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CARRINGTON HALL

Location 832-834 Burke Road CAMBERWELL, BOROONDARA CITY Level Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/1] 832-834 Burke Road, Camberwell

Statement of Significance

What is Significant?

Carrington Hall, at 832-834 Burke Road, Camberwell, a pair of Edwardian-era single-storey semi-detached brick dwellings erected in 1912 by local builder George Simpson.

The celebrated Australian poet Clarence Michael James Dennis (C.J. Dennis) (1876-1938) lived at no. 832 from 1915 until 1917, when it was operating as a boarding house. Under an earlier street numbering regime at that time the building was known as 107 Burke Road.

How is it significant?

Carrington Hall, at 832-834 Burke Road, Camberwell, is of historical (associational) significance to the City of Boroondara.

Why is it significant?

Carrington Hall, at 832-834 Burke Road, Camberwell, is of historical significance for its association with the notable Australian poet, C.J. Dennis (1876-1938), who was living here from 1915 until 1917. Dennis was living at the house when he submitted the manuscript for The Songs of the Sentimental Bloke (1915). The Bloke, as it was known, became one of the nation's most popular poems, selling 60,000 copies in its first year. Dennis was also living here when he penned his notable work, The Moods of Ginger Mick (1916).

Carrington Hall is significant for its association with the development of Dennis's career as a comic poet. His verse expressed something of the authentic and imperfect Australian character that appealed enormously to audiences of the time and contributed significantly to the development of an Australian nationalist literature. Written in a distinctly Australian colloquial style, dubbed 'larrikinese' it celebrated the irreverent Australian larrikin. The Bloke, as it was affectionately known, became the first work of Australian fiction to be made into a feature film (1919); indeed it was considered one of the best films made anywhere before 1920. (Criterion H)

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

House