Back to search results » Back to search page »

Wooragee

Other Name

28 Clendon Road, Toorak

Location

28 Clendon Road TOORAK, Stonnington City

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

Wooragee, 28 Clendon Road, Toorak, designed by noted Australian architect Edward F. Billson for his father, brewer and politician Arthur !. Billson, is of state significance through its associations with the distinguished Billson family and as an important and very early exemplar of the domestic work of Griffin's office in Melbourne.

Edward Billson, the first graduate in Architecture of the University of Melbourne, was articled within the office of Walter Burley Griffin during the design and construction of this house, and was to become a proficient exponent of a Griffin influenced, Prairie School idiom before turning to modernist modes in the 1930s. Through his work in Griffin's office and then in his own practice, Billson was instrumental in the introduction anddissemination of the American Prairie style in Victoria. Wooragee is possibly his first independent commission and appears substantially intact to its exterior, and has high architectural significance both as an early example of the work of a notable architect and as one of the earliest surviving Victorian houses to emanate from the circle led by Griffin.

Group