Rippon Lea House & Gardens (Elsternwick)
Rippon Lea Estate is a heritage-listed historic house and gardens. This ornate late-19th century mansion and estate has a garden which is complex and covers almost 14 acres, which includes sweeping lawns, magnificent trees, a large tranquil lake, extensive shrubberies and flower gardens, an orchard of historically significant fruit varieties with over one hundred varieties of heritage apples and pears, the Southern Hemisphere's largest fernery, rose gardens and many other features of historical, landscape and architectural interest, all forming the setting for the polychrome brick mansion completed in 1868. Elements of the garden include:
The Lake - The original lake was excavated in the 1870s. It was smaller but included exotic plants and two islands. In the 1880s it was enlarged to a depth of 114cm, and incorporated five water jets concealed in rocks, a grotto and mound featuring a tower. The lake is populated with black duck, chestnut teal, grey teal, moor hen and hoary headed grebe. The water also supports eel, carp, and tortoises. A wide variety of plants nestle along its banks.
The Boat House - One of the islands on the lake features a boat house. It serves as a reminder of a more leisurely age, when family boating on the lake was a feature of the property. From here you can see the lookout tower high above the grotto and waterfall. In 1903 new bridges across the lake were fabricated in cast iron to look like rustic timber bridges fashioned from trees. Similar featured bridges were installed at the Melbourne Botanic gardens.
The Coach House - This building is constructed of brown brick with rendered copings and finials and has a roof of flat clay tiles. The complex retains many of its original features, including the stables (complete with stalls, fittings and blackwood lining), the harness room, feed room, loft, mens' room and two carriage stores with inset floor wheel guides. The original laundry and buggy store have been converted to more modern use.
The Orchard - This features a range of early fruit varieties. The original, larger orchard was situated in what is now Gordon and Elizabeth Streets. The current windmill represents one that was a part of an elaborate irrigation system established during Frederick Sargood's ownership. Interconnected tanks, pumps and pipes collected water from suburban Caulfield, leading to a large windmill that pumped water throughout the garden. Much of the original system is still used today, providing 80 percent of the water for the gardens.
The Fernery - Even on a hot summer day it is a cooling experience to walk through the fernery. It features meandering paths, trickling streams and hundreds of species of ferns and palms, from native to rare and unusual varieties. Built in the 1870s, when ferns were the height of fashion, almost every Victorian home featured ferns in some form. At that time, larger ferneries were developed in the Geelong and Ballarat Botanic Gardens. Many of examples have fallen into disrepair or disappeared entirely.
The Pool and Terrace - Sweeping lawns fringed with borders of annuals, herbaceous perennials and shrubs can be viewed from the elevated terrace which runs along the western side of the mansion. From the terrace you enter the swimming pool complex, complete with diving board, fountain and change rooms. Both of these areas were developed in the late 1930s and today the 'Hollywood setting' demonstrates the lavishness of the period. The pergola supports various climbing plants, including varieties of ivy and pillar roses.
The Western Lawn - Featuring examples of elms, oaks, Moreton Bay Figs and Monterey cypresses, the Western lawn demonstrates Rippon Lea's age by the great size of its many trees. Early photographs show the retention and integration of indigenous trees in parts of the original garden. The stumps of those remnants still remain today, offering a priceless context for the trees that have followed. The western perimeter of the garden provides a leafy back-drop to the beautiful stretch of lawn up to the house.
The Lookout Tower - On the highest point overlooking the lake a most elaborate lookout tower was constructed, probably in the late 1870s. It provided a vantage point for the property, and also views as far as Port Philip Bay. After falling into disrepair, the tower was restored in 1980. Today it is once again open to visitors and is a focal point in the garden. From here much of the garden, lake, and other key features of Rippon Lea can be seen.
The Archery Hut - Frederick Sargood began hosting archery meetings in the 1870s and constructed a purpose built archery hut close to the range. Archery was one of the most popular sports played at Rippon Lea, particularly so among female guests, who could compete in tournaments on the lawn without requiring a change of dress, which was necessary for croquet or tennis.
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History of Rippon Lea:
The Rippon Lea Estate was built in 1868 for Sir Frederick Sargood, a wealthy Melbourne businessman, politician and philanthropist. Frederick and his wife Marion purchased Crown Allotment 253 and either all, or part of Crown Allotment 260 in the Parish of Prahran, Elsternwick giving them a total area of 11 hectares. Located about 8 kilometres from the Melbourne central business district, he contracted a two-storey, 15 room house be built. An extensive pleasure garden was laid out around the house, together with glasshouses, vegetable gardens and orchards. The gardens were designed to be self-sufficient as regards water, and the large man-made lake on the property was designed to store stormwater run-off from the surrounding area. By the late 1870s Rippon Lea was a total of 18 hectares with the kitchen garden alone taking up 0.81 hectares.
The Sargood family lived at Rippon Lea until Frederick's death in 1903, and over the years extended the house on several occasions. The greatest structural changes occurred in 1897 when the house was extended to the north, and a tower was added. The style of the house has been described as "polychromatic romanesque" and the architect, Joseph Reed, was said to have been inspired by the architecture of the Lombardy region of northern Italy. The house also contained many other innovations; it was one of the first in Australia to be lit by electricity, produced by its own generators, and Sargood employed a full-time electrician to maintain the system, and the fittings included an electrically powered bell system to communicate with the servants quarters and kitchens below stairs.
On Frederick's death in 1903, the property was sold to a consortium of real estate developers who had plans to demolish the house and subdivide the land. Elsternwick at this time was a new suburb on the outskirts of Melbourne; 35 years earlier when the Sargoods bought the land, it had been well outside the built-up area of Melbourne.
The house was empty for six years, while the developers sold off various parcels of land, particularly the orchards and paddocks. However, before the final carve-up of the estate could be undertaken, the leader of the consortium, Sir Thomas Bent, died and the property was put on the market in 1910.
It was bought by Ben and Agnes Nathan, who owned the Maples chain of furniture stores in Melbourne. The Nathans lived there until Ben's death in 1935. The property then passed to their eldest daughter, Louisa, along with a legacy of 1 million pounds.
Louisa (married name, Mrs Timothy Jones) was a leading figure in the Melbourne social set in the 1930s. She undertook extensive remodelling and renovation of the house to allow her to entertain on a lavish scale. The interior of the house was redecorated in a restrained classical 1930s style, drawing heavily on Hollywood film style of the 1930s and Syrie Maugham's "all white room" as influences. These renovations substantially altered most of the surviving Victorian features of the house-for example, the wallpaper in the entrance hall and corridors (originally embossed in gold) was over-painted in white, as were the marble columns around the main entrance.
The ornate iron-framed ballroom built by Frederick Sargood (which was converted from an earlier conservatory) was demolished to make way for a lavish "Hollywood style" swimming pool and ballroom and 5.7 hectares (14 acres) of gardens were maintained. Mrs Jones also installed a new modern kitchen on the ground level and the original basement kitchen and service areas were closed up, which preserved many of the surviving 19th century features of this section of the house, including the cool room, the wine cellar and the large fuel stove.
In preparation for the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, a section of the property was compulsorily acquired by the Victorian government to house a new television studio complex for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). The Rippon Lea studio became the ABC's Melbourne studio and in later years were used as the production centre for many renowned ABC programs including Bellbird, Countdown, The Big Gig and The Late Show.
Another section of the property was compulsorily acquired by the state government a few years later and Mrs Jones fought a long-running legal action against it. She eventually settled with the government, agreeing that, on her death the house and the land still in her possession would be bequeathed to the National Trust. With Mrs Jones death on 27 July 1972, the house and gardens were reunited with the disputed acquisition, saving the estate from the threat of sale and subdivision and allowing the public to enjoy the estate in perpetuity. During the 1970s and 1980s the Vernon Family resided in the gate house.
Of particular note in the grounds are the lake, the spectacular iron-framed fernery, the swimming pool and associated ballroom (1939, now leased to Peter Rowland Catering for social functions) and the stable complex (1868). The rooms of the basement kitchen complex are also of special interest, having been built in the 1880s and then abandoned in 1938 following the installation of a modern kitchen on the ground floor. Today they are a rare surviving Australian example of a 19th-century kitchen suite; comprising kitchen, scullery, pantries, cool rooms, servants' hall and wine cellar.
Location
192 Hotham Street, Elsternwick 3185 Map
✆ (03) 9523 6095
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Web Links
→ www.ripponleaestate.com.au
