Sherbrooke Median PriceThe House price is 13% lower than last year.
Surrounding suburbs| Belgrave | $867,100  | | Ferny Creek | $1,210,900  | | Kallista | $816,500 | | Olinda | $1,179,200  | | Sassafras | $1,242,900 | | Selby | $941,800 | | Tecoma | $890,800 |
Sherbrooke Median Rent| House | $391 |
| | Map | Street view | Nearby property price | | Planning History: | | | Registered as Victorian heritage | Last updated on - February 8, 2012
What is significant?
The property Mawarra, Sherbrooke comprises a house designed in 1925-27 and attributed to the architect Harold Desbrowe-Annear and a garden designed by the prominent and influential garden designer, Edna Walling, in 1932.
Originally known as The Grove, the c1.4 hectare property Mawarra was developed for three sisters, Mrs A W McMillan and the Misses Marshall in the popular Dandenong Ranges.They appear to have commissioned noted architect, Harold Desbrowe-Annear, to design a large house in the mid-1920s and some five years later they engaged Edna Walling to design extensive gardens. By the time of their involvement at The Grove, both Desbrowe-Annear and Walling had established themselves as fashionable and prolific designers. After a disagreement between Walling and the sisters, the garden was completed by Eric Hammond, Walling's principal contractor, who was retained to finish constructing the garden and its extensive stonework. As was common at the time, the sisters hosted a number of fundraising events at the property in the 1940s, before selling it in 1960. Walling became friends with the subsequent owners, and was highly complimentary of their care of the garden. The property changed hands in 2002 and again in 2010.
The extensive garden was designed to utilise the established axis of the house and the sloping site, by the use of terraces, steps, decorative pools and stone walling. Formal architectural design, similar to that of the Italian Renaissance, was used to create a series of rooms, or pictures, and the illusion of space within the overall composition. A central stairway, leading from the house to a reflecting pool below, provides the spine of the garden and enables access to five parallel terraces that run across the site, each of which was given its own distinctive character. Carefully constructed stone walls, steps and stairways are a feature of the garden including the symmetrical walled house terrace with curved stone walls and stepped ramps either side. A tennis court was built to the north-east of the site, a sun dial positioned adjacent to the house and a small cottage, Wendy Cottage, was constructed to the north of the main house by the late 1930s. Reputedly based on the playhouse for Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret built in 1932 at Royal Lodge, this cottage remains.
Edna Walling described Mawarra as a 'symphony in steps and beautiful trees' and the structure of the garden is strengthened and enhanced by the carefully positioned trees and shrubs. The garden has a woodland character and uses a diverse variety of trees and shrubs, herbaceous plants and bulbs, evergreen, deciduous and conifer plants, many displaying spectacular autumn colour, and a variety of leaf shapes and variegations, and plant forms. The planting is dominated by maples, oaks, beeches, magnolias, silv |
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