Absolutely Admirable Ardoch

 

About 13 years ago while seriously soaking up the sun in Queensland I was reading the Real Estate section of the Age and found an advert that immediately acclaimed our immediate active attention - it was describing a unit on Marine Parade St.Kilda facing our beautiful bay...  although we had regular visits by 3-4 grandchildren about 10-12 being popped on the plane at school-holiday time Marge felt she was missing the younger ones etc. and so we entertained the idea of selling out in Noosa and returning to the big smoke...we were facing the Ocean and decided on a seaview if possible after muchly enjoying our 3-6 months stints at Sunshine Beach (5 minutes to Noosa`s heart). We immediately flew down but found it had jus been sold. The agent suggested some other properties which had no appeal until she asked, "Would you be interested in an older Art Deco apartment with 9-10 ft ceilings on about 5 acres in East St.Kilda with a sea view?" We answered "Quite possibly...) as we had much-loved large furniture in our town house in Hawthorn limiting the range of promising purchasing opportunities.

 

We met her the next day at Ardoch, a large picturesque property fronting busy Dandenong Road just past Chapel St and were very excited but didn`t allow the agent to be aware of this as we strolled down Ardoch Avenue as she explained her firm had only just listed the property for sale comprising about 12-13 Art Deco Californian Bungalows  hugging a verdant Village Green and a glorious garden with over a dozen Heritage-listed huge trees and this was her first visit. We were very excited but made sure the agent was unaware of this.

 

There was much building activity as the homes were being refurbished and /or altered - internally only because the Heritage Listing forbids exterior alterations. The property was once the farm home of Sir William Wardell, Victoria`s first Surveyor-General and built in 1864. We walked across the Green and climbed up the steep stairs and yes, there was a genuine glimpse of Port Phillip Bay but no way, at ages of 76 & 74 respectively consider anything but at ground level .

 

She then showed us a superb spacious 3 bedroom apartment with timber walls painted a horrible "Education Department" green as the complex had been used as a school for problem teenagers and street kids...when Sir William Wardell`s family had died out about 1920 an enthusiastic entrepeneurial American sw Ardoch`s palatable potential and built a cluster of individual homes around a huge Village Green about 3/4 acre ased on English ideas which gradually encouraged a colony of artists and musicians...

 

In our building which contains only 2 residences,  one was used by the world-renowned singer Dame Nellie Melba - John Brownlee the famous tenor and Gladys Moncrieff the singer also lived here, but over the years, Ardoch`s glamour gradually faded,  & the whole area was finally taken over by the Government and used as a school for a few years and then refurbished in conjunction with a private developer...

 We immediately left a holding deposit - it was used a display unit for 6 months and we moved here in July1995..... not long after, friends were asking me "What`s it like living at Ardoch?" I`d answer "Here I`m living in Paradise - no traffic noise, the splendid satisfying serenity, wonderful friendly but, trams, trains, buses - all combine to make Ardoch unobtrusive neighbours, a heated swim pool, gymnasium and sauna just 100 metres from my front-door - so close to everything- all combine to make Ardoch quite ideally unique, and it was one of the first cluster housing developments built in Australia.

 

`till next time, in about 10 to 14 days...