Skip to content

Rangers Residence

Name:
Rangers Residence

Location:
Centennial Park, see interactive map here 

Date built:
1898

About the Rangers Residence...

The Park Rangers house (or Rangers Residence) sits on the crest of a small hill near the Robertson Road Gates.

The house was designed by Walter Vernon in 1898 during his period as NSW Government Architect, with the building being completed in 1899.

It is a single storey brick building with a hipped and gabled tiled roof in the European Arts and Crafts style. The style stood for traditional craftsmanship using simple forms and often applied medieval, romantic or folk styles of decoration.

It features decorative timber fretwork, brackets and pillars, and multi-panelled windows. This house is not open to visitors. A carport was removed in 1989, and a new garage designed in the style of the residence was built by the Public Works Department in 1989.

In Martin Road, behind the Park Rangers house, you can see fine old residences built between the turn of the century and 1925. Houses in Martin and Lang Roads are built on land originally sold to help fund the park’s development. Strict design standards were imposed to make sure the Park was surrounded by elegant homes.

The last live-in resident…

The Residence had been used continuously as accommodation for Park staff and Rangers until 2008. The last Ranger to live in the Residence with his family, Ranger Brian Page, left that year and the house was then vacant for the first time in over 100 years.

Refurbishment and adaptive reuse…

In September 2010 the Centennial Park and Moore Park Trust completed a refurbishment of the Rangers Residence, and completed a new picket fence around the perimeter of the building.

Following this upgrade Conservation Volunteers Australia relocated their head office to the residence for several years.

Rangers Residence following refurbishment in 2010

Conservation Volunteers Australia and Trust staff outside the refurbished Rangers Residence, 2010