Baxter, Victoria: Travel guide and things to do

Baxter is a small settlement of 2500 people on the edges of Melbourne's ever-increasing suburban sprawl. It is part of the municipality of Frankston and is located 48 km south-east of Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula.

Prior to European settlement the area was inhabited by Wiradjuri Aborigines. The town was named after the first European settler in the area - a Lieutenant Benjamin Baxter who appears to have given himself a promotion as most sources now refer to him as Captain Benjamin Baxter - who, in 1840, took up the 'Carrup Carrup' run where he successfully bred shorthorn cattle. Baxter's daughter married John Sage who took up an adjoining property, 'Eurutta'. The slab house on the land is one of Victoria's oldest farm houses.

Today Baxter is a small settlement which has been overwhelmed by the major seaside attractions atFrankston and Mornington and the southern suburban sprawl of Melbourne.

Baxter can claim two significant literary connections. Joan Lindsay, who wrote 'Picnic at Hanging Rock', lived at Mulberry Hill near the town from the late 1920s until her death in 1984 and the popular novelist Nevil Shute lived in the town in the 1950s.

Things to see

Eurutta (Sages Cottage)
This homestead, one of the oldest farm houses in Victoria, dates from 1853 and is a rare surviving example of a quality home constructed from vertical sawn slabs. It has timber verandahs which support a hipped shingled roof and was built by John Edward Sage, the manager of Captain Benjamin Baxter's 'Carrup Carrup' station, who overlanded cattle to the district in the 1840s. Sage married a Baxter daughter and took up an adjoining property on which he built this cottage which is located on the corner of Moorooduc and Sages Road. Historic stables overlook the lake and there are extensive gardens with peacocks, ducks and geese. Offers Devonshire Tea and light lunches, Friday from 10a.m. - 3p.m., tel: (03) 5971 5964.

Mulberry Hill
'Mulberry Hill' is the former home of Sir Daryl Lindsay (brother of Norman Lindsay) and Joan Lindsay (the author of Picnic at Hanging Rock). It is an American-colonial style weatherboard house perched atop a hill in rural surrounds, offering views of Western Port Bay. The Lindsays inherited the original four-room 1880s cottage when they purchased the property from cousins of the painter Frederick McCubbin in 1 926, building their elegant home that same year. The property was originally part of the Carrup Carrup estate, established by Captain Baxter in 1840.

Guests at the house have included Vivien Leigh, Sir Robert Helpmann and Dame Nellie Melba. As both Lindsays were artists, there is, not surprisingly, a fine collection of art by the likes of the Lindsays, Frederick McCubbin, Rupert Bunny, John Perceval, Constance Stokes and Margaret Preston, as well as Georgian furniture, literary items and memorabilia. Joan Lindsay's writing room has also been preserved.

The house and property were bequeathed intact to the National Trust which opens it to the public every Sunday. Tours are conducted at 1.30 p.m., 2.15 p.m. and 3.00 p.m. Tours for groups can be organised any day by making a booking, tel: (03) 5971 4138. Mulberry Hill is located in Golf Links Road which connects the Moorooduc Highway with the Baxter-Tooradin Rd.