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AMENDED HERITAGE CITATION NAME: Dexter House ADDRESS: 46 Dickasons Rd. Heathmont HERITAGE STATUS: Recommended for Heritage Overlay AUTHOR: Willys Keeble Heritage Advisor Maroondah City Council DATE: 24 November 2017 Place History Heathmont was part of the Ringwood municipality. Between 1947 and 1961 Ringwood’s population increased fourfold. Few houses built in its post WW2 housing boom were architect designed. In 1956 agricultural scientists and environmentalists Mick and Liz Dexter purchased five acres sloping south from Dickasons Rd. to the Dandenong Creek. It had riparian bushland, an old pine plantation, and was an expansive environment for their four young children. The Dexters were introduced to architects John and Phyllis Murphy by a family friend who worked as their secretary and typist1. They engaged the Murphys to design a rectangular house which was to be on one main level with a separate bedroom for each child, a secure playroom off the kitchen, and windows framing special views to the south. They wanted durable materials that did not require painting: John Murphy specified imported aluminium roofing and cladding of high quality rough-sawn Oregon. For cost reasons, locally made Hardies ‘Shadowline’ moulded ribbed asbestos cladding, then newly available, was used on the external end walls. The house was built in 1958 by Herbert Allen, the £7,000 budget partly funded by a War Service home loan. In 1980 the Ringwood Council resumed some land abutting Dandenong Creek. In 1988 the Dexters donated approximately 60% of their land to the Victorian Conservation Trust (now Trust for Nature). Acting as the Trust’s Management Committee for Dexters Bush reserve, they oversaw the removal of 80 1 Phyllis and John Murphy were at the forefront of modern architecture in the 1950’s and 60’s. Their early work was mainly small, restrained but delightfully elegant houses. In 1952 Phyllis and John, in conjunction with fellow young architects Kevin Borland and Peter McIntyre won the competition to design the Melbourne Olympic Swimming Pool. Their later work included schools, churches and pioneering conservation work. Phyllis became Australia’s leading expert in the history of wallpaper design and conservation. (Taken from the Robin Boyd Foundation, Past Event:Design Masters – Phyllis Murphy, September 2010.) The Murphys completed over 50 residential projects in the 1950’s and 60’s and also produced a series of houses for The Age Small Homes Service run by Robin Boyd and then Neil Clerehan who wrote that “their houses were modest but their version of contemporary design was elegant and timeless”. From 1958 Phyllis and John were Honorary Advisors to the National Trust. Following their retirement in 1982 Phyllis continued working with the conservation of historic interiors specialising in wallpaper, curating exhibitions for the National Trust and Historic Houses Trust and writing for Australian and European journals. (Australian Institute of Architects Citation for Life Fellowship – Phyllis Murphy, 2009) The John and Phyllis Murphy Award for Residential Architecture (Alterations and Additions) was established in recognition of the contribution of the Murphys’ to architecture (Institute of Architects Victorian Chapter, 2014). Phyllis was made a Life Fellow of the Institute of Architects in 2009 and in 2014 was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Architecture by the University of Melbourne (John and Phyllis Murphy, Wikipedia, 2016). Willys Keeble Heritage Advisor, Maroondah City Council pine trees in 1990 and the regrowth of indigenous vegetation. They also placed a Conservation Covenant on their remaining 7,390 sqm (1.83 acre) home block. From the 1950’s the Dexter’s commenced planting this with a wide range of blended native and exotic species which now forms Dexter’s Arboretum. Mick and Liz Dexter still reside at 46 Dickasons Rd. and sought its heritage protection in 2015. The Dexter property history is allied to John and Joan Harper’s “Uambi” at 22 Allens Rd./200 Canterbury Rd. Heathmont. Major portions of each property are now the only Trust for Nature reserves within the Melbourne metropolitan area. Notable architect Marcus Barlow designed the house “Uambi” (now much altered) for his nephew John in 1949 on their 15 acre site. In 1989 the Harpers donated 10 acres of “Uambi” land to the Trust for Nature. Phyllis Murphy visited the Dexter House in February 2009 and said to her knowledge, most houses designed by the Murphys had been greatly altered or demolished, such as the house at 13 Edward St, Kew they designed in the 1960’s for Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Liz Dexter’s father. The house 44 Manifold St. Camperdown is an intact surviving example of their work. References: Telephone conversation with Phyllis Murphy 8.3.2016 Interview with M. and L. Dexter 18.2.2016. Trove newspapers: advertisements for Shadowline cladding first appear in 1959. Original design drawing, working drawing blueprints and specifications in possession of the Dexters. Documentation for nomination of 46 Dicksons Rd. Heathmont to the Victorian Heritage Register, August 2016, M Dexter. ‘Uambi’ documentation, Maroondah City Council 2011 Trust for Nature Bulletin Issue 38, December 2007 Peter Wille photographs, SLV, eight houses designed by Phyllis and John Murphy 1952-1957. Six are now demolished and two are greatly altered. HO 172 Corangamite Shire, 44 Manifold St. Camperdown. Dexter’s Arboretum plan and spreadsheet, August 2017, appended. Description The house fits into “the so-called Melbourne school of structural-functional work which included the work of McIntyre and Robin Boyd”, (Willis, in Goad, Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, 2012). It is a lightweight structure with a simple rectangular plan oriented to face north and south. The low pitch aluminium gable roof has wide eaves on the long sides. Elevations have punctuated openings which give way to banks of floor to ceiling glazing opening onto timber decks under the eaves. On the main level the long walls are clad with unpainted lapped vertical boards of roughsawn Oregon, echoed in the ribbed ‘Shadowline’ asbestos on the end walls. The design is a well wrought response to the topography, views and clients’ brief for a relatively large house on a modest budget. The house is sited on an excavated slope with a northfacing entrance deck at ground level. An external stair leads down to an undercroft elevated about 2.5 metres above the ground by an Oregon post and beam structure with strongly expressed cross- bracing. The undercroft connects the main upper level to the lower driveway and land sloping down to Dandenong Creek, the childrens’ outdoor domain. It provides a sheltered carport and outdoor kitchen with a barbeque fireplace in the base of the large brick chimney. It also houses a bedroom, toilet and laundry fitted with a dirty clothes chute from the main floor above. Willys Keeble Heritage Advisor, Maroondah City Council The house is in excellent, virtually intact condition. The southfacing deck was sympathetically extended over the driveway in 2000. New cement sheet is fixed over the ‘Shadowline’ cladding on the west wall. The interior mostly retains the original layout and detail including polished jarrah floorboards, plywood doors, original door furniture and “D mould” architraves, built-in dining room servery, lapped Caneite ceiling linings, and original leather finish Masonite wall lining in the playroom. Minor alterations have been made to the original kitchen, bathroom and one bedroom. Of particular interest are: the rare 1958 aluminium roof decking, long steel I-beam supporting the roof over the south facing deck, and the external timber louvres under the bedroom and kitchen windows (appropriately painted in a dark colour) which are fitted with flyscreens and have internal hinged panels which can be opened for extra ventilation. They were not uncommon in 1950’s architecture but there are now few surviving examples. The blended native and exotic garden surrounding the house (Dexter’s Arboretum) contains an extensive range of trees and shrubs ranging from those that have grown to be very large significant canopy trees, as in the case of the Scarlet Oak (Quercus coccinea) planted in the 1960’s and numerous Corymbia species, including Lemon Scented Gum (C. citrodora) and Spotted Gum (C. maculata), planted in the 1960’s and 70’s. There are other examples of plants which have their own horticultural significance as they represent mature examples of these species, eg Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica), planted in the 1960s; and native Coast Banksia (Banksia integrifolia) planted in the 1970s. The arboretum also contains a range of smaller trees and shrubs, such as the slow growing White Gum (Eucalyptus sp) planted in 1990 and the Banksia Rose (Rosa banksiae 'Lutea') planted in the 1980s. A full list of species with description and age is attached to this citation. STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE What is significant? The Modernist house at 46 Dickasons Rd. Heathmont was designed for Mick and Liz Dexter in 1958 by notable Melbourne architects Phyllis and John Murphy. The main level originally included four bedrooms, a separate study and a childrens’ play room overlooked by the kitchen. One of the bedrooms has been converted to a pantry. It is a simple, elegant rectangular building with a low pitched gable roof of aluminium with wide eaves on the north and south sides. The robust, unpainted exterior cladding consists of lapped vertical boards of roughsawn Oregon and vertically ribbed “Shadowline” asbestos sheets. Bedroom and kitchen windows have fixed glazing above timber louvre vents with openable internal panels. The study, childrens’ playroom and formal dining-living area have floor to ceiling timber-framed glazing with doors opening onto timber decks sheltered by the eaves. The house is elevated 2.5 metres above ground on the south side. The undercroft is a post and beam structure with prominent cross-bracing. It houses a carport, barbeque fireplace, bedroom, toilet and laundry enclosed with “Shadowline” cladding.

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