Wide Choice Of Larger Homes In The Shadows Of Rippon Lea
The Age
Tuesday July 20, 1993
NOT SO LONG after inner-city suburbs like Carlton were populated by eager young renovators clutching cans of heritage paint, Elsternwick was marked on the map as a good place for larger traditional-style houses.
The pride of the suburb is Rippon Lea, the romantic Romanesque mansion with 33 rooms and more than five hectares of manicured gardens.
It has always been one of Australia's most admired suburban properties but, under the protective wing of the National Trust, is unlikely to ever be offered for sale on the open market.
Fortunately, the leafy streets fanning away to the east of Rippon Lea continue to satisfy home-hunters with an array of less extravagant period-style gems.
These range from the quaint, brick workers' cottages in nearby Regent Street to the grander Victorian mansions of Gladstone Parade.
Somewhere in between is a wide selection of century-old villas and some of Melbourne's finest turreted dwellings with a distinctive Queen Anne flavor, as well as terracotta-roofed Edwardian and Federation family homes.
Mr Jack Brukarz, manager of the Noel Jones' local office, says any building carrying a rich tradition is keenly sought. ``There are a lot of people seeking period houses and very few available at any point, so they always seem to get remarkable prices.
At the bottom end, a single-fronted worker's cottage needing full renovation on a small block would cost from about $130,000.
However, the most popular price range is $200,000 to $300,000. ``That would give you anything from a reasonable brick house that hasn't been renovated to something liveable and last renovated about 10 years ago," says Mr Brukarz.
Although a few larger properties have sold for more than $700,000, most houses considered top of the range bring between $400,000 and $500,000. An example is a fully renovated Victorian brick house that sold recently in Hopetoun Street for $428,500.
According to the 1991 census, more than 44 per cent of Elsternwick's 8600 residents are professionals or managers and more than 16 per cent earn between $40,000 and $60,000.
While more than 74 per cent have English-speaking backgrounds, a multicultural flavor is added by large Polish, Russian and Greek communities.
Situated eight kilometres from the central business district, Elsternwick has a long and colorful history. First surveyed by Robert Hoddle in 1851, the area was orginally known as Red Bluff. The present name came from Charles Ebden, a one-time Treasurer of the colony, who named his house Elster _ German for magpie.
The nearby creek, to the south-west of Nepean Highway, became the Elster Creek. When people began settling there the Anglo-Saxon word for village, wick, was added.
The settlement boomed during the 1880s, expanding towards what is now the hub of the suburb _ the busy Glen Huntly Road shopping centre near Elsternwick station.
An attraction for most home buyers is that much of the suburb is a comfortable walk to both the shops and transport.
© 1993 The Age
