Rippon Lea, Victorian estate & gardens

Ripponlea Mansion was built for Frederick Sargood (1834-1903), a man who became rich selling soft-goods on the Vict­orian goldfields, wife Marian and 9 children. The proper­ty design­ed by Joseph Reed, Melb­ourne's most important architect then. Rippon Lea was built when there was much weal­th in Victoria from the gold boom. This led to the building of many orn­ate mansions in Melb­ourne and rural areas, called the Vict­or­ian Ital­ian­ate style. Sarg­ood was a pract­ical Victorian, laying a sop­his­ticated und­er­gr­ound wat­ering system for the house which had its own el­ectric­ity sup­­ply and internal toil­ets. Sargood was very int­erested in orchids and ferns, so his water and drain­age system made the gardens thrive.

 The mansion had 15 rooms when the Sargoods moved in. Plus 7 maids, but­ler, 7 gardeners, coachman and a gr­­­oom. The garden was complex, includ­ing a large lake, large shrub­ber­ies and fl­ower gardens, orchards of his­t­orical fruit var­iet­ies, a fern­ery and rose gardens.

Rippon Lea

Wiki

In 1868 Sargood bought 27 hectares of scrub to establish his dream home and garden. In 1869 construction began on the 2-storey, 15 room mansion made from polychrome brickwork. This was a new material then when most import­ant Victoria build­ings were built in stone or stuc­coed brick. The ground floor had the draw­ing & dining rooms, study and breakfast room. An unusual design feature was an out­door pavil­ion adja­cent to the dining room. On the 1st floor were 6 bedrooms, dres­sing room, nursery, earth closet and 2 bathrooms! In an adj­acent sin­gle storey wing was a gun­room, maid's room and day nursery for the 12 children.

Frederick Sargood

Victoria’s first Minister for Defence

Rippon Lea Estate

Sargood entered the Victorian Legislative Council in 1874 and was a member for 23 years. Sadly Marian Sargood died delivering her 12th baby in 1878, so Frederick took the family and 3 staff to Britain, retur­n­ing to Australia in late 1882. In 1883 he rejoined Parliament and became Victoria’s first Minister for Defence.

Meanwhile Sargood had remar­ried and had another child, so the Melb­ourne property had to be well renovated; he made changes and additions that refl­ect­ed his incr­ea­sed wealth. The dining room was extend­ed, a 2nd floor was added to the rear wing, a tower was built, the kit­ch­ens were remod­el­led and a veranda was added to the west front. Buil­ding be­gan on a new, enlarged fernery. The drainage system was ext­end­ed and the gard­ens re-designed in a less formal style.

Although he used different architects over a 30-year period, the style used was unusually consis­tent. In 1897 the house was renovated, the front entrance being rem­od­elled into its present form. Many of the decor­at­ive features from that era remain eg the office was ad­ded and the dining room was redecor­ated. The house that had had 6 bed­rooms now had 11, some for the staff, as was a large bathroom. Rippon Lea was used as an enter­tainment place for 500+ people, including over­seas dig­nitaries. Sar­good was knight­ed in 1890. His business cont­in­ued prosp­ering in Aust­ralia and New Zealand, and he was elected to the first Aust­ral­ian Senate in 1901. While on a trip to N.Z he became ill, dying in Jan 1903. That year Rippon Lea was sold for £20,000 by Sargood's widow who took her daughter back to Britain  permanently. 

Lounge room

behance

Ballroom

polka dot Wedding

A syndicate headed by Victorian Premier Thom­as Bent, bought the estate and furniture, but Bent never liv­ed there. He used Rippon Lea for enter­tain­ing and ch­ar­ity events, then he began subdividing and selling off some of the land. Bent was forced from political office in 1908, dying in 1909 while un­der invest­igation for involve­ment in land scandals.

In 1910 the property was bought by Benjamin Nathan, a man wealthy from the furniture business, own­ing 15 Maples Furniture and Music Shops in 2 states. He moved to Rippon Lea with his wife and daugh­t­ers, returning the house to a family home. A private entrance lodge was built off Hoth­am St so he could continue to use the house for charity events eg in aid of WWI-related caus­es. Nathan intro­duced more native plants into the large garden, employing 15 gardeners, and building a large conservatory and 14 glass­houses. Nathan died in 1935, leaving it all to a daughter.

 

Fernery

Rippon Lea Estate

View of the lawn and pleasure gardens from the veranda

Wiki

 

In 1921 daughter Louisa Nathan married lawyer Timothy Jones and had 4 child­ren together. She modernised the home via Hol­lywood films: a new kitchen built on the ground floor, the dining room remodelled, modern tiled bathrooms in­stalled, the original ball­room was replaced with a sw­imming pool and the billiard room be­came a new ballroom. The new en­t­ran­ce hall brought in more natural light. Turkish carpets were replaced by leaf-green ones, and the colour scheme softened. Rooms had an elegant neo-baroque style, again famous for entertaining and charity functions.

Timothy Jones died in 1958 and the widow sold some land to the ABC for their tv studios. In 1963 the Federal Government put a Comp­ul­s­ory Ac­qu­isition Order on acres of land to ext­end the ABC. There was a huge dem­onstration against the acquisition so in 1963 Mrs Jones wrote her will; at her death, the estate would go to the Nat­ional Tr­ust.

The Trust DID inherit the estate, the Acquisition Order was with­dr­awn and Rippon Lea honoured Mrs Jones’ com­mitment to preserve her gift to the Nation. It was first opened to the public in Feb 1974 and 100,000 people went through in 3 mon­ths. Visitors saw pea­cocks roaming around while geese, swans and other water-birds populated the lake. Ch­auff­eur Ken Webb lived in the Coach House flat.

Since the National Trust inherit­ed the prop­erty, it has been open daily to the public and popular for wed­dings. It has been used for films due to the in­teg­rity of the historic buil­d­­­ings and 7 hect­ares of pleasure gar­dens, magnificent trees and shrubb­er­ies, flower gar­dens, large fern­ery and lake. Hed­ges separated the ornamental gar­d­ens from the practical areas eg large kitchen gardens, stables.

 Rippon Lea is one of Australia’s grand, self-suff­icient suburban est­at­es, 20 mins from Melbourne’s CBD. Listed on the 2006 National Heritage Reg­ister, it has most of the historical land­scape and arch­it­ectural interest preserved.