A Brief Construction and Residential History of Genazzano
12 Reville Close, Golden Square
By Diocesan Archivist Dr Donna Bailey
The name Genazzano was inspired by a town in the province of Rome that is associated with the Augustinian Order of priests. The first two Bishops of Sandhurst, Martin Crane and Stephen Reville were Augustinian. Before its recent subdivision, Genazzano was located on approximately fifteen hectares of land in Kangaroo Flat, known as 144 Aspinall St. In 2016, 7.152 hectares of this land was gifted to the City of Greater Bendigo and this parcel of land is protected by a Trust For Nature Covenant. Genazzano is currently situated on approximately one acre and is the private residence of the Bishop of Sandhurst, the Most Rev. Shane Mackinlay.
Purchased by Crane and Reville in January 1888, the land has remained the property of the Catholic Church in Bendigo for over one hundred and thirty-two years and it has undergone various transformations both before, and during this time.
Crown allotments 44, 45, 46 and 47a, section L, Parish of Sandhurst were originally purchased from the estate of Mr. Edward Watson by Mr. Joseph King Smith, a local Chemist, on November 29, 1877. The four allotments amounted to seventeen acres and six perches (described as sixteen acres on rate records at the time). The rate records of the Marong Shire show that Edward Watson built a cottage on the site in 1874 valued at £25 and by 1875 the house and land had doubled in value, suggesting that major improvements had been implemented. Edward Watson was probably the same Sandhurst timber merchant who liquidated his assets from 1877. An auction notice of October 30, 1877 describes the property as a ‘[C]apital Family Residence and Land within two miles of the Post Office, Sandhurst’. The six roomed building was described as ‘a well and faithfully built stone and brick dwelling, stuccoed and well finished throughout…’. In 1879, Marong Shire rate records reveal that the property, then known as Aldbourne, (named after Joseph King Smith’s English birthplace), was still valued at £50. Joseph King Smith died in April 1884 leaving an estate of £5,431 and John Stephenson, a Sandhurst storekeeper, purchased the property for £1,000 the same year.
There is no evidence that the first Bishop of Sandhurst, Most Rev. Martin Crane ever lived at Genazzano; rather, he resided at the Bishop’s Palace adjacent to St Kilian’s Church and he died there in 1901. Rate records indicate that Stephen Reville occupied Genazzano from at least 1890 until the time of his death in 1916 and reports in the Bendigo Advertiser and the Bendigo Independent show that Reville hosted open days and picnics as fundraisers for the Sisters of Mercy and other religious orders during this era and regularly hosted prominent visitors such as Archbishop Carr and Bishop Mannix of Melbourne. Advertisements of November 1899 stated that the purpose of one garden party was to ‘raise funds to paint and decorate the chapel at the Convent of Mercy’; Genazzano’s garden and grounds were described as ‘beautifully laid out with trees, shrubs and green laws so that all who participated … left behind them the unpleasant heat and dust of the city’. There are other sources that attest to Reville’s occupation of the property and the improvements he made to it, including advertisements for tenders for alterations to the house in both 1903 and 1910. Stephen Reville died suddenly in September 1916 at the Bishop’s Palace at McCrae St, after travelling there from his Kangaroo Flat home. After Reville’s death, Rev. Dean Thomas Rooney, Diocesan Administrator, managed Genazzano but it is unclear if he actually lived there.
Rev. John McCarthy was the Bishop of Sandhurst between 1917 and 1950. After 1920, McCarthy also lived at the Bishop’s Palace at McCrae St and there is no evidence that he ever lived permanently at Genazzano. Genazzano was described as the Bishop’s ‘country residence’. As well as using the residence for entertaining, it was used as a guest house and as an occasional retreat for the Sisters of Mercy during this period. The diocesan archive holds decorative cards, menus and invitations relating to hosted events at Genazzano during this period.
During Bishop Stewart’s era (1950 – 1979), guests’ autographs were signed in his housekeeper’s Missal and national and international dignitaries as well as celebrities such as the Von Trapp family Singers autographed the fly page of the Missal. This Missal is held in the diocesan archive.
Subsequent Bishops, Noel Daly, Joseph Grech, Leslie Tomlinson and the current Bishop, Shane Mackinlay have each made their home at Genazzano.
