Edrom Lodge

Edrom Lodge

Edrom, on the southern shore of Twofold Bay, was originally the home of John Logan and his large family.

It was built between 1910 and 1913 on land where Oswald Brierley, a talented artist who was to become official Marine Painter to Queen Victoria and who was the manager of Benjamin Boyd’s whaling venture, had lived in the 1840s. It was designed by John Logan, its design was modelled
on his Scottish home, and it was named after his Scottish home.

Edrom cost £34,000 to build and 300 workmen were employed during its construction. A small temporary settlement was established nearby to house them.

This 28-room manor was constructed of bricks and stone (the bricks were made locally at Fisheries Flat, just to the south of the house, and the granite was quarried locally and transported to the site using bullock teams) and it has a terracotta tile roof. The tiles were imported from France as ships’ ballast.

It is a superb example of Federation Arts & Crafts style architecture. This resulted in its being heritage listed by the National Trust in 1980.

The Logan family resided at Edrom Lodge until after John Logan’s death in 1937. It then became a guesthouse for the well-to-do. In 1949 it became a fishing lodge and, later, returned to being a
guesthouse.

In 1970, Edrom Lodge was resumed by the State Government. In 1972 it became a pre work-release centre for the NSW Department of Corrective Services, with the Daily Telegraph (10th February 1972) reporting ‘The Government resumed the property – in other words snatched it and took it over – as a site for Forestry Commission work. There was a certain amount of grumbling about the price,
and there still is, but the fact remains that the Lodge in now owned by the Forestry Commission and now incredibly the Commission or the Department of Justice wants to make the place a
prison farm...(for) twenty five convicts lolling about in Edrom Lodge enjoying the view that people used to pay for.’ It concluded: ‘Reason has flown. How sad, how bitter, to despair finally of one’s fellow man in a place called Eden’.

Edrom Lodge did not remain a Corrective Services facility for long. In 1972–1973 it housed only three prisoners; in 1973–74, only 52 detainees were taken in to ‘loll about, enjoying the view that people used to pay for’, with an average daily occupancy of nine. The Lodge closed its doors
as a corrections facility in 1975.

It is now used for conferences, educational activities and group activities, and can accommodate 68 people in dormitory-style rooms.