Stonington - late Victorian Melbourne

Before 1888, the Malvern site has been used for the Salvation Army's first meetings in Melbourne. John Wagner purchased the majority of the property in Glen­ferrie Road in 1888, with additional parcels of land around the main allotment. In 1890 Wagner developed this estate, naming the estate Ston­ington Mansion after Stonington in Connecticut, his wife Mary’s home town.

  

Stonington's carriage drive and front entrance

Wagner was already a partner in Cobb and Co Coaches which dominated the coach and mail business in northern and central Victoria. His coach line service was so inf­luent­ial in the growth of the Victorian colony that Wagner made a for­t­une. He also made impressive wealth from gold mining.

Stonington was designed by London-born architect, engineer and surveyor Charles D’Ebro. Together with his business partner John Grainger, D’Ebro was involved in the design of different Melbourne buildings eg Princes Bridge and the MCG grandstand and pavilion. Clearly D’Ebro loved Late Boom Style Classicism that was prevalent in Melbourne in the 1880s and early 1890s.

Stonington is a mixture of French Second Empire and Italian Renaissance Revival. See a large two storey brick and stucco classical mansion with steep French Second Empire roof forms and concentrated Baroque detail and bulk. It's an asymmetrical compos­ition with arcaded loggia at ground floor level and adjoining 2 storey servants and service wing.

The original decorative scheme and the stained glass were created by the firm Lyon Cottier and Wells, of Melbourne and Sydney. The staircase windows are a fine example of C19th domestic stained glass. Some of the original Wagner furniture pieces were manufactured by W. Walker & Sons, one of London's leading firms. The finely detailed and crafted interiors were notable, especially the great hall, stair case and glazed lant­ern.

An elaborate gate house, with impressive entrance gates and iron fence, was designed in a similar style to the house, reflecting the wealth and importance of the owner. A very large orig­inal stable building has also been retained on the estate and much of the orig­inal fabric re­mains.

 Stonington's gate house and main gates

Much of the landscaping has been retained. Note the 1890 carriage drive, front fence and gates, sweeping lawns enc­l­osed by large shrubberies, steps framed by a pair of oaks, a coll­ection of pines and winding gravel paths. Although smaller due to being covered with new buildings, sufficient gar­den sur­vives to apprec­iate its characteristics; it was typ­ical of C19th city mansion gardens.

Wagner and his family lived in the house until his death in 1901. The residence’s past high society guests included Dame Nellie Melba, King George VI and the Queen Mother as the Duke and Duchess of York, King Edward VIII as the Prince of Wales, Sir John Monash, Lord and Lady Baden-Powell, Lord Kitchener, Keith Murdoch and Ernest Shackleton.

Australia became an independent nation with Federation on 1st Jan 1901. After Federation, the central Government sat in the State Parliament building in Melbourne (until Canberra could be built) and served as the governor-general's official residence. So Stoning­ton was immediately acquired for Victoria's vice-regal res­idence, from 1901-1930s. For these state governors, British gentlemen all, the finely detailed and crafted int­eriors, great hall and staircase were perfect.

The 7 Victorian Governors who resided at Stonington were:
· 1901-3: Sir George Sydenham Clarke
· 1904-8: Sir Reginald Arthur James Talbot
· 1908-11: Sir Thomas David Gibson Carmichael
· 1911-3: Sir John Michael Fleetwood Fuller
· 1914-20: Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley
· 1921-6: Colonel George Mowbray, Earl of Stradbroke
· 1926-31: Lieutenant Colonel Arthur Tennyson, Lord Somers

At first the Victorian Government leased the property. Then in 1928 Stonington was subdivided into two sections and the Victorian Govern­ment acquired the developed western portion, containing the mans­ion, gate house & stables. So for 30 years, until 1931, Stonington had been the State Gov­ernor's residence.

Staircase

Stained glass front door

Interior decoration

BalanceArchitecture

The Modern Era
The estate was used as St Margaret's Girls' School until 1938, post-hospital care for child polio victims until 1940 and then as a Red Cross convalescent hospital in WW2 and af­t­er. Its last health care in­car­n­ation was as the Health Department’s administ­ration from 1953-1957.

With the enormous expansion of education during the post-war baby boom, Stonington was trans­fer­red to the Ed­uc­ation Dept in 1957 and continued to be utilised by Toorak Teachers' College and the Toorak campus of State College of Victoria from 1973-1992. Then it was Deakin Univers­ity's admin­istrative headquarters, until 1995.

The most extensive building works were undertaken in the 1960s and 1970s as the property was redevel­oped for the Toorak Teachers' Coll­ege. And modifications were also made to the landscape to the east and south of the mansion, for the student teachers. The mansion inter­iors remained intact but the exterior loggias were enclosed.

By 2006 the campus became sur­plus to Deakin Uni's needs and was put up for sale to private interests. This created intense lob­bying from locals who bel­ieved the property should be retained by the government, but the government did nothing. The prop­er­ty was sold for $18 million.

In 2008 art dealer Rod Menzies purchased a smaller Stonington estate from developers who'd sliced off large sections of the yard on which they had built homes. In 2018 Mr Menzies on-sold Stonington for a new house price record of $52.5 million! Appar­ently it was sold to an Asia-based buyer and is now awaiting approval from the Foreign Investment Review Board.

Note that stunning Stonington Mansion lived through, and was involved in, the important phases of early Victoria - Federation, state governors and the development of Victorian social institut­ions.

Stonington gardens

Sydney Morning Herald

Thank you to the Victorian Heritage Database Report.

"The Library: a World History" - great book

The Library: A World History is a great book, with Will Pryce’s images and architectural librarian historian James Campbell’s text. It analysed global library architecture in 1 volume, from ancient Mesopotamia to modern China and from the beginnings of writing, to the present day. The photos noted that each age and culture reinvented the library, moulding it to reflect priorities and civilisations.

Melk Abbey Library, Austria

A Benedictine monastery

Libraries can be divided into academic, administrative or private types, some of which were rooted in the ancient world. The first writing system arose 5,500 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, secured on fragile papyrus or clay when academics realised they had to archive and protect them. Rulers created libraries to consolidate and expand their influence, and to display their political power to citizens. The majestic Library of Alexandria was created in c300 BCE by ?Alexander the Great and lasted until damaged by secular-Roman and religious-Christian enemies.

First chapters traced the destroyed libraries of Rome, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece and Eastern and Islamic worlds, so the authors the data had to infer from references and archaeology. But great photos of library remain at Pergamon & Ephesus. Over centuries, key concerns outdid place and time: structure, iconography, function. But each era took a particular style specific to the materials and technology, plus the era’s world view.

The two men surveyed many libraries, from the expansive new National Library of China to the Tripitaka Koreana 1251 in South Korea, one of the oldest intact libraries anywhere. The photographs were perfect, and they gave purpose to the text, taking a great look into the decorative and educational history of library buildings.

Library of Congress, Washington DC

A library consisted of books and the buildings that housed them, more than the dark wooden shelves in academia. From the Library of Congress’ great dome, to the white façade of Seinäjoki Library Finland, to the ancient ruins of Turkey’s Library of Pergamum, Campbell and Pryce travelled the globe together, detailing 80+ libraries that demonstrated the many approaches to design. Library architecture showed its builders’ wealth, culture and learning. Note that libraries were open to the public back in the Renaissance!

In Korea, wooden character blocks were created in c1011 to print the Tripitaka Koreana, a central Buddhist text. The idea didn’t progress until Johannes Guttenberg created a very similar technology 450 years later, in the very different socio-economic setting of Early Modern Europe. In the next centuries, innovations in printing technology and the declining cost of books led to rapid proliferations of knowledge, and then to the emergence the modern scientific and industrial world. Thus the modern public library emerged in the mid-C19th.

The writing should have covered the wide set of professions: librarians, scholars and patrons; they played key roles in creating this institution. Some critics said the book largely neglected the different roles and instead focused on the architectural history of libraries. It DID chronicle a flexible architectural history, especially of the wealthy and powerful: from the ruins of multi-storeyed covered walkways of ancient Greece to the sutra stores of C11th Buddhist temples; from the Middle Ages’ Gothic cloisters to the functional modern age. But I liked that.

Theft remained an enduring threat, so books were regularly chained to monasterial walls in the Middle Ages and early modern period. The earl-iest monastic libraries housed the sets that showed the internal struggle between religiosity and human nature. So in those libraries, books were chained to desk-mounted rods, to prevent monks being tempted to sell books to outsiders, despite poverty vows. Read how other aspects of pre-serving books’ physical integrity have confounded librarians for centuries. In China mineral gypsum was placed beneath shelves to stop the damp.

The photos showed sumptuous swirls of marble, golden gilding and a rain-bow of Rococo frescoes that recalled the exquisite beauty. Campbell’s captions illuminated architectural tricks invisible to us normals eg the stone elephant, perched on a portal in the Biblioteca Malatestiana Library of Cesena Italy, was the Malatesta dynasty’s symbol.

The library tour went from the clay tablet storehouses of ancient Mesopotamia and beautiful Buddhist sutra blocks, to the paper prints in Korea and Japan, to the grandiose designs and multi-media C21st spectaculars. The book put such sites into long perspective, seeing book technology, readers' needs and architectural solutions.

But why the focus on institutions created specifically for the privileged with no place for local, ordinary libraries. Clearly this was a study of libraries designed to be admired. See Osaka’s soaring book wall at Shiba Ryotaro Museum, its triple-height, Japanese oak shelves. Yale's Beinecke Library was walled with Vermont marble, and the honey glow. At Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, the library has one-person desks, each with private sunny windows. This library was built in the 1970s by Louis Khan. Campbell's commentary noted that Khan had a theory to plan a brand-new library in New Hampshire. Holland’s Delft Library grew with a concrete cone to use as a reading room. Its solid sides allowed no view out and the enclosed space was inadequate.

Old Bodlien Library, Oxford

The British Library was referred to, but there were no photos. Instead examine the British facilities eg Wells Cathedral Library, Cambridge Public Library, Thomas Bodley's Bodleian Oxford  and John Radcliffe's Camera Oxford. The superb buildings were erected, not to celebrate books, but rather for architects to stretch their vision; for universities to spend money; and to honour  benefactors. 

The book has heaps of pictures of old and modern libraries, but also a balanced resumé of the history of library-architecture. The focus was on the buildings, but information about the evolution of books and of collections themselves emerged. Readers can look at the position of bookcases and tables, distribution of space, illuminance, all have their own background, value and history!

George Peabody Library (1878) is linked to Johns Hopkins University, focused on research into C19th. Formerly the Library of the Peabody Music Institute, it was in Mt Vernon-Belvedere historic cultural neighbourhood of Baltimore. The collections are free for use by the general public, in keeping with the Baltimorean merchant/philanthropist George Peabody's creation of a community library.

George Peabody Library

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore

The book focused on how people collected, protected and catalogued knowledge in writing. But the underlying themes were presented in such a subtle way as to go unnoticed amongst all the data that is presented. Be certain that Campbell's work was not simply recounting the many buildings that made up history’s libraries. It was a map of the ever-changing ideas of privilege, interface between civilisation and nature, egalitarianism, interplay between trust in man’s good and the fear of man's greed.

Then the book described medieval libraries and explained how libraries evolved, beginning with the Renaissance. The photos of libraries in monasteries, universities, palaces and cities are gorgeous. They showed the gradual evolution of storage and reading spaces from books fixed to a one-person lectern space, to stalls, walls, stacks and the modern mix of media and hard copy. The authors discussed the rise of librarians in design, lauding their practical insights as a necessary corrective to earlier architectural neglect of operating and preservation issues.

The stunning photos and texts came mostly from the U.S and Europe, with some modern examples from China and Japan. Qere the 300-odd local libraries that have closed since 2010 ever examined? or the 400 more that might close? Campbell's history knew libraries were always at risk. Fires have gutted them since Rome, plus struggles with damp, beetles, bombs. A plane crashed into a Slovenian reading room!

In considering the future library, Campbell stated that the future will be as a museum for books that are curated, displayed and preserved for posterity, and a workspace for the general public. But consider Google’s project of digitising world libraries. In his limited mentioning of the giant internet, people might neglect the immaterial aspects of the history. But history wasn’t just architectural.

In Britain now THE significant element to the story were those libraries closed or thinking of closing. Campbell noted that public libraries are being closed in Europe etc, and criticised the university that changed its library to an Information, Communications and Media Centre in 2004.

La Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

note the imposing sculpture of Petrarch, created in 1904

venezia blog

Summary
Campbell is an architectural historian, so his writing on the building of libraries was fine. The two men combined their talents and gave the reader a look at the history of libraries from 20+ different countries. Some were very old and others newer, but all were unique and original.    

Now something quite separate. The 1000 Library Awards named the most beautiful ones in 2025, based on 200,000+ votes from global booklovers on line. The results of the 2025 Top 10 Most Beautiful Libraries globally included international libraries, showcasing both modern & historic architectural styles: 

South Australia State Library

State Library Victoria, Australia 

 1.Trinity College Dublin, Ireland

 2.South Australia State, Australia

 3.St Gallen Abbey, Switzerland

 4.Duke Humfrey's, Oxford Uni, Britain
 5.Admont Abbey, Austria
 6.Cuypers Library, Amsterdam, Netherlands

 7.State Library Victoria, Australia 
 8.Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading, Rio, Brazil
 9.Wiblingen Abbey Ulm, Germany
10.Sainte-Geneviève, France

Classy pod homes for Australia's homeless

Antenly Tiny House with expansive glass elements

S.A Tiny Home Expo

The NSW government agreed to set up 58 pod homes for 2022 flood survivors in Brunswick Heads, homes to be available for key workers. They also promised to deliver 350+ new Social Housing properties in the Northern Rivers over a few years. Byron's mayor said a feasibility study would be completed to examine how best offer the housing and decide who’d be eligible. Teachers, police and other key workers looking to move into the Byron Shire would be offered accommodation in pods, originally built for flood survivors.

Byron's Mayor believed the homes for key workers was great news. They really needed a home as soon as possible; when many people that were homeless, they had to deliver long term affordable housing options quickly and not let this expensive resource to go to waste.

Interior view of single pod

Studio Nine Architects and Treehouse 3D 

Pod with 2 bedrooms, 

Instagram

NSW Housing Minister Rose Jackson wanted Regional Councils to follow Byron's lead, to a future for everyone of those pods. The offer was still available for other Councils if they want to revisit it. Tweed Shire Council had earlier rejected an offer for a similar plan at its Kingscliff pod village, but the councillors could still rethink it. The move was announced as the NSW government unveiled plans for a historic pipeline of housing which included 35+ social housing to be built across the Northern Rivers by mid 2027.

The Tweed Shire will get 133 new homes, Richmond Valley will receive 69, while Lismore, Ballina and the Clarence Valley will get c50 each. It is actually the largest housing run in any part of regional NSW, so there’ll be more homes in this region than in the rest of the state. The state government announced it would transform a former Tweed Heads retirement village into 70 supported housing units, already bought under its Housing Innovation Fund.

Elderly couples who were verging on homelessness found they had to move out of their rental home of 30 years, until space was found in a temporary accommodation facility. If the couples were on a pension, they could not afford to rent a place for c$900/week. NSW Premier Chris Minns said innovative projects were crucial in a region with 4,100+ people on the social housing waiting list, including 1,200+ on the priority list.

Theresa Mitchell manager of homelessness outreach service Agape, said 133 new social housing properties in the Tweed was nothing compared to the number of homeless people. Some clients recently entered social housing after 21 years on the waiting list! It is clearly not going to solve the problem; it's not even going to halve the problem. Breaking the cycle of homelessness by providing real change through an innovative, sustainable and integrated housing solution, in a community. There is a current shortage of affordable housing for in Australians experiencing homelessness.

Forage Built is a social enterprise and partnership made between S9 Director Andrew Steele, Forage Supply Co founders Scott Rogasch and Justin Westhoff, Zoe Steele of Otello and Tim Pearce of Frame Creative. Aiming to have the smallest impact on the environment, and biggest impact on the community the group united to break the home-lessness cycle. The Calyx Project aims to fight homelessness, creating villages where needy people can find safe accommodation and a sense of community.

The Cupitt's Estate, Ulladulla NSW.
Prefabulous

Pod villages were set up across the Northern Rivers after the 2022 floods,  

ABC News

The solution begins with the design of the Calyx-16 by Andrew Steele: a 16sq m, safe, affordable, transportable, energy efficient and eco-friendly dwelling. Unlike past solutions such as the temporary use of motels, the Calyx-16 concept promotes a protective layer around a core, creating its own protective haven around the occupant, to sleep safely and to store belongings.

Each pod has a kitchenette-living room, porch, ensuite and storage space - compact and dignified. The pod design includes all materials that are recycled, cost-effective, carbon neutral and robust. The Calyx-16 can be configured in multiple ways eg additional family sleeping quarters and living space.

porch and sunchairs

Forage Calyx 16

City Mag

Using white externally was environmentally sound due to its solar reflection, standing out in an urban setting and symbolising new beginnings. The interior is unexpected, generous in space and successful in achieving a homely feeling. The Calyx homes are not designed to exist in isolation but are placed in a community in a larger village. To successfully pilot the first village and succeed in the overarching vision, 5 factors are needed:

1. a socially conscious developer or landowner,
2. a financier,
3. services provider,
4. management by a non-for-profit housing provider and
5. employment opportunities by a social enterprise.  

The team ran an extensive consultation and survey process, speaking to the intended clients, to know how they would best use the space and interact in the village. Collaboration with the Council was also required re how any social impact might be managed. A village will include a cluster of pods, with the agency placing people into homes in cohorts, to manage social risks. One pod is allocated to a case worker to reside onsite and provide 24 hour support to the residents, and managed by the non-for-profits. This allows residents to safely: form a community, access services, skills training and transition back into permanent housing, and the workforce through employment with an aligned company. The goal is to help people sustain long term housing with this skill development, ending repeated homelessness.

A larger communal pod will be located in the centre of the site, housing a kitchen, laundry, space for events and skill workshops. Utilising S9 and Forage Built’s network, in-kind donations, financial contributions & strategic partnerships have been crucial, resulting in the model pod construction. Awareness campaigns enable the community, individuals and businesses to become involved.

Through community partnerships, the prototype pod has been displayed at Tasting Australia, Fringe Festival, Rundle Mall and IKEA, supporting the enterprise’s sustainability.

A flood recovery pod village in Brunswick Heads Byron Shire
ABC News

I would happily live in a pod if I was alone, but it would have to have a front garden with a couple of trees, small lawn and flowers.

 

D.Trumbo: great screenwright blacklisted

Dalton Trumbo (1905-76) was born in Montrose CO, son of shoeshop worker Orus and his wife. When Trumbo was 3, his fam­ily moved to nearby Grand Junction, and meanwhile he wrote as a cub reporter for a local paper. Trumbo continued journalism at the Uni of Colorado, and in 1925 had moved to Los Angeles. When dad died, Trumbo worked in a bakery for 10 years to help sup­port his mother and siblings. Meanwhile he wrote heaps of short stories.

Trumbo began writing profession­ally in the 1930s, publishing articles in Saturday Evening Post, Vanity Fair and Hollywood Sp­ec­t­ator. He became The Spectat­or’s managing editor in 1934, pub­lished his first novel Eclipse, and worked as a script reader for Warn­er Bros.

In 1936, Trumbo received his first screenwriting credit for the crime drama Road Gang, and over the next decade became a suc­cessful and resp­ected writer in Holly­wood. A 2nd highspot was A Man to Remember (1938). In  the meantime, he married Cleo Fincher in 1939 and had 3 child­ren: Nikola, Chris­t­opher and Mitzi.

 Hollywood 10 charged with contempt in Nov 1947

He also succeeded with the anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun (1939). The novel won a National Book Award and has been adapted many times for radio, stage and screen. Although Johnny’s success earn­ed Trumbo fame, the work eventually gathered him unwanted attention as well. He receiv­ed fan let­ters from Nazi sympath­isers believed the writer was also pro-Nazi. So Trumbo reported the Nazis to the FBI but rather than pursue the Nazis, the Bureau investig­ated Trumbo!

The House Committee on Un-American Ac­tivities/HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyal activities by public employees and org­anisations suspected of having Communist ties. More about this later.

The 1940 romantic drama Kitty Foyle, starring Ginger Rogers, earned Trumbo his first Academy Award nomination for best adapted screenplay. Another much praised WW2 drama was Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo (1944), starring Spencer Tracy and Robert Mitchum.

Like many intellectuals, Trumbo had joined the Comm­unist Party in 1943 for a few years, and during his career, had frequ­en­t­ly proposed leftish political positions. From 1946 on, the number of FBI ag­ents doubled, as part of President Truman’s loyalty-security programme, identifying gov­ernment employees with communist sympathies.

In Oct 1947, as postwar paranoia about Comm­un­ism was surging in USA. Trumbo was among 10 Hollywood directors and writers, The Holly­wood Ten, called to testify before the HUAC. The Committee had to investigate whether Communist sympathisers had pro­p­ag­and­ised audiences. The HUAC began to sub­poena screen writers and directors to test­ify about alleged communist links.

Dalton Trumbo might have been Hollywood's most famous screenwriter of his generat­ion, yet he too had to testify before the HUAC. They all refused to give up the names of colleagues with ?comm­unist sym­p­athies; Trumbo was imprisoned for 11 months, guil­ty of Contempt of Con­gr­ess. After re­lease, he was Black­listed by the major studio heads and could not work in his own name.

Dalton Trumbo grilled by the House Un-American Activities Committee

28th Oct 1947. NBC News

Other witnesses called in front of the committee, including Elia Kazan, director of On The Waterfront, named names and could continue working. The playwright Arthur Miller, who had been life­long friends with Kazan, never spoke to him again. But Trumbo couldn’t find work in California so the family moved to Mexico City. There he continued to write screen­plays, which he could sell using pseudonyms. 

Dalton Trumbo (glasses) prepared to fly to Wash DC to begin gaol

with family and protesters Los Angeles Airport, 1950.
SFGATE

Sen Joe McCarthy launched his most brutal campaign in 1950, when he accused 200+ state department staff of being communists. In Mexico City, Trumbo continued to write screen­plays which he was able to sell by getting other writers to front for his work. Dur­ing this time, Trum­bo wrote 10+ screenplays that were made into films, including the clas­s­ic Oscar-winning Roman Holiday (1953), starring Gre­g­­ory Peck and Audrey Hepburn.

After years of working in exile, Trumbo at last returned to Hollywood, when his screenplay for The Brave One (1956), under the nick Robert Rich, received an Ac­ad­emy Aw­ard. But his earnings dwindled: over a two year period, Trumbo wrote 18 screenplays cheaply.

Trumbo was known for writing in his bathtub.
X.com

When McCarthy died in 1957, there was a sense of joy because the senat­or had managed the whole disaster. By 1959, HUAC was denounced even by for­m­er Pres Truman as “a most un-American thing”.

Trumbo was chosen by Kirk Douglas to write the screenplay for Spar­t­acus, which went on to win four Academy Awards!! Trumbo was also hired to write the adap­t­ation for the best-selling novel about the State of Is­rael, Exodus, directed by Otto Prem­in­g­er. The Blacklist had lost all credibility!

Throughout the rest of his life, Trumbo continued his successful output and was re­in­st­at­ed in the Writers Guild of America. Of the many screen­plays that he wrote in this post-Blacklist era, some high­lights were the Dou­glas west­ern Lonely Are the Brave (1962), Golden Globe–nominated crime drama The Fixer (1968), and a prison clas­sic Pap­illon (1973) with Steve McQueen & Dustin Hoffman. Revisiting his old, once troubled works, Trumbo wrote and directed a 1971 film adaption of Johnny Got His Gun, and received two awards at the Cannes Film Fes­tival. And in 1975, he finally received his Oscar for The Brave One.

A heavy smoker Trumbo was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1973. He died in care in Sept 1976 in Los Angeles.

In 1993, 40 years after the film’s release, Trumbo was posthumously awarded an Oscar for his Roman Holiday screenplay. Since his death, Trumbo has been the hero of other peoples’ works, incl­uding a 2003 Broadway play: Trumbo: Red, White and Black­listed. In Sept 2015, a new bio­graphical drama cal­l­ed Trumbo premiered at the Toronto Intern­ational Film Festival. The ex­traordinary story of his defiance in the face of political oppression was key.

You might like to see the 2015 film, Trumbo, based on the 1977 biography by Bruce Alexander Cook.