JD Stewart Building, School of Veterinary Science (1914)

Figure 11. Courtesy of the School of Veterinary Science Archives, 1914. The J.D Stewart Building shortly after opening in 1914. Photograph, https://sydney.edu.au/vetscience/centenary/timeline.shtml.[1]

You’re now at the end of Science Road at the Veterinary Science School, as shown in the 1914 photograph (Fig. 11), an impressive brick and sandstone building built between 1910 and 1912, named after the founding father of the Faculty of Veterinary Science – JD Stewart.[2] In the early 1900s, the vet school was quite isolated, allowing vet students to study without disturbing students in other faculties.[3]Today you can probably hear cars driving along Parramatta Road, and students playing sport on the fields nearby. But back in the early 1900s, the area around the Vet Science building was farmland for agricultural and pastural use.[4]

On the lawns of the Vet Science building is the Roundhouse – a black wooden round heritage listed rotunda, that was used as an equine observatory in the 1920s and has become an icon of the faculty today.[5]

The Veterinary Science School building, the Union and the Agriculture buildings you just saw, and the John Woolley building you will be visiting next, make up the largest group of Federation Arts and Crafts style buildings in Australia.[6]

     [1] “University Archives Mediabank.”

     [2] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A39.

     [3] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A40.

     [4] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A40.

     [5] “Sydney School of Veterinary Science,” The University of Sydney, accessed June 1, 2021, https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/schools/sydney-school-of-veterinary-science.html.

     [6] Kerr, Attenbrow, Stanborough, Ellsmore, and Marshall,  Appendix A, A41.