A Country House

Almost 100 Years of History

A delightful elderly gentleman named Mr. Ralph Sangster stayed with us on the 17 th of November, 2007 after his daughter in law made contact with us. She and her husband John as children swam together in the pool at Dalcrombie's, next door. Mr Sangster was very generous with his time, we sat for an hour and he reminisced about his life. He stayed for the weekend in the Cottage, the house that he built for his family.

Ralph Cyril John Sangster was born in 1913 to English parents and lived in Canterbury, Melbourne. As a young boy, and up to the age of 19, he and his parents enjoyed month long holidays over Christmas, and weekends in their holiday houses in Olinda and Kalorama. Often the family would finish work at Noon on Saturday to head off to the holiday house, if it was late in the evening an adult would walk in front of the car carrying a light so that they could see where they were going on the small dirt roads. The children spent their holidays picking berries and riding their bikes. Mr. Sangster later went on to become an Engineer and married Lillian, a country girl from Gippsland, who loved horses. They lived in a maisonette (a small apartment) in Canterbury. Mr. Sangster said that he had great synchronicity with Lillian, they had one child, a son John, and that a spinster aunt lived with them all of their married life.

In 1945 Mr. Sangster paid 900 Pounds, over 3 instalments to Mr. John McGrath for a 5 acre potato farm on Government Road, now Warwick Farm Road. Mr. Sangster said the land was covered in bracken and because there were few trees you could see all the way to Mt. Baw Baw.
Mr. Sangster designed and built the house, now known as The Cottage, at A Country House. It took him 12 months to buy bricks, and a further 5 years to finish building, as they could only save a little money at a time to buy the materials needed to build the house.

The garage was built first, and Lillian and Ralph slept here when they came up for the weekends to continue construction of the house. In 1951 the house was at a lock up stage and Mr. Sangster said that he and Lillian bought a mattress to sleep on the floor. The house was situated on the block of land to enjoy the winter sun in the morning.

While building the house and garage, Ralph and Lillian taught themselves about gardening and plants from the English gardening magazines they read, and the gardening courses they attended. They were very inspired by the fashionable English Gardens of the time. They planted the Conifers along the front fence line, left of the driveway. The Conifers were to only reach 12 feet in height, Mr. Sangster commented how they had grown way past that. They also planted an avenue of Japanese Maples with a Conifer at the end of each, on the high side of the garden, and a Blue Spruce outside the bathroom, at the end of the Cottage. The apples, oranges and lemons trees in the orchard were also planted by the Sangsters. A dark red flowering Rhododendron named the“ Unknown Warrior ” planted in the garden bed outside the front door of the Cottage was a wedding present from Mr. Sangsters Father.

Both Ralph and Lillian worked in the National Rhododendron Garden in its infancy, helping with the plantings and landscaping design layout. They continued their work and support with the National Rhododendron Garden for the next 41 years.

Ralph worked for a time next door in the gardens of “ Dalcrombie ” 11 Warwick Farm Road and Lillian was the housekeeper. The historic building named Dalcrombie was owned by Mr. Earl Coles, Coles and Garrard, Optometrist, is a beautiful example of Art Deco architecture. It was designed by prominent Australian Architect Mr Harry Norris (1887-1966). Harry Norris also designed the family home Burnham Beeches for Alfred Nicholas.

Dalcrombie was built by J. Ezmond Dorney in 1938 – 1939, and was reported to once have had 150 feet of dove cotes, a monkey house and a seal enclosure.

In 1955, Ralph sold the Cottage for 4,500 Pounds and moved back to Canterbury, and bought a house on a one acre block with a beautiful garden.

The Cottage was bought by Dennis Gowing owner of Kevin Dennis Motors, an icon in the 60's, 70's and 80's, his face was familiar on tv in Used Car commercials for his Holden Dealership in Balwyn. His car yard success enabled him to follow his real passion in Fine Foods, opening the fashionable Jacksons in Toorak and Gowings Restaurant in East Melbourne. He donated the property to the Christian Brothers of Mount St. Mary's, Strathfield N.S.W. on the 23rd of December, 1958 and it then became a Seminary for training priests, and later a Nunnery and Retreat for the Sisters of Charity. The double story brick building was built in the 1950's and named Mary Vale. Dennis Gowing died in 1991.

Father Michael Kalka, a Gladstone Park Parish Priest, stayed with us in 2001, 26 years after spending a term at Mary Vale in 1975. He explained that thirty men could stay on the property at a time, and that they enjoyed a cooked breakfast every morning, silver platters filled with bacon and eggs, a cooked lunch and dinner were also served daily, and cakes were cooked for morning and afternoon teas. The building was hydronically heated, and water was pumped up from Perrins Creek. Father Kalka also explained that The Chapel windows were then all stained glass, sadly only the two arched Chapel windows remain.