BUNDOORA PARK HOMESTEAD

The homestead is a substantially intact example of a large Queen Anne style house demonstrating outstanding craftsmanship in its interior. detailing including joinery and plasterwork. The building contains an extensive scheme of stained glass, attributed to the leading stained glass artist Auguste Fischer, and which has considerable intrinsic artistic merit. The staircase and upper landing are decorated with a complete set of pyrographic panels that are outstanding in terms of their number and intact condition, and their rarity as an example of pyrographic decoration used architecturally.

Bundoora Park Homestead is associated with its first owner, John M V Smith, a prominent figure in the horse breeding and racing industry in the early twentieth century and reputedly the owner of the racehorse Carbine. The house was designed by the prominent Melbourne architects Sydney H Wilson and Percy Oakden.

Bundoora Park Homestead was the principal building of the first repatriation psychiatric hospital established in Victoria. Its use from 1920 to 1993 as a repatriation hospital has important social and medical associations. Its initial acquisition for conversion to a hospital indicates the urgent need for care for returned service personnel following World War 1. The property's isolation suited prevailing of ficial and public attitudes the mentally ill, and at the same time provided a restful environment for Rehabilitation and the opportunity for a degree of self-sufficiency in food production.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Homestead building