Heidelberg Artists and Architecture - Charterisville

Charterisville c 1840 was built by David Charteris McArthur, Manager of the Bank of Australasia [ ANZ]. It was sited high on the hill overlooking the valley to the east and his 168 acres of land down to the Yarra River which had orchards and vineyards. This house is now only half of the original structure - the northern part being removed for the purpose of subdividing land for houses in 1960. This half of the house was leased by Walter Withers from 1890-94, be E.Phillips Fox,and Tudor St George Tucker who became the founders of what is now called The Heidelberg School of Painters which was an informal collection of artists adapting French impressionist style to Australian conditions and included Tom Roberts, Arthur Streeton, Frederick McCubbin, Walter Withers and Charles Condor, Jane Sutherland, Clara Southern and Emma Boyd (the wife of Arthur Boyd, May Vale and Jane Price. There were small dwellings on the property that were leased to artists who painted from the landscape all around Eaglemont and the Yarra. These photos show all the original parts of this house with the exception of some woodwork around the courtyard area. The cellar was probably very important during the summer months before we had air conditioning.

Banyule historic house in Heidelberg

Here are some photos of one of the first houses in Victoria which still survives. It was part of the Banyule Estate - now only 1 hectare - in Buckingham Drive, in the Melbourne suburb of Heidelburg. It is built in the Gothic Revival style made from stuccoed locally sourced hand-made bricks and sandstone foundations with walls 75 cm thick. This historic house on a very steep hill or bluff overlooks parklands that were once part of the original huge farm on the rich river floodplains. Now the view across the river is mostly houses... This "Banyule" house was built by Sydney explorer Joseph Hawdon on a 266-hectare estate. Hawdon transported livestock from Jugiong on the Murrumbidgee to Melbourne in 1836 blazing a trail for others. In 1838 he contracted the first mail run from Melbourne to Yass. Also that year he became the first to overland cattle from Howlong [NSW]to Adelaide. The next year he settled at Heidelberg and built the 'Banyule' homestead which was completed in 1846. The Hawdon family owned it until 1863. Banyule Homestead was on an estate of a huge area until the 1890s when it was only 750 acres. The original house was extended in 1907. In 1958 most of the 240 acres of the original estate land was sold and controversially developed into a housing estate. In 1974 it was bought and restored by the State Government and it became an affiliate art gallery of the National Gallery of Victoria between 1977 and 1985. In 1996 extensive alterations and additions were made. Currently 2006, this historically significant house is in private ownership and appears to be in rather an unkempt state:it is partly painted in different shades of yellow/white, with overgrown lawns and very few trees or shrubs, and an ugly high wire fence across a smaller gate and around the permimeter bordering on the Main Yarra Trail, public parklands. [Photos through wire]