Eltham District Historical Society display, Eltham Festival, Alistair Knox ParkTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, main road, marion yeoman, russell yeoman

Eltham District Historical Society display, Eltham Festival, Alistair Knox ParkTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival

Eltham District Historical Society display, Eltham Festival, Alistair Knox ParkTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, main road

Eltham District Historical Society display, Eltham Festival, Alistair Knox ParkTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, main road, russell yeoman, sue law, tony brocksopp

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Mick Woiwod and Russell YeomanTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, russell yeoman, mick woiwod

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Mick Woiwod and Doug OrfordTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, russell yeoman, mick woiwod, doug orford, mary regan, sue law

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Mick Woiwod and Doug OrfordTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, russell yeoman, mick woiwod, doug orford, mary regan, sue law

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - with Doug Orford and Russell YeomanTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, main road, doug orford, russell yeoman, stephen pidgeon

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - with Doug Orford and Russell YeomanTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, main road, russell yeoman

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Sue Law, Russell Yeoman, Tony BrocksoppTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, alison delaney, russell yeoman, sue law, tony brocksopp

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Russell Yeoman, Alison Delaney, Alan ButlerTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, alan butler, alison delaney, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, russell yeoman

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - with Russell Yeoman, Doug Orford and Adrian JonesTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, adrian jones, andrew ross museum, doug orford, russell yeoman

Eltham District Historical Society display in Alistair Knox Park - Joan Castledine, Diana Bassett-Smith and Russell YeomanTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham festival, diana bassett-smith, eltham district historical society, joan castledine, russell yeoman

Alistair Knox was an architect and builder who came to Eltham in 1948. Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright and Walter Burley Griffin, he sought to create buildings that would blend into the landscape, enhanced by the planting of indigenous flora. The post-war shortage of building materials made traditional construction expensive. Adobe (mudbrick) provided a cheap and plentiful alternative, and one which would be aesthetically pleasing. Mud-brick manufacture was a problem at first. Sonia Skipper had been experimenting with Eltham clays for years to find the best mix for making bricks and render. Alistair employed her as building foreman on several of his sites. By the 1980s, he had brought mud-brick and earth building into the Australian mainstream, and a Knox-designed house had become highly desirable. Sonia said that he would craft a bespoke earthen house to fit with his client's lifestyle. He was drawn to the environmental movement, publishing three books on housing and the environment, and speaking on radio. He also served on the Eltham Shire Council 1971-1975, was Shire President 1974 and was instrumental in re-establishing the Eltham Community Festival in 1975. Alistair died in 1986 and is buried in a small garden setting at Eltham Cemetery.Born Digitaleltham cemetery, gravestones, heritage excursion, alistair samuel knox

Situated in King Street, Eltham, Alistair Knox built his home and office in 1962-1963 with mud-bricks made from the local soil and recycled materials blending the house with bush around it. Knox popularised the Eltham earth building movement, begun by Montsalvat founder, Justus Jorgensen. Alistair Knox (1912-1986) was also an Eltham Shire Councillor 1971-1975 and Shire President in 1975. Knox established the inaugural Eltham Community Festival in 1975. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p145 Lack of money was a strong incentive for Alistair Knox to do what he did best when he built his house and office at King Street, Eltham in 1962-63. He used mud-bricks from local soil and recycled materials, characteristically blending the house with the bush around it. The result was a work of art. Knox popularised the Eltham earth building movement,1 begun by Montsalvat founder Justus Jörgensen. He was also an Eltham Shire Councillor from 1971 to 1975 and Shire President in 1975. For Knox mud-brick building was not just a building style, but a spiritual experience and a way of relating with nature. At 40 he rediscovered God and his building reflected his theological, political, philosophical and particularly environmental world view, which was far ahead of its time.2 He also contributed to building development in his use of concrete slab foundations when stumps and bearers were the norm. Knox was introduced to mud-brick construction in 1940 by Jörgensen, then shortly after, Knox joined the Navy. In 1946 Knox studied Building Practice and Theory at Melbourne Technical College (now RMIT University). There he befriended fellow student and artist Matcham Skipper who belonged to what was then called the Jörgensen Artists’ Colony. Knox decided to build an earth building in Eltham, partly because the post-war huge building demands resulted in expensive and scarce building materials. He asked artist Sonia Skipper for help who, with Matcham, had constructed mud-brick buildings at the Artists’ Colony. The simple rectangular low-lying house at King Street is framed by native plants and a 3.6 metres wide pergola surrounds the building. Wedded to the landscape, a door in every room at the perimeter, opens outside. The property also includes a forge, a small hut built by son Macgregor at 15, and a mud-brick tower for chickens. Building materials were foraged from a wide variety of sources. Some of the joinery material came from old whisky vats. When the Oregon of the highest quality ‘was put through the wood-working machines, it gave off a deep smell of whisky that made the whole atmosphere exotic and heady’.3 Amateur builders, including schoolboys from Knox’s Presbyterian Church, made some of the mud-bricks. But the building was finished with the professional help of Yorkshire builder, Eric Hirst. Inside, the light is subdued with the mud-brick, beamed timber ceilings and floors of slate, timber or orange-brown tiles. Skylights, with rich blue and red leadlighting, illuminate one entrance area and this feature is repeated as edging on the door. The centre of the house is like a covered courtyard, with rooms built around it. The central room, 11 metres x 7 metres, was built in the same proportions as Knox’s mud-bricks. Clerestory windows on four sides infuse the room with a soft light. A huge brick fireplace extends beyond one corner and opposite is a small one where timber can only be placed vertically. The slate for the floor was discarded from the Malthouse Brewery now used as a theatre in Southbank. In the middle is a large refectory table and benches that seat 18. Like much of the house, it is rugged, yet beautiful. Made of Western Australian Jarrah by Macgregor with a chain saw and an adze, it retains knot and nail holes. Each wall has an opening, 2.4 metres at the ends and 3.6 metres at the sides. Only one has doors and these concertina doors are made of the backs of old church pews. The main bedroom has an ensuite with a marble hand basin discarded from the Victorian Parliament building; and a dressing room, where two wardrobes of polished timber recovered from a tip are attached to the walls. Separate from the house is the strikingly original circular-shaped office made of bluestone sourced from the original Army campsite at Broadmeadows.This collection of almost 130 photos about places and people within the Shire of Nillumbik, an urban and rural municipality in Melbourne's north, contributes to an understanding of the history of the Shire. Published in 2008 immediately prior to the Black Saturday bushfires of February 7, 2009, it documents sites that were impacted, and in some cases destroyed by the fires. It includes photographs taken especially for the publication, creating a unique time capsule representing the Shire in the early 21st century. It remains the most recent comprehenesive publication devoted to the Shire's history connecting local residents to the past. nillumbik now and then (marshall-king) collection, alistair and margot knox house, alistair knox design, mudbrick construction, eltham, king street

Four-fold DL size colour brochure printed both sides2013, eltham community festival, eltham festival, program, rotary eltham town festival

Eltham District Historical Society with Mary Regan and Alan Butler Andrew Ross Museum with Warwick and Carol LeesonTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, alan butler, andrew ross museum, carol leeson, mary regan, warwick leeson

Eltham District Historical Society with Mary Regan and Alan Butler Andrew Ross Museum with Warwick and Carol LeesonTomorrow's history documented todayeltham, jim connor collection, main road, eltham district historical society, eltham festival, andrew ross museum

Four-fold DL size colour brochure printed both sides2011, eltham festival, program

Five-fold DL size colour brochure printed both sides2015, eltham festival, program

Colour photographeltham festival, 1991

Colour photographeltham festival, 1991

View from northwest corner showing survey pegs for trees and two ponds. Main Road has been duplicated. Bridge Street intersection showing the rock wall on the east side of the original Main Road (Maria Street). Burgoyne's Store and Eltham Uniting Church in distance at centre right and Our Lady Help of Christians at centre left.In February 1968 an unknown person took a series of photos from the Eltham Hotel at Pitt Street heading north along Main Road through the shopping centre to just north of Elsa Court covering the length of the section of Main Road which was duplicated shortly thereafter. Shows the condition and environment of the streesscape of Main Road, Eltham immediately prior to the duplication between Pitt Street and Elsa Court through the shopping centre. Also shows a number of shops and businesses that operated at that time.Black and white photographduplication, eltham, main road, bridge street, burgoyne's shop, eltham uniting church, our ladys church, maria street

Nine colour prints 10 x 15 cm Cross Ref: 00648 (print) and 03183 (negative)houses, mudbrick, gayle blackwood collection

Four colour photographshouses, mudbrick

Four colour photographshouses, mudbrick

Eight colour photographshouses, mudbrick

3 colour prints 10 x 15 cm gayle blackwood collection, houses, eltham

'Surveyor of Suburban Environs' was one of the acquisitions from the 1991 Eltham Art Awards (now known as the Nillumbik Prize - and formally the Nillumbik Art Awards). This was the first piece acquired from this award which was suitable for a public space. Nillumbik is referred to as the "Green Wedge" and the sculpture "Surveyor of Suburban Environs" suggests a watchful observer of the surrounding landscape. The sculpture's central motif represents an eye held up on a pedestal by a tail. Its form has been likened to the Eye of Horus, an ancient Egyptian symbol of protection, royal power and good health personified in the goddess Wadjet or 'green one'. This likeness would suggest that the observer or surveyor has a divine status and spiritual connection to its environment. Polished stainless steel sculpture comprising an eye reminiscent of ancient egyptian hieroglyphics, which is held up with a tappered and jaggered tail like pedestal. Concrete base. N/Apublic art, fries, spiritual, eye, stainless steel, goddess, surveyor, sculpture, environment

nillumbik shire council public art