Cairnsfoot is a heritage-listed former residential villa and special school at 18 Loftus Street, Turrella, Bayside Council, New South Wales, Australia. It was built from 1880 to 1884 by Edward M. Farleigh. It has also been known as Cairnsfoot Special School, Loftus Street Special School and Loftus Street Public School. It was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. History The name "Turrella" is an Aboriginal word meaning "a reedy place" or "water weeds". Wolli Creek, which runs through the original site of settlement, was first known as Woolly Creek, and it is quite likely that the weeds in the water gave it a thick appearance. The land on which Cairnsfoot was later built was first granted to Ruben Hannam on 31 August 1833. Ownership by the Farleigh family Edward Manicome Farleigh was born in County Mayo, Ireland, in 1838, the son of a coast guard officer. In 1865, with his wife and two small sons, he migrated to the colony of Victoria. In 1873, they moved to Sydney, where Farleigh established the leather merchants' firm of E.M. Farleigh Pty. Ltd. at Mascot, which was later called Farleigh, Nettheim and Company. E. M. Farleigh had started work as a tannery worker and from there set up his own business. Early in 1884, Farleigh purchased of uneven ground in Loftus Street at the corner of Willington Street and erected a fine two storey Italianate mansion with extensive outbuildings which was called Cairnsfoot. Mrs. Farleigh is said to have been delighted with every feature of the house except the main staircase, which she considered mean and unnecessarily steep for a house of its size. By 1885, the family had increased to ten children the eldest of whom, John Gibson Farleigh, was to become a leading industrialist and a member of the New South Wales Legislative Council. Cairnsfoot was set with outbuildings in a garden setting of mature trees. The grounds included four trees which survive today and are thought to date from 1884: two Norfolk Island pines (Araucaria heterophylla) and two evergreen magnolias/bull bays (Magnolia grandiflora) from America. Cairnsfoot shows the development of large villas on the urban fringe of Rockdale. A photograph shows that the architectural layout of the garden did not change during the seventy years the Farleigh family lived at Cairnsfoot. It shows garden beds planted with annuals. Mass planting of bedding plants