When the church reserve was subdivided into 27 allotments in 1828, Lots 3 and 4 of the subdivision were purchased by William Dumaresq, a captain in the Royal Staff Corps.
[1][2] The property was purchased by prominent colonial architect, Edmund Blacket, as family home while he was working on the University of Sydney in 1857.
The landscape was still largely covered in dense bush at this time and Blacket is recorded to have "found it necessary to have four men to escort him home through the heavy timber after a day's work at his city office", along the track that became Ferry Road.
This has caused significant ongoing distress and associated health and social problems for the former residents and their families, as specifically recognised in the Forgotten Australian's report of 2004.
[1][2][3] By 1943 the Victorian house group was simply known as Bidura and appears to have been both administratively and physically separated from the Metropolitan Girls Shelter fronting Avon Street.
Restoration works included demolition of the rear veranda and construction of a new one, removal of non-original internal partitioning and repartitioning of some areas for new purposes, reinstatement of some infilled openings and bricking up of others, replacement or removal of bathroom and kitchen fitouts, replacement of timber windows and doors, installation of new electrical, lighting and ventilation services.
The National Museum of Australia's Inside exhibition, (promised in the National Apology to the Forgotten Australians and Former Child Migrants delivered by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on 16 November 2009 in Canberra) noted that three Senate reports[5] were undertaken following pressure from interest groups for the government to put on record the histories that had been hidden or unrecognised.
It also noted that the places associated with these Australians, like the Bidura House Group, despite being adaptively reused for other purposes, or left derelict or demolished, continue to be repositories of these historic events and connections.
[1] In 2016 local heritage groups pushed to save Bidura, which led to the NSW Land & Environment Court rejecting a refusal of a DA by Sydney City Council for a proposed $43m redevelopment of the rear of the property, involving the five-storey 1983 Brutalist style court building as well as Bidura house and garden.
In early 2017 the developer lodged an amended $29m DA proposing one seven-storey apartment building, which was due to be heard by the court by February 2018.
[1][2] The front and rear facades of this three-storey Victorian Regency house feature the symmetry characteristic of the style, as evident in the overall rectangular form, the hipped roof and the arrangement of chimneys, windows, doors and verandas.
The roof is clad in slate with decorative eaves brackets and patinated copper gutters, and features a central valley which appears to spill into a rainwater head on the north-western facade.
All have ornate cornices, picture rails, high skirting boards with moulded tops, wide architraves and four-panel doors.
At the bottom of the stairwell is a possibly original tongue and groove timber door with long strap hinges, leading to the outside.
A front veranda with timber posts and striped corrugated metal roof opens onto small grassed courtyard to the south-west.
[1][2] The Ballroom is a separate Victorian Italianate building connected to the main residence by a covered way roofed in striped, vaulted corrugated metal.
At the front (south-western) facade is a Vestibule annex with double timber panelled entrance doors at the north-west and two double-hung windows to the south-west.
[1][2] As at 10 March 2017, the Bidura House Group is of state heritage significance as a key point in a broader network of places associated with child welfare and juvenile justice in NSW.
It is therefore historically and socially significant for its impact on children and their families who were affected by child welfare and juvenile justice systems including the Forgotten Australians and Stolen Generations for a period of almost sixty years.
Bidura House Group is also of state significance aesthetically as a good example of Victorian regency design, and via its strong association with prominent NSW architect Edmund Blacket.
The Bidura House Group is of historical significance at a state level as a key point in a broader network of places associated with child welfare and juvenile justice in NSW.
The building is associated with prominent colonial architect Edmund Thomas Blacket who purchased the site in 1857, built the regency-style residence, Bidura, c.1860 and lived there with his family until 1870.
The precinct is socially significant for its impact on NSW children and their families who were affected by the juvenile justice system including the Forgotten Australians and Stolen Generations.
The site is of potential technical significance at a state level as its fabric provides evidence of the conditions experienced in children's homes and remand facilities from the 1920s to the 1980s.
The buildings together with descriptions of their former use, provide an insight into the processing, domestic routine and methods employed in the treatment of NSW minors in the state system.
Evidence of the various alterations and additions undertaken over time reflect changing philosophies and practises such as partitions which show the shift from open dormitories to single rooms at Bidura house.
Though modest in its detailing, the form, design and main elements of Bidura House make it a good example of upper-middle-class Victorian Regency residential architecture.