Following purchase of land by Sidney Sheedy on a sandstone escarpment in the 1920s, he commissioned a house to be designed by FG Leslie Allen which was built in 1939 on Hardy Street. Distinctive in all round red face brick, the structure was double fronted with an engaged circular tower facing west, all founded on a Bondi White sandstone basement.
The Maitland Railway Precinct was one area of David Sheedy’s particular attention due to its distinct indigenous, industrial, pastoral, agronomic and architectural heritage influences in the greater Sydney district. The Maitland Railway area is significant because of the mostly intact, early 19th century railway settings that contributed to the local economy largely due to commercial interests that were nation building.
David’s research into maritime history was lifelong and he was determined to capture the past by campaigning tirelessly for the preservation of the Alice Rawson. The account given by Roger Baylis (2012) summed up the Alice Rawson as Watsons Bay’s last lifeboat built in 1905 to replace the Lady Carrington. She was built entirely of Australian hardwood at Cockatoo Island Dockyards and was the prototype for future Sydney Lifesaving surf boats.
