Appin, built c1920 by James Paton Beveridge, printer and lithographer,

as a weekend bush retreat, and once with a photographic studio, has high

local significance as one of Mt. Evelyn's remaining log cabins and as a

1920s holiday house. The 1920s log cabin has historical significance for

its associations with both Beveridge and Brodney. Beveridge became

prominent in the printing industry, gaining an OBE in 1954/5 for his

services to printing in Australia. Brodney was one of the founders of

the legal firm Maurice Blackburn and Co., who lived there in the late

1950s and early 1960s, using the larger log cabin as a music room and

the smaller cabin as a library for his law books.

Appin is a 'log cabin' style house, set on the hillside above Chateau Wyuna and accessed via a steep driveway lined on one side by cypresses. The property has been subdivided, and some of the features described in the history either do not survive or may be located on adjoining properties.

The house itself is built of logs laid horizontally. It has two main sections and a detached wash house (now enclosed within a 1983 extension). The front room extends the whole length of the building. It has a coved ceiling with the plaster joins covered by half-rounds. There is a large stone fireplace at one end. The other section contains two rooms, and the remains of a fireplace. The walls of the detached wash house are stone to about 1 metre, and then timber. The extension added around 1983 by the previous owners, adopts much of the detailing of the original.

Information from the Beveridge family reveals that the house was built in stages. The first stage now contains the kitchen. The fireplace at one end has since been replaced with a window. The main front room was the second stage. The current kitchen is not in its original location. The first kitchen was in a lean-to on the north side of the house, built into the bank of the hill. It was eventually covered in to become a kitchen room, but was still separated by an open breezeway from the two main rooms. By the 1940s, several outhouses and sleepouts had been built to accommodate guests and grandchildren. (Beveridge et al, 2000.)

The original driveway entered from the western side of the property. The original stone pillars and entrance gateway walls now form the entry to 110 Commercial Road. The stone entry and metal "bottom gate" with the sign "Appin" still exists (heavily overgrown) at the southern edge of the original property, now on a separate land title. A path lead from this gate through the rockery garden to the house. (Beveridge et al, 2000)

Physical Conditions: Good

Integrity: Minor Modifications