The property is a classic example of what made Eltham famous from the late 1940s to the 1960s. Covered under Heritage Overlay, Nillumbik Planning Scheme. Published: Nillumbik Now and Then /​ Marguerite Marshall 2008; photographs Alan King with Marguerite Marshall.; p149 The first view of the large double-storey house at Yarra Braes Road, Eltham South, is of a jutting roofline over a balcony, reminiscent of a large sailing vessel or galleon – very appropriate, considering the name of one of the first owners, Le Gallienne. The Downing-Le Gallienne property is a classic example of what made Eltham famous from the late 1940s to the 1960s and attracted so many artists and intellectuals to the area. Set in a largely indigenous bush-style garden, the mud-brick and timber house was built by Alistair Knox. It was built for economist Richard Downing, to become a founder of the welfare state in Australia and Chairman of the Australian Broadcasting Commission, and musician and composer Dorian Le Gallienne. Le Gallienne was a pioneering composer of modern music in Victoria before 1945, whose works included the Symphony in E.1 He wrote several pieces of film music for Eltham Films, including The Prize, working with its writer and artistic director Tim Burstall. Le Gallienne was also a music critic for The Argus and later for The Age. In 1967 the music critic Roger Covell argued that Le Gallienne’s Symphony, was ‘still the most accomplished and purposive . . . written by an Australian’. According to Alan Marshall the main inspiration behind the building that evolved from 1948 to 1964 was Le Gallienne. ‘He was able to see value in the simplest things and many who worked there had their eyes opened for the first time to the Eltham environment, to the bush and the trees and the fauna which lived there.’ The garden included no formality, no lawns, nor exotic plants. ‘Natural informal growth came right up to their doors and so did the indigenous birdlife.’ This informal style – consisting of mass and void – was to be developed and popularised by landscaper Gordon Ford from the 1950s. The large mud-brick and timber house, which was built in four stages and has three separate but linked sections, began as a small weekend retreat for the couple. In 1948, Downing and Le Gallienne (Dick and Dor to their friends), asked Knox to build the 36 x18 foot (11mx5.4m) building with a pitched slate roof. It was built on a concrete slab and included a fireplace, which is still in use. The second wing was built in 1954 after Downing had returned from working at the International Labour Office and the couple decided to live there full-time. The third section was built after the death of Le Gallienne in 1963, aged 48. He is buried in the Eltham Cemetery. When Downing married widow, Jean Norman (nee McGregor) and had to accommodate a large family, including her six children and one of their own, the last stage was built by 1964. At that time the house was considered one of the largest mud-brick houses in Victoria. It consists of five living areas, including a small ballroom. Several artists helped Knox build the Downing-Le Gallienne house, which was one of his first of mud-brick. They included painter Clifton Pugh, artist John Howley and actor Wynn Roberts. Ellis Stones had landscaped the first wing and Gordon Ford set the boulder steps and made a pool as part of the landscaping he completed. Inside, the mud-bricks are largely whitewashed with pine-lined ceilings and Oregon beams. A winding timber staircase in the front extends behind a glass window from the ground floor to the top. The property, of a little more than 0.5 ha, is bordered by Parks Victoria land, which extends to the Yarra River.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, dorian le gallienne, downing-le gallienne house, eltham, mudbrick construction, mudbrick houses, richard downing, yarra braes road

The Bacchus Marsh Police Barracks shown in this image were located in Main Street on the site of the present day Police Station. The Barracks were constructed around 1857 or 1858. Prior to this the Police were stationed in the Police Paddocks at Maddingley in the area where Maddingley Park is now located. This building was in use by the Police until 1930 when it was replaced by a new building. This later building was in use until the early 2000s but was demolished in 2003 and replaced by a larger Police building.Small sepia unframed photograph on card with gold border framing photograph. Housed in the album, 'Photographs of Bacchus Marsh and District in 1883 by Stevenson and McNicoll'. The image shows the Bacchus Marsh Police Police Barracks and stables in 1883. Two uniformed male police officers wearing helmets can be seen standing on the footpath in front of the building. Next to them on their left stand two boys, one holding a document, possibly a newspaper.. The Barracks is a sandstone building with a chimney on one side; it appears to have a slate roof. Two buildings can be seen behind the main building. A white picket fence with a double gate runs along the front of the complex.On the front: Stevenson & McNicoll. Photo. 108 Elizabeth St. Melbourne. COPIES CAN BE OBTAINED AT ANY TIME. On the back: LIGHT & TRUTH inscribed on a banner surmounted by a representation of the rising sun. Copies of this Portrait can be had at any time by sending the Name and Post Office Money Order or Stamps for the amount of order to STEVENSON & McNICOLL LATE BENSON & STEVENSON, Photographers. 108 Elizabeth Street, MELBOURNE. stevenson and mcnicoll 1883 photographs of bacchus marsh and district, bacchus marsh police station, police stations, police

The cottage in the photograph was situated at 13 Evans Street in Sunbury and was one of the last houses to be demolished along the business of Evans Street between Brook and Macedon Streets. The cream brick building on the RHS of the house is a Telstra complex. The cottage was demolished in the early 2000s and a fast-food outlet now occupies the site. The cottage was one of a group of small attractive buildings erected along the northern end of Evans Street in the second half of the nineteenth century.A non-digital coloured photograph of a small double fronted Victorian cottage with a slate roof and a verandah across the front of the house. A cream brick structure with a signal tower is on the RHS of the photograph and a large bare elm tree is growing on the nature-strip. 13 evans street, victorian cottages, evans street, telstra

This image is one of a series of photographs taken by Melbourne based photographers Stevenson and McNicoll who visited Bacchus Marsh and its nearby districts between September and November 1883. George Taylor was in business in Bacchus Marsh from 1866. He built these premises in Main Street in 1868 and remained in business until 1888 when Samuel Painter brought the property and operated his own saddlery business. The location was later used for the State Savings Bank of Victoria and the Bank of New South Wales (Westpac). The location of this site in 2024 is 136 Main Street, Bacchus Marsh.Small sepia 'carte de viste' style unframed photograph on card with gold border framing photograph. Housed in the album, 'Photographs of Bacchus Marsh and District in 1883 by Stevenson and McNicoll'. The image shows a single storey timber building with a pitched roof. The front of the gable has an ornamental wooden fretwork design attached.The name 'Taylor' can be clearly seen above the front door. There is one large window. The roof appears to be slate and the building has one chimney. Outhouses can be seen to the left and right of the building. There is a picket fence to one side of the building and a post-and-rail fence to the other.Printed On the front: Stevenson & McNicoll. Photo. 108 Elizabeth St. Melbourne. COPIES CAN BE OBTAINED AT ANY TIME. On the back: LIGHT & TRUTH inscribed on a banner surmounted by a representation of the rising sun. Copies of this Portrait can be had at any time by sending the Name and Post Office Money Order or Stamps for the amount of order to STEVENSON & McNICOLL LATE BENSON & STEVENSON, Photographers. 108 Elizabeth Street, MELBOURNE. stevenson and mcnicoll 1883 photographs of bacchus marsh and district, saddleries, saddlers

In the early 1900s, Mary Sweeney commissioned artist Charles Bertie to paint the main house at Culla Hill. He charged her 5 shillings for the picture and 18 pence for the frame She took this painting with her when she married Michael Carrucan in 1910 and it hung in the Dalton Street farmhouse for many years. At a later time (1960s), the Burstons (the then owners of Culla Hill) had a card printed from the painting. The original sketch was photographed in 1970 for reproduction in the Shire history publication Pioneers & Painters (1971). The very fragile original was kept in the Council strongroom and suffered significant damage to its edges over the years, no doubt it has also yellowed. A comparison of the original as digitised (2022) with the negative taken 50 years earlier also reveals that the left 20% of the sketch has been cut off, probably due to damage. In June 1842 Thomas Sweeney applied to the Superintendent, C.J. La Trobe, asking permission to purchase a portion of the recently surveyed ‘Parish of Nillumbik'. His request was allowed and handed to the sub-treasurer and Land Board. He paid £110 for 110 acres and called the land 'Culla Hill'. He first built a temporary house, a slab hut 12 feet by 10 feet, in which he lived with his wife, an Irish girl whom he had married in 1838. (His first wife had been drowned at Port Jackson.) Some time later he built a permanent residence on the model of a Tipperary farmhouse. It was a rectangular building of hand-made bricks and stone quarried from the Western Hill with a recessed verandah in front, and bore a slate roof. The out-buildings consisted of a detached kitchen, stable and a barn. It was in this house that succeeding generations of Sweeneys were reared. The original slab hut became a washhouse and survived till recent years. 'Culla Hill' became a social centre for the district, church services being held there on various occasions. The first wheat crop in the district was planted by Sweeney who also supplied the first grain for a mill that later was built at Eltham. He took an active interest in the development of the district. At this time travelling people--many of them runaway sailors or convicts--often passed the settlement, and some of them stayed and worked with Sweeney. A tribe of aborigines living on the river below 'Culla Hill' were apparently on good terms with Sweeney, for it is said that they helped him with the building of his house. Very little is known about the aborigines who originally lived in the Eltham district. There must have been many of them; their stone axes, grinding stones, and anvil stones have been found in the gullies around Research and canoe trees and artifacts were found on the Kangaroo Ground hills. Early settlers remembered a tribe that camped on the site of the present railway bridge at Eltham. They held corroborees there and visited settlers for hand-outs of 'flour and bacca’. There was an aboriginal reserve on the Yarra, upstream from Eltham, but most of those who had collected there later went to live on the Pound Reserve at Warrandyte, where the last aborigines in the area finally ended their days. The Pound Reserve, of 1,103 acres, was established at Pound Bend in 1841. The chief protector, George Robinson, and his four assistants, were given instructions to care for the aged and sick, to provide blankets and rations for all who lived there, to train the able-bodied men in agriculture and other trades and to find them jobs. The Yarra blacks, who later came under the protection of William Thomas, have been described as a 'fine race, well made and above the average height'. Thomas Sweeney died on 6 September 1867 and was buried in the Eltham Cemetery. To his wife Margaret and his son John, he left the entire property of 'Culla Hill'. To his other son Patrick, he left 150 acres, including a small two-roomed wooden cottage. He had five daughters: Kate and Margaret (twins) who were born in 1842, Ellen 1846, Annie 1848 and Johanna 1851. John Sweeney farmed 'Culla Hill' until his death in 1909. He had ten children; one of them, Mary, became Mrs M. Carrucan whose son, Mr John Carrucan, still lives at Eltham. 'Culla Hill' passed out of the Sweeneys possession in 1939 and was renamed by its new owners, 'Sweeneys', in memory of its pioneers. - Pioneers & Painters: One Hundred Years of Eltham and its Shire, Alan Marshall 1971, pp10-12 Original colour sketch artwork 4 x 5 inch black and white negative of original colour sketchculla hill, art, charles bertie, drawing, mary carrucan (nee sweeney), sketches, sweeney's cottage