A little more about Elliston Estate Rosanna

Yesterday I revealed my crush on Cremlin Court but today I thought I would post a little more information about Elliston Estate. It was actually named after the landscape designer Ellis Stones and includes the following streets;

Bachli, Cremin, Ferrier, Pickworth, Hartley, Nagle and Devlin Courts; Stanton, Crampton, Phillips and Von Nida Crescents; the west side of Finlayson Street; and Thompson Drive(all Rosanna)

Elliston Estate - now Rosanna Parklands

From Heritage Victoria:
Merchant Builders assembled a consultant team of award winning domestic architects in the domestic field to design 50 basic house plans. Each purchaser would work with the architect to achieve personal design requirements as amendments to the basic plan. Materials were limited to a specified range.

The architects consulted were:
* Charles Duncan (winner of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects (Vic.) Single House award for 1965 for the Williams House, 4 Glenard Drive, Heidelberg)
* Daryl Jackson and Evan Walker (later to win the RAIA (Vic.) Bronze Medal in 1970 for Lauriston Girls School, Malvern).
* David McGlashan and Neil Everist (winners of the RAIA (Vic.) 1968 Bronze Medal for the Reed House (Heide), Bulleen).
* Graeme C. Gunn (winner of RAIA (Vic.) Single House Award for 1966).

Merchant Building Pty Ltd's own landscape designer and Ivanhoe resident, Ellis Stones, created the general landscape concept and consulted with individual house owners on detailed design of the front gardens. The estate was named after him. The name of the adjacent open space has been changed from Ellison Park to Rosanna Parklands.

For this estate and for earlier smaller concepts, Merchant Builders Pty Ltd was given the RAIA (Vic.) Bronze Medal in the Robin Boyd Environment Award of 1972. Unfortunately Merchant Builders' involvement at Elliston was terminated in 1971 and the rest of the estate was sold for speculative development.


"The principal design philosophy for (Elliston) estate was the integration of the building and architectural professions to provide an integrated residential environment. Limited heterogeneity was stressed with personal home owner identity being expressed by house plan and finish selection, within a given framework. Housing estates in Columbia, Valencia and Reston in the United States and New Ash Green in England were cited as international precedents.

Ellis Stones stated the landscape philosophy ... 'Existing trees in the estate will be left wherever possible ... and any new trees planted will be native Australian trees. It will be a very informal design with no formal flower beds. The landscape must be strong and simple with one continuous flowing feeling.'


The concept embodied by Ellis Stones and the consulting architects was also not dissimilar to Walter Burley Griffin and Frank Lloyd Wright's planning philosophies, emphasising integration of built form and landscape. Full height glazing and courtyards were intended to integrate interior and exterior. The desire to eliminate footpaths by extending the united front garden to the kerb, relates to residential planning designs by Burley Griffin who conceived that front gardens should be communal parks to soften the impact of the built form as viewed from the road.
The cul-de-sac street form, limited materials and design choice, integrated with architect consultation and a limited range of materials were also concepts embodied in the Jennings' Beaumont Estate of 30 years before.
Natural stained finishes, clinker bricks and heavy beams continued the Wright influence at Elliston, which had been popularised in Victoria by Charles Duncan. The vogue for private courtyards, either fully or semi enclosed, was another repeating theme. Additional features embodied into the design of dwellings include wide overhanging eaves, pergolas or slatted sunshades, and full height windows facing north."