17 Bickleigh Vale Road, Mooroolbark, 3138

Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th October 2024
10.00am - 4.00pm
Strictly only opening on Saturday 12th & Sunday 13th of October. Please respect the garden owners' privacy and visit only during opening hours.

Garden Notes

Badgers Wood was constructed in 1937 on a large allotment that was sub-divided in 1977 to allow construction of another house, now called ‘The Spinney.’

In 1980, the original cottage was substantially, but sympathetically, extended by the film producer Simon Wincer (The Man from Snowy River, The Cup). At the western end of the house significant elements of the original cottage and Edna Walling's 'signature' features have been retained - a high-pitched roof, a stone chimney and low-set windows, allowing the garden to be brought 'inside'.  These elements continue through into the extension with the new lower-level rooms being nestled into the garden.

The garden exemplifies Edna Walling's use of mass and void, with the creation of garden rooms.  Significant trees include the well-established hawthorns at the front of the house, a large Golden Elm in the lower half of the garden, tall eucalypts and a Weeping Elm on the western side of the house.  Lower/middle storey plants include japonica, viburnums, azaleas, hellebores, bulbs, camellias, roses, wintersweet and spirea. 

The garden extends to the creek at the rear with a woodland setting.

The Golden Elm is a focal point for the garden and was identified as a “Significant Tree” in the March 2014 survey by John Hawker of the National Trust of Australia (Vic.) However, it is in a challenging spot that gets quite wet in winter.  Previous residents planted a red maple and a Japanese maple that are doing well, as are the viburnums.  They also planted hundreds of bulbs - daffodils, snow drops and bluebells.  There is a mass of hellebores to which they added gardenias, azaleas and daphne.

Throughout Badgers Wood local stone has been used extensively - for the front dry-stone wall, paths, steps and the pool surrounds, often softened with violets, forget-me-nots and babies-tears. Much of the stonework was introduced by the Wincer's in about 1980. However, as later residents repaired some of the steps near the kitchen, they thought they found what may have been the original steps down into the cottage.  Without any documentation on the history of the garden, it is hard to know what might have been designed by Edna Walling and what is a later addition. They repaired the three sets of steps from the front garden down to the house, the path near the eastern garden and the steps from the pergola leading to the northern lawn.