Sunday, November 22, 2015

Shingle styles in Australia

All about the Shingle Style


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Shingle Style

Hollowforth2.jpg
Hollowforth, 146 Kurraba Rd Neutral Bay NSW

William Berryman Scott House(1888)
William Berryman Scott House(1888)

The William Berryman Scott House(1888), designed by A. Page Brown, at 56 Bayard Lane, Princeton, New Jerseyin thePrinceton Historic District



The Shingle Style in America was made popular by the rise of the New England school of architecture, which eschewed the highly ornamented patterns of theEastlake style[In architecture the Eastlake Style is part of the Queen Anne style of Victorian architecture.]

In the Shingle Style, English influence was combined with the renewed interest in Colonial American architecture which followed the 1876 celebration of the Centennial. 
  • Architects emulated colonial houses' plain, shingled surfaces as well as their massing,
  • whether in the simple gable of McKim Mead and White's Low House or
  • in the complex massing of Kragsyde, which looked almost as if a colonial house had been fancifully expanded over many years.
  • This impression of the passage of time was enhanced by the use of shingles.
Kragsyde, Manchester-by-the-Sea
Kragsyde, Manchester-by-the-Sea

KragsydeManchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts (1883, demolished 1929), Peabody and Stearns, architects.
The Shingle Style conveyed a sense of the house as continuous volume. This effect—of the building as an envelope of space, rather than a great mass, was enhanced by


  • the visual tautness of the flat shingled surfaces,
  • the horizontal shape of many shingle style houses, and
  • the emphasis on horizontal continuity, both in exterior details and in the flow of spaces within the houses.

The William Watts Sherman House, Newport RI
The William Watts Sherman House, Newport RI

McKim, Mead and White andPeabody and Stearns were two of the notable American firms of the era that helped to popularize the Shingle Style, through their large-scale commissions for "seaside cottages" of the rich and the well-to-do in such places as Newport, Rhode Island. 
  • The most famous Shingle Style house built in America was "Kragsyde" (1882), the summer home commissioned by Bostonian G. Nixon Black, from Peabody and Stearns.
  • Kragsyde was built atop the rocky coastal shore near Manchester-By-the-Sea, Massachusetts, and embodied every possible tenet of the Shingle style.

Many of the concepts of the Shingle Style were adopted by Gustav Stickley, and adapted to the American version of the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Shingles had been a traditional roof covering in northern Europe, and in England in particular, and they were used in Australia from the first years of settlement, although they were no longer current in England itself.
  • In the United States the word 'shake' was used of a rough split shingle, from the Elizabethan verb meaning to split or crack, which had remained in use in the southern Appalachians, whereas in New England shingles were 'riven'.
Booloominbah Armidale, showing painted shingles in the gables.
Booloominbah Armidale, showing painted shingles in the gables.

The Shingle Style 1880 – 1900


Oliver T. Sherwood House, Southport Connecticut by Henry Hobson Richardson.
Oliver T. Sherwood House, Southport Connecticut by Henry Hobson Richardson.

The Shingle Style originated in New England in the 1880s and and became popular across the whole of the United States by the beginning of the next decade, the 1890s.
  • Like the Richardsonian Romanesque and the Queen Anne, it is a genuine American vernacular style of the late 19th-century. It was historian Vincent Scully who in the 1950s identified and named this style, which appears to be a reaction to the excesses of the Victorian and the Queen Anne Styles.
  • The Shingle Style avoided fussy effects and complex wall surfaces and textures in favor of a uniform wall covering of wood shingles, reducing and distilling them to bare essentials and forms like early colonial houses.
  • The style was an early manifestation of a ‘colonial revival architecture’ that emulated the New England 'colonial houses’ plain, shingled surfaces as well as their massing.

In Victorian days, shingles were often used as ornamentation on houses on Queen Anne and other highly decorated styles. But American architects Henry Hobson Richardson, Charles McKim, Stanford White, and even Frank Lloyd Wright began to experiment with shingle siding (on walls).
Also known as ‘seaside style’, the Shingle style is not that common outside New England and never gained the wide popularity of its contemporary, the Queen Anne style.
  • But since it started among the higher and fashionable social circles, it was well publicized in contemporary architectural magazines.
  • The style spread throughout the country on a limited basis, and scattered examples are found today in most areas of the country.
    St Peter’s Cathedral, Armidale
    St Peter’s Cathedral, Armidale

American architect Henry Hobson Richardson is credited with designing and building the first Shingle house prototype, the Sherman House of Newport, Rhode Island in 1876. (see above)



The Shingle revival in Australia

from: Miles Lewis: Australian Building
In New South Wales John Horbury Hunt used shingles for the roof of St Peter’s Cathedral, Armidale, which might be considered somewhat primitive. But this was a grand and sophisticated brick church, and the choice of shingles must have had more to do with the British medieval tradition and the ideals of the Arts and Crafts movement, and Hunt used shingles frequently in the period 1870-90.

Highlands_024-640w.jpg
The Highlands was completed in the 1890s as a private residence for Alfred Hordern by John Horbury Hunt

Shingle style in the period 1870-90.

Shingles enjoyed a more general revival in Australia in the 1880s, in response to the shingle style of the United States, but they were generally imported rather than locally produced.

  • Soon these shingles were being used as a wall cladding.
  • Hunt used American red cedar shingles on the tennis pavilion at ‘Baroona’, Wittingham, and probably elsewhere.
  • In 1888 the Melbourne architect L J Flannagan completely sheathed the carcase of Richard Shann's house 'Mendip Hills', North Preston, in boarding and had nailed to it 13 mm thick Californian red pine shingles of fish scale pattern.

House for R. Shann at ‘Mendip Hills’, North Preston, by L. J. Flannagan, 1887.
House for R. Shann at ‘Mendip Hills’, North Preston, by L. J. Flannagan, 1887.

In 1892 Guyon Purchas proposed a shingle roof to be laid over corrugated iron for ‘Boisdale’ homestead, Victoria, though in the event French Marseilles tiles were used instead. 
  • The proto-modern Strathfield NSW architect G S Jones (JONES, George Sydney (1868-1927) Biography)
    used American redwood shingles with tile ridging on the roof of a house in Strathfield, Sydney, in 1894.
  • A little later, at the neighbouring house 'Bickley' (now demolished), he hung redwood shingles over the upper part of the brick walls, and used split oak shingles on the roof.

“Arnottholme” 65-67 Albert Road Strathfield with shingle-hung upper walls
“Arnottholme” 65-67 Albert Road Strathfield with shingle-hung upper walls

In 1906 Howard Joseland, a devotee of the Arts and Crafts, favoured silver-grey shingles in combination with roughcast, red brick, brown painted verandah woodwork and blue-green eaves, 
  • but by now G S Jones had changed his mind, and attacked the idea of 'shingles tacked in one place, a patch of stucco adjoining, together with some fantastic shapes in woodwork and some coloured brickwork thrown about' as indicating 'the restless spirit of the owner as well as the designer'.

Joseland's design: 'Midhope' (St Edmund's School), Burns Road, Wahroonga
Joseland's design: 'Midhope' (St Edmund's School), Burns Road, Wahroonga

'Vallambrosa' 19 Appian Way - Queen Anne style , with Arts and Crafts features, shingles in gable
'Vallambrosa' 19 Appian Way - Queen Anne style , with Arts and Crafts features, shingles in gable
However, shingles long remained a feature of Arts and Crafts design, especially in Western Australia where they had made their first appearance later than in the east. 
  • Examples include some cottages in Malcolm Street, West Perth, demolished in 1991, and at least three houses built or altered by William Williams, each with the upper floor shingle clad.
  • Williams built one at 9 Brae Road, Claremont, in 1918, and altered another at 24 Reserve Street, at about the same time:
    his own house at 16 Aggett Street, though alleged to date from 1905, must in reality have been finished at about the same time.

Milton Park Bowral NSW, showing shingles cladding the upper levels.
Milton Park Bowral NSW, showing shingles cladding the upper levels.

Meanwhile ‘Redwood’, the imported Californian bungalow of 1915-17, promoted in Sydney by Richard Stanton & Son, had a redwood shingle roof, and so, it appears, did some of the bungalows which followed.[1] 

What Makes a Shingled Style House?

The Shingle style rejects excessive decoration and embellishment and seeks instead the effect of a complex shape enclosed within a smooth (wood shingle) surface. It is the wall of shingles which unifies the irregular outline of the house. In Shingle style houses decorative detailing, when present, is used sparingly. The style emphasizes the volumetric spaces within the house more so than exterior surface details.

In Shingle style houses the walls appear as thin, light membranes shaped by the space they enclosed. The effect is heightened by bulging segmental bays or half round turrets jutting out from the body of the houses rather than as fully developed elements. At times the shingled walls seem thinner and lighter when contrasted with a basement floor of rubble masonry or fieldstone.
Travenna, Armidale 1889, Trevenna Road, University of New England, Armidale
Travenna, Armidale 1889, Trevenna Road, University of New England, Armidale
Roofs are usually of gentle pitch with extensive gables; in two-story houses the roofs even go down and out to the ground-floor level harking back to lean-tos found in 17th century New England saltbox houses. 
  • The gambrel roof is more common than the hipped.
  • Chimneys are generally less obstrusive, conforming to the prevailing horizontality of the Shingle house.
The Shingle style does borrows some features from the Queen Anne style: wide porches, shingled surfaces, and asymmetrical forms. 
  • But the architects who designed the Shingle, favored opening up the interior space but with few rooms.
  • The rooms, however, were a lot bigger in size making sunlight easier to reach in and light the interior.
“Highlands” was built in 1892‐93 for Alfred Horden and his wife,
“Highlands” was built in 1892‐93 for Alfred Horden and his wife,

Shingle style’s Identifying Features
  • Houses are generally two or three stories tall
  • House spreads low and anchors to ground on a heavy stone foundation
  • Weight, density, and permanence are emphasized and articulated
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The Gables, in Spruson Street by BJ Waterhouse 1920
The following images are from the post Architect E. Jeaffreson Jackson:
• Dark and rough-hewn stone masonry
• Asymmetrical volumes in the form of cross gables and roof sections of different pitch, wings, turrets, bays, and oriels
• Shingles in many colors, such as the Indian reds, olive greens and deep yellows

"A sensational, large, turbulent house, with towering chimneys and swirling shingles" Hollowforth, 146 Kurraba Rd Neutral Bay NSW
"A sensational, large, turbulent house, with towering chimneys and swirling shingles" Hollowforth, 146 Kurraba Rd Neutral Bay NSW
• Shingles form a continuous and contoured covering, stretching over roof lines and around corners
• Sweep of the roof may continue to the first floor level providing cover for porches, or is steeply pitched and multi-planed

9-11 Mans Avenue Neutral Bay
9-11 Mans Avenue Neutral Bay
• Entries defined by heavy (often low) arches
House 17 Calypso Avenue Mosman
House 17 Calypso Avenue Mosman
• Columns are short and stubby
• Wide porches
• Broad gables
The Hastings, 2 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay, NSW
The Hastings, 2 Hayes Street, Neutral Bay, NSW
• Small casement and sash windows which may have many lights, and often are grouped into twos or threes
 17 Calypso Avenue Mosman
17 Calypso Avenue Mosman
• An “eyebrow” dormer is distinctive
• Free-flowing interior
• Large rooms and porches loosely arranged around an open “great hall,” dominated by a grand staircase.
28 Mistral Avenue Mosman Mosman
28 Mistral Avenue Mosman Mosman
"Large, two-storey rambling Inter-War Arts & Crafts house. The ground floor is in face brick, the upper level in timber shingles and the roof of terracotta. Features include bay windows, hoods and small pane windows."
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Shingle Style Interiors

Freedom and openness characterize the Shingle style interior. The focal point is a living hall complete with fireplace, which is a feature inherited from the English Queen Anne houses. 
Tulkiyan Staircase | Sydney Living Museums
Tulkiyan Staircase | Sydney Living Museums

  • The main stairs often rise from the living hall, around which one finds other reception rooms.
  • These rooms are often entered through wide openings with sliding doors, so that the whole area could be made into a single, subdivided space.
Tulkiyan, Gordon NSW
Tulkiyan, Gordon NSW

  • Verandas and porches are integral parts of the plan; not attached, as in Romanesque or Queen Anne houses.
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  • Wood paneling predominates in the main rooms. In fine houses it might be raised-panel mahogany to the ceiling, oak in other houses, and in more modest seaside Shingle cottages, battens or beadboard paneling.
Tulkiyan Dining Room | Sydney Living Museums
Tulkiyan Dining Room | Sydney Living Museums

From page on Gordon Heritage

TULKIYAN, Gordon NSW

Tulkiyan is of State significance as an important, intact example of a fine Arts & Crafts suburban villa
Tulkiyan is of State significance as an important, intact example of a fine Arts & Crafts suburban villa
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Tulkiyan House Museum
Tulkiyan House Museum


Tulkiyan is an Arts & Crafts style suburban villa designed in 1913 by architect B.J. (Bertrand James) Waterhouse (1876-1965) of Waterhouse & Lake Architects.
The house was built for Mrs Mary Donaldson and her husband William, a Sydney merchant. It remained in Donaldson family ownership and occupation for 80 years, with minimal alterations to furnishings and building fabric. When the last of the family, Miss Mary Donaldson, died in 1994 aged 91, Tulkiyan became the property of Ku-Ring-Gai Council.
As a house museum, Tulkiyan illustrates the early 20th century fashion, taste and lifestyle of an Edwardian family on the affluent upper North Shore of Sydney.
The largely intact interior is furnished with most of the original contents of the house. Furniture bought from David Jones in 1913 was simply updated in 1930 through the replacement of worn carpets and a re-covering of dining chairs.
The original front garden layout also remains, along with remnants of early plantings, including lily pilly trees on either side of the main gate. Tulkiyan’s asymmetrical form, gables, shingle roof, wall finishes and bay windows are also typical of the period and the dark stained timber joinery of the interiors, decorative plaster ceilings and Art Nouveau style gas fireplaces are all synonymous with the Arts and Crafts architectural style.

external image COL_CSLRC_TulkiyanGordon_003.jpg?itok=F1WuuO22
  • Photographer:James Whitelock
  • Date Photographed:March 1990
  • Original image format:35mm mounted slides
  • Copyright:Caroline Simpson Library & Research Collection, Photograph James Whitelock, (c) Sydney Living Museums

Built in 1913, Tulkiyan is an important example of the work of Bertrand J Waterhouse, a prominent Sydney architect. In Federations arts and crafts style, it displays asymmetrical, dominant gables; shingled roof and wall finishes; and bay windows. The interior includes elaborate plaster ceilings, Art Nouveau style gas fireplaces and built-in cupboards - an innovation at the time.

The Donaldson family lived in the house continuously for over 80 years from 1913, during which the original style was maintained. The home and its contents provide an insight into upper middle class life in Sydney during the first half of the 20th century.

Tulkiyan was built for Mary and William Donaldson and their three children, Mary Isobella, William Jnr and Margaret.
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Tulkiyan was built on part of the 40 acres of land that had been granted to Michael Ansell on 30 June 1823. In 1824, the 40 acres was sold to William Fowler, who then leased it to Messrs. Giles and Ritchie. It was further mortgaged to Samuel Lyons, an 
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auctioneer, who, in 1843, finally disposed of the property to Robert McIntosh II who was already a landowner and occupier of other substantial properties in old Lane Cove.

  • The house is designed in the Federation Arts and Crafts style by B. J. Waterhouse. Tulkiyan is an important intact example of Waterhouse's work.
  • The house is asymmetrical with an all embracing roof line covering balconies and verandahs. All major rooms downstairs and bedrooms upstairs have access to verandahs and sleeping out was 'an activity seen as being conducive to health'. Tulkiyan means 'gable' in Gaelic (Anthony, 2008, 1).
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  • As in Waterhouse's other domestic designs, the dominant, all embracing roof is a considerable technical achievement dominating the building. It broods over the general mass of the house unifying all its separate parts. Waterhouse wrote:

  • 'The cast shadow on rough cast or brick broken by the light on glass and shutter is most beautiful, and the unifying value of the shadow is very great'external image COL_CSLRC_TulkiyanGordon_005.jpg?itok=NYKdq-F_

  • Balconies and verandahs should either be absorbed within the structural bounding lines of the mass, or be large enough to avoid that meagre and disjointed appearance so detrimental to the design, and should provide sufficient space for living or sleeping and out accommodation now so customary.'
  • external image COL_CSLRC_TulkiyanGordon_004.jpg?itok=rvUYg5OIThe principal wall material unlike many of Waterhouse's contemporary designs is a dark mahogany/brown brick combined with beautiful red/brown plane tiles and gables which are heavily half-timbered and pargetted with rough cast.
  • Interestingly, Waterhouse was to choose a similar brick when he built his own house 'The Gables' in Neutral Bay - between 1920-23. The tall chimneys have their own gabled roofs and are almost a trademark of a Waterhouse design from this period. The large semi-circular arch which defined the front verandah of Tulkiyan echoes a favourite architectural motif of the great American architect, Henry Hobson Richardson.
  • The Shingle style, unlike the earlier Victorian aesthetics which preceded it, was an unusually free-form and variable style.
  • One reason for the range in variety is the that it had originated and remained primarily a high-fashion style designed by architects for the wealthy rather than becoming, like the Queen Anne, adapted for housing among all social classes of Americans.

Shingle Style Houses on the National Heritage Register


References


  1. ^ 

    Miles Lewis: Australian Building 2.05 - http://www.mileslewis.net/australian-building/pdf/02-timber-grass/2.05-shingles.pdf

Friday, November 13, 2015

Dalvui, Terang, Vic

Dalvui & Heritage Garden,

431 McKinnons Bridge Rd, Noorat (just near Terang)


Previous Post: Edwardian Kitchens 
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Dalvui is a grand house with a wonderful garden to match.
  • One of the South West's most picturesque gardens
  • The garden was designed by William Guilfoyle whose work is all over the south west in many of our botanic gardens as well as several private ones.
  • Widely regarded as one of Australia's most significant gardens; lush velvety lawns beneath spectacular mature trees complement curved borders filled with a choice selection of shrubs, perennials and bulbs. Rockeries and ponds. More recent plantings add further interest.[1]

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This garden bears many of Guilfoyle's hallmarks - 
  • paths disappear behind trees,
  • garden beds are bordered by hedges and other plants, and
  • there's a beautiful use of different colours and foliages.[2] William Guilfoyle is often described as 'the master of landscaping'. It is his vision that shaped the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne. By carefully planting trees and placing garden beds he developed the scenic panoramas and sweeping lawns that are characteristic of Melbourne Gardens today.
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National Trust: Statement of Significance

A house of 1907 by Ussher & Kemp, closely comparable with their contemporary Dalswraith (now Campion Hall) in Kew, but for a strong diagonal emphasis focussed on a polygonal candle-snuffer roof, and a slightly lower standard of craftsmanship and integrity. 
Notable features are
  • the panels of vertical tile hanging;
  • the Tudor bay window to the garden, of banked Gothic lights;
  • the stone corbels carrying the jettied upper facade;
  • and above all the picturesque aspect of the house in relation to Guilfoyle's garden and lake.

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Internally there is 
  • a grand sweeping stair, 
    external image Dalvui%252520Homestead%252520Stairs.jpg
  • many plaster ceilings of Jacobean character,
  • an inglenook with carved panels by Robert Prenzel,
  • a number of other details in the Art Nouveau, and
  • a splendid lift car with coloured glass roof light. Classified: 02/06/1983

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National Trust: Garden significance:

Dalvui, subdivided for Niel Walter Black from the Black family property Mt Noorat,
  1. the garden laid out to the design of William Guilfoyle from 1898,
  2. the residence erected in 1907-8 and
  3. the garden meticulously maintained by the Palmer family following the tragic death of Black in 1909, is of National significance:
  • as an outstanding late Victorian garden
    Persimmon Trees at Dalvui, photo by Jeremy Lee, ABC
    Persimmon Trees at Dalvui, photo by Jeremy Lee, ABC

    the essential layout, features and planting of Guilfoyle's 1898 design remaining remarkably intact and carefully maintained; the plan, although allowing careful glimpses of the surrounding landscape, generally forms an inward looking garden, skilfully focussed on the house and lake and is a superb complement to the stylish Edwardian residence;
    external image Dalvui%252520homestead%252520at%252520Noorat.jpgexternal image Dalvui_e7399f2c4f_b.jpg
  • as one of the finest examples of William Guilfoyle's private garden designs
    (probably matched only by Mooleric at Birregurra); 

    external image Echium-and-Phormium-cookianum.jpg
    intact features include the sweeping lawns, 
    external image Dalvui%25252006%252520Garden%252520path.jpg
    rockeries, paths and driveways,
    external image Dalvui%25252005%252520Crabapple%252520trees.jpg
    lake, shrubberies, boundary screen planting, the original driveway avenues, 
    external image Dalvui%25252006%252520Garden%252520path.jpg
    mature specimen trees, early outbuildings and windbreak plantings;
  • for its residence, erected to the design of accomplished Melbourne architects Ussher and Kemp
    external image Dalvui%252520-vhr.jpg
    notable features include a strong diagonal emphasis focussed on a polygonal candle-snuffer roof,
    panels of vertical tile hanging, the Tudor bay window to the garden,
    banked Gothic lights, stone corbels carrying the jettied upper facade,
    a grand sweeping stair, many plaster ceilings of Jacobean character,
    an inglenook with carved panels by Robert Prenzel, a number of other details in the Art Nouveau and a splendid lift car with coloured glass roof light;
    external image Dalvui_628eca0cbe_b.jpg
  • historically, for its links with the Black family, pioneering Scottish settlers in Victoria's Western District and the original owners of the properties Glenormiston and Mt Noorat;
    external image Dalvui%252520702943724.jpg
  • for the existence of important documentary evidence regarding the design of the garden, including plans, sketches, early photographs showing development and Guilfoyle's letter of instructions. Classified: 16/10/1991[3]

external image Dalvui%25252001.jpg

Today, Dalvui is the home of Pam Habersberger, and together with her husband they've been opening the garden up as part of the Open Garden Scheme for many years. These open garden weekends provide a chance for those familiar with the garden to wander through it's many areas, and for those who have never visited before to be impressed by its size and scope.
  • It's also the perfect time to see the garden with many blossoms on show and everything looking suitably green and lush.
  • There are also vast expanses of lawn to enjoy a picnic or treat yourself to some of the sandwiches and other treats which will be on offer.
  • The garden is located at 431 McKinnons Bridge Rd, Noorat (just near Terang).

Dalvui – a garden of inspiration

Alison Aplin November 7, 2012 - Garden Drum
My husband David and I decided to visit the Dalvui garden in Noorat recently, open as part of Open Gardens Australia.

  • What a wonderful treat it was for us both. Covering nearly 8 acres, the garden is nestled in the southern foothills of Mt Noorat.
  • In 1898 Wiliam Guilfoyle was commissioned to advise on the layout and planning of the garden.
Variation in foliage colours adds to interest
Variation in foliage colours adds to interest


external image Superb-layout-and-plant-selection-in-considerable-summer-shade.jpgexternal image Rhododendron-in-backgroudn-with-water-canal.jpg
Superb layout and plant selection in considerable summer shadeRhododendron in background with water canal
Since then, Dalvui has changed hands numerous times over the years, but it appears that there has been a deep respect for the backbone of the garden as there are still many of the original trees in existence.

  • There have been some changes, as in the new driveway which is now better placed for convenience which has led to new plantings in the area.
  • But these plantings are all totally in keeping with the history of the place; one could assume that they were part of the original plan.

The original garden encompassed 5 acres; more recently 2.5 acres have been added.


  • The surrounding acreage is now a cattle property having previously been used as both dairy and a sheep stud, with the size of the land being reduced over the years.
external image Part-of-parterre-hedge.jpg
Part of Herbacious border
Part of Herbacious border
Part of parterre hedgePart of herbacious border
Natives and exotics have been mixed, the native plants being mostly in the form of large eucalypts. There was what I thought may be a magnificent Angophora floribunda towering over the entrance to the garden. And then one walked through a birch-lined driveway with glimpses visible on either side of what lay beyond these avenue trees.
external image Formal-hedged-garden.jpgexternal image Magnificent-mature-trees.jpg
Formal hedged gardenMagnificent mature trees
Many different rooms feature such an assortment of lush plants that one could only drool with envy at the heart of such a great garden – the soil.

  • Mt Noorat is a now extinct volcano so the soil at the base is as rich as you can get. And it is so visible in the health and vigour of the plants.
  • Of course, even with such a wonderful base to work with, good plant selection is also critical, and this has been so professionally managed.
external image Hedging-and-plants-in-dappled-shade-of-deciduous-trees.jpgexternal image Echium-and-Phormium-cookianum.jpg
Hedging and plants in dappled shade of deciduous treesEchium and Phormium cookianum
There are many different areas to enjoy.

  • A series of ponds cascade into each other,
  • herbacious borders with a path through the centre,
  • formal hedging with a pavillion and shaded garden beds all with soft colouring – there are no harsh colours to be seen anywhere.

As a lover of colour, I found this garden a very restful and contemplative place with its subdued colour palette.
Dalvui is a credit to all concerned. It is obviously a labour of love and deserving of the accolades given to it. I will let the photos speak for the beauty of the garden.

Dalvui will open again – visit the Open Gardens Australia website or use their handy app.

Alison Aplin
Alison Aplin

About Alison Aplin

Former owner and designer of Australia's only ecotourism and multi award winning garden Timandra [now Mintaro Garden Rooms], in the Clare Valley SA. She has a Diploma of Horticulture and is an Arborist with a deep respect for trees. Alison is a passionate advocate for the environment and nature in general. She is the managing partner and designer for Timandra Design & Landscaping, constantly learning her craft through her own gardens, now Timandra by the Sea. Further info about this business can be seen at www.timandra.com.au

  1. ^ 
  2. ^ 
  3. ^ http://vhd.heritage.vic.gov.au/search/nattrust_result_detail/69386