MOORAMONG

2851 CARNGHAM-STREATHAM ROAD CARRANBALLAC, PYRENEES SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Register

IMG 1850

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    MOORAMONG - History

    The early years of Mooramong 

    Anderson, Stodart, Bell and Johnston: 1830s to 1926 

    Establishment of sheep runs in the 1830s and 1840s in Western Victoria played a major role in displacing Aboriginal people from their land. 
    
    

    Mooramong is part of a squatting run taken up in 1838 by Scottish immigrant Alexander Anderson (1818-1896) and his two business partners. Originally comprising 15,000 hectares Anderson had sold off all but about a third of the run by 1871, which he called Mooramong. By then he had made sufficient money to commission the Geelong architects Davidson & Henderson to design a new residence which was built from late 1873 at an estimated cost of £2,000.
    
    

    The early 1870s were marked by significant prosperity in the Western District. The lucrative wool trade saw the construction of several large homesteads, including the Glenormiston Homestead (VHR H1611), Meningoort?(VHR H0300) and Purrumbete (VHR H0301). Mooramong was constructed entirely out of timber, which was unusual for a large homestead of this period, with most other homesteads of similar size and era built of masonry or local bluestone.
    
    

    Architects George Henderson and Alexander Davidson formed a partnership in 1868 and capitalised on the demand for residences and other building types in the Western District. Mooramong was commissioned as the fortunes of the firm were rising, after having designed a number of grand country residences including Barunah Plains from 1867 (VHR H2313), Barwon Park from 1869 (VHR H0365), Titanga from 1872 (VHR H0299) and Narrapumelap from 1873 (VHR H0492). At Mooramong, Davidson & Henderson would, like much of their work, employ a gothic architectural style inspired by notable French architect Viollet-le-Duc, complete with pointed arch windows, chimneys, a decorative gable above the front entrance, and jerkin-head roof. The single-storey residence had a large wrap-around verandah and symmetrical front elevation with central entrance door. Inside the house, a central hall led to a transverse passage with the bedroom wing located to the South and kitchen to the Southwest. 
    
    

    In 1889 Mooramong was sold to grazier David Edmund Stodart who added three new staff bedrooms and a servants hall to the kitchen wing (c.1890). In 1908 the property was sold to Robert Carstairs Bell who added the diagonal bedroom wing (a feature of Federation-era design), extended the master bedroom, and created a central living room. In 1909 further additions were undertaken by architects Sydney, Smith & Ogg to the servants quarters and the verandah was replaced. In 1921 the property was purchased by grazier WH Johnston of Sunbury. 

    
    

    Mackinnon era: 1926 to 1938 

    In 1926 Lauchlan Kenneth Scobie (LKS) Mackinnon (1861-1935) purchased Mooramong as a 21st birthday present for his son Donald John Scobie Mackinnon (known as Scobie) (1906-1974). Lauchlan Mackinnon was a Melbourne lawyer and Victorian horse racing identity. Scobie Mackinnon, also devoted to horse-breeding and racing, became a successful grazier at Mooramong and led a privileged life as a wealthy bachelor. In 1935, his father Lauchlan died and Scobie inherited Mooramong. On a trip to London in 1937, Scobie met acclaimed Hollywood silent film star Claire Adams, who was wealthy in her own right. Adams and Mackinnon married three weeks later in London. After an extensive global honeymoon, they returned to Australia to live at Mooramong in 1938.
    
    

    Claire Adams was born Berylvere Nassau Adams in Winnipeg, Canada in 1894. As a child, Claire’s father Stanley Adams, a trainer of elocution, wished for her to become a singer. She did go on to sing but a stint as a child actress nurtured in her a greater ambition to become a Hollywood actress. During World War I Adams worked as a nurse, before poor health cut her medical career short. It is following this period she joined the Rehearsal Club and began starring in advertisements before being signed to Edison Studios. Adams would go onto star in 48 movies, including ‘The Big Parade’ (1925) and ‘The Wheel’ (1926) with Harrison Ford Snr. Adams left her career in film to nurse her first husband, Benjamin Hampton, a film producer and writer, and after his death in 1932 she moved to Beverly Hills. In 1937, when she met Scobie, she was in England working in radio broadcasting. 
    
    

    Hollywood comes to Mooramong 

    Adams and Mackinnon era: 1938 to 1978 

    In 1938, an extensive renovation of Mooramong was undertaken following the arrival of Claire Adams Mackinnon. The Mackinnons commissioned the architect Marcus Martin to remodel the homestead. Martin, who had previously designed two residences for Lauchlan Mackinnon in South Yarra, was among the most fashionable of Melbourne architects at the time. He championed architectural modernism and his work at Mooramong, directed by Adams, employed a moderne style, echoing the 1930s Beverly Hills tastes of Adams herself. According to Stephen Percy Dorling, Martin’s assistant on the Mooramong project, Adam’s direction often resulted in a “build and demolish until it [was] right” approach. Whilst the external footprint of the existing building was unaltered, the interiors and external materials were significantly updated, with some Gothic detailing removed in favour of a 1930s moderne features; some key features of the renovation works by Martin include: 
    
    

    • Front door and windows: The original Gothic style arched windows at the front of the house were replaced, as was the original front door, with a redesigned stylized Georgian surround and screen door. The use of a Georgian style is also apparent in the windows to the swimming pool pavilion. 
    • External materiality: The original weatherboard external walls were rendered with a cement render. 
    • Joinery: A feature of Modern interiors, Mooramong incorporated the use of built-in furniture and joinery. Benches, cabinets, overhead cupboards, and stainless steel sinks were installed in the kitchen and service areas. Notably, the joinery at Mooramong includes an early use of the material, Formica, which was not used widely in Australia until the post-war period. Further joinery features include shower and bath recesses in bathrooms, dressing tables and wardrobes.
    • Bar and Games Room: The inclusion of a bar and games room at Mooramong exemplifies the influence of the 1930s American lifestyle where home bars and games rooms were commonplace. The materiality in this room, including green leather clad walls with chrome cover strips, curved bar counters and recessed fireplace also echoes American precedents, including the P&O ocean liner ‘Orcades’. 
    • Soft Furnishings: Floors were updated to plush carpets in rich colours, green in the Lounge and Master Bedroom and cedar in the Music Room. Curtains were also added in bright colours and fabrics, burnt-orange chenille in Lounge and rose silk in the Master Bedroom.
    • Bathrooms: The bathrooms at Mooramong feature wall recesses to the bath and shower, variegated rubber tiles on the floor, ceramic tiles to the walls, makeup lights and 1930s fixtures throughout. 
    • Kitchen: The kitchen was modernised to include stainless steel sinks, built-in cabinetry and overhead cupboards, variegated rubber tiles on the floor, a new enlarged fireplace, and ceramic tiled splashbacks. 
    • Swimming Pool, Pavilion, Pergola, and Rendered Wall: A reinforced concrete heated swimming pool with rendered pavilion and timber pergola was built in 1938, the first private heated pool in Victoria, and largest at the time it was built. John & Thurley O’Connor Architects situate the building of the outdoor facilities at Mooramong to a period of the early twentieth century when ‘fresh air’ and the ‘outdoor movement’ was particularly popular. The addition of flywire screenings to the verandas may also be attributed to this movement.
    • Central Heating: Lauchlan Mackinnon had central heating installed after he purchased Mooramong in 1926. The boiler ran on coke and continued to do so when Claire and Scobie moved in during 1938.  

    In 1938 a redesign of the garden also commenced. Influential landscape architect Edna Walling was commissioned to design a planting scheme, possibly owing to her professional relationship with Marcus Martin. But her proposals were only loosely implemented. Instead, the garden scheme was designed by Claire Adams Mackinnon herself and thought to have included a vast array of seasonal flowering plants; lupins, geraniums, bird of paradise (Strelitzia), buddeleja, snapdragons and hydrangeas alike. The garden, which wraps around the North and West of the house and is enclosed by the aforementioned garden walls, comprises of three sections: the pool garden, the inner garden, and the outer garden.  
    
    

    The pool garden, influenced by Adams’s Hollywood background, evokes the popular Californian gardens of the 1930s which drew strong connections between the indoors and outdoors. It retains the original outdoor furniture of the Mackinnon’s, with stone steps leading to a sunken garden, pavilion, and Art Deco features. A basalt stone wall was built in place of an existing hedge to enclose the private garden and pool area from the driveway. Later, white rendered brick walls with several arched gates would be built to replace the cypress hedge lost in the 1944 bushfire, providing a backdrop for the extensive planting scheme.
    
    

    Bushfire 

    In January 1944, a bushfire swept through the region, damaging several outbuildings and a significant portion of the garden. Over the following years many of these buildings were replaced and rebuilt including: 

    • Shearing shed and Shearers’ Quarters: Original buildings destroyed in the bushfire of 1944, with only the bluestone fireplace surviving. Rebuilt in 1944 to a design by Marcus Martin & Tribe.
    • Implement Shed: Original buildings destroyed in the bushfire of 1944. Rebuilt in 1944 to a design by Marcus Martin & Tribe. 
    • Dog Kennels: Built to house the property’s sheep dogs in 1944 to a design by Marcus Martin & Tribe. 
    • Killing Shed: Original buildings destroyed in the bushfire of 1944. Rebuilt in 1944 to a design by Marcus Martin & Tribe. Contains killing area, meat room and skin drying area. 
    • Singlemen’s Quarters: Original building designed in 1933 by Sydney Smith, Ogg & Serpell. Extension of two bedrooms, kitchen and south alterations designed by Marcus Martin & Tribe between 1944-1947. 
    • Manager’s Residence: Original buildings destroyed in the bushfire of 1944. Rebuilt in 1947 to a design by Marcus Martin & Tribe. 
    • Youngman Residence: Built in 1978 for Nancy and George Youngman, friends of the Mackinnon’s who came back to live at Mooramong following the death of Donald Mackinnon to manage the property. The Youngman’s continued to live here after the bequest of Mooramong to the National Trust. 

    Mooramong, society life and community 

    It is unusual that a famous Hollywood star lived the latter part of her life on a remote Western District property. Adams developed a strong connection to country life, reflecting ‘…the outdoors has become an essential part of me. I do not want stardom’. Mooramong quickly became the social hub of the region. Claire and Scobie developed valued circles of friends from the Western District and Melbourne who they entertained at Mooramong. The couple become known for their generous hospitality, hosting pool parties and events with high society guests such as Hephzibah Menuhin, Lindsay Nicholas and Dame Mabel Brookes. Claire’s passion for film and pride in her former Hollywood career did not wane, and many film nights and musical evenings were held where Claire would treat her guests to screenings of her films. 
    
    

    The couple divided their time between their country house and their town house at 220 Domain Road, South Yarra (now demolished). On their frequent trips to Melbourne to attend the races, the cinema and innumerable cocktail parties, they travelled in their Silver Ghost Rolls Royce. Wearing smart hats and chic outfits, and often adorned with her diamonds, Claire Adams Mackinnon was a striking figure at Government House functions and at the racecourse. 
    
    

    The Mackinnons contributed much to the local community, undertaking charity work at the Skipton State School and Skipton Hospital, where they were both later awarded governorships. Claire was involved in fundraising efforts and during World War II the Mackinnons supported the war efforts by organising auctions, musical evenings, and hosting and entertaining American troops at Mooramong. Claire’s love of animals and disdain for hunting was well known, she became a patron of the Lort Smith Lost Dogs Home.  

     

    Bequest to the National Trust 

    The start of a new era 

    Donald Mackinnon passed away in 1974 and Claire in 1978. The couple had no children. Prior to her death, Claire Adams Mackinnon bequeathed the Mooramong estate to the National Trust of Australia (Victoria). This included the residence and contents (the Mackinnon’s furnishings, personal objects, artworks, photographs and memorabilia), gardens, farming land and outbuildings with contents (including tools and farming equipment). The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Trust was created in 1980 to ensure the preservation of the place. The adjoining farm was set aside to demonstrate good farming and conservation practices and provide an income to maintain and enrich the house and gardens. The entire assemblage – the place, its collections, gardens and farmland – is well preserved thanks to the Mackinnons’ practice of conserving fabric from the 1930s and earlier. 
    
    

    The Mackinnon collection includes photographs, letters, books and ordinary household items. Claire and Donald extensively documented their life at Mooramong, and photo albums depict pool parties, social events and life during the 1930s and 40s. Other objects include; artworks (including those by Californian School of landscape painters, Scottish watercolours and portraits by Australian artist Judy Cassab), furniture (including some custom pieces designed for the Mackinnons), sheet music, musical instruments, costumes (including bathing costumes and racing silks), garden plans for the property by Edna Walling (which were never completely implemented), a large collection of Lalique glassware, linen and other personal effects, as well as a large collection of equipment housed in outbuildings. 
    
    

    A house museum 

    In 1980, the National Trust opened Mooramong as a house museum. Visitors can gain a glimpse into the life of a 1930s Hollywood film star and Western District ‘squatter’. The 1930s interior scheme provides a rare and remarkably intact example of the aesthetics and fashionable tastes of the era. Mooramong has operated as a house museum since 1980 until the recent COVID pandemic of 2020-21. The government-mandated lockdowns saw the place close to the public. As of April 2023, it has yet to reopen to public visitors. 
    
    

    The Mackinnon Nature Reserve 

    As part of the bequest of Mooramong by the Mackinnons to the National Trust, a 207ha nature reserve known as The Scobie and Claire Mackinnon Nature Reserve was created. Its aim was ‘to develop a sample of the natural vegetation and habitat of the basalt plains of western Victoria as it would have existed before the arrival of white settlement and grazing, and to interpret the area to visitors to Mooramong’. The reserve’s beginnings predated LKS Mackinnon’s purchase of Mooramong. In 1910 land was declared a Sanctuary under the Game Act (later the Wildlife Act) and the Mackinnons maintained a policy of not allowing shooting. An official report in 1968 noted: ‘there is usually an influx of wild ducks during the open season thus providing good refuge' and ‘(the owner) is very interested in wildlife and feels that the main lake provides refuge for bird life’.  
    
    

    This Reserve reflects the Mackinnons’ important role in the nature conservation movement in Victoria through the active and enduring use of privately-owned land for flora and fauna conservation. The reserve is thought to be one of the largest in Victoria devoted to the protection of native grassland species. It is a haven for Western district endangered and threatened species, including the Wedge-Tailed Eagle and Brolga, and breeding reserve for the endangered Eastern Barred Bandicoot. Conservation efforts by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) began in 1982 and led to the identification of a significant population of native grassland species, including areas of remnant native vegetation, across the property. Subsequent planting was undertaken to replenish native grassland communities and regenerate native flora species across the reserve.  Careful management of water resources on the property has also improved habitat of local wildlife, with many species of native fauna being reintroduced to the area, and the National Trust aims to continue these conservation works. 

    Permit Exemptions

    MOORAMONG - Permit Exemptions

    General Exemptions:

    General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.

    Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.

    Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.

    Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions.

    Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.

    Specific Exemptions:

    Exempt works and activities 

    The works and activities below are not considered to cause harm to the cultural heritage significance of not considered to cause harm to the cultural heritage significance of Mooramong and the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) Mooramong Collection subject to the guidelines and conditions which follow. 

    
    The Place 

    Agriculture 

    1. The continuation of existing agricultural practices including management of livestock, grazing, cultivation, cropping and other processes necessary for usual agricultural operation.
    2. Maintenance, repair or removal of fences and gates necessary for the continuation of agricultural or pastoral activities.

    Mackinnon Nature Reserve 

    1. All works and activities approved by the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) to conserve and maintain the natural and cultural heritage values of this nature reserve (such as revegetation programs) 
    2. Access for the purposes of education and nature observation (such as birdwatching) approved by the National Trust. 

    Bird Hide (1990s) 

    1. Repairs to exterior and interior, all internal works, and demolition.  

     

    Objects Integral (the Collection) 

    The following permit-exempt activities must be undertaken in accordance with the National Standards for Australian Museums and Galleries and/or in accordance with the accepted collection management standards, policies and procedures of the National Trust. These activities may be undertaken by conservators in the employ of or contracted to the National Trust or authorised people directly supervised by them, such as conservation interns. 

    Management of items (including removal, transportation and relocation, display, conservation, cataloguing, digitization and temporary loans of eighteen months or less).  

    The maintenance, conservation, research or analysis of items does not require approval by the Executive Director pursuant to the Act, where the custodian employs qualified conservators or experts.  

    Note: Conservation includes preventative conservation including object re-housing (paper items into archival folders, photographs into archival albums, smaller objects in storage on shelves into archival boxes etc).  

    
    Guidelines  

    1. Where there is an inconsistency between permit exemptions specific to the registered place or object (‘specific exemptions’) established in accordance with either section 49(3) or section 92(3) of the Act and general exemptions established in accordance with section 92(1) of the Act specific exemptions will prevail to the extent of any inconsistency.  
    2. In specific exemptions, words have the same meaning as in the Act, unless otherwise indicated. Where there is an inconsistency between specific exemptions and the Act, the Act will prevail to the extent of any inconsistency.  
    3. Nothing in specific exemptions obviates the responsibility of a proponent to obtain the consent of the owner of the registered place or object, or if the registered place or object is situated on Crown Land the land manager as defined in the Crown Land (Reserves) Act 1978, prior to undertaking works or activities in accordance with specific exemptions.   
    4. If a Cultural Heritage Management Plan in accordance with the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006 is required for works covered by specific exemptions, specific exemptions will apply only if the Cultural Heritage Management Plan has been approved prior to works or activities commencing. Where there is an inconsistency between specific exemptions and a Cultural Heritage Management Plan for the relevant works and activities, Heritage Victoria must be contacted for advice on the appropriate approval pathway.   
    5. Specific exemptions do not constitute approvals, authorisations or exemptions under any other legislation, Local Government, State Government or Commonwealth Government requirements, including but not limited to the Planning and Environment Act 1987, the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, and the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). Nothing in this declaration exempts owners or their agents from the responsibility to obtain relevant planning, building or environmental approvals from the responsible authority where applicable.  
    6. Care should be taken when working with heritage buildings and objects, as historic fabric may contain dangerous and poisonous materials (for example lead paint and asbestos). Appropriate personal protective equipment should be worn at all times. If you are unsure, seek advice from a qualified heritage architect, heritage consultant or local Council heritage advisor.   
    7. The presence of unsafe materials (for example asbestos, lead paint etc) at a registered place or object does not automatically exempt remedial works or activities in accordance with this category. Approvals under Part 5 of the Act must be obtained to undertake works or activities that are not expressly exempted by the below specific exemptions.  
    8. All works should be informed by a Conservation Management Plan prepared for the place or object. The Executive Director is not bound by any Conservation Management Plan, and permits still must be obtained for works suggested in any Conservation Management Plan.  

    Conditions  

    1. All works or activities permitted under specific exemptions must be planned and carried out in a manner which prevents harm to the registered place or object.?Harm includes moving, removing or damaging any part of the registered place or object that contributes to its cultural heritage significance.  
    2. If during the carrying out of works or activities in accordance with specific exemptions original or previously hidden or inaccessible details of the registered place are revealed relating to its cultural heritage significance, including but not limited to historical archaeological remains, such as features, deposits or artefacts, then works must cease and Heritage Victoria notified as soon as possible.  
    3. If during the carrying out of works or activities in accordance with specific exemptions any Aboriginal cultural heritage is discovered or exposed at any time, all works must cease and the Secretary (as defined in the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006) must be contacted immediately to ascertain requirements under the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006.  
    4. If during the carrying out of works or activities in accordance with specific exemptions any munitions or other potentially explosive artefacts are discovered, Victoria Police is to be immediately alerted and the site is to be immediately cleared of all personnel.   
    5. If during the carrying out of works or activities in accordance with specific exemptions any suspected human remains are found the works or activities must cease. The remains must be left in place and protected from harm or damage. Victoria Police and the State Coroner’s Office must be notified immediately. If there are reasonable grounds to believe that the remains are Aboriginal, the State Emergency Control Centre must be immediately notified on 1300 888 544, and, as required under s.17(3)(b) of the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006, all details about the location and nature of the human remains must be provided to the Secretary (as defined in the Aboriginal Heritage Act 2006. 

    
    

    Permit Exemption Policy

    MOORAMONG - Permit Exemption Policy

    It is recommended that a Conservation Management Plan is utilised to manage the place and objects integral in a manner which respects its cultural heritage significance. 
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