Mount Alverna (c.1891)

49 Burns Road / 10A Water Street

Mount Alverna is named after the wilderness of Mount Alverna in the Apennines that was visited by St Francis of Assisi.  The original residence 'Greystanes', designed by renowned local architect Richard George Howard Joseland, was built in 1890 from Scottish sandstone and its large stone arches are a dominant feature.  The design is a particularly fine example of the architectural idiom which expresses the transition from High Victorian style to Australian Federation style, with the two-storey verandah, its soaring chimneys, gables and bays arranged asymmetrically being typical of this style.  The house, trees, gates, and the Burns Road fence are noted on the National Heritage List.

Mount Alverna was built for ophthalmic surgeon Dr Francis Antill Pockley.  The property become a retreat and monastery for the Franciscan Order from the 1950's to the 1980's.  The original 13 acres of land was subdivided in 1987 and Mount Alverna now comprises 6,800 square metres of park-like grounds.

Mount Alverna has grand vistas across sweeping lawns of specimen trees, palms, and some areas of mass plantings.  The grounds are said to be planted with a tree from each country that Dr Pockley visited:

"Dr Pockley was an avid gardener and plants man.  He planted a collection of conifers and palms, along with grand exotic trees, that found enough room to grow in the spacious grounds.  He planted an avenue of trees along the (200m) driveway from Burns Road to Water Street."
                    Zeny Edwards, Six of the Best Architects of Ku-ring-gai.

Mount Alverna has some of the oldest and tallest trees in Wahroonga.  Some of the heritage-listed trees include two very large Bunya Bunya Pines (Araucaria bidwillii), Brush Box (Lophostemon confertus), Chestnut (Castanea sativa), several Plane trees (Platanus x hybrida), and others lining the Burns Road frontage, Deodar Cedar (Cedrus deodara) by the porte cochere, species of Palms (singly and in groups) especially down the driveway, and Turpentine (Syncarpia glomulifera) on the adjoining property that shares the Water Street entrance.  Turpentine, Chestnut, and Eucalypt trees that were part of the original property, now add to the amenity of the settings as 'borrowed landscape' from neighbouring properties.

Other trees include Sydney Blue Gums, Radiata Pines, Liquidambar and Magnolia grandiflora.  A large Cycad Palm stands tall next to the Oak tree on the main lawn.  Camellias include several large specimens on the lawns, on the boundaries and within the avenue of Palms.  The lawns and the driveway are bordered with a mass of Agapanthus.  Japanese Box hedges define the pathways and the Rose Garden and the fence along Burns Road is planted with Lilly Pilly

Click on any of the images below for a larger picture.