HOME BODIES
Pictures: Reg Ryan
Matching contemporary and heritage designs is a tough ask but, as NOEL MURPHY discovers in the shade of Eastern Park, it can be done not only sympathetically but elegantly.
A YELLOW-eyed currawong caws from the lichen-slated roof of the elegant Victorian house looking out to the pines and cypresses of Eastern Park.
The throaty warble is a warm native addition to the sense of old Geelong dripping from the iron fretwork, barge-board skin and tan-bricked heritage structure.
So, too, the bunya bunya pine, Moreton Bay fig and soaring palms in this precinct on the edge of Geelong’s first Corio Bay settlement.
Nature and art collide exquisitely with the Garden St home.
Sophistication is evident in the shape of tessellated verandah tiling, cast-iron columns and glossy black fleur-de-lis, while tan brick chimneys, bay windows and a manicured, landscaped front lawn exude the charm and style that 19th Century architects strived to deliver their clients.
A little 21st Century TLC hasn’t done any harm, either.
Julie Nikolovski is understandably proud of her home.
And why not? The house, its siting, its restoration – the property is exquisite for its multiplicity of architectural, historic and social elements.
Neighbouring properties of a similar ilk, notably Merchiston House –arguably the best classical-style mansion in Geelong – plus the proximity of the charming art deco Eastern Beach bathing complex also imbue an ambience hard to replicate elsewhere in this town.
But, like many of Geelong’s heritage charmers, this building has been obliged to embrace the new; to integrate its fabric with the contemporary.
It’s not apparent from the street, though. The coupling is inconspicuous, especially designed not to impinge on, let alone detract, from the merit of the house’s Victorian heritage elements.
It’s a happy, albeit unconventional, marriage of form and function.
Julie and husband Mick bought the house in 2009. They live there with their two teenage children.
“We bought it from the Moon family, we just loved it,” Julie says.
“It was pretty good for a house more than 100 years old.”
Julie points to fireplaces, grates, extravagant cornices.
“We did all this,” she says.
See more of this home in the latest GC Magazine.
