House and Garden

17 Gulls Way, Frankston

History
The garden (and possibly the house) was designed by the landscape architect, Edna Walling, for Mrs. H.R. Hamer of Toorak.1 The timber Bungalow-type house and garden remained a beach
house until 1960, making the survival of the garden one of its notable aspects (apparently due to a live-in caretaker).

Walling wrote of the garden in `A Gardener's Log':

The plants were nice and thick, the ground was well covered, and there was an air of wilderness about the garden. It was the sort of garden in which you could garden if you wanted to but if you didn't it would not matter.2

Hubert R. Hamer was a solicitor and his sons, David and Rupert, achieved fame in law, defence and political circles: they would have been aged four and eleven respectively when this garden was created.3 Mrs. Elizabeth Anne Hamer (Hubert's wife from 1915) was awarded an O.B.E. for her work with the Queen Victoria Hospital management committee.4

Garden Description Integrity
Although many of the plant species of the extant garden are inconsistent with those indicated on the original Edna Walling 1927 plan which emphasised the use of Australian natives in an ornamental setting, the layout of curving beds of ornamental plants and lawn has been retained. The garden is notable as one of the early works of Edna Walling, one of Victoria's best known landscape designers of the nineteen twenties to fifties.

The steep site slopes away from Gulls Way down to the Kackeraboite Creek and the plan shows an opening to the lower slopes, although the creek is not a feature. Today, much of this area beyond the formal garden has become overgrown with environ-mental weeds such as fennel, Arum lily and `Vince',but the end of the garden is defined by a row of poplars. This may have been part of Walling's traditional `wild' gardens. Planting in the rear of the site includes Prunus serrulata c.v., roses, Pittosporum undulatum `Variegatum' and numerous perennials.

The boundary fencing of tea-tree (without capping) is another of Walling's traditional elements and may be original, although it is also a common fence type from the 1950s. Planting along the street frontage is largely mature and overgrown bush and climbing roses and camellias. The informal stepping stone paths have been retained, although there have been some alterations (compared with the 1927 plan) to the paved area next to the garage and the patio area at the rear of the house.

House Description Integrity
A weatherboarded house which appears to have originally been in a gabled Bungalow form, so typical of the beach houses of the 1920s. It has been generally altered and extended using similar materials.

Context
The earliest house in Gulls Way and the garden verge is contributory to the public landscape.

Significance - Study Grading C
Architecturally the house is undistinguished but still has some historical associations with the prominent Hamer family: of regional interest. The Landscape still bears the mark of Walling's original design and, because of her fame, takes on an extra significance: of regional importance.