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AND EGG
& BACON
On 14th September 1852, Governor La Trobe signed a Crown
Grant for a piece of land comprising five acres to a Mr Allen, in
the village of Eltham. On this land, situated in what is now
Falkiner Street, Souter’s Cottage was constructed in 1855,
thought to be Eltham’s first earth building. There was probably
little earth building in the early 20th century until 1934 when
Justus Jörgensen and his students commenced Montsalvat.
In the years to follow builders including John Harcourt, Horrie
Judd, and owner-builders such as musicians Graeme and Roger
Bell, artist Peter Glass and others including Ron and Yvonne
Jelbart also built earth homes and in 1947 Alistair Knox
appeared on the scene.
Their inspiration, along with Nillumbik’s exceptional building
clays, an increased awareness of the thermal properties of earth
building, ‘do it yourself’ labour and the scarcity of cash sparked
a revival. Recycling building materials was a conscious strategy
employed to control costs and making walls by hand using mud
bricks became a local trend. Parts of Eltham society began to
see itself as different frommainstream suburbia. People of like
disposition, with a genuine interest in architecture assisted the
industry in becoming self-sustaining. John Harcourt and later
Alistair Knox popularised and legitimised mud brick buildings
in mainstream society. This acceptance spawned the next
generation of builders and designers — John Pizzey, Clifton
Pugh and his mates around the Dunmoochin area in Cottles
Bridge, Rose and Bateman, Robert Marshall, Barry Wilde and
countless gifted craftsmen and inspired owner builders. This
drove a demand for specialist trades, suppliers and finishers,
all of whom brought an energy and creative can-do culture,
along with genuine interest and technical expertise to the area.
The result is that the Nillumbik area has a substantial stock of
beautifully designed, built and finished earth buildings, which
form a pivotal part of the Nillumbik heritage.
The featured plant in this panel is
Dillwynia cinerascens,
which
because of its red and yellow flowers is commonly called
‘egg and bacon’. Also within this panel is an image of a map;
the ‘Parish of Nillumbik’.
PHOTOGRAPH
Making Mud Bricks
Shire of Eltham Pioneers
Photograph collection
Yarra Plenty Regional
Library Service in
partnership with
the Eltham District
Historical Society
Historical Map:
Parish of Nillumbik
State LibraryVictoria,
INFORMATION
Marshall,Alan.
Pioneers and Painters:
One hundred years of
Eltham and its Shire
(1971)
Nillumbik Mud Brick
Association
accessed at http://www.
mudbrick.org.au/history