BALLANTRAE

190 a'Beckett Road BUNYIP, Cardinia Shire

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Cardinia Shire

Ballantrae Villa

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Historical Australian Themes

    BALLANTRAE - Historical Australian Themes

    Themes
    
    

    8.4 Railway townships
    10.4 Selectors' houses, gardens
    
    Evidence of:

    Life style, housing and landscape choice of notable figures residing in the district

    Physical Description 2

    BALLANTRAE - Physical Description 2

    Associations - a'Beckett, Arthur

    Physical Description 1

    BALLANTRAE - Physical Description 1

    This is a notable timber, late Victorian-era and notable villa in the Federation Bungalow style, with hipped and gable roofs, half-timbered gables, fretted verandah friezes and brackets, leadlight glazing, encircling verandah, and set in a wild garden with some evidence of Edwardian-era or 1920s garden work. There are associated outbuildings of an unrelated character.
    
    Garden The garden contains mature planting in a garden that has become wilder in recent years as the elderly owner has been unable to manage it. Previously the property had house staff and two gardeners. A formal layout can be discerned beneath the mature canopy of trees and creepers. The winding driveway enters the property from the corner at the road intersection, where a hawthorn hedge extends along the fence line. There is a fenced main garden surrounding the house and an area outside this with mature trees and associated farm buildings such as sheds for staff and chooks. The house and garden are located at the highest point of the property, with the farmland and orchard (apples and plums), south east of the house, at a lower level.
    
    The garden is contained by a wire fabric fence and timber gate posts, supported by a brick base, reputedly built in 1920s. The open lawn area within the fence, west of the house, is edged by terracotta tiles along the path, which are dated 19 November 1886, manufactured by `AB & TT Co. Limtd. Mitcham'. The concrete paths were reputedly laid in the 1950s6.
    
    Planting is quite varied with mature camellias, yucca, lilypilly, copper beech, lilac and a large variegated box, and appears to date from two main periods, 1899 (when the house was reputedly built) and c1920s.
    
    The garden contains remnants of a formal garden including paths, steps, an urn (originally one of a pair), a rock edged pond and a former tennis court. the circular pond is edged with rough granite rocks around a concrete base. There are two levels, two layers of bricks marking the edge of a grassed area and garden beds with largely 1920s era planting, such as roses, variegated golden euonymus, and a beauty bush (Kolkwitzia amabilis).
    
    An ornamental metal arbour is located to the east side of the house where a wisteria is climbing up the verandah. A mature Brugmansia sp. and other shrubs are near a large clump of bamboo. A second but slightly different arbour is at the opposite side of the garden near the urn.
    
    Large tree ferns are planted around the south side of the house, giving the house a 'hill station' quality, and there is a large bay tree (Laurus nobilis). Trees outside of the formal garden near the outbuildings include a stand of Robinia pseudoacacia, Schinus molle var. `areira', a very large elm (Ulmus sp. ) approximately 100 years old, Kurrajong (Brachychiton populneus), cypress, hoop pine (Araucaria cunninghamii) and a ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba). There is a particularly large and graceful oak immediately inside the entrance drive.
    
    

    Physical Conditions

    BALLANTRAE - Physical Conditions

    Given the staged construction, the house has been altered in detail only although it is need of repair.

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Cardinia - Cardinia Shire Heritage Study 1996

    Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
    Year: 1996
    Grading: Local

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