The magazine from the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) August 2014 Love Desire & Riches Mulberry Hill Reopens Steampunk at Tasma www.nationaltrust.org.au/vic Message from the Chairman Dr Graeme L. Blackman OAM Welcome to the August edition of Vic News. In this latest issue, I am pleased to be able to bring you more detailed information about the 2014–18 Strategic Plan now adopted by our Board. Building on our commitment to clearly and transparently articulate the Trust’s direction and vision for the future, the Strategic Plan articulates the values of Leadership and Inspiration, Celebration and Inclusion, Innovation and Learning, Trust, Responsibility and Resourcefulness. The plan can be viewed on our website at www.nationaltrust. org.au/vic. The past quarter has been a blockbuster period for visitation to our properties. It was a singular pleasure to open Love, Desire and Riches in July, the biggest exhibition ever produced by the National Trust, which has transformed Rippon Lea into a showcase for wedding fashion from around the globe. Recognising our commitment to promoting conservation in both metropolitan and regional communities, Victoria’s Heritage Restoration Fund, administered Gowns from Love Desire & Riches exhibition by the Trust with funding from the State Government, has provided $900,000 (National Trust of Australia (Victoria) collection) in funding to heritage places across Victoria, including Como House, with the second round of applications closing in August. I would like to extend a special thanks to those who generously contributed Contents to our Annual Appeal, and as always, I thank you for your ongoing support. We would also like to welcome members to join us for the Annual General Meeting Message from the Chairman 2 on Saturday 15 November at Mulberry Hill in Langwarrin. Message from the CEO 2 Strategic Plan 2014-2018 3 Love Desire & Riches 4 Message from the CEO Vale Joan Wettenhall 6 Martin Purslow Welsh Congregational Church and Penny School, Maldon 6 The lead-up to this August edition of Vic News has seen some landmark events Gallipoli Oaks project grows 7 at the Trust. The beginning of July saw the opening of Love, Desires and Riches, the biggest exhibition by the National Trust to date, and the largest retrospective 2014 Heritage Awards 7 of wedding fashion seen in Australia. Featuring historic gowns as well as pieces Postcards from the Heritage Festival 8 by international designers such as Akira, Valentino and Collette Dinnigan, we are Mulberry Hill Reopens to the Public 9 anticipating record crowds through the gates of Rippon Lea. High Tea at Barwon Park 9 Tasma Terrace has also been opened up as never before for the Antipodean Steampunk Show, featuring an astonishing array of Victorian-futurist jewellery, The Antipodean Steampunk Show 11 fashion, costume and accessories by contemporary designers displayed over Advocacy Update 12 three levels of the Trust’s headquarters. This travelling exhibition by artisan is Grants announced: Victorian Heritage capturing a new, young and engaged audience, and we’re happy to be welcoming an Register Places and Objects Fund 14 unprecedented number of visitors to our landmark building. Rippon Lea Under the Microscope 15 Much else has also been taking place supported by our staff volunteers and branches often behind the scenes. During April and May, a record number of Vintage Clothing Success 16 visitors took part in the Trust’s ‘Journeys’ heritage festival at over 250 events across Notice of Board Election 2014 16 Victoria. The fi rst weekend of the festival saw the successful reopening of Mulberry Happenings at Old Melbourne Gaol 17 Hill to the public after much needed conservation works and investment in visitor What’s on? 18 facilities. In June, the second annual acorn harvest for the Gallipoli Oaks program secured the future of a fl ourishing program which has been taken up by over 400 schools across The National Trust of Australia (Victoria) acknowledges the state. We are incredibly proud of this project, which will be at the forefront of Traditional Owners and pays respect to the spiritual, physical and cultural connection they have with their the Trust’s Centenary of Anzac activities, creating a legacy of living memorials for country as the fi rst peoples of the land now known as generations to come. Victoria. We hope you enjoy the vibrant and exciting content in the August Edition of Vic National Trust of Australia (Victoria) News, and encourage you to visit Rippon Lea to see Love Desire and Riches, which Tasma Terrace, 4 Parliament Place, runs until the end of September. East Melbourne, Victoria 3002 Telephone: 03 9656 9800 Facsimile: 03 9650 5397 Email: [email protected] www.nationaltrust.org.au/vic © Copyright, National Trust of Australia (Victoria) To advertise in Vic News, please email [email protected] unless stated otherwise. Vic News | August 2014 | Page 2 Strategic Plan 2014-2018 Following a thorough review of the Trust’s As the premier heritage advocacy We value: activities, the Board of the National Trust organisation and largest operator of heritage • Leadership and Inspiration of Australia (Victoria) is delighted to have sites in Victoria and now the largest Trust An innovative, eff ective and respected recently adopted a new fi ve year plan to by membership in Australia, the Trust has a chart our strategic direction and priorities responsibility to clearly and transparently advocate, we inspire the community from 2014. articulate its direction and vision for the to appreciate, recognise, conserve, future. protect and celebrate our heritage. Our 2009–13 Strategic Plan refocused the • Celebration and Inclusion Trust’s strategic priorities, restructuring Our vision remains for the Australian We are passionate about engaging our our organisation, delivering improved community to understand, value sustainability, prioritising investment into community and working with partners and enjoy the natural, cultural and our properties and embracing innovation to promote the appreciation of and Indigenous heritage that creates and technology. We are now more than accessibility to our shared heritage. ever able to celebrate and advocate for our our national identity; whilst our • Innovation and Learning heritage. mission is to inspire the community to appreciate, conserve and celebrate We are committed to sharing our In developing our 2014–18 Strategic Plan its natural, cultural and Indigenous stories with our community through we have built upon 58 years of conservation heritage. new and dynamic education and activity across our natural, cultural and interpretation programs. Indigenous heritage. Our aim is to ensure To deliver our mission and vision we have • Trust that the Trust is in a position to thrive, committed to six core values which shape We display transparency and enabling the delivery of our community our strategic planning priorities. On these credibility in all that we do so that the focused mission and encouraging we will build our programming, manage our community can have confi dence in the appreciation, conservation and celebration development, seek out partnerships and of our shared heritage. embrace opportunities. custodianship of our shared heritage. • Responsibility The 2014-18 Strategic Plan is available at www.nationaltrust.org.au/victoria We meet our commitments and fulfi l or in printed format upon request. our obligations to the community as custodians of heritage. • Resourcefulness (Images clockwork from left) 1. Working with Indigenous communities to unlock our shared stories at the Our History Heritage Festival event. 2. Supporting regional communities celebrate their heritage in We effi ciently utilise our resources to Chiltern. 3. Working with partners to undertake archaeological research at Gulf Station. 4. Breathing achieve sustainable outcomes. life into our preserved gardens at Como. Vic News | August 2014 | Page 3 By Felicity Watson As any bride will tell you, weddings involve labelled “Made by Madame Maugas”. Then the Trust’s collection it seemed obvious months of meticulous planning, from the I discovered a second Madame Maugas in that we should do something with this date and the venue to the smallest detail, the National Trust collection and having incredible repository of fashion.’ be it the coif of the hair or the perfect these two gowns, with a local provenance Commercial Manager Drew Grove scent. In many ways, the production of a and exciting local stories that had their describes how the success of the 2013 blockbuster exhibition is not dissimilar. In source in high Parisian fashion, sparked Miss Fisher’s Costume Exhibition at Rippon order to fi nd out more about the process of that initial interest.’ Lea gave the Trust courage to think big: putting together Love, Desire and Riches, For the next three years the idea ‘Having a fashion-driven exhibition in Vic News spent some time with Exhibition remained in the background, with Anya- one of our properties was a really good Curator, Elizabeth Anya-Petrivna, and Petrivna conducting research when time test case to see what we could do; what Commercial Manager, Drew Grove, the ‘co- allowed. She describes how the Trust’s we were capable of; what the house curators’ who united their vision to create costume collection was a rich source of was capable of. One of our challenges the biggest exhibition in the Trust’s history. inspiration: ‘Wedding gowns tend to be is the fact that our spaces aren’t white, Anya-Petrivna describes the dress that kept as mementoes. I think they’re a really rectangular boxes where it is easy to install began it all in 2010: ‘I opened one of the powerful and evocative reminder of the any type of exhibition. But we’ve been able textile archive boxes and found inside it way material culture works in people’s to turn this into a positive because our a heavily embellished late-nineteenth lives and how they hold onto things.