GARDEN HILL AND SHEARING SHED ON ADJACENT PROPERTY, ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN RD
425 ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN ROAD KANGAROO GROUND, NILLUMBIK SHIRE

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Statement of Significance
REVISED STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE, CONTEXT, 2010
What is significant?
The 19th-century weatherboard house, including all pre-1954 fabric, the two in-ground water tanks, the c1925 mature Canary Island Palm tree (Phoenix Canariensis) and the surrounding site to a radius of 50 metres north of the road.
How is it significant?
The house is historically and aesthetically significant to the Shire of Nillumbik.
The Canary Island Palm is historically and aesthetically significant to the Shire of Nillumbik.
Why is it significant?
The house is historically significant as one of the earliest buildings in the Shire, (with sections dating back to the 1850s and 1870s), as an example of the modest accommodation used by the Shire's pioneering settlers and as the long-time home of the prominent local pioneer, Andrew Harkness, who moved to the area in 1849 (Criteria A, B & H). The house is also historically significant because it was used as a weekend retreat by the prominent industrialist and philanthropist, Sir Henry Gepp, from 1923 to 1954,(Criterion H).
The Canary Island Palm is historically significant because it is associated with Sir Henry Gepp (Criterion H). The Palm is aesthetically significant because it is a large example within the Shire (Criteria B & E).
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GARDEN HILL AND SHEARING SHED ON ADJACENT PROPERTY, ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN RD - Historical Australian Themes
EARLY SETTLEMENT
PROMINENT RESIDENTS (ANDREW HARKNESS, SIR HERBERT WILLIAM GEPP)
3.5.1 Grazing stock
3.5.3 Developing agricultural industries
8.3 Going on holiday
8,12 Living in and around Australian homes
8.14 Living in the country and rural Settlements
GARDEN HILL AND SHEARING SHED ON ADJACENT PROPERTY, ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN RD - Physical Description 1
House
Style early Victorian with mid 20th century and later alterations and additions.
Design evolved - later changes have substantially altered the building and the exact original design in terms of say where was the original front door cannot be determined in the building.
Plan rectangular.
Single storeyed.
Walls timber stud, weatherboard clad.
Roofs gabled without eaves, corrugated iron clad.
Floors concrete slab to the oldest section, timber elsewhere.
Features are the built in stages external appearance, the coved ceilings to most of the roofs, original fireplace with built in bread oven, the surviving twelve pane window, entry (west) and rear (east) elevations, the mature Canary Island Palm tree, in-ground rainwater tank near the house, mature exotic site planting, originally shingle-roofed shed near the house and the log section framed shearing shed with its in-ground tank.Canary Island Date Palm tree
This tree is about 8-10 Metres in height and in very good condition
GARDEN HILL AND SHEARING SHED ON ADJACENT PROPERTY, ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN RD - Usage/Former Usage
Original Use: Farm house
Later Use: Hobby Farm
GARDEN HILL AND SHEARING SHED ON ADJACENT PROPERTY, ELTHAM-YARRA GLEN RD - Physical Conditions
Inspection 2000
(with Mr. & Mrs. Richard Gething and their daughter Mary Jane Gething)
The above property was inspected with the owners who provided historical information about the property.
The interior of the main house (gabled wings) was confirmed as a number of early rooms with chamfered ceilings clad with a fine bead edge lining board. These rooms indicate the early stages of construction for the Harkness family, being the early 1850s (1852?) and the 1870s (1874?). Other wings have been added this century by descendants of Herbert Gepp and the walls of some rooms reclad with strapped ply sheet in the 1920s when owned by Gepp himself. Since, the Gethings have added two skill ion rooms on the north west corner of the old section and replaced windows along the north side with sliding doors etc.
Nearby on the south is a gabled dairy with shingled roof, stone and brick floor and a dome-top underground tank, which holds rain 'water from the house roof. A Canary Island palm is nearby, being typical of the 1920s-30s but according to the Gepp descendants, is earlier that.
Between the road and the house complex is a bungalow apparently built there by Gepp for his caretaker in the 1930s.
The barn could not be inspected as it was on another property (owned by Bill Spilliopoulos 94344333)- he should be notified of the amendment. The current owners (Mr. Richard Gething & Mrs. Margaret Gething; Gepp's daughter who have occupied the house since the mid 1960s) quote a woman (nee White) of 80-85 years who Visited them at the house, stating that she was born there and that her mother was born there in 1852. She said that the Harkness family consisted of three sons and a daughter who married a White (Alex). White inherited the farm.
The current living room of the house (with altered.chimney and baker's oven) was the kitchen-living part of the house with two small sleeping areas elsewhere and the present parlour (next room west from the main room under the same gable). The current owners remember a black iron stove in the current fireplace. The second line of two (once 3) gabled Tooms on the north was built about 20 years later (c1872) as bedrooms. Of the Gepp occupation Mrs. Gething made it clear that the house was used only as a weekender and was never a permanent residence. Her mother had always hated , coming there but her father had loved it. Mrs. Gething had accompanied them as a child, marvelling at the rough living (kerosene tin, open fire cooking, horse writing).
Gepp was a gentleman' farmer. He died at the house after a'rriving there for a stay with his driver (1954), The house Strathallan, Greensborough Rd, Macleod was the Gepp city house (1920- 36), a large Edwardian-era villa built 1907 for the Le Grand family. This house has been converted for use as an aged care facility. The family later lived in Cliveden Mansions (now Hilton Hotel site) after Gepp had subdivided Strathallan.
The White daughter (Mrs. Cameron) said that she gave the Canary Island palm as a gift for her parents (although the date of the gift suggested she was 5 or 6) about 100 years ago. Mr. Gething believes that Sir Herbert would not have planted the palm.
Heritage Study and Grading
Nillumbik - Shire of Eltham Heritage Study
Author: David Bick
Year: 1992
Grading:
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