Eltham Cemetery - Artistic Recollections Booklet

25 / 72

WITH DONKEYS
AND NARROW-
LEAVED
PEPPERMINT
Montsalvat is the creation of Justus Jörgensen who was born
in 1894 and trained as an architect with a Melbourne firm of
architects, Schreiber & Co. Later, he turned his talents to painting,
enrolling at the National Gallery School of Art inMelbourne. Work
on the Great Hall began in 1938. Jörgensen had originally designed
a modest structure of mud brick, however during the excavation
a reef of mudstone was uncovered. The unique ochre tones of the
stone inspired Jörgensen to re-design and the resulting larger
structure was the Great Hall. He was fortunate in that wreckers
were demolishing the charming Royal Insurance Building in
Collins Street, Melbourne, which contained the limestone
windows and the stone balconies carved in the Gothic manner
that now adorn the Great Hall and give it its unique character.
Students carved other windows and the gargoyles, which
incorporated the traditional grotesque faces as seen inmedieval
architecture. Extra stone for the walls came from a nearby quarry
and the bluestone, granite and limestone from demolition sites
across Melbourne. Some of the flagstones and roofing slates had
originally been shipped from Ireland and Wales.
At the outbreak of World War II, work on the Great Hall ceased
and recommenced after the war. The slate floor in the hall and the
wooden floors above were finally put in place. Students were given
the task of carving the corbels and other embellishments around
the windows and doors as part of their training. Some of the
stonework came fromWilson Hall at the University of Melbourne,
which had been badly damaged by fire in 1952. Local tradesmen
joined the team, as did some new students and aspiring artists
returning from the horrors of the war including Clifton Pugh,
Gordon Ford and Joe Hannan and tradesmen Horrie Judd, Bill
Floyd, Walt Stephens, Ken Howard, plus several refugees from
Europe and Asia. The beautiful photograph of the Great Hall in
this panel was taken in 1963 at a time when donkeys casually
grazed within the grounds.
The plant used in this panel is the Eucalyptus radiata, commonly
known as the narrow-leaved peppermint.This beautiful gum
grows prolifically in the Eltham area.
PHOTOGRAPH
Great Hall Montsalvat
with Donkeys,1963
La Trobe Picture
Collection,
State LibraryVictoria
Photographer
JohnT Collins
INFORMATION
Montsalvat
accessed at https://
Montsalvat