Tasmania than NSW, and from the 1820s the Tasmanian Midlands became a major merino breeding centre. By 1821 Van Diemen’s Land was depasturing more sheep than NSW and had taken the lead in improving the quality of merino wool’ (Pearson and Lennon, 2006:12). 
 
William Archer established a mixed farming property on the 420 ha (985 acre) grant. Amongst the merchandise accompanying Archer on the ship Aguilar were 77 pure merino ewes and 3 rams, a Norman cow and bull, many pigs and two horses (Chick 1991:105).
 
The first timber buildings were erected in the mid-1820s. These included the original two roomed homestead which later probably functioned as an overseer’s quarters, three wooden barns for storing grain, a wooden shearing shed and working horses’ stable and a later brick granary, drains and water harvesting features, fences and hawthorn hedges. The farm buildings were almost certainly constructed using convict labour from pit sawn timber and locally fired bricks. Specific buildings to house, feed and provide religious instruction for the convict labour included the original barracks, now demolished, cookhouse and chapel. The buildings indicate a clear intent to undertake mixed farming following customary English practice. Intensification of agriculture, crop and wool production, stock breeding, animal management and sheep shearing were practiced at Brickendon. These farming practices have continued by successive Archer generations to the present.

The Archers were amongst the first settlers in Van Diemen’s Land to 'improve' their livestock in order to take advantage of the new opportunities in the fine wool export trade. William Archer imported 30 Merino ewes and 2 rams from England in 1824 for Brickendon forming the basis for the very successful stud he established
 
Following his marriage in 1829 to Caroline Harrison, William Archer had a grand Georgian house built, set in an elaborate garden with accompanying domestic servants’ wing, stables complex and brick houses for a coachman and gardener. The garden was laid out by William Archer in 1831 and specimen trees planted during the 1830s were sourced from around the world. Changes to the design of the garden reflect later plantings by subsequent generations of the Archer family. The homestead complex with its formal architectural style and garden layout was located at some distance from the farm buildings to separate the residence from the working area, demonstrating the family’s status and authority.
 
The farm layout, its design and development was strongly linked with a high labour input only possible because of the significant use of convict labour provided through the assignment system. The assignment system was set up to provide convict labour to settlers in exchange for food and clothing. The first convicts were assigned as farm servants and for personal service to officer-farmers who had been authorised to receive land grants in 1793 (Shaw 1971:67). Reports of the Bigge Commission, established in 1819 to enquire into conditions in the colony, recommended tightening the assignment system and encouraging pastoralism by allocating large land grants to free immigrants with substantial capital. Assignments of convicts to private masters was very much the favoured method of dealing with convicts. The government saw reformative employment as a cost effective measure to develop colonial infrastructure and assist settlers in establishing rural and commercial enterprises. In its ideal form, assignment was beneficial to all three parties: the government transferred the upkeep of the convict, the master gained cheap labour, and the convict gained reformation through industrious labour (Tuffin in Alexander 2005:30). There were still over 23,000 assigned convicts in 1837 (Kercher 2003) and the system continued in NSW and Tasmania until the cessation of transportation to NSW in 1840 (Shaw 1971:272, Kercher 2003).
 
Sir George Arthur (1784-1854), the lieutenant-governor of Van Diemen's Land from 1824-1836, developed and administered the assignment system in Tasmania and rigorously insisted on the mutual good behaviour of both master and servant. He 'recognised that the settler formed a very important 'cog' in a greater machine. In keeping with this, he governed the settler-master almost as stringently as he governed the convict' (Tuffin in Alexander 2005:30). Convict labour which was in high demand due to the shortage of free labourers and skilled artisans, could be withdrawn by Arthur for a range of offences. Servants were liable to summary punishment for misconduct, but they might be withdrawn if their masters broke any of the many other regulations. 
 
The assignment system included incentives for convicts to reform. Convicts were entitled to tickets-of-leave if well behaved. This 'indulgence' allowed them to earn wages and live independently while they served out the remainder of their sentence. However as convicts they continued to be monitored and a ticket of leave could be withdrawn for bad behaviour. Conditional pardons (convicts had to remain in the colony) were given as inducements for special services, such as the capture of bushrangers or absconders or faithful service as police. Arthur personally scrutinised the records before granting these incentives. His administration of convicts increased the governor's patronage and aroused the bitter hostility of those whose servants were withdrawn (Shaw 1966). While Arthur set up an Assignment Board in 1832 he supervised it closely. He consistently insisted that under his regime transportation was a very severe punishment. Assigned convicts, he said, were slaves, except that their slavery was terminable. They were always subject to their masters' caprices and vaguely defined offences were liable to severe punishment (Shaw 1966). 
 
Working on a large farming property became the most common assignment for convicts. In Tasmania, an average of 54 percent of male convicts were assigned to settlers during the period 1820-1835 (Maxwell-Stewart 2006a:3). The need to provide rations and shelter for convicts favoured larger enterprises, as small farmers were less able to support convicts on a consistent basis and would return them to the colonial authorities for reassignment.
 
Large farming enterprises were labour intensive. Their development was dependent on the availability of cheap labour. Since convicts and ex-convicts constituted 80 to 90 percent of the potential male labour force in the colonies between 1820-1835 (Butlin 1985:19), convicts were instrumental in the expansion of farming in the colonies. The large country estate quickly became established as the archetypal symbol of the assignment system. As estates were generally managed along paternalistic lines it was thought that masters could instil convicts with habits of industry. 
 
Estate architecture was regarded as vital in achieving these aims. Separate quarters for female assigned servants within the house, clearly defined service areas, service staircases, separate quarters for an overseer and detached barrack-like accommodation for male servants were all considered to be features of the well-ordered estate. Skilled workers, such as gardeners, coachmen and artisans were provided with their own cottage style accommodation whereas other agricultural workers were housed separately in simpler quarters. Ideally the estate complex should also include a chapel where the convict population could be mustered each Sunday (Maxwell-Stewart 2006a:7). The Brickendon Estate exemplifies these features and is an outstanding example of an assignment era property. 
 
A map of 1841 names the paddocks which are still in use by the current generation of Archer descendants. Some names indicate their use, for instance clay dug from the 'Brickfields' paddock was most probably used for making the bricks for the estate buildings. The location of the wool wash marked on the map as being on the Macquarie River bank is also evidenced by archaeological features. A later wool wash, further upstream is also indicated by timber footings.
 
As one of the larger estates, many convicts worked at Brickendon in the period from the early 1820s to the 1850s. The Brickendon diary, written by William Archer senior with daily entries from 11 August 1829 until 24 February 1830, documents the daily tasks assigned to the convict workforce, the deployment of bullock teams and the use of specialised convict labour (Gregg 2005:7). It provides a record of the lived experience of assigned convicts which differs greatly from that recorded in the official records, an example being the use of incentives to increase convict productivity particularly at harvest time, the busiest season of the agricultural year. The Brickendon diary provides a snapshot of an assigned convict workforce. The convicts at Brickendon were both young and mostly skilled. The average age was 23: the youngest, John Watt was 13 years old and the eldest, William Morgan was 59. A third of the sample of men identified in the diary possessed skills related to agriculture, including six ploughmen. Another two were listed as carters, two labourers, one well sinker, one sawyer, and a butcher. Men with highly specialised trades such as Benjamin Cooper, the wheelwright who constructed and maintained a wide range of agricultural equipment, were highly valued. Men with trades such as John Allcock, a painter, and James John, a shoemaker, were recorded as performing their trades at times, but were most likely to be employed in low-skilled or manual tasks for most of the agrarian cycle. The diary also illustrates the process of technological change and adaptation as colonists used the skills of the convict labour force to adapt technology to suit differing environments (Gregg 2005:24-25).
 
The 1829 diary provides detailed information on master-servant relationships including the use of incentives to ensure the success of harvesting crops. Food rations, particularly the supply of meat and fruit, were significantly increased at harvest time for the convict workforce (Gregg 2005:39-47).

In practice, the Archer families shared labour between the neighbouring properties, Woolmers and Brickendon. This was especially the case during harvest seasons when assigned servants were rotated between the two properties. With a combined convict population of over 100, Brickendon and Woolmers formed the second largest pool of convict labour in private hands in the colony, after the Van Diemen’s Land Company.
 
Properties such as Brickendon are historically important as they represent the typical convict experience. Unlike road parties, and other punishment regimes, assigned convicts were largely managed by the use of incentives, as opposed to punishment. The estates were places where a premium was placed on particular skills, especially those possessed by convict mechanics and many of these skills are exemplified in the surviving architecture and layout of the estate. They were also places where male and female convicts worked alongside each other unlike the public sector where, housed in barracks or female factories, they were generally kept apart. As well as being sites of work, they were also sites of leisure and recreation. They were places where many sections of colonial society interacted, a process which estate architecture was deliberately designed to control. All of these features are remarkably well preserved at Brickendon.
 
While the assignment system created opportunities for many convicts to start a new life, opposition to the transportation of convicts grew steadily, culminating in the 1838 Molesworth report. The assignment system was considered inconsistent, a lottery dependent too often on the character of the masters, rather than the nature of the crimes. Withdrawal of the assignment process commenced in Tasmania in 1839, to be replaced with the probation system which sought to punish systematically. In 1840 and 1841 there was a labour shortage as no convicts were assigned to private settlers. Due to the cessation of transportation in NSW the convict numbers increased dramatically from 1841 increasing the convict population by over 40% in four years (Shaw 1971:300). From the settlers’ perspective the numbers of convicts increased with no off-setting economic contribution, and they deeply resented the additional imposts levied on them to pay for more police and goals which they considered the responsibility of the British government. Meanwhile revenues fell significantly from falling land sales and a drop in exports (Townsley 1991:61). The failure of the probation system turned the majority of colonists into implacable opponents of transportation itself (Sprod 2005:290). Both Thomas Archer and William Archer of Brickendon with other family members signed a petition, published in 1850, for the immediate abolition of transportation (Chick 1991:11). 
 
William Archer made many other land purchases. However the original land grant of Brickendon, together with an additional 22 ha of land, has continued to be farmed by successive generations of the Archer family. The successful pattern of mixed farming established by William Archer has continued with minor adaptations to address market conditions.
 
Changes and adaptations undertaken since the end of the assignment period include the declaration of the private road which connected the Brickendon Estate with Woolmers as a public road in 1877. Use of buildings specifically associated with the assignment period such as the chapel and the male convict barracks were discontinued, and some were demolished or used for other purposes such as storage.
 
A sale brochure for Brickendon in 1895 depicts the 1120 acre estate, of which about 750 acres were cleared and cultivated. The property however was not sold and remains in the possession of William Archer’s descendants. Part of the property was used in the filming of 'My Brilliant Career' to convey the lifestyle of the early landed gentry of eastern Australia.
 
Brickendon estate is an outstanding example of an assignment era property, and contains some exceptionally early and important buildings. As a large country estate it exemplifies the archetypal symbol of the assignment system. All the features relating to the assignment of convicts in the early 19th century are still extant at Brickendon, with the exception of the male convict barracks, the site of which can readily be identified and remains undisturbed. Since assignment (or work on a property as a ticket-of-leave or pass holder) was far more common than the experience of punishment, Brickendon could be said to exemplify the typical experience for both male and female convicts. 
 
Condition:
Brickendon estate is in remarkably good condition although many of the outhouses and buildings require routine maintenance. 
 
At Brickendon house the western wing of the servants quarters was rebuilt after a fire in 1845. Otherwise there have been few major structural changes to the house. The conservatory has been removed. The recent addition of a sunroom was completed with Tasmanian Heritage Council permission.
 
Security for the movable cultural heritage, particularly the objects in the blacksmith’s shop, is an issue.
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