Stonington - late Victorian Melbourne

Before 1888, the Malvern site has been used for the Salvation Army's first meetings in Melbourne. John Wagner purchased the majority of the property in Glen­ferrie Road in 1888, with additional parcels of land around the main allotment. In 1890 Wagner developed this estate, naming the estate Ston­ington Mansion after Stonington in Connecticut, his wife Mary’s home town.

  

Stonington's carriage drive and front entrance

Wagner was already a partner in Cobb and Co Coaches which dominated the coach and mail business in northern and central Victoria. His coach line service was so inf­luent­ial in the growth of the Victorian colony that Wagner made a for­t­une. He also made impressive wealth from gold mining.

Stonington was designed by London-born architect, engineer and surveyor Charles D’Ebro. Together with his business partner John Grainger, D’Ebro was involved in the design of different Melbourne buildings eg Princes Bridge and the MCG grandstand and pavilion. Clearly D’Ebro loved Late Boom Style Classicism that was prevalent in Melbourne in the 1880s and early 1890s.

Stonington is a mixture of French Second Empire and Italian Renaissance Revival. See a large two storey brick and stucco classical mansion with steep French Second Empire roof forms and concentrated Baroque detail and bulk. It's an asymmetrical compos­ition with arcaded loggia at ground floor level and adjoining 2 storey servants and service wing.

The original decorative scheme and the stained glass were created by the firm Lyon Cottier and Wells, of Melbourne and Sydney. The staircase windows are a fine example of C19th domestic stained glass. Some of the original Wagner furniture pieces were manufactured by W. Walker & Sons, one of London's leading firms. The finely detailed and crafted interiors were notable, especially the great hall, stair case and glazed lant­ern.

An elaborate gate house, with impressive entrance gates and iron fence, was designed in a similar style to the house, reflecting the wealth and importance of the owner. A very large orig­inal stable building has also been retained on the estate and much of the orig­inal fabric re­mains.

 Stonington's gate house and main gates

Much of the landscaping has been retained. Note the 1890 carriage drive, front fence and gates, sweeping lawns enc­l­osed by large shrubberies, steps framed by a pair of oaks, a coll­ection of pines and winding gravel paths. Although smaller due to being covered with new buildings, sufficient gar­den sur­vives to apprec­iate its characteristics; it was typ­ical of C19th city mansion gardens.

Wagner and his family lived in the house until his death in 1901. The residence’s past high society guests included Dame Nellie Melba, King George VI and the Queen Mother as the Duke and Duchess of York, King Edward VIII as the Prince of Wales, Sir John Monash, Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, Lord Kitchener, Keith Murdoch and Ernest Shackleton.

Australia became an independent nation with Federation on 1st Jan 1901. After Federation, the central Government sat in the State Parliament building in Melbourne (until Canberra could be built) and served as the governor-general's official residence. So Stoning­ton was immediately acquired for Victoria's vice-regal res­idence, from 1901-1930s. For these state governors, British gentlemen all, the finely detailed and crafted int­eriors, great hall and staircase were perfect.

The 7 Victorian Governors who resided at Stonington were:
· 1901-3: Sir George Sydenham Clarke
· 1904-8: Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot
· 1908-11: Sir Thomas David Gibson Carmichael
· 1911-3: Sir John Michael Fleetwood Fuller
· 1914-20: Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley
· 1921-6: Colonel George Mowbray, Earl of Stradbroke
· 1926-31: Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Tennyson, Lord Somers

At first the Victorian Government leased the property. Then in 1928 Stonington was subdivided into two sections and the Victorian Govern­ment acquired the developed western portion, containing the mans­ion, gate house & stables. So for 30 years, until 1931, Stonington had been the State Gov­ernor's residence.

Staircase

Stained glass front door

Interior decoration

BalanceArchitecture

The Modern Era
The estate was used as St Margaret's Girls' School until 1938, post-hospital care for child polio victims until 1940 and then as a Red Cross convalescent hospital in WW2 and af­t­er. Its last health care in­car­n­ation was as the Health Department’s administ­ration from 1953-1957.

With the enormous expansion of education during the post-war baby boom, Stonington was trans­fer­red to the Ed­uc­ation Dept in 1957 and continued to be utilised by Toorak Teachers' College and the Toorak campus of State College of Victoria from 1973-1992. Then it was Deakin Univers­ity's admin­istrative headquarters, until 1995.

The most extensive building works were undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s as the property was redevel­oped for the Toorak Teachers' Coll­ege. And modifications were also made to the landscape to the east and south of the mansion, for the student teachers. The mansion inter­iors remained intact but the exterior loggias were enclosed.

By 2006 the campus became sur­plus to Deakin Uni's needs and was put up for sale to private interests. This created intense lob­bying from locals who bel­ieved the property should be retained by the government, but the government did nothing. The prop­er­ty was sold for $18 million.

In 2008 art dealer Rod Menzies purchased a smaller Stonington estate from developers who'd sliced off large sections of the yard on which they had built homes. In 2018 Mr Menzies on-sold Stonington for a new house price record of $52.5 million! Appar­ently it was sold to an Asia-based buyer and is now awaiting approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Note that stunning Stonington Mansion lived through, and was involved in, the important phases of early Victoria - Federation, state governors and the development of Victorian social institut­ions.

Stonington gardens

Sydney Morning Herald

Thank you to the Victorian Heritage Database Report.

Remembering WW1 in Queensland

ANZAC Day dawn service, 2022

    

After years of pandemic lockdowns, crowds were again free to at­t­end Anzac Day dawn services & ex-servicemen marches on 25th April 2022. And thousands did!! 

But ANZAC/Australian & New Zealand Army Corps Day may have ch­anged over the decades; critical debate and political controversies are being raised now. The divisiveness is about the compulsion to be pa­t­riotic and stand by the historical massacres at any cost. Many think we sh­ould commemorate Armistice Day instead, when world peace was dec­lared at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month. Note however that Remembrance Day never had the nation-building dimension in Australia that Anzac Day has.

The memorials erected in or after WW1 became Austr­al­ia’s first monum­ents, recording the devastating impact of WW1 on a young na­tion. Australia lost 60,000 from only 4 million people. Even before the war ended, memorials became a vis­ible expression of national grief. To those who created them, they were as sacred as grave sites i.e graves for the Austral­ians whose bodies still lay in European and Midd­le Eastern battle­fields. Brit­ish policy decreed its bodies were to be bur­ied where they fell and never taken home.

The Melbourne Shrine was very big and impressive, taking years to complete, and it wasn't officially dedicated until 11th Nov 1934 by the Duke of Gloucester. 300,000 people met to watch that 1934 event, and there was a commitment that the shrine would al­ways have an unimpeded and uninterrupted view from the city.

What about Queensland?  The most prominent building is the circular Shrine of Remembrance and the Eternal Flame which stands proudly and solemnly at the top of the Gardens. It is 10 metres in diameter and consists of a Grecian Doric circular colonnade of 18 columns representing the year of peace, 1918. Written around the top of the structure are the names of the major battles in which Australian units figured prominently such as ANZAC, Cocos Isupoli and Villers-Bretonneux.

Shrine of Remembrance in Anzac Square, Brisbane

Boonah War Memorial (pop 2000) was in a town in South Qld where the foundation stone was laid in May 1920; it was unveiled in July 1920 as part of the visit to Boonah by the Prince of Wales-later King Edward VIII. The marble and granite memor­ial was designed/made by Ipswich masonry firm Williams & Co, honouring local men who served in WW1.

The £600 cost was raised by public subs­crip­­t­ions, organised by a mem­orial committee. Memorial Park in Boonah was enclosed by a brick and wrought iron fence, with wrought iron gates at the front and rear cor­ners, flanked by pillars with ball fin­ials. A central con­crete path led to the memor­ial which was surround­ed by tier­ed garden beds. A flagstaff was located on the south western side. The specifically des­igned memorial park and fence were opened on Anzac Day 1922 by war hero-politician Capt Arnold Wienholt.

ANZAC Day Service, Boonah Memorial, 1924.
State Library Qld.

Australian war memorials were distinctive in that they commemorated the dead lads AND also the survivors. Australians were proud that their first great nat­ional army, unlike other battling armies, was composed ent­ir­ely of vol­unt­eers, men worthy of honour. Many memorials honoured those who served from a local area, providing valuable evidence of community in­volvement in the war. [In my generation, conscription for the Vietnam War was hated].

WW1 soldier statue, 

Boonah Qld

Australian war memorials also displayed imperial loy­al­ty; the skills of local stonemasons, metalworkers and architects. In Queensland, the soldier statue (above) was the pop­ul­ar choice of memorial, whereas the obelisk (below) prevailed in the south­ern states, ? because of Queensland's larger working-class pop­ulace. The soldier embod­ied the ANZAC Spirit and the qualities of the ideal Austr­alian man: loyalty, courage, youth, informal­ity.

Immediately following the 1918 Armistice, a grateful Com­mon­wealth Gov­ern­ment brought captured machine guns to Aust­ralia, and distributed them to towns and cities. A local display of captured weapon­s was esp­ecial­ly import­ant for this young country, far removed from the Europ­ean battle fields. It was also a nation that had suffered the highest per capita casualty rate of any combatant nation in WW1! After a long public debate, the State War Trophy Committee dec­ided that troph­ies would be allocated on the basis of population, rather than on enlist­ments. For Queensland, this meant that only lar­g­er towns could apply for larger, more valuable guns. Note the Commit­tee believed Boon­ah’s popul­ation to be too small to apply.

Trophy gun from WW1, 

Boonah Memorial park

Great War guns trad­ed on the open market would have been a controver­s­ial process back then, when emotions were still raw and when the dist­rib­ution of war trophies was strictly controlled by State and Commonw­ealth agencies. Thus Boonah be­came the only Australian town ever to buy a privat­ely-owned trophy gun on behalf of community.

The Boona memorial was made of coarse marble, a pedestal surm­ounted by an obelisk and a digger statue, and sitting on a marble base. The columns were surmounted by four marble corner urns, and in the centre of the columns see the marble plates with the names of the 374 local men who served in WW1. The 69 locals who died were named on the front and the rear recorded the names of nurses and chaplains. Projecting from the centre of the pedestal was the tapered marble ob­el­isk, 6 m high. Surmounting the obelisk was the digger stat­ue, the Australian soldier standing at ease with his head bow­ed and his hands resting on his reversed rifle. Queensland War Mem­or­ials provided evid­ence of an era widesp read Australian patriotism & nationalism in WW1.

Boonah Memorial park

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Melbourne Uni 1889 mansion and gardens

The land boom in Marvellous Melbourne came in 1883-1891 era which saw the price of land start to thrive. Naturally London banks were eager to extend loans to entrepreneurs who capitalised on this with grand, elaborate offices, hotels and department shops in the thriving city, and beautiful suburban growth nearby.

Cumnock Parkville was designed by Charles Webb who was the famed architect behind many Melbourne landmark buildings: Windsor, Royal Arcade, Mandeville Hall, Melbourne Grammar School and South Melbourne Town Hall. Cumnock is a fine example of an Italianate mansion much loved in the late 1800s over Melbourne. It was completed in 1889 for stock-and-station agent George Howat, then acquired in 1919 by Ridley College, a Christian theological college affiliated with Melbourne University.

Cumnock Mansion and tower, Melbourne University Parkville

Realestate

The four-bedroom, double-storey home on corner block opposite Royal Park is a boom period Italianate mansion. The main suite features a marble ensuite, while three further oversized bedrooms share a designer bathroom with a bath and separate toilet. Many thanks to realestate.com.au.

The home had been used by the university as a residence but was now not needed. It’s been renovated since the university bought new fixtures, fittings and amenities throughout, but now it’s sitting vacant. The listing comes c6 months after the university committed to repay $72m in wages to staff it underpaid between 2014-24. With grand proportions and flexible spaces, now it might be repurposed as consulting rooms or executive space, subject to council approval.

Set over two levels, Cumnock includes 11 principal rooms, 9 original fireplaces, two staircases, wine cellar and turreted viewing tower. Cumnock’s elegant living rooms showcase Victorian grandeur with bay windows, and park outlooks. A two-zoned bathroom, powder room and full laundry are on ground floor. Upstairs a spacious rumpus room opens to a wraparound balcony and the turret’s lookout, with  sweeping views over the park. 

foyer with soaring ceilings and Corinthian columns (above)

stained glass window (below)

Realestate

Cumnock’s marble-draped, state-of-the-art kitchen and dual staircases blend Victorian elegance with contemporary luxury. Preserved period details include an entry hall/foyer with soaring ceilings and flanked by Corinthian columns that greet residents and guests upon entry. Expansive formal and informal living zones feature high ceilings, bay windows and ornate period features. Melbourne University’s Parkville mansion Cumnock, grand gardens and heritage design.

landscaped gardens, private courtyard, pond, alfresco terrace

1376sq m, Realestate

Inside there are stained-glass windows, archways and decorative cornicing. Key living spaces include a formal dining room with garden views, a grand sitting room, library or home office, custom cabinetry and an expansive meals area opening via French doors to a sun-drenched alfresco terrace. Set on 1376sq m, the landscaped gardens include a private courtyard with a fishpond centre-piece, surrounded by leafy landscaping.

Dr Leon Morris became Vice Principal of Ridley College in 1945. In his 15 years as Principal he built up the college, created the new chapel, and saw Ridley become the first Uni college to have male and female residential students. He was made a member of the University Council in 1977, and loved retreating to his tower in his residence of Cumnock to study or contemplate.

Ridley College reopened Cumnock Mansion to provide accommodation for international students from the University of Melbourne in 2005. Then Prof Duncan Maskell was a biochemist and academic who specialised in molecular microbiology and bacterial infectious diseases. He became vice-chancellor Melbourne University in 2018 and was given Cumnock House as his home. This year he resigned, and the house went on the market. 

I want this house! But my family only needs 2 bedrooms, one storey and a cheap price gggrr. Can the university reach the suggested $8m-$8.7m price guide?

Up There Cazaly - Aussie football anthem

Roy Cazaly (1893–1963) was an early champion ruckman for St Kilda and South Melbourne Clubs from 1911-27. In the 1910s and 1920s, Cazaly formed a famous ruck pack with teammates Fred Skeeter Fleiter and Mark Napper Tandy, who was known for his high marks i.e massive leaps skywards. When teamed with Fleiter and Tandy, Cazaly soared well above the packs of tall players (Sporting Globe, 1935). While Cazaly made a leap, Fleiter would shepherd (protect) and the men would scream “Up there Cazaly” together. The crowds joined in the scream!

Cazaly going up for a screamer/a great mark 

The words later became a battle cry used by Australia’s WW2 troops. It was noted that Cazaly's unusual surname likely contributed to the words’ nationalist fervour amongst working-class male soldiers overseas. Back home in Australia, the famous playwright Ray Lawler included the phrase in his play Summer of the Seventeenth Doll 1955 where the heroine Nancy used it on several occasions, with clear theatrical effect.

But why was a song necessary? In 1978, the Mojo Singers' song C'mon Aussie C'mon was so successful at promoting Channel 9's cricket coverage that it became a #1 hit in Australia. So Channel 7 urgently wanted a similar theme for its Victorian Football League/VFL broadcasts and an advertising company signed up singer-songwriter Mike Brady.

   

L->R: Mark Tandy, Fred Fleiter, Roy Cazaly, South Melb,

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When the South Melbourne Football Club relocated north to Sydney in 1982 as the Sydney Swans, the club changed its song to a version of Brady’s song, Up There for Sydney. This song was not loved and the new Sydney club soon reverted to its original song, Cheer the Red and the White.

The song was featured in the 1980 film version of The Club, the play by David Williamson. In 1981, Ian Turner and Leonie Sandercock published a book on the VFL history called Up Where, Cazaly?: The Great Australian Game. On his 2007 album The World's Most Popular Pianist Plays Down Under Favorites, French pianist Richard Clayderman included a medley of 3 Australian favourites: a]Up There Cazaly, b]Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport and c]A Pub With No Beer.

The National Postal Service opened a tv ad campaign in 2016. They created a cover version of Up There Cazaly, sung by various groups in their own cultural styles. It was affiliated with the AFL's Multicultural version of the anthem.

"Up Where, Cazaly?: The Great Australian Game"

book written by Turner & Sandercock

Stadia, teams and singers may change but there's one non-negotiable truth when it comes to AFL grand finals: Brady singing again, the heart of AFL Grand Final day. Brady told ABC Radio I just have a really lovely feeling about it when I sing it because people like it. And to have 95,000 people sing along with you is wonderful." But why is Brady's song still rocketing along 4 decades on?

By 1979, Brady was actively promoting Channel 7’s coverage of the VFL, composing a jingle about footy being chosen over any other weekend leisure. A disc jockey played the short jingle and asked Brady to turn it into a full-length song.  It was first performed by the Two-Man Band, Brady and music arranger Peter Sullivan, and later became the “anthem” of Australian Rules Football/AFL. The catch-cry was soon adopted by South Melbourne fans and entered our slang expressing encouragement. The song became the highest-selling Australian single ever, and was nominated for Most Popular Australian Single.

The head of Fable Records Ron Tudor rang from Buckingham Palace where he was being presented with an MBE, saying We've got a number one record! It was a surprise, because although Brady had triumphantly performed the song at the grand final, he’d battled technical issues.

In time the song lost its #1 position but Brady could still write more footy anthems, with One Day in September (1980) very popular. And he helped write Greg Champion's song That's the Thing about Football (1994)

Was/is Mike Brady passionate about Australian footy? British born Brady moved to Melbourne in 1959 and experienced early stardom when his band MPD Ltd had a 1965 Australian hit single with Little Boy Sad. Most assumed Brady loved the sport, but he said he wasn't a huge fan of the game but he'd always been an observant person. He was fascinated by the way this Big Thing dominated Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth & Hobart. He'd been to the football once and spent all the time watching the crowd. It was really a great spectacle for me to observe and that's where Up There Cazaly came from.

                                     

Brady playing at an AFL Grand Final, 

Herald Sun

 

Fans singing with Mike Brady

alamy

When released, the song sold 50,000 copies in 3 weeks. But its popularity each Grand Final didn't make it a huge money-spinner. But apart from its rousing chorus, Brady said the song remained popular 40+ years after its release because it appealed to everyone. It's not all about blokes-males. It's not a blokey song but it’s woke; thus women like it. It neither mentions big men flying nor a specific footy team.

Brady, a Collingwood fan, jokes about his fame. But that first grand final performance back in 1979 was the one where the immigrant realised "the crowd was on his side". Always feeling like an outsider, from that day on, he felt like he belonged in Australia.

Roy Cazaly died in 1963

Cazaly was fit into his 60s, but died in Tasmania at 70. Did he realise how famous his name was?

old slaver statues: destroy or museumise?

Edward Colston (1636–1721) was born in a wealthy merchant family in Bristol. Later he went to school in London and established him­self as a successful trad­er in wool

Edward Colston's statue

Bristol

In 1680 he joined the Royal African Company/RAC company, formally head­ed by the Duke of York/later King James II, that had a mon­opoly on the west African slave trade. RAC branded all the slaves’ chests, even the children, with the RAC initials. Colston apparently sold c100,000 West Africans in the Car­ibbean and Americas bet­w­een 1672-89, and it was through this London Co that Colston became very rich.

Colston used the enormous slave profits to move into money lending and mercantile businesses. He must have known that slavery was an abomin­at­­ion, because he sold his company shares to William Prince of Or­ange in 1689, after the latter led the Glorious Revolution and took the throne.

Colston developed his fame as a philanthropist who donated to char­it­ab­le causes like schools and hospitals in Bristol and London. He even served as a Tory MP for Bristol. He died in 1721 and was respectfully bur­ied in All Saints Church Bristol.

To honour the great phil­an­th­ropist, Colston’s name permeated Bris­t­ol. Note independent Colst­on school, Cols­ton Conc­ert Hall, two Colston streets and the high-rise office block Colston Tow­er. And the 5.5-metre bronze Colston statue has stood as a memorial on Col­ston Ave since 1895.

But modern campaigners vigorously argued that the hideous slav­ery business mean his contribut­ion to Bris­tol had to be reassessed. They decided in 2018 to change the stat­ue’s plaque to describe his slave-trading, but a final wording was never agreed upon.

Bristol slave trader Edward Colston's statue in Bristol 

Dropped into docks, to cheers all around.

 In 2020 a petition with thousands of signatures said that whilst his­t­ory shouldn’t be forgotten, these people who benefited from the ensl­ave­ment of individuals do not deserve the honour of a statue. This should be reserved for those who bring about positive change and who fight for peace, equality and social unity. We hereby en­cour­age Brist­ol city council to remove the Edward Colston statue. Bristol Museum said Colston’s statue was remaining because he never traded in enslaved Afric­ans, on his own account.

Eventually, during Black Lives Matters protests, frustrated prot­es­ters toppled the statue of Edward Colston from its plinth, graff­it­ied it and threw it into the docks. Bristol Coun­cil quick­ly ret­riev­ed it, then asked conserv­at­ors to stab­ilise the statue’s condition.

Protesters across the US tore down and vandalised statues and mem­orials of Confederate soldiers and generals, following George Floyd's death in Minneapolis in 2020. As long the offensive stat­ues etc are removed to a museum and preserved for history, I would be perfectly happy not to see Colston. But no permanent destruction, please.

In 1768, when Capt James Cook (1728–79) set sail on the first of 3 voyages to the South Seas, he’d been ordered by the British Admiral­ty to seek a continent and take possession of it for the British King. Cook reached the southern coast of N.S.W in 1770 and sailed north, charting Australia’s coast and cl­aim­ing the land for Britain in 1770. Cook transformed the way Eu­r­op­eans view­ed the Pacific Ocean and its lands, dying for Britain in a Hawaiian Islands battle in 1779. His maps, journals, log books and paintings from Cook’s travels are preserved in NSW’s State Library.

A sculpture of Cook was erected in Catani Gardens in St Kilda, opposite the beach in Melbourne in 1914. And in 1973, a life-size bronze statue of Cook was sculpted and installed near Cook's Cottage, in beautiful Fitzroy Gardens.

Vandals poured paint on the Cook sculpture on Australia Day in 2018, scribb­ling the words No Pride beneath the feet, along with the Abor­ig­­inal flag. Then it was re-vandalised in 2019. That statue was cov­er­ed with graffiti in 2020 when the words Destroy White Sup­remacy were scrawled on the stone. Similarly a statue of Captain Cook in Sydney was defaced.

Captain Cook statue, Sydney
unveiled to the public, 1879.

It seemed that historical monu­m­ents around the world have been brok­en or dyed as Black Lives Matter protest­ers mar­ched through the streets. In Australia the protesters called out Cook over his links to colon­ial­ism in a nation built on Aboriginal genocide.

In rebellion against Australia Day, called Invasion Day by the prot­est­ers, a group doused the Catani monument dep­ict­ing Captain Cook in red paint. The statue was defaced and its base was papered with fly­ers pro­posing the abolition of Australia Day celebrations. The vand­alism att­racted curious locals, before the paint was hosed off by council work­ers.

Captain Cook's statue, in Melbourne

covered in red paint.
 
But the authorities were unhappy. Port Phillip’s mayor said they had had “a very beaut­iful, fit­ting and respectful service with our trad­it­ional land­owners this morn­ing”. Minister for Multicultural Affairs said “Vandals are trashing our national heritage and should be pros­ecuted. Australia Day should be a great unifying day for our country, as it has been for decades."  But then why didn't the protesters send a petition from every citizen in Port Phillip area? Or negotiate through the local Council?

Edna Walling's stunning garden designs

Edna Margaret Walling (1895-1973) was born in York, second daughter of William and Harriet Walling. Edna studied at the Convent of Notre Dame in Devon, enjoying exploring with dad and the practical arts. Arriving in New Zealand in 1912 with her family, she began a nursing course at Christchurch. About 1914 the Wallings moved to Melbourne where William became a warehouse director.

Encouraged by her mother, Edna studied at School of Horticulture Burnley, gaining a graduate certificate in Dec 1917. She then began work as a jobbing gardener around Melbourne. Asked by an architect to plan a garden, she loved the idea. More commissions came and by the 1920s she had built a successful practice in garden design. She developed a sophisticated style,attracting an equally sophisticated clientele, and rapidly became the leading exponent of the art in Victoria at first, then spread to other states. Her regular gardening columns (1926-46) in Australian Home Beautiful and other magazines extended her influence.

Mawarra in Sherbrooke, designed in 1932

Dandenong Ranges Photography

To some extent, Walling emulated the styles of Spanish and Italian gardens and the work of Sir Edwin Lutyens and Gertrude Jekyll in Britain. The gardens she created typically exhibited a strong architectural character. For clients in the wealthy suburbs of Melbourne and on country estates, her designs included grand architectural features: walls, pergolas, stairs, parterres, pools and colonnades—woven into a formal geometry. And she always found a space for a wild, unstructured section.

For clients with more modest means, Walling's approach was more relaxed, relying on curving lawns and garden beds to give the illusion of greater space. But rarely were there no stone walls or other structural features. Whether the garden was big or small, she created a succession of pictures. Her handling of space, contour, level and view was brilliant. Equally impressive was her mastery of plants and their visual and ecological relationships. Her gardens were clothed by a soft and consistent palette of plants. She favoured greens and used other colours sparingly, mostly in pastel tones or white. For many clients she produced an exquisite water-colour plan of the garden as a means of conveying her proposals. Most of her gardens were constructed by Eric Hammond. Walling often provided the plants from her own nursery and was frequently on site giving instructions and helping with the physical labour. 

Edna Walling's iconic 1920s landscape design, Sherbrooke 

Heritage listed, Facebook

In the early 1920s Walling had acquired land at Mooroolbark where she built a house for herself, known as Sonning. Here she lived and worked, establishing her nursery and gathering around her a group of like-minded people for whom she designed picturesque 'English' cottages and gardens. She named the area Bickleigh Vale village. Some people rather unkindly called it Trouser Lane because of the dress of its predominantly female residents. The village was, and remains, an extraordinary experiment in urban development. In Walling's lifetime, and beyond, it has become a place of pilgrimage for her many followers. She designed several other group-housing estates. One, at Mount Kembla in NSW, was built for Broken Hill Associated Smelters Pty Ltd. Others remained on paper.

By the 1940s Walling's was a household name and she capitalised on her popularity by publishing four successful books: Gardens in Australia (1943); Cottage and Garden in Australia (1947); A Gardener's Log (1948); and The Australian Roadside (1952). A further monograph, On the Trail of Australian Wildflowers, appeared posthumously in 1984. Several more manuscripts were unpublished.

Her influence on C20th gardening in Australia was enormous. The visual impact of the hundreds of gardens she created, her extensive writing, and the respect she commanded from those with whom she worked, including Glen Wilson, Ellis Stones and Eric Hammond, had a considerable effect on the next generation. In the 1980s and 1990s she was to become almost a cult figure for many Australian gardeners and a number of books were published about her work.

The Edna Walling Book of Australian Garden Design,

by Anne O'Donovan, 1980

In the mid-1940s Walling had developed a particular interest in native plants; she had begun using them in domestic gardens in the 1920s. An early and active conservationist, she joined battles to protect the natural environment and crusaded for the preservation of indigenous roadside vegetation. She was an outstanding photographer who always took her camera on her extensive travels. Classical music was another of her passions.

Miss Walling was not a person to be taken lightly. On site, dressed in her customary jodhpurs, jacket and tie, with strong, handsome features, she was energetic, determined and demanding. These character traits often provoked conflict, especially with some of her wealthy male clients. Yet she was also generous, fun loving and good company, attracting many loyal admirers and friends. By 1967, tiring of the characterless suburbs advancing towards Bickleigh Vale, she moved to Buderim, Queensland, to be in a warmer climate and near to her niece Barbara Barnes. Always single, Walling maintained a close relationship with Lorna Fielden, a teacher forwhom she had designed a house and garden at Bickleigh Vale. Fielden also moved to Buderim. 

Edna Walling, book cover of

The Unusual Life of Edna Walling, by Sara Hardy

Royal Historical Society of Victoria

Walling died in 1973 at Nambour and was cremated with Christian Scientist rituals.

Modernist art glass: Italy & Australia.

When I was doing art history, Art consisted of painting, sculpture and architecture. Even illuminated manuscripts were studied for their paintings, not for their other art forms eg book binding, printing, wood cuts. And for students who wanted to write academic theses about silver art, ivories, treen, ceramics or textiles, there was always a desperate scramble to find top quality supervisors and examiners.

What changed that for me as a postgraduate was finding other art forms that were fascinating: a] silver art of my beloved Huguenots, b] birth of C18th porcelain in central Europe and c] arrival of art glass in Australia. Art glass, for the purposes of this post, is an object of hand blown glass, designed in the first instance for decorative purposes. 

Sommerso/sunken glass is an art glass from the Italian island of Murano in the late 1930s with two or more layers of contrasting colours. These layers are formed by dipping the object in molten glass; the outermost layer is typically clear. Sommerso was developed during in the inter-war era and its sharp lines and minimal decoration quickly became a popular technique for vases. There is something about the crispness and lack of applied decorative elements on top of Murano that might remind the reader of the Gordon Studio art glass in Victoria.

Gordon, Burnt Earth Bottles,  2010, 
up to 50 cm high

Sommerso glass stem vase, Italy

20th Century Glass

The Scottish duo Alasdair and Rish Gordon graduated from Edinburgh College of Art in 1957, then moved to Hadelands Glass Works in Norway. The two artists soon established an engraving workshop in Bergen. Using full lead crystal blanks blown by Hadelands, they started using sandblast in their sculptures, and were there for the beginning of studio glass.

In 1973, Alasdair and Rish returned to Scotland, establishing a studio with Strathearn Glass Company. They would have stayed in Scotland, had it not been for the invitation to participate in Western Australia’s 150th Anniversary Celebrations in 1979. The family decided to emigrate to Australia, and as soon as possible they established The Gordon Studio in Fremantle, a port suburb of Perth.

Their daughter Eileen Gordon was born in Norway and was trained in England, then emigrated to Australia in 1980 with her parents. After a decade of working in glass studios here and abroad, Eileen established the her own studio in 1990. I had seen a lot of the Gordon studio’s loveliest pieces in a retail outlet in Melbourne, but had never seen their gallery and studio in semi-rural Mornington Peninsula.

Gordon, Centrifugal Platter, 2007, 
52cm diameter

Melbourne-born Grant Donaldson, Eileen’s husband, was not born into a glass art family. He left the land and started his career in glass in 1990, assisting his wife in this modern art medium. By 1994 the midlife career change was complete - he sold his farm and relocated Gordon Studio Glassblowers to the beachside resort town of Rosebud. Once Grant was working full time on his own glass art, he too became recognised as an innovative glass blower. Now they are in Red Hill, not far from Rosebud.

Naturally some pieces were more attractive to me than others. I did not particularly like the glass flowers mounted on removable stainless steel rods for planting in the garden; nor the mushrooms, cactus plants or bulrushes. Even the tiny Kaleidoscope Bottles seemed too small and decorated to be truly modern. But the large bottles, vases, platters & dishes are sublime: strong colours, sleek shapes and uncluttered by decorative add-ons. Had I found the centrifugal platters in the middle of Finland or Cuba, I still would have guessed that the colours and shapes were purely Australian. There is something special about the landscapes and seascapes of the Mornington Peninsula, its soils, trees and sunsets.

Donaldson, Jelly Bottles,  2010, 
68cm high

Perhaps the Gordon studio's most prestigious international exposure each year was at the Munich International Craft Fair in Germany, 1999-2000. In Australia the biggest success for the company was at the National Art Glass Gallery in Wagga Wagga. But for children visiting the studio, the highlight was watching the molten glass get coloured, moulded, patted with timber paddles and fired, endlessly.

 

Migrants welcome to Australia - Bonegilla

Bonegilla is a rural area on the western shore of Lake Hume in N.E Victoria. The nearest large township is Wodonga Vic, 9 km to the west and c12 km from Albury NSW, on the southern bank of Murray River, the border between the two states. Bonegilla primary school opened in 1876, a railway connection (1889) to Wodonga, and 2 hotels in 1910.

  huts in Bonegilla Rd, Bonegilla

VHD

Children enjoy the games and the fresh air

Albury City Council

Children in primary school

Albury City Council

In 1940 a large army camp and military hospital were built at Bonegilla and a huge ordnance base was built nearby, the camp being used to train troops during the war. The hospital cared for them and for wounded soldiers returned from the battle fields. The ordnance base stored and supplied military equipment and vehicles. This was a convenient location for such activities because there was a change in the railway-gauge between the two states. 

 During WW2 a military camp was established at Bonegilla for the training of infantry and bomb disposal personnel. Some Italian prisoners-of-war were also held there, and after the war some Australian and American prisoners-of-war from Japanese prisons were brought there. In 1947 the military camp was acquired for a reception centre for migrants, mostly from Europe. There were 24 camp blocks, comprised of 800+ buildings.

It was post-WW2 when millions of war-damaged people seeking peace looked to Australia. An army camp at Bonegilla was transformed into a migrant reception and training centre where new arrivals lived while they were processed and allocated jobs.

Bonegilla Migrant Reception & Training Centre received 300,000+ migrants from 30 nations during 1947-71, opened to provide temporary accommodation for newly arrived migrants. In the years after, more camps or hostels were set up around Australia to meet the demand of increasing numbers. Most migrants stayed in these for 4-6 weeks, although some stayed for months and even years.

So the Bonegilla Army Camp was re-used as a reception and training centre for the first contingents of displaced persons who Australia admitted under an agreement with the International Refugee Organisation, Europeans who couldn’t return to their former countries post-war. My Czech parents-in-law and their children sat in a Displaced Persons’ Camp in Austria, until they were accepted in a refugee camp in rural NSW.

Many migrants had not socialised since WW2 started in 1939.

Group activities were greatly enjoyed

Albury City Council

From 1960 it was retitled as the Bonegilla Reception Centre and took in more migrants and refugees, largely from European countries. Altogether to 1971 when it closed, Bonegilla proved to be the largest and longest-lasting reception centre in post-war Australia, at a time when the economy was growing rapidly. These new arrivals changed the face of Australian society; they and their families helped shaped Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience Bonegilla is an excellent tour. 

Block 19 today

Big4 Holiday Parks

In May 1990, Block 19 was put on the Victorian Heritage Register. As a registered place of special value to future generations, it is protected from any major change. In 2002, it became a commemorative place and tourism venue. In Dec 2007, it was included on the National Heritage List as a place of outstanding heritage value to the nation. A plaque declared the old reception centre was a symbol of post-war migration which transformed Australia’s economy, society and culture. Block 19 is now a special place which attracts visitors wanting to reflect on the experience of being a migrant; and was recognised as a place with powerful connections for many people here and a symbol of post-war migration which helped change Australia's economy, society and culture.

In the middle of sunny fields and on the banks of Australia's greatest river lies Bonegilla, the reception camp established by the Australian Government for European citizens. The travellers spend their first weeks in their new homeland here in order to become acquainted with its customs and thereby ease their passage into the Australian way of life. (Ad encouraging Displaced Persons to come to Australia).

Between 1947-71 Bonegilla Migrant Reception and Training Centre was the first home in Australia for the migrants. It was the largest operating migration reception centre. It is of national significance as a place associated with and demonstrating a defining change in Australia's immigration policy following the war.

For years Albury City has been collecting objects owned by former residents of the migrant reception centre; things that people brought from their homeland to give them comfort, photos, kitchen items, toys, books and clothing. Albury actively collects written memories from Bonegilla migrants.

The 1,295 oral, written and pictorial records in the Bonegilla Collection at the Albury Library clarify post-war immigration policies/procedures that changed the national origins and size of Australia’s population. These photographs, documents and memorabilia, provide insights into post-WW2 migration and refugee occurrences. The collection displays immigration policies and procedures that changed the composition and size of the Australian population, and thus transformed the nation economically, socially and culturally. To locate and identify a immigration record, including individual Bonegilla cards held by the National Archives, use the Making Australia Home programme.

In Dec 1987, a Back-to-Bonegilla day was held to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the migrant reception centre opening. Another was held in 1997. Numerous published histories and reminiscences followed.

Most of the migrants and refugees who passed through Bonegilla were drawn from non-English speaking European countries but with diverse arrival and settlement experiences. Some migrants recalled arriving lonely, unsure of where they were going and what they'd be doing. Others saw Bonegilla as a place of hope, symbolic of a new start. Even more importantly, the shift from prioritising Anglo-Celtic sources helped change political and social expectations, and thus the cultural diversity of Australia.

The Reception and Training Centre consisted of 24 blocks. It had its own churches, banks, sporting fields, cinema, hospital, police station and railway platform. Today, Block 19 is all that remains of the original site so the Bonegilla Migrant Experience.

The reception centre was temporary home for 320,000+ migrants. Some had short stays, but others remained there for a year or more, often because of non-recognition of their overseas qualifications. Disturbances in 1961, mainly caused by unemployed migrants who expected better food, climate and job prospects 15 years after the war, resulted in police action which fizzled out and migrants were transferred to hostels in metropolitan Melbourne. During that time a primary school (1952-71) managed changing student populations and many languages.

The arrow points to Bonegilla, half way between Sydney and Melbourne

Read Histories of Controversy: Bonegilla Migrant Centre by Alexandra Dellios, 2017 revealing the centre's other, more difficult history that included control, deprivation, slow job locating and dismal food.

Phar Lap, Australia's greatest ever racer!

Phar Lap was born in Timaru New Zealand in 1926, a chestnut gelding standing 17 hands high. The yearling was one of those sent by Sea-down Stud owner Alec Roberts to the Trentham sales. Sydney trainer Harry Telford received a copy of the N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue in Jan 1928 and was impressed by the colt’s breeding. Telford did not have money to buy the horse and contacted U.S businessman David J Davis who was initially reluctant to commit to the unseen prize. But eventually Telford’s brother inspected the horse and asked a businessman in N.Z to bid.

Although Phar Lap was New Zealand-born and raised, he never raced there. Even in Australia, Phar Lap failed to place in 8 of his first 9 starts. But he went on to win 36 of his next 41 races, including the Race That Stops the Nation, the 1930 Melbourne Cup. Phar Lap often won by several lengths and sometimes even finished at half pace. In the misery of the Great Depression, Phar Lap’s exploits thrilled both NZ and Australia, and became a legend of Australian sporting history. His sensational rise from humble beginnings captured the public’s imagination in those years.

 Jockey Jimmy Pike rode Phar Lap to 27 wins in 30 races!

Phar Lap and his strapper, Tommy Woodcock, 

Australian Geographic

In the 1930 Melbourne Cup, when he was ridden again by Jimmy Pike, the Australian wonder-horse beat Second Wind by 3 lengths to claim one of his greatest victories. To show you how important the Melbourne Cup always was, it’s still a significant public holiday in Victoria.

In 1931 co-owners Harry Telford and David Davis sent the horse to America. Once in California, all Tom Woodcock's efforts were focused on acclimatising the horse. If Phar Lap lost, Woodcock would get paid nothing other than his trip costs, and he really wanted to show the Americans what he was made of. In the weeks leading up to the Agua Caliente Handicap in Tijuana Mexico,  Australians listened to and read whatever they could on Phar Lap's progress. 

In March 1932, Phar Lap and jockey Billy Elliott won the richest race in the world then!! A fortnight later in April 1932 Phar Lap’s strapper Tommy Woodcock, who’d seen the horse in all his races, found him suffering in severe pain and high temperature. Phar Lap quickly bled to death and Woodcock was devastated. In Australia the death was seen as a great tragedy; rumours quickly spread that the horse may have been poisoned. The autopsy showing the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed, perhaps poisoned.

Phar Lap’s very large heart was returned to Australia for testing after his sudden death. Davis arranged for the heart to be sent to Sydney Uni for examination by thoroughbred expert Dr Stewart McKay and pathologist Prof Welsh. The wall of the left ventricle was removed, to inspect the muscle thickness. Noting the unusually large size of Phar Lap’s heart, Dr McKay asked Telford to donate it to Canberra’s Australian Institute of Anatomy. Although my father was sure American criminals poisoned the horse on purpose, debate continued as to whether Phar Lap died of an acute infection or from arsenic poison. Not surprisingly, the Institute of Anatomy collection became one of the key parts of Canberra’s National Museum.The mounted hide went to the Museum of Victoria in Melbourne, the skeleton to the National Museum of New Zealand in Wellington.

The death prompted an out-pouring of anger and mourning, and the saying a heart as big as Phar Lap’s came to refer to the horse’s staying power, used to indicate great courage. The heart is still suspended in a clear case, an icon of the National Museum’s collection. Letters sent to Harry Telford by the grieving public are now displayed with Phar Lap with other tributes in art and relics. Objects from his life: training saddle, shoes and tonic book tell the story of the wonder horse whose life abruptly ended.

Easily winning the 1930 Melbourne Cup

The Age

The Museum’s Phar Lap Collection includes the personal photo album of Phar Lap’s owner, David Davis. The album has 36 black and white photos, documenting each of Phar Lap’s race wins in Australia, with race details inscribed on the mounts. This is the only photo album known that features each of Phar Lap’s Australian wins. Davis died in 1959 and this album was discovered by his descendants in their California home in the 1990s.

The Museum’s Phar Lap collection also includes:
1. Jockey Billy Elliott’s Agua Caliente Club race programme
2. The 1932 program from Phar Lap’s last race, with personal inscription on the cover from Elliott.
3. Jockey Jim Pike’s 1930s riding boots and skull cap. 
4. An Akubra owned by Pharlap Dixon who worked on a Territory cattle property!
5. N.Z Thoroughbred Yearling Sale Catalogue Jan 1928, showing Davis WAS the buyer (£160).

In the 1983 film Phar Lap, he was as well-known for his mysterious death as for his great life successes. The film started when Phar Lap was bought on impulse by trainer Harry Telford. The horse lost his first races but Telford's faith in the animal was unshakable. Suddenly the horse became a winner, thanks to stable boy Tommy Woodcock. American promoter Dave Davis arranged for Phar Lap to be entered in several top races, where his long shot status resulting heavy losses for the criminal gamblers. Just after winning a major race in Mexico, Phar Lap collapsed and died; they assumed that the horse was murdered by gambling interests. Australia mourned.

Australia's greatest racehorse Phar Lap.

Museum of Victoria

National Mus Aus concluded that Phar Lap’s popularity was not just due to the fact he won so often. Rather in the impoverished Depression, the horse’s spectacular rise from humble beginnings expressed the dreams of ordinary Australians. 80+ years after he first went on display, the champion Phar Lap remains the most popular exhibit.