Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
WHISTLEWOOD Address
642 Tucks Road, Shoreham
Significance
Local
Construction Dates
Mid-1870s and postwar
Period
Late Victorian and postwar
Date Inspected
December 2020
(Source: Susan McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020, undated, available online)
Statement of Significance What is Significant? Whistlewood at 642 Tucks Road, Shoreham, is significant. It was constructed as a homestead (Hillcrest) by the mid-1870s for the grazier and dairy farmers Samuel and Margaret Tuck, who held over 300 acres in the locality. In 1939, the dwelling and a surrounding ten acres (approx. 4 ha) were brought by the Melbourne-based architect Charles Pyne Smart. He built the southern wing and possibly the northern extension. Husband-and-wife Alan and Ellen McCulloch then purchased Whistlewood in 1951 and oversaw its emergence as a regionally renowned artists/creative retreat. The detached rear studio-sleep out was built in the late 1950s to service this use. This artistic legacy was continued by other members of the McCulloch family from the early 1990s by establishing a private gallery at the place, which continued at the time of assessment. The rear two-storey wing was erected in 1994.
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Whistlewood is an unusually evolved timber building/complex. Much of its significance is related to its ongoing use and associations with the local and Australian art and creative scene, resulting in its multilayered development. Significant fabric is restricted to its remnant late Victorian/Federation period layer, which is its earliest fabric, chiefly its central gable roof section, brick chimney, weatherboard cladding, the mid-section of the skillion-roofed verandah, and original window. The postwar additions and extension, including the detached sleepout/studio, are broadly complementary to the overall presentation of Whistlewood and associated with its emergence as an ‘artists retreat’. Other elements, including the rear two-storey wing, are not significant. How is it Significant? Whistlewood is of local historical and social significance to the Mornington Peninsula Shire. Why is it Significant? Whistlewood is historically and socially unique in the municipality as a late Victorian/Federation years homestead that has been adapted into a vibrant creative hub, commencing with the ownership of Alan and Ellen McCulloch in the early 1950s and continued by their descendants into the contemporary period. This several-decade association of the property with a myriad of artistic and creative Australian and international figures, a large number of whom are leading practitioners within their respective realms, is remarkable and has bestowed an outsized social and visual landmark status upon the property. Its highly evolved but low-key built form is eccentric and rambling, with its encompassing garden setting lending the whole property a picturesque quality – no doubt a contributing factor to the interest it holds for creative people. Such attributes, alongside Whistlewood's broader connections to the surrounding undulating landscape and intangible connections with the artistic world, underlie its attraction to artists and communities of interested people drawn from the local area and further afield who have long patronised the homestead. (Criterion A and Criterion G)
Description Whistlewood is located on the Tucks Road ridgeline in pastoral surrounds. The interconnected residence and gallery are located a moderate setback from the road with a frontage defined by lawn and various informal plantings. There is also a contemporary post and wire front fence. The front perimeter displays taller, more mature trees to the north and south of the building. A meandering gravel drive circles the northern elevation of Whistlewood. While the elongated frontage of the building is relatively visible from Tucks Road, sightlines are filtered/screened by vegetation. Other parts of the building are less visible. Consequently, the assessment below is necessarily qualified. Proposed interventions in the earliest surviving parts of Whistlewood will likely require a closer examination of the circumstances of its original fabric (chiefly, the degree of intactness). The existing building is comprised of several periods of development, which are outlined in the annotated aerial photograph below. These built layers share several commonalities, including a timber-framed construction, painted weatherboard cladding, gabled roofs (corrugated metal sheeting), and timber-framed openings. The central earliest section, initially a freestanding transverse gabled homestead, features an original overpainted brick chimney with late Victorian period corbelling to the cap. Its location demarcates the original northern elevation. The verandah has a skillion roof but has otherwise lost its decorative elements, as has the street-facing gable, which has been extended forward. Only the northern sash window is original, with the other an in-kind replacement (previously the main entrance). The paired casements to the gabled wing are also a replacement (initially a single sash). The northern extension replicates the detailing and material palette of the central part. The other gabled extension, which projects from the southern elevation of the street-facing gable, does as well. Although its windows are paired casements and an overpainted brick chimney breast is integrated in its façade. The rear attached two-storey gabled volume is distinguished by its vertical boarding, extensive glazing, and various ground-floor decks and first-floor balconies. To the southwest of the dwelling/gallery is a postwar studio/sleep out. It has a low-pitched gabled roof, clad in corrugated metal, but otherwise, its presentation is unclear. A weatherboard addition (southeast corner) and covered link are also evident. 2
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Apparently, a late 19th-century brick domed well remains in the vicinity of the building. 1
Aerial photograph of Whistlewood, with built layers approximately defined. Red shading – mid-1870s or Federation period footprint Purple shading – postwar extensions, likely in different stages Yellow shading – 1994 additions Orange shading – unknown, likely contemporary (Source: Nearmap, September 2021)
Whistlewood, with the earliest remaining section visible behind the gate. (Source: RBA, December 2020) 1
Susan McCulloch, Whistlewood 1870s-2020, n.d., https://issuu.com/mccullochart/docs/whistlewood_history
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
History Contextual The Mornington Peninsula is encompassed within the unceded Country of the Bunurong people. From the mid-1830s, squatters occupied the majority of the Peninsula, establishing vast pastoral stations. Shoreham formed part of the 6,000 acres (2,400 ha) Manton's Creek run, leased by Henry Tuck (1810-90) in the mid-1850s. Around this time, a timber-cutting camp specialising in the production of railway piles and sleepers emerged at what became the township of Shoreham. Timber was floated out to waiting ships and later moved by the jetty (built 1870). Timber harvesting and milling have remained an economic mainstay for the area until relatively recently. 2 In the early 1860s, a small village/township was reserved on either side of Stony Creek, which marked the division between the parishes of Balnarring and Flinders. 3 Initially, this centre was formally named ‘Balnarring’ but was popularly referred to after the creek's name. Shoreham – named after a well-known Sussex seaside resort – had become dominant in usage by the early 1880s. It grew slowly as a service centre for a productive agricultural hinterland, which was developed by several prominent Irish-Catholic farmers, bestowing an often-noted cultural character on the locality. Many of these families, such as the Byrnes, Baynes, Roys, and Nowlans continued as major landowners into the 20th century. In the late 1870s, Shoreham was classed as a fairly isolated ‘postal centre’ within a ‘pastoral district’ with some gold mining occurring at Tubba Rubba. 4 By the early 1900s, Shoreham remained an out-of-the-way hamlet with a post office, ‘general store’, public school, creamery, and St Peter’s Roman Catholic Church (1901, burnt down in 1980), claimed as ‘the most perfect and complete example of Gothic design yet carried out in wood in the country districts’. The population of the township and district was given as 160. 5
A landscape of farms characterised Shoreham’s hinterland by the early 1900s (Source: Shoreham, circa 1907, Shirley Jones postcard collection, SLV)
A different Shoreham materialised over the 1920s, as the increasing availability of private motor vehicles encouraged visitations to the previously remote area by moneyed Melbourne and Western District residents, many of whom built holiday homes. The 90-lot ‘Shoreham-on-the-Sea’ subdivision (1924), capitalising on this new interest, pushed the focus of the town northeast. It also established a central reserve (now Buxton Woodland) and put in place a covenant of one building per property, a development pattern that prevails in central Shoreham. 6 Bolstering the locality's reputation as a seasonal, if still sequestered, resort town was extensive planting activities. Pine trees (Pinus radiata), in particular, were established along the foreshore for their perceived scenic qualities and to act as windbreaks (VHR/H1996). Shoreham underwent additional low-scale suburban development from the 1960s, although the township retains much of its informal ambience with unsealed roads, dense tree canopies, limited commerce, and deep setbacks. 7 2 3 4 5 6 7
4
Graeme Butler & Associates, Mornington Peninsula Shire Thematic History, 2008, edited by Context Pty Ltd, July 2013, p58 “New Commons Proclaimed”, Age, 1 May 1861, p5 F. F. Bailliere, Bailliere’s Victorian Gazetteer and Road Guide, 1879, p33 The Australian Handbook, Gordon & Gotch, 1905, p479 Landmark Heritage Pty Ltd, Cyril Young Memorial Chapel – Camp Buxton, Shoreham – Conservation Management Plan, 2020, p19 Ethos Urban, Mornington Peninsula Neighborhood Character Study – Background Report, 2019, p267. RBA ARCHITECTS + CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS
Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Place-Specific The subject land derives from Crown Allotment 25 of Section A in the Parish of Flinders, Country of Mornington. This 178-acre (approx. 72 ha) holding stretched from Tucks Road to Manton Creek and appears to have been alienated during the mid-1860s, during the formative phase of Crown sales in the vicinity of Shoreham. By 1873, it had been transferred to the Scottish immigrant William Henderson Glen, who promptly sold it to Samuel Tuck the following year. 8 Samuel Tuck (1844-1931) was the second oldest son of Henry Tuck (1810-1890), a Scottish (Isle of Skye) migrant to Victoria via Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) who had taken up the Manton Creek pastoral run (over 6,000 acres) on the Peninsula in 1846. Henry and his four sons all became regionally prominent as farmers or graziers and were often framed in the contemporary press as district ‘pioneers’. 9 Crown Allotment 25 formed the core of Samuel Tuck’s estate, which by the mid-1870s was over 300 acres. It is believed he established a homestead at the location of Whistlewood, off Tucks Road, where he resided with his wife Margaret (née Kennedy) (1847-1929, married 1869), with whom he had nine children. 10 The 1875 Flinders rate book – the earliest available – records a six-roomed weatherboard house owned and occupied by Tuck 11 This dwelling is believed to be the existing central section (initially the northern part) of Whistlewood. Tuck family lore is that the homestead was initially known as Hillcrest, possibly a reference to its elevated position. 12 This property was described briefly in a 1909 article about key agricultural holdings on the peninsula: Mr Samuel Tuck has a very nice property. The homestead is prettily situated on the top of the hill, above Manton’s Creek, and is well sheltered by ornamental trees. Mr Tuck, who owns between 300 and 400 acres of well grassed rich land, goes in largely for dairying and fattening cattle, and has his place in splendid order. 13
Two photographs of Whistlewood, taken in the early and mid-20th century, are reproduced below. These images depict the northern gabled volume with a front verandah and the southern (now central) street-facing gabled wing. The latter and general timber detailing is indicative of the Federation period (broadly mid-1890s to 1915). That being the case, these elements (decorative detail and the gabled wing) may be early additions, ‘updating’ the character of the earlier presumably Georgian vernacular homestead. Alternatively, the original mid-1870s building had been replaced during the Federation years. A close examination of fabric and construction methodology could confirm the origin date/s of Whistlewood's northern section. Over the 20th century, the homestead was extended to the north and south, as well as at the rear.
Photograph of Hillcrest/Whistlewood believed to be from the 1910s. Note the Arts & Crafts-influenced verandah timber detailing (ladder frieze, ‘heavy’ brackets, turned timber posts). The halftimbered/projecting gable face is more apparent in the image below (it does not survive). (Source: Susan McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020, undated, available online) 8 9 10 11 12 13
Certificate of Title, vol. 620, folio 739 ‘The Tucks of Flinders’, Peninsula Essence, April 2020, available online Births, Deaths, and Marriages Victoria, Marriage Registration for Samuel Tuck and Margaret Kennedy, 1869, no.2838/1869; the number of children born to the couple was compiled from the registration of births found at Births, Deaths and Marriages Victoria Flinders rate book, Samuel Tuck, 1875, no. 239, VPRS 14371/P0001, PROV Susan McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020, undated, available online ‘Around Flinders’, Mornington Standard, 13 September 1902, p2
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Photograph of Whistlewood with Charles Smart (standing), then the owner, and family is shown. Probably late 1930s/early 1940s, prior to the provision of the southern extension. Note the brick (overpainted) chimney at the gable apex. It displays Victorian-period characteristics, lending weight to the speculation that Samuel Tuck’s original mid-1870s homestead was modified during the Federation years. Note that the gabled wing was later extended forward. (Source: McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020)
Samuel Tuck remained in occupation of Hillcrest until he died in 1931, after which Crown Allotment 25 was broken up amongst his family. The homestead, situated on ten acres (the extant property), was transferred to one of his sons, Thomas Tuck, a Shoreham-based carpenter. 14 In 1939, he sold to the Melbourne architect Charles Pyne Smart (1882-1950), seemingly as a weekender, although it may have become a primary residence later. 15 Smart was a named partner (1907-50) of the longstanding and notable architectural practice of Bates Smart (then Bates, Peebles & Smart, later Bates, Smart & McCutcheon). 16 During Smart’s ownership, the house name Whistlewood appears to have emerged in usage. 17 The aerial photograph that follows, dated 1939, depicts the original/early L-shaped footprint of Whistlewood with surrounding thickly planted windbreaks (noted in the 1909 description). Only some of these trees, chiefly those fronting Tuck Road, appear to have survived. Smart is understood to have undertaken several alterations to the residence over the 1940s, including the provision of the southern gabled section. 18
14 15 16 17 18
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‘Peninsula Property Sold at Auction’, Frankston and Somerville Standard, 16 December 1933, p. 4; and Certificate of Title Vol. 696, Folio 078. Certificate of Title, vol. 6327, folio 348 Philip Goad, Bates Smart: 150 Years of Australian Architecture, Thames & Hudson, 2004, p298 McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020 McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020 RBA ARCHITECTS + CONSERVATION CONSULTANTS
Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
1939 aerial of Whistlewood, circled. Note the southern wing had yet to be constructed. (Source: Run 2, Frame 2330, Geoscience Australia)
In 1951, Whistlewood was sold to Ellen Marion Moscovitz née Bromley (1908-91), an actress and the wife of Alan McLeod McCulloch (1907-92), AO, one of postwar Australia’s foremost art critics and historians, as well as an important illustrator and writer in his own right. 19 McCulloch’s significance to the local and national art scene is well documented, including his role as the inaugural director of the Mornington Peninsula Arts Centre (now the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery) between 1970 and 1991). McCulloch had previously established an artists’ camp in the mid-1930s with his brother Wilfred and Arthur Merric Bloomfield Boyd, a leading Australian painter, at the isolated Gunnamatta Beach near Cape Schanck. Over the 1950s, the McCullochs’ home at Whistlewood also emerged as an artists’ retreat. ‘Hundreds’ of ‘creatives’ frequented Whistlewood over the second half of the 20th century, including acclaimed artists such as Arthur Boyd, Albert Tucker, Charles Blackman, Noel Counihan, Joan and Daryl Lindsay, George and Mirka Mora, and Elisabeth Murdoch. Academics, writers, dancers, musicians, directors, architects, and publishers were also prominent frequenters. 20 Laurence Scott Pendlebury’s painting, Road to Whistlewood, won the Wynne Prize (Art Gallery of New South Wales) in 1968. Whistlewood’s role as an artistic/inspirational centre under the McCullochs’ is widely acknowledged in the Victorian and Australian art scene. To accommodate Whistlewood’s capacity as an artists’ retreat, McCulloch and Arthur Boyd collaborated to design/build a lowpitched gabled studio/sleepout to the rear of the building in 1957. 21 The proposed footprint of this building is shown in the handdrawn plan reproduced below. It also depicts the northern extension of the primary gabled section and front verandah. The latter could have occurred during Smart’s tenure.
19 20 21
Certificate of Title, vol. 6327, folio 348; James Rodney, ‘McCulloch, Alan McLeod (1907-1992), Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, 2016, available online; and McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020 See McCulloch, Whistlewood, 1870s-2020 ‘Whistlewood 1870s-2020’.
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
In 1992, Ellen and Alan’s daughter, Susan McCulloch, OAM, inherited Whistlewood. Soon after, in partnership with her daughter, Emily McCulloch Childs, they founded a well-recognised gallery at the place with a strong emphasis on First Nation art. A twostorey cross-shaped volume, designed by David Faggetter, was erected at the rear of the evolved homestead in 1994.
Hand-drawn plan of Whistlewood, dated 1957, showing the northern extension of the primary footprint and front verandah (shaded purple) and the proposed studio/sleepout at the rear. Note the front gabled wing had not yet been extended forward. (Source: Shire of Flinders, Permit to Commence Building Operations in McCulloch, Whistlewood 1870s-2020)
Ellen and Alan McCulloch (left) with artist Albert Tucker at Whistlewood, undated. (Source: McCulloch, Whistlewood) 8
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Alan McCulloch in front of the late 1950s studio/sleepout at Whistlewood. (Source: McCulloch, Whistlewood)
Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Thematic Context Graeme Butler & Associates, Mornington Peninsula Shire Thematic History, 2008, edited by Context Pty Ltd, July 2013: 10
Developing the Peninsula’s Cultural Life
10.7 Creating visual arts From early times, the Peninsula has been the favoured destination for many famous Australian artists, with many seaside locales used as informal painting schools when they were in a more pristine state. The 1999 Mornington Regional Art Gallery exhibition, The artists’ retreat: discovering the Mornington Peninsula, 1850s to the present provided a catalogue of this artistic involvement with the Peninsula as described by curator and author, Rodney James. He argues, ‘Artists have been keen observers and recorders of the Mornington Peninsula. They have responded to the many different facets of Peninsula life: documenting the environment, the people and the way of life’ … The Peninsula’s strong association with the arts as an inspiration for artists endured through the twentieth century. Alan and Ellen McCulloch lived at Shoreham cottage, Whistewood in 1951 – among their visitors were artists such as Arthur Boyd, John Perceval, Charles Blackman, Albert Tucker, Dorothy Braund, Leonard French, John Brack, Godfrey Miller, Guelda Pyke and Harold Vike. Establishing art galleries has been an important aspect of creating and encouraging visual arts in the Peninsula region. An example of an art gallery established locally is the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery (MPRG) established in 1969 by the Mornington Shire. The art historian, Alan McCulloch AO, was the founding director of the MPRG (1970–92) and a long-time art critic for the Herald, and it was under his leadership that the Gallery began developing a specialist collection of Australian prints and drawings.
Comparative Analysis Whistlewood is a highly evolved timber residence. The original phase of construction, either an altered mid-1870s homestead or Federation-period villa, remains interpretable on close inspection, but 20th-century changes have significantly reduced its intactness. These modifications, including the loss of most decorative façade elements, are outlined in the Description above and have subsumed the formative character of Whistlewood. Generally, such a diminished level of intactness/integrity at a late Victorian-period building would preclude its heritage listing. However, in the case of Whistlewood, the various amendments to its built form have furthered or been undertaken to support its postwar reimagining as a regionally noteworthy artists’ retreat. As such, these later addition components, while not in themselves reflective of significant fabric, have underpinned the important creative associations and legacy of Whistlewood, which are core to its cultural heritage value. The only place in the municipality with a comparable connection to the arts is the postmodern Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery at the Civic Reserve in Mornington, constructed in 1990. Alan McCulloch’s role in the development of both places is notable.
Previous Assessment No previous assessment
Recommendations Heritage Overlay Schedule Controls External paint controls Internal alteration controls Tree controls Solar energy system controls Outbuildings and/or fences not exempt Prohibited uses permitted Aboriginal heritage place
Yes (weatherboards) No No Yes No No No
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Mornington Peninsula Heritage Review Area 4: Western Port and Hinterland
Recommendations Whistlewood at 642 Tucks Road, Shoreham, is recommended for inclusion in the Heritage Overlay of the Mornington Peninsula Planning Scheme to the extent shown by the red lines on the aerial map below, which is defined by a polygon that extends from the building line to Tucks Road and 15 metres to the north and south, and 10 metres to the west.
Recommended extent of the Heritage Overlay (red line) with the broader property boundary outlined in yellow (Source: Nearmap, January 2022)
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