Land or Entrance Gate

Henry F Halloran designed and erected the Tanilba Centenary Gate and the Land Gate. The Gates were completed on 31 March 1931, 100 years to the day after Henry F Halloran’s grandfather signed the Crown grant which gave possession of Tanilba in 1831 to William Caswell.

Both the gates, the Water Gate and the Entrance or Land Gate near Lemon Tree Passage Road, were built to commemorate the centenary in 1931 of the land grant to the Caswells, using unemployed workers during the Depression.

Stonework and Constructions

All the stonework in the area is similar in style and was constructed of local material. Henry roughly sketched the designs on whatever paper he had at the time, and William H Powe built them. 

Both the gates were built from round and broken quartz porphyry embellished with white felspar and held together by cement. The stone was gathered from the Tanilba foreshore and from a quarry at Mallabula.

Tree Planting Between the Two Gates

On 7 June 1929, Port Stephens Shire Council received a letter from Henry F Halloran regarding tree planting on the Tanilba Estate roads. The council obtained 114 trees from the Botanical Gardens for planting along the roads in the estate. 

The main survivors of this tree planting are the two rows of Norfolk Island Pines along either side of the Avenue of the Allies,  3 Norfolk Island Pines in Sunset Park, and one in Meridian Park. Some of these trees have died over the years and have been replaced by other species but they still form an imposing sight.

Such tree planting was a typical feature of Garden City developments and was a feature of Henry Halloran’s estates.