McCrae Homestead
One of Victoria's oldest homesteads, it illustrates how early pioneers used whatever they found locally to build houses and farms using primitive construction techniques.
The walls of the house are made of horizontal drop slab cut from local timbers including stringybark from the top of the mountain.
[2] Tuck, who was employed by the McCraes and assisted by the older boys of the family, used wattle and daub, bark, messmate shingles and sods as well as slabs and squared logs.
[3] Following the departure of the McCraes, who resided at the homestead from 1844 to 1851, the interior structure of the house remained unchanged during the Burrell's seventy four year habitation, apart from the addition of two bay windows.
John Twycross, a Burrell descendant, who had stayed at the house often as a child was able to point out the previous functions of each room, seventy five years later, such as where his bed had stood in the present child's bedroom, where his aunt Kate had roasted scallops in the open fireplace of the kitchen, as well as the location in the dining room of the Broadwood piano that had been dropped into the sea during transportation to "The Seat" and had thereafter been difficult to tune.
By then, the exterior surroundings of the house were greatly changed by time and the original vast land run purchased by Andrew McCrae had shrunk to a mere few blocks.
In the 20th century the Burrells had covered the original wooden messmate shingles with a corrugated roof both for tank water and to protect against bushfires.
As did Georgiana, her eldest son, George Gordon McCrae (1833–1927) recorded many of his experiences at Arthur's Seat both in diary form and as sketches and paintings.
"[8] The journal chronicled her pre– departure from England in 1838 on the Argyle in 1840 to the year 1865, including the years at Arthur's Seat from 1844 to 1851. Letters included in the diary that she received from Arthur's Seat from her children, George Gordon, Willie, Sandy, and Perry who were sent on ahead of their parents from Melbourne, with their tutor John McClure, express their excitement as they helped build huts, fished from the beach below the homestead and explored what was then a pristine environment teeming with bush creatures.
"......Situated on a terrace of sandy soil, about two hundred yards up from the beach, we command a view of Shortlands Bluff lighthouse, the two points...Nepean and Lonsdale...and, in clear weather, Cape Otway, faintly sustained in the west."
23 January 1850 "While the boys were away at the beach, I heard somebody shout excitedly, five or six times, and, on going out of the house, I noticed Mr McLure ahead of me, running towards the saw-pit.
George Gordon McCrae, who had spent idyllic childhood days at the homestead, continued to visit the Burrells, as evidenced in several letters and photographs.
Following the death of her first husband Samuel Henry Clutterbuck, Charlotte Burrell married John Twycross, a wool merchant from Wokingham, England, at the homestead in 1870.
In addition the large fine art prints are of great historic interest, capturing long ago days on the peninsula.
The works clearly show the strong ties that were formed between families that were early pioneers on Mornington Peninsula and their dependence on the bay for transport, fishing, and pleasure.
in 2010 the Best Audio-Visual / Multimedia award was given to Keith White & Will Twycross for Visions of Port Phillip: The Burrells of Arthur's Seat 1851–1925[13] The judges found that "A rich and extensive family photographic album forms the extraordinary raw material for a 14-chapter social documentary which also draws on family stories to profile the development of one of Melbourne’s historic and popular beachside holiday regions."
Information for the DVD was gathered from family papers, oral histories, The Dromana and District Historical Society Inc,[14] and the LaTrobe Library archives.
Chapter 2, "Once Were Wetlands" drew on 19th century books and maps owned by the Twycross family and an article from the Victorian Historical Journal of 1940 that featured the natural history of the Arthur's Seat area as recalled by George Gordon McCrae in the latter part of his life.
[16] Of further interest are original papers and quotes from Alfred William Howitt who was a family friend show his perspective on the Bay and the beauty of the land and sea at "The Seat".
