Kawarau

Kawarau
The former mansion in 2014,
after being repurposed as a school
Kawarau is located in Melbourne
Kawarau
Location of the house
in Greater Metropolitan Melbourne
Former namesWarrington
EtymologyKawarau River
General information
StatusCompleted
Type
  • Mansion (1893–2014)
  • School building (since 2014)
Architectural style
Victorian Italianate
Location405 Tooronga Road, Hawthorn East, City of Boroondara, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Coordinates37°50′35″S 145°02′42″E / 37.843088°S 145.044903°E / -37.843088; 145.044903
Completed
1893; 133 years ago (1893)
Renovated1904
ClientRobert Robinson
Owner
Technical details
Material
Grounds
  • 3 ha (8 acres) (1893)
  • 1,753 m2 (18,870 sq ft) (2026)
Design and construction
ArchitectFrancis Coote (attrib.)
Architecture firm
Beswicke and Coote
Renovating team
ArchitectsUssher and Kemp (1904)
Official name
Kawarau
TypeRegistered place
Designated4 March 1981
Reference no.VHR H0489
HO130
Category
Residential buildings (private)
Official name
Kawarau
TypeDefunct register
Designated21 March 1978
Reference no.5667

Kawarau is a former mansion, now school building, located at 405 Tooronga Road in Hawthorn East, in the City of Boroondara, in the inner eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia.

Built in 1893 on the traditional lands of the Wurundjeri people, the house was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 4 March 1981 in recognition of its historical and architectural significance; and was also added to non-statutory lists by the Victorian branch of the National Trust on 14 September 1972 and the now defunct Register of the National Estate on 21 March 1978.

History

Kawarau is a Victorian Italianate mansion originally known as Warrington, with a nineteenth-century bi-chrome outbuilding. Set on three hectares (eight acres), the expansive twenty-roomed residence was built for Robert Robinson, a Melbourne grain merchant, and completed in 1893 at the time of the bank crash and economic depression. The design of the original house has been attributed to Francis Coote, of the architectural practice Beswicke and Coote.

By 1896, Frances (Fanny) and Frederick Cato, of the retailing firm Moran and Cato, were residing in the house, seeking hired help for their family, and witnessed the death of three of their children at the house. In 1904, the Cato family commissioned the architectural firm Ussher and Kemp to undertake extensions, including a billiard room. The Cato family temporarily relocated to England from 1907. During their absence, the house was occupied by Reverend G. Schofield, Fanny Cato's brother; and the Cato family returned to Australia by 1912 where they often entertained at their home. Frederick Cato, a lay member of the Methodist community and notable philanthropist who gifted c.A£250,000 whilst living, died at Kawarau in 1935, with his estate valued at A£591,176. Cato provided for his family and a range of charitable causes including the Methodist Ladies' College, where, in 1937, a school house was named in his honour; and Cato College, that now forms part of the Elsternwick campus of Wesley College, in Melbourne. Frances Cato died at Kawarau in 1948.

Stephanie Alexander AO, a restauranteur, chef, food educator and author, owned the house between 1989 and 2014, where she established her signature restaurant in the house in 1980.

The former mansion was repurposed in 2014 as an independent alternative school, called Alia College.

Description

The two-storey house is constructed of stuccoed brick with a slate roof and is symmetrically planned with a double-storey arcade supported by Corinthian columns. The interior is a mixture of Victorian and Edwardian styles. The 1904 billiard room contains deep fibrous plaster frieze of Art Nouveau ornamentation with a ceiling of red pine divided into an octagonal pattern.

Kawarau is a representative example of a large Melbourne land boom-era house and is of note architecturally for both its planning and detailing. The location of the stairwall to form part of the main facade is uncommon and this wall is elaborately detailed with festooned consoles and brackets. The squat engaged columns facing the north-west bay window are an unusual detail. The groups of timber eaves brackets, the stained glass and the combination of segmental and round arches in the arcade are all distinctive.

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Frances Cato was born in the South Island of New Zealand, where the Kawarau River flows. There she met Frederick Cato; and it is most-likely that they renamed the house from Warrington to Kawarau in c. 1896.

References

  1. 1 2 Smith, Karen A. (February 2023). "Frances (Fanny) Cato (1860-1948)". Historical Society of Victoria. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "Kawarau, Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) Number H0489, Heritage Overlay HO130". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  3. ↑ "Kawarau (NTA-V list: Property No B1554)". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  4. 1 2 "Kawarau (Place ID 5667)". Australian Heritage Database. Australian Government. 21 March 1978. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  5. ↑ "Kawaru (local government list)". Victorian Heritage Database. Heritage Victoria. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  6. ↑ "Advertising". The Age. No. 12768. 31 January 1896. p. 8. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  7. ↑ "Family Notices". The Argus. No. 15, 610. Melbourne. 11 July 1896. p. 1. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  8. ↑ "Advertising". The Age. No. 13, 189. 9 June 1897. p. 8. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  9. ↑ "Family Notices". The Age. No. 13, 551. Victoria, Australia. 8 August 1898. p. 1. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  10. ↑ "Family Notices". The Australasian. Vol. LXV, no. 1704. Victoria, Australia. 26 November 1898. p. 55. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  11. ↑ "Family Notices". The Argus. No. 18, 148. Melbourne. 13 September 1904. p. 1. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  12. ↑ "Family Notices". The Argus. No. 16, 943. Melbourne. 27 October 1900. p. 9. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  13. ↑ "FATALITIES AND ACCIDENTS". The Age. No. 15501. 12 November 1904. p. 11. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  14. ↑ "Advertising". The Age. No. 16, 398. 2 October 1907. p. 2. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  15. ↑ "Advertising". The Argus. No. 19, 559. Melbourne. 27 March 1909. p. 14. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  16. ↑ "DISTINGUISHED TRAVELLER AND HIS BRIDE". The Weekly Times. No. 2, 215. Melbourne. 20 January 1912. p. 13. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  17. ↑ "Family Notices". Melbourne Punch. Vol. CXXII, no. 3115. 8 April 1915. p. 25. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  18. ↑ "GARDEN PARTY AT "KAWARAU," HAWTHORN". The Age. No. 22368. 13 December 1926. p. 13. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  19. ↑ "A GARDEN PARTY". The Age. No. 23053. 25 February 1929. p. 11. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  20. ↑ "Garden Party And An American Tea". The Argus. No. 28, 460. Melbourne. 8 November 1937. p. 7. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  21. ↑ "PROMINENT LAYMAN". The Herald. No. 11, 443. Melbourne. 8 July 1912. p. 3. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  22. ↑ "DEATH OF MR. CATO". The Daily Advertiser. Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. 5 June 1935. p. 4. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  23. ↑ "DEATH OF F. J. CATO". The Leader. No. 4113. Victoria, Australia. 8 June 1935. p. 24. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  24. ↑ "£591,176 LEFT BY MR. CATO". The Sun News-pictorial. No. 4045. Victoria, Australia. 5 September 1935. p. 2. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  25. ↑ "About us: History". Methodist Ladies' College, Melbourne. n.d. Retrieved 31 October 2026.
  26. ↑ "Elsternwick campus". Wesley College, Melbourne. 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2020.
  27. ↑ "OBITUARY". The Age. No. 29117. 21 August 1948. p. 2. Retrieved 3 November 2026 – via National Library of Australia.
  28. ↑ Chancellor, Jonathan (1 March 2014). "Restaurateur Stephanie Alexander sells her Hawthorn house with edible garden". Apartments.com.au. Retrieved 31 October 2026.

Further reading