Sketches while waiting

from w
I can't sit in a medical waiting area twiddling my thumbs or even browsing through old glossy Shiny Home kind of magazines. Today it was ultrasound business and behind the modern hospital was a recycled old mansion with a twisty staircase and quaint entrance, so I did some sketches on paper I found in my dog's breakfast handbag. Good that they didn't expect cardiology patients to climb up that staircase though I do wonder what is up there!

A ghostly old house

from w
A framed pastel picture above my piano is of a very old house near the Barwon River and a strangely shaped tree. I took a photo of the picture but the light caused a white spot which looks like a ghost. Must be the glass. Anyway I messed about with the picture - as usual! I like to see how different it can look by changing the colour or tone or by cropping. This is a historical house perhaps recently sold as it was up for sale. It had been used for receptions in recent years as well as tourist tours. The name of the property is Barwon Grange and it was built in 1855 for merchant Jonathan Porter O'Brien who had emigrated from Liverpool.

(from a website promoting tourism in Geelong) 'Visitors to Barwon Grange will experience a spirit of time and place in an elegant early Victorian suburban villa built for upper middle class merchant, property financier and banker, Jonathan Porter O'Brien. This property captures and conserves a particular interval of time - a tableau from August 1855 to July 1856 - reflecting the family's affluent life style in Geelong prior to their return to Liverpool England.'

Do old houses scare you? Perhaps in the dark at night - and you think of the history - is it possible the early owners of this house were part of the new settler gangs with shotguns who hunted more than just kangaroos - because some terrible things did happen those days to the indigenous people in the Geelong region.

The auction of Miharo

from w
One of the prettiest houses in Geelong that I've wanted to explore is up for auction. I wasn't able to look through it as I was busy when they opened it for the public. This is the house on my wish list - though I wouldn't know how to keep it tidy of course. It's like a beautiful iced wedding cake. Address - 145 Noble Street Newtown. I noticed it first when I was researching a family who lived next door (related to the Loch Ard shipwreck story). The elaborate facade was added in 1890 to an earlier building by architests Beswike and Coote, and more renovations were made in the 1990s. There is a beautiful conservatory. It's not all old-fashioned beauty though - there's a multi-car garage for 12 cars! The auction is next Saturday, 10th May at noon. I wonder how many million it will bring! The name, Miharo, is perhaps a Maori name so I wonder about the connection.
(Later, Miharo was sold on Saturday afternoon for over $1.9 million.)

And the walls come a-timblin' down

from w
Isa lei, the machines are at it next door as the cute little white house is demolished to make way for four units! Oh dear, what would Bill think? We had a lovely old man living next to us, he was once a jockey, and we used to chat a bit. He grew older and frail and died and then his grandson took over the house. Today there are a few tears as Bill's daughter looks on (she lived here as a child) and the cruncher has broken up half the house in one hour.

I was told that the house was second-hand, and had been brought to this site from Barwon Heads where it was near the riverbank in the early 30s. No-one seems to know just how old the house was, but probably over 100 years. Then someone said, 'Wendy, maybe your house was one of the three brought in from Barwon Heads!' But our loungeroom area is modern so how come? Okay, perhaps renovations in the 60s changed the whole look of it and strange greyish fake brick stuff covered the original weatherboards.


Peceli took photos last week to show the cute house.

Now the cruncher picks up roofing iron like tissue paper and drops it into the heap. Now our own house is shaking like the devil as the demolition takes place. It's like an earthquake here!

Bill's daughter standing in front of the house 9 a.m. before the demolition.

Two hours later half the house has been knocked down.

(later) By 6 p.m. the block had been totally cleared and had become just bare earth and our house had stopped shaking!

Prices of houses are going up in Geelong

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If you have over $2 million you can buy a three-bedroom penthouse overlooking Corio Bay. Hmmm. Not for the young couples, this one. Now that the Council has renovated the waterfront, the nearby land has became hot property and developers have put up a few of these boxes for those who want a view.

Now compare the cost with ordinary three-bedroom houses in the older suburbs - a house ten years ago might have sold for $90,000 but today would fetch $240,000. The brand new mansions in the newer suburbs are about $500,000. I don't know how young people can set up house these days!

The second building for sale has always interested me - Pevensy House - it is two blocks from where we used to live, and some of our parishioners lived at the back and across the road. It has recently been a Bed and Breakfast place. I always was interested in the tower and wondered what was it used for. I guess this house will be sold for a couple of million too.

The third building has a sorry tale behind it. It was once a pretty, traditional Presbyterian church, but became redundant when the Uniting Church was formed about 25 years ago (Methodist/Presbyterian/Congregational joined together) and it became a restaurant then a rather dodgy nightclub. Heavens above! Something went wrong with the lease and now it's being renovated into offices. Hmmm. Might be ghosts of some serious but scholarly Presbyterians there!

(added later, on Monday) Pevensy House sold for a little under $2 million on Saurday. I did a drawing of the tower on Friday and coloured it yesterday - took a bit of artist's license with the verandah though.