Labassa

The first house

Two large lots at the corner of Balaclava and Orrong Roads, North Caulfield, were first acquired in 1854 by William Lyall. They were transferred in 1859 to his partner, John Mickle, who then also acquired the adjoining allotment on Balaclava Road. The three allotments were then bought by lawyer, Richard A. Billing, and he built an eight-roomed house named Sylliott Hill in 1862-3.^[1] This was extended significantly in 1873 into a twenty-room house, designed by architects Crouch and Wilson. The new works added a tower and the grand staircase lit by a stained glass window. The expansion reflected Billing's ongoing success as a barrister, and he lived here until his death in 1882.^[2]

Robertson’s mansion

In 1883 prominent Melbourne businessman, Alexander William Robertson leased the property from Billing's widow. Robertson, recently widowed and with six children, was an energetic immigrant from Canada. He had found success in the 1870s as a partner with another Canadian running the Victorian arm of Cobb & Co, the biggest coaching firm in Australia.^[1] He was an accomplished horseman and enthusiastic member of the Melbourne Hunt Club, chasing deer across the estates and paddocks of the suburban fringe. His fortune multiplied greatly in 1886 through his share of the successful Mount Morgan gold mine in Queensland.^[1] In 1885 he purchased the adjoining allotment in Balaclava Road, and then in 1886 purchased Sylliott Hill itself, creating a 6.31 hectare estate. He renamed the property Ontario, after his home province in Canada.^[3] The 1880s were years of economic boom in Victoria, and many large houses and mansion estates sprang up around the city, with a concentration in the areas around North Caulfield such as East St Kilda, Armadale, Malvern and Toorak.

About 1889, Robertson commissioned the German-born but locally trained architect, John A. B. Koch, to extensively remodel the house into a thirty-five roomed mansion.^[2] The already large house was extended and altered, resulting in the mansion as it now appears. This involved expanding some existing main rooms with projecting bays, removing internal walls, and adding rooms on the east side, creating four large reception rooms - drawing room, dining room, billiard and music room. Arcaded verandahs were created on two sides, connecting the projecting bays. The gardens were expanded, with 100 trees, extensive flower beds, a tennis court and pavilion, and a freestanding cast-iron conservatory. Elaborate cast iron entry gates for the corner of Balaclava and Orrong Roads were purchased from the Saracen Foundry in Glasgow.^[1]

While the works were underway, the family was in London, where Mr Robertson launched two daughters into British society, returning at the end of 1890.^[4] A lavish party at the new house made the newspapers in August 1892,^[5] when the Victorian economic crash after the boom years of the 1880s was well under way. Robertson did not live to enjoy the house for long, dying in 1896. The house was then tenanted until it was eventually sold in 1904 to John Boyd Watson II, son of a Bendigo mining millionaire.^[2] He renamed the property Labassa, probably after the town of Labasa in Fiji, which he and wife Flora had visited on a cruise.^[1]

In 1910, the family put the estate up for sale, possibly because of John's declining health, since he died the next year. After failing to sell, in 1913 about two-thirds of the estate to the east and south of the mansion was subdivided, with Flora and her teenage children remaining in the house with a reduced garden. The subdivision created forty-six house lots, and included the formation of the southern parts of Labassa Grove and Ontario Street .^[1]

The cast iron gates on the corner of Balaclava and Orrong Roads were purchased by architect Edmond George Ovey, who also purchased one of the lots facing Balaclava Road (now No 72). The gates remained in situ until 1921, when they were bought by the Bacchus Marsh branch of the Australian Natives' Association (ANA) to serve as an entrance to Maddingley Park in Bacchus Marsh, where they still stand.^[6][7]

Labassa flats

In 1919, with her children grown, Flora Watson decided to sell up. The house was retained on a much smaller lot, and the rest subdivided into 10 lots, creating Manor Grove. Some outbuildings were retained, such as the stables, now at no 5-9 Manor Grove, which were then altered to become a house. The conservatory, on a very small lot, was purchased by Ovey, and added to the rear of his block. The tennis pavilion ended up in the rear of 13 Manor Grove, and was repurposed as a shed. The house was bought by 'flipper' Stanley Stuart Sergeant who could see potential in turning the house into superior flats. The grandest ones were those created from the main reception rooms, where the decoration was carefully retained; partitions in some rooms to create two smaller ones stopped short of the elaborate ceilings. Sergeant lived there himself with his family for a short time, and other tenants included well off professional people, some recently single women, and some families with children. He installed James and Emily Brearley as caretakers, who stewarded the care of the interiors. Emily stayed on after James died in 1943 right up to 1964, becoming the longest resident by far.^[1] Sergeant's ownership was short, selling on to former grazier Robert Hannon in 1922, who also moved in with his wife, and his son's family. Residents continued to remain fairly well to do, and one family, Percy Kingston, his wife Ivy and her sister Helen occupied the billiard room / music room flat, where they lived for 30 years. Hannon bought the old stables back and converted it into three apartments in 1926, called Ontario Flats, and he and his wife moved into one. It was here that he committed suicide in 1929, leaving the house in the hands of trustees for many years. Labassa was finally sold in 1933 to William and Sarah (Sal) O'Callaghan, who had run a series of country hotels, with Ontario Flats sold separately. In 1936, William built a red brick block of four flats adjacent to the house to the rear, parallel to the rear wing, naming it Willas (Wil plus Sal backwards). The mansion flats and Willas were operated as one, with a communal laundry and telephone. With more residents and more children, it felt like an extended family to some. The community extended to the adjacent Ontario flats, where the future politician and activist Barry Jones arrived as a child with his family in 1938.^[1] Occupants of the mansion included a set of relatives, the Spencers and the Dalys, who contributed eight people in four flats from the late 30s to the early 50s. The Chadwicks, Tom and Annie, who rented flat 10 (the former drawing room and boudoir) from 1934-1948, hosted charity events, sometimes in the remaining front garden. Louise Lovely, who had been a Hollywood actress in the early 1920s, lived in one of the Willas flats from 1936 to about 1941 with her husband Bert Cowen.^[8]

In 1946 Labassa was sold to Teodor and Sima Lapin, the first of many Jewish owners, a time when the North Caulfield area began to become the centre of Jewish community in Melbourne. They sold it the next year to a family of Jewish investors, who then sold it in 1949 to Wolf and Hinda Kazer, who had fled Poland just before WWII. By the early 1950s most residents on the top floor were post-war Jewish refugees, and though from different countries they mostly spoke Yiddish, and supported each other in their new home. Caretaker Emily Brearley continued to look after the house, as well as the specific needs of the new residents, for instance by turning on the heating in their flats for them on the Sabbath in winter. In 1957 the Kazers subdivided a part of the garden, and a block of flats (1B Manor Grove) replaced the fountain and rockery. In 1960, they built a cream brick home for themselves over what remained of the garden. By the early 1960s, young migrant families from northern Europe and Scandinavia were added to the mix, creating a 'little United Nations' of young and old, married and single.^[1] In 1962 Wolf died, and Hinda sold the new house, but retained the mansion. Though now hemmed in, it remained untouched, indeed neglected, to the point that sections of the ceiling collapsed. The brolgas on the parapet had already been removed as dangerous in 1958. Tenants also began souveniring items such as bell-pulls and even a chandelier on the assumption that the days of the house were numbered.

After Mrs Brearley died in 1964, management became more remote, and the flats started to attract 'bohemian' and artistic residents. By the early 1970s, tenants included art school students and musicians who were attracted to the cheap rents and faded glamour of the house. Labassa became a place of parties, music, performances, and overnight visitors, and a source of irritation to other residents of Manor Grove. Fascinated by this relic of another era, some tenants filled their flats with Victorian furniture and bric-a-brac found cheap at second hand stores. Residents at this time who went on to successful careers included performer Jane Clifton, song writer Hans Poulsen, playwright John Romeril, and poet Geoffrey Eggleston. Many films both amateur and professional were shot using the interiors, including the successful 1978 horror film Patrick.^[1]

National Trust ownership

At the same time Labassa became known to the conservation movement, and it was amongst the initial 370 places put on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1974. By the late 1970s the National Trust was exploring ways to rescue the mansion from further decay. When Hinda Kazer died in 1980, the house was put up for auction, and with a large donation from Alcoa, the Trust placed the winning bid of $282,500. While urgent repairs were undertaken, many tenants stayed on since the Trust needed the rents. Poet Javant Biarujia^[9] and his partner Ian, who moved into the house just after the auction, were the last tenants to leave in 2005.^[1]

Restoration work also started, and the approach was to only clean or reveal what had survived of the 1890 decoration, rather than repaint or restore to as-new condition. When investigating leaks above the stairs in 1986, a false ceiling was discovered hiding the original trompe-l'oeil ceiling above, depicting a balustraded view to the sky.^[10] As soon as the house had a secure future, former residents began to return items, and over the next decades the Trust tracked down and purchased others, such as one of the statue-lamps from the stairwell niche which had been taken by the Watsons in 1919.^[1]

In 1984 the Trust purchased the Kazer's house, and in 1986 it was demolished by Whelan the Wrecker to great fanfare, revealing something of the full grandeur of the mansion once again.^[1]

In 2014 the tennis pavilion at 13 Manor Grove was donated to the Trust, which was restored and placed in the rear garden. The conservatory, which had been over-clad and used as a small house at 21 Manor Grove, was carefully restored in 2010 to serve as a living space with a new separate bedroom wing.^[11]

The National Trust began publishing a series of newsletters Labassa Lives from 2013 with detailed oral histories and research.^[12] In 2020, the Trust published the book Labassa: House of Dreams, by historian and author Vicki Shuttleworth.^[1]

Various proposals for a new use, for instance as a costume or decorative arts museum, have proven difficult to achieve or inappropriate. Instead, the house remains as a carefully preserved example of an extravagant 19th century Victorian interior, open to visitors and events on a limited basis.^[13]

Exterior

The main frontages of the house adopt the typical form seen on many large Victorian houses in Melbourne, with projecting bays on two sides, joined by an L-shaped double height verandah. At Labassa, the level of rich cement render detailing over this basic form is rarely seen in any other extant house of the period. The elements are drawn from the Renaissance Revival as practiced in Melbourne, as well as the French Second Empire, and 19th Century Germany has been suggested as another source.^[2]

The south west bay is semi-circular and articulated by engaged Corinthian columns with swags to their bases, Ionic columns above, foliated decoration above the windows, and statuary above the cornice, all topped by a truncated conical roof. The verandah features insets of pink marble, Corinthian colonettes in cast iron, and a pair of caryatid figures flanking the entrance. The east projection (containing the billiard and music rooms) employs plain walls with very elaborate window hoods, and a round-cornered bay window topped by a broken pediment with a classical bust. There is a very elaborate bracketed cornice running around all main sides, topped by a balustrade, originally supporting large urns and statues of brolgas on the corners, and a short mansard roof with cast iron cresting provides a backdrop.The west front includes a faceted bay window and has detailing matching the east projection. Further north the walls are plain, with the tower above, topped by a tall mansard roof. The service wing beyond is undecorated.

Interior

Labassa is particularly noted for its very elaborate interiors, which largely survive from the 1890 renovations, and the 1981 book Victorian Splendour notes that "Labassa is a rarity amongst Victorian houses. It possess a wealth of architectural excitement coupled with workmanship and materials of the richest calibre.", and includes it as one of only six houses in Australia as worthy of individual discussion for their intact interiors.^[14]

The hall features a high Lincrusta dado of raised panels filled with arabesques, and wallpaper above manufactured in Japan with gilt floral decoration featuring grapes and chrysanthemums^[1] on a beige background, while the ceiling is filled with painted decoration of arabesques.^[10] The stairs feature elaborate lamps on the newels, and divide at the landing in front of the large 1873 stained glass window depicting the four seasons, by the leading firm of Ferguson & Urie.^[10] There are niches either side for statuette-lamps, and a trompe-l'oeil ceiling above depicting a balustraded view to the sky. The drawing room is decorated in a contrasting light coloured Louis XVI style, with panelled walls, elaborate mouldings, and a Rococo overmantel, all originally with gold leaf highlights. The ceiling is stencilled with Rococo arabesques in pale colours. The smaller boudoir adjacent has a panelled dado with embossed flowers and birds, and a floral wallpaper above probably from the Watson redecoration in c1904.^[1]

The room opposite the drawing room, probably the dining room, has a Lincrusta dado embossed with panels and floral motifs in imitation of timber panelling, and the wallpaper above has a late Renaissance pattern of scrolls and foliage in bronze on a white and beige background. The ceiling has Moorish geometric divisions, with papers embossed with zig-zag lines and chrysanthemums. There is a tall Queen Anne style mirrored overmantel, and an equally tall sideboard in similar style. The next large room, possibly a billiard room, has a polished timber dado, a wallpaper of cream patterns on a blue background (damaged by later wallpaper now removed), and a heavier Queen Anne style polished timber overmantel. The bay window is framed by an arch supported on pairs of Corinthian columns decorated with vines.^[10] There is a painted ceiling of elaborate illusionistic borders, which includes a painted marine scene, and a similar desert one.^[1] The next room beyond, possibly a music room, is a large space, with a small raised stage on one side, flanked by carved timber columns, with smaller ones flanking the doors, dark polished as is the timber dado. The wallpaper is another Renaissance inspired floral pattern, in gold on a dark pink background, and the ceiling is deeply coffered into large panels, each with delicate painted decoration.^[10]

In the upstairs rooms, only some decoration or wallpapers survive, and some partitions for the flats have been preserved.^[15] Two bathrooms partly survive, with some original tiling up to the ceilings, but later fixtures.^[15][14]