Buda historic house and garden in Castlemaine contains a rich legacy of the creative spirit of the Leviny Family, who lived there for over 118 years.

The five un-married Leviny sisters pictured with their mother, Bertha, outside the tennis pavilion. Left to right Gertrude, Hilda, Mary, Dorothy, Kate and Bertha (centre) with a nephew, James c.1906.

Mary Florence Leviny (1869 -1939) was the eldest daughter of the family and was expected to assist her mother in the running of the household and the care of the younger children. She was a keen sewer who enjoyed doing fancy needlework along with making clothes for the family.

At 21 years of age Mary was the only one of the Leviny girls old enough to sign the Woman’s Suffrage Petition of 1891. She attended painting classes in Melbourne with the artist Jane Sutherland in 1892 and later took art classes at the Bendigo School of Mines with Arthur T. Woodward. In her diary, kept between 1890 and 1896, she records a very active social life. She writes of attending balls and parties, going on picnics and outings to gather wildflowers, trips to Melbourne and the beach, as well as visits to exhibitions, concerts and lectures.

Mary had a strong social conscience and was an inaugural member and treasurer of the local Red Cross in 1914.

She was involved in the Castlemaine Progress Association and in the establishment of the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum in 1913. Mary managed most of the family’s business affairs after her father’s death in 1905. She died in August 1939 aged 69.

Kate (Beatrice Kate) Leviny was born in 1877 and spent most of her life at Buda, apart from a short period around 1925 when she lived in Sydney with a friend, artist, Ursula Ridley Walker.

Kate was keen photographer and many of her pictures can be found in the Buda family albums. Some of her images were published in The Australasian Photo-Review magazine between 1914 and 1922. She also did embroidery and appliqué needlework and made rag rugs from scraps of fabric which are kept at Buda. Two of her embroideries were included in the landmark First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work 1907.

Kate was a keen and knowledgeable collector of art. Among her purchases retained at Buda are works by Margaret Preston, Mildred Lovett, Norbertine Bresslern Roth and other women printmakers of the era. Kate, like her sister Mary, was involved in the establishment of the Castlemaine Art Gallery in 1913, and in the late 1920s was involved in developing the gallery’s fine collection of prints. She died in 1965 aged 87.

Kodak advertising pamphlet cover with a photograph by Kate Leviny c.1914. Pictured is Kate's sister Ilma Edith Thompson (nee Leviny) with daughter, Ilona Thompson, taken at Sandringham c.1914.

Kate was a keen photographer and many of her pictures can be found in the Buda family albums. Some of Kate’s images were published in The Australasian Photo-Review magazine.

Ilma Edith was born in 1875 and was the second eldest daughter of noted colonial gold and silversmith Ernest Leviny and his wife Bertha. Like her sisters, Ilma received a good education which included lessons in music, languages and the arts, and some of her drawings are still amongst the collection at Buda. Ilma would also have done needlework along with her sisters, and was remembered for her talent at playing the piano and her great love of gardening.

Ilma was the only Leviny daughter to marry. Her husband, Dr James Livingstone Thompson, was from another successful Castlemaine family who operated an iron foundry in the township. They married in 1901 and lived in Castlemaine where they raised five daughters of their own. The Thompson children, who were always at Buda, were doted upon by their aunts and grandmother, and feature in many of the photographs held at Buda.

Gertrude Olga Louise Leviny was born in 1879. She took art and wood-carving classes at the Castlemaine School of Mines in the early 1900s.

Beautifully carved pieces attesting to her skill can be seen at Buda, such as the wooden boot stool with carved dragons at one end, and a number of picture frames and trinket boxes amongst other items. She also enjoyed needlework and made raffia hats and jewellery.

Gertrude wished to train as a nurse and commenced studies that were cut short when she contracted typhoid fever in 1903.

In 1906 she suffered from meningitis, and was to have poor health throughout her life.

Whilst recovering in 1906, she became engaged to a man by the name of Edgar, but the wedding was cancelled two days before the planned date for the ceremony in 1907, most probably at Gertrude’s instigation.

In the late 1920s Gertrude moved to South Yarra in Melbourne, but returned to Castlemaine after two years, continuing to live at Buda until her death in 1969 aged 89.

Bertha Dorothy Leviny, known as Dorothy, was the most artistically prolific of the Leviny sisters. She studied painting, drawing, and design at both the Castlemaine and Bendigo Schools of Mines, later specialising in metalwork and enamelling. At Bendigo she studied under Mr Arthur T Woodward, a great proponent of the Arts and Crafts movement.

Alongside her sisters, Kate and Hilda, Dorothy exhibited at the First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work 1907, in the sections of Painting, Design, Inventions and Art Needlework. She won second prize in the Fine and Applied Arts and Photography section for Best Original Design for Wallpaper.

Dorothy worked as a governess at a farming property in southern NSW for a short time in 1910 then moved to Melbourne to attend the Domestic Science College (later known as the Emily MacPherson College of Domestic Economy). In 1912 she became House Mistress at Girton Ladies College in Bendigo, and later, took a position as Matron at Morris Hall, the primary school of Melbourne Girl’s Grammar, where she remained until 1915.

In 1920, her lifelong passion for gardening led her to establish a lavender farm at Silvan, in the Dandenong Ranges east of Melbourne. In 1923, the same year her mother died, Dorothy returned to live at Buda.

An interest in art metalwork was consolidated when Dorothy attended classes with Stanley J Ellis at the Castlemaine Technical School in the mid 1920s. In 1941, at the age of 60, Dorothy furthered her studies in Art Metal at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. She continued to create metalwork objects for many years. She died at the age of 86 in 1968.

Hilda Geraldine Leviny was the youngest of the Leviny children and was the most adventurous and independent of the girls.

She lived away from Buda for almost 30 years, not returning permanently until she was in her early 50s.

Hilda studied art subjects as well as woodcarving and needlework and had a particular aptitude for embroidery.

She exhibited three pieces in the First Australian Exhibition of Women’s Work 1907, including a three-panelled draught screen with hand embroidered and appliquéd panels which is on display at Buda.

In 1906 Hilda studied at the Domestic Science College and then worked as a bursar at Merton Hall for three years.

She then took up a position as Matron at Grimwade House, the preparatory school for Melbourne Grammar, where she stayed for 15 years. In 1929, she became Matron at the Women’s College in the University of Sydney, where she remained for a further 7 years.

Hilda enjoyed travel. Her trips, between 1912 and 1939, included Ceylon, Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, England, America, and Europe, including Hungary, the homeland of her father.

It was largely through her efforts that the Buda Museum exists today. She sold the house to the Castlemaine Art Gallery and Historical Museum in 1970 on the proviso that she could live out her days at Buda. She died eleven years later in 1981, aged 98.

Bertha Hudson married Ernest Leviny in 1864.

Bertha Hudson (1844-1923) was born in England and sailed with her family for Australia in 1850, aged five years. They lived in Melbourne for a couple of years before moving to Launceston, Tasmania. Bertha was well educated for a young lady of that era, being accomplished in French, drawing and piano among other things.

In 1864 at the age of 20 she married Ernest Leviny and they had 10 children, all of whom were born in the family home at Buda: Louis Ernest, Alfred Eugene, Mary Florence, Ernest Arthur, Francis Herbert, Ilma Edith, Beatrice Kate, Gertrude Olga Louise, Bertha Dorothy and Hilda Geraldine. Two of the boys, Alfred and Francis, died in childhood.

Despite the commitments of raising a large family, Bertha was active in local charities, such as the Anglican Church and the Castlemaine hospital, and lead a busy social life. After Ernest died in 1905, she remained at Buda with her unmarried daughters until her death in 1923.

Ernest Leviny (1818-1905) trained as a silversmith and jeweller in Budapest, Hungary. In 1843 he lived in Paris developing his craft before moving to London where he set up a manufacturing jewellers and goldsmiths company with a Russian jeweller.

In 1852 reports of the goldrushes in Australia were circulating in London, and though the business was successful, Ernest left for the goldfields anticipating to stay in the colonies for a period of three years.

He arrived in Melbourne in 1853, travelling directly to the Castlemaine goldfields to try his luck, but the machinery he had brought with him was unsuitable. By 1854, he had established a jewellery and watchmaking business in Market Square Castlemaine and commenced investing in property and mining. He married his first wife Mary Issacs in 1858. She gave birth to a son Charles Ernest in 1859 but the baby died aged six months with Mary dying soon after in April 1860.

Ernest was a highly skilled silversmith and jeweller and his reputation rests on two known major works: the Colonial Gold and Redgum Inkstand (c.1855) which was exhibited the 1862 London International Exhibition and the Silver Standing Cup Centrepiece (c.1859), now in the collection of the National Gallery of Victoria.

In 1864 Ernest Leviny married the 20 year-old Bertha Hudson, and together they had ten children. Ernest was a prominent Castlemaine citizen and at the time of his death in 1905, he was believed to be the wealthiest man in the town. He left his family well provided for, thus allowing his five unmarried daughters the freedom to choose their lifestyles and follow their artistic persuasions at a time when women were being given more opportunities to study art and take up careers. They worked across a range of media including painting, woodcarving, metalwork, needlework and photography.

In 1863, Ernest Leviny bought the 1 acre property Delhi Villa, which would later be renamed Buda after the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

Leviny family portrait c.1890 taken in the dining room at Buda (now the sitting room).

Pictured left to right: (standing) Gertrude, Kate, Ernest, Mary and Hilda. Left to right: (seated) Ilma, Bertha and Dorothy (at front).

Buda courtyard with new kitchen and maids’ quarters, 1897.

Pictured left to right: Dorothy, Ernest, Gertrude and Hilda Leviny.

Boating party on the reservoir including the Levinys c.1910.

Most likely either Harcourt or Golden Point near Castlemaine.

A picnic in the bush – Hilda and Mary Leviny with friends c.1900.

Portrait of the Leviny family taken at the front of Buda, Christmas c.1913.

Glenluce Springs near Castlemaine, October 1906.

The Levinys and friends on an excursion.

The Levinys out with friends in a 'Pony Phaeton' 1911.

The Levinys in the sitting room at Buda.

Left to right Kate (standing), Gertrude, Dorothy and a niece, late 1940s.

Buda Historic Home and Garden is one of the great heritage assets of the Victorian Goldfields region.

The gracious historic home, built in 1861, is surrounded by 1.2 hectares of garden noted as being one of the most significant of its era surviving in Victoria.