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Laughing Water

Location

220 LAUGHING WATERS ROAD ELTHAM, NILLUMBIK SHIRE

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Laughing Water at 220 Laughing Waters Road, Eltham, designed and constructed in 1969 by Alistair Knox for the Hastie family, is significant. Elements that contribute to the significance of the place include: • • • • • The original form of the house, with large gable roof The original materiality, including mudbrick walls and slate roof Key design elements, including recessed section to the south façade with bluestone piers and the clerestory windows The remnant garden layout created by Edna Walling Garden elements including the ponds, stone walls, and tennis court
How is it significant?
Laughing Water, 220 Laughing Waters Road, Eltham, is of historic and aesthetic significance to the Shire of Nillumbik.
Why is it significant?
Laughing Water at 220 Laughing Waters Road, Eltham, is historically significant for its ability to demonstrate layered development, and for its associations with significant designers. The first Laughing Water house was originally built as a weekend residence, and continued to be used for that purpose in the following decades. Reflecting the wealth of those living at the site, a substantial garden was created to designs by Edna Walling. When the house was destroyed by fire in the 1960s, the substantial house that replaced it in 1969 was designed by Alistair Knox, who was one of the Shire’s most prolific and prominent designers and builders. The new house utilised the existing Walling garden, with additions and changes made by the local Gordon Ford. The street name is believed to be derived from the property. (Criterion A) Laughing Water at 220 Laughing Waters Road, Eltham, is aesthetically significant as a good example of a substantial house built in the Shire during the 1970s. Built to a design by Alistair Knox, the house exhibits key characteristics of his work and the architecture being promulgated in the Shire at that time, including use of mudbrick and recycled materials. Key details including the bluestone piers and clerestory windows contribute to its aesthetic qualities. The garden setting, created by Edna Walling and reworked by Gordon Ford, greatly enhances the aesthetic significance of the place. (Criterion E)