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This was published 13 years ago

Open for inspection

Heritage dwellings offer glimpses into the past amid gentile surroundings, writes Alistair Smith.

House and garden ... Heronswood in sprawling grounds at Dromana.

House and garden ... Heronswood in sprawling grounds at Dromana.

I am seeking out a most remarkable woman: Georgiana, illegitimate daughter of a Scottish laird, a portrait painter, creator of beautiful sketches, a musician, diarist and pioneer with an unusual rapport with Aborigines.

I find her in a most surprising place: in the middle of a perfectly normal-looking residential area, where narrow streets are lined with typical suburban houses and holiday homes within 200 metres of a busy bayside beach.

It was here that Georgiana settled in 1844 with her husband, Andrew McCrae, a lawyer who failed financially in Melbourne, then taking up the 8000-hectare Arthurs Seat Run.

The single-roof timber-slab house they built is still intact, a National Trust property refurbished with many original pieces of furniture.

They lived here for seven years before Andrew quit to become a police magistrate in Gippsland and Georgiana returned to Melbourne society.

This is not a love story with a happy ending. Andrew eventually went back to England, leaving Georgiana in Australia, to return only when he was dying.

Their tale is told in a modern gallery adjoining the homestead, with a second section devoted to the story of the equally fascinating Burrell family, who took over the property and remained at Arthurs Seat for 75 years.

McCrae Homestead is but one of a string of heritage dwellings scattered throughout the Mornington Peninsula.

At Dromana, the car park of Heronswood is packed. The garden is the attraction, sprawling down the hillside with panoramic views across the bay to Mount Martha.

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Heronswood is home to the Digger's Club, which nurtures and sells heirloom vegetables, fruits and cottage flowers. The shop and nursery are packed and diners are arriving to sample regional seasonal fare in a thatched-roof cafe named Fork to Fork.

The steep-roofed two-storey house, built of granite and dressed with limestone, dates back to 1866 and was the family home of Melbourne University's first professor of law, William Hearn. It's open only twice a year; during the Harvest Festival in March and Melbourne Cup weekend.

Neither can you just rock up and have a look around Beleura in Mornington, described in the 1860s as the finest mansion in the colony.

Beleura, an Italianate villa surrounded by traditional gardens, was bought in 1916 by George Tallis (later Sir George), a theatre entrepreneur who for many years was the biggest shareholder and chairman of directors of the iconic J.C. Williamson. Sir George died in 1948 but the property remained in family hands until 1996, when it was bequeathed to the people of Victoria.

Special-event programs have a strong artistic and theatrical element, with guests being ferried to the property from the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery for a guided tour by members of the Australian Decorative and Fine Arts Society.

The Briars Historic Park, at Mount Martha, is open daily and I first call at the visitors' centre to learn about the wetland and woodland walks.

The Briars was the name of a small pavilion owned by Alexander Balcombe's family on the Atlantic island of St Helena and Napoleon lived in it for part of his exile. When the Balcombes settled in Victoria, they brought the Briars name with them. A century later, Alexander's great-granddaughter, Dame Mabel Brookes, was to become fascinated by Napoleon. Items from her collection of Napoleonic memorabilia are now housed in the old homestead.

I notice an old tennis court dug out of the slope below the house. It was created for Dame Mabel's husband, Sir Norman Brookes, the first non-British player to win a Wimbledon title.

My next visit is to Mulberry Hill in Langwarrin South, a 12-hectare property reached by a steep concealed drive flanked on one side by a virtual field of agapanthus and on the other a new car park. When Daryl and Joan Lindsay bought this place in the 1920s, the principal building on the property, with views out to Western Port Bay, was a four-bedroom cottage dating back to the 1880s, to which they attached a two-storey white American colonial-style house.

Daryl was a member of the artistic Lindsay family, of which his brother Norman was probably best known, but Daryl was an artist in his own right, the founding chairman of the National Trust and director of the National Gallery, who built up his own formidable collection of art, Georgian furniture and glassware and ceramics at Mulberry Hill. Joan, a fine painter, was to find fame as the author of Picnic at Hanging Rock.

In the rear courtyard, I'm shown the gnarled mulberry tree, perhaps more than 100 years old, from which the property takes its name. Although great solid chains are required to hold it together, it is still laden with fruit.

The estate named Sunnyside, at Mount Eliza, was established in the 1860s and, purchased by the Catholic Church in 1932, became known as Morning Star Boys Home, a training centre for delinquent boys. Today, Morning Star Estate is a boutique hotel, where the terrace restaurant spilling on to the nine-hectare gardens featuring 700 varieties of ornamental roses, with views over Port Phillip Bay.

I continue along the road that runs past the estate, to find it ends at a small, secluded beach with views back to Schnapper Point.

''Capture the feel of authentic 19th-century life,'' says the blurb for Coolart Wetlands and Homestead at Somers and the sign at the door tells me the two-storey brick mansion, built by the Grimwade family in 1895, is open for inspection. I'm disappointed to find it is mainly unfurnished - and unexplained.

However, the main attraction at Coolart is the wetland area, gazetted as a sanctuary for ''native game'' as far back as 1937.

Back to nature, instead of back in time.

FAST FACTS

Getting there

Most of the Mornington Peninsula's heritage homes are within an hour's drive of central Melbourne, with Coolart the furthest, at 70 kilometres away.

The houses

Beleura House, Mornington (phone 5975 2027, see beleura.org.au). Bookings required. Charges vary according to the length of the tour or the event. Full morning guided tour, including courtesy bus and morning tea, $23, $20 concession.

The Briars Park, Nepean Highway, Mount Martha (phone 5974 3686). Open daily but restaurant closed Mondays and Tuesdays. Park entry is free. Visits inside homestead ($5.40, concession $4.10) depend on availability of guides. Check before you go.

Coolart Wetlands and Homestead, Lord Somers Road, Somers (phone 13 19 63, see parkweb.vic.gov.au). Open daily. Entry free.

Heronswood, Latrobe Parade, Dromana (see diggers.com.au). Garden entry $10, free to Digger's Club members. Cafe open daily.

Morningstar Estate, Sunnyside Road, Mount Eliza (phone 9787 7760, see morningstarestate.com.au). Garden (entry $5) and restaurant open daily.

Mulberry Hill, Golf Links Road, Langwarrin South (phone 5971 4138, see nattrust.com.au). Reopens February 20 after restoration. Entry $7.50 adult, $6.50 concession.

McCrae Homestead and Galleries, Beverley Road, McCrae (phone 5981 2866, see nattrust.com.au). Open Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays noon-4.30pm. Entry $6, concession $5.

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