Yamala

16 Yamala Drive, Frankston

History
William Wooley (or Woolley) was granted 104 acres of country land after the Frankston land sales on 13 October, 1854.1 An 1850s title description of Davey's pre-emptive right refers to Woolley's land across the He was listed on the electoral rolls for the Mornington division in 1856-57 as a farmer.2 The land then consisted of 132 acres and the owner was still Wooley.3 A map of the Shire of Frankston landholders (1878) shows Wooley owning an allotment (11) of 132 acres as well the 30 acre site of Yamala (12) and other allotments, totaling approximately 190 acres. He also owned 393 acres in conjunction with James Davey.4

John Madden
John Madden, a lawyer, purchased Yamala from William Wooley. Madden and his wife, the daughter of Sir Alfred Stephen, owned Yamala until Madden's demise in 1918.5 Madden played the role of country squire at Yamala, raising cattle there and pursuing his hobbies of carpentry and house painting.6 The Maddens resided at Cloyne, a large St. Kilda mansion, from 1887 until 1913, using Yamala as their country property. At Madden's death, in 1918, Yamala was sold for £16,100.7 The property was described as having a fourteen-room early English-style mansion, with electricity, on 32 acres with its own beach front and magnificent lawns and gardens.8

Sir John Madden was born on 16 May, 1844, at Cloyne, County Cork, Ireland, the eldest of seven surviving sons of Margaret and John Madden, an attorney.9 John attended preparatory school in London and the Marist College at Beauchamps, France. The family migrated to Melbourne in 1857, where the Madden brothers attended St. Patrick's College.10 John matriculated at the University of Melbourne in 1861, graduating B.A. with third class honours in 1864 and LL.B. with the Billings Medal as one of the first four law graduates in 1865.11 After serving articles with (Sir) Edward Holroyd, Madden was called to the Bar on 14 September and gained his LL.D. in 1869.12

John Madden became a Member of the Legislative Assembly in 1874 and, with a break, held a seat until 1883.13 He was Minister for Justice in 1880.14 In the 1880s Madden became a successful lawyer, making a considerable fortune from his practice.15 Madden accepted the post of chief justice at £3,500 a year in 1893.< ADB., op.cit., p.372> He was appointed Lieutenant Governor in 1899, knighted in 1893, made K.C.M.G. in 1899 and C.C.M.G. in 1906.< ibid., pp.372, 373>

Conservative in outlook and an Imperialist, Sir John supported the South African war and conscription in the First World War.18 He was also a keen boxer, rower and fox hunter.

Sir John Madden married Gertrude Frances Stephen in Caulfield in 1872 and the couple had six daughters and one son.19 From 1887 to 1913 they lived at Cloyne, a large St. Kilda mansion, and frequented their country property, Yamala, Frankston, where hay and dairy goods were produced.20 Madden spent the last 5 years of his life at Cliveden Mansions, East Melbourne. He died on the 10th March, 1918, at South Yarra, coinciding with the first occupation of Yamala by A.J.Lucas. Lady Madden, president of the Bush Nursing Association and the Austral
Salon, died in 1925.21

A J Lucas
A.J. Lucas (1862-1946) was the next major owner of Yamala, using the property as a beach house from 1918.22 Having come to Melbourne from Ithaca in 1886, Lucas married Margaret Wilson in 1893 and together they opened the Town Hall Cafe in Swanston Street. Opening two more restaurants, the Vienna (later Cafe Australia) and the Paris, Lucas expanded, engaging the American architect, Walter Burley Griffin, to renovate the Cafe Australia. His continuing success meant a further commission for Griffin at the new Capitol Building and Theatre (1924)23. Griffin who also designed the adjacent Ranelagh estate and carried out other residential work in the area, made modifications to Yamala for Lucas c1928. Alterations included the removal of the verandah, the addition of a tower and a pergola. These were removed in part at a later date. The gate posts are notable reminders of these renovations.24

Lucas was one of the founders of the Greek Orthodox community in Melbourne and furthered its influence across Australia. He donated large sums to both Greek and Australian charities and supported the war effort generously. Said to be the richest Greek in Australia, he was the inspiration for the character Yianni in Jean Campbell's `Greek key pattern'(1935)25. He died in 1946.

Description 26
A one and two-storey stuccoed house which once has Tudor/Gothic revival characteristics in the form of fret-sawn barges, finials, trussed gabled roof forms, castellated window bays, Tudoresque window groups, label moulds, and ornamental eaves brackets27. To this the architect Burley Griffin added his own type of prismatic exotica in the manner of his Capitol Theatre design. Reputedly most of this later work has been stripped away, including the tower and interior details, with the exception of the gate posts and gate now facing the Nepean Highway (652) and a pergola.
What was once Madden's dining room is said to be among the original parts of the interior28.

Another part of the complex is the gatehouse (now on separate title) which has been constructed in an ornamental Gothic revival cottage orne manner with diagonal boarding to the walls, steeply gabled roof with finials and trussing and ornamental carved barges to the pointed box windows placed in each main elevation.

The stables, coachman's residence and a double coach house reputedly survive at Thendra, 22 Yamala Drive29. In c1928 Griffin had replaced the stable wing with a double garage, with a loft over for storing wool30.

Integrity31
Reputedly all that survives from the 19th century Yamala is the basic form and detailing of the exterior and the former Madden dining room, now a billiard room32.

The stable complex was converted to a house c1949-50 to the design of W. Hamilton and a self-contained flat added above the Griffin double garages in c1982 to Peter Martin's design (Fookes Martin)33.

The gate house facing the Nepean Highway is near original except for the large rear addition.

Context
Reputedly a three-acre garden was designed as part of Griffin's Lucas renovations, including a system of ponds and agricultural pipes draining into a fern gulley34. This is said to have been intact until c196135. The pines lining Yamala Drive are thought to date from the 1880s.

The house is also distinguishable as the first house in the area while the surrounding housing subdivision takes on much of the exotic landscape of Yamala's setting as well as having a special quality lent by the gateway and narrow winding road down to Gulls Way, the notable modernist precinct.

Significance:
Architecturally, the house has been returned in part to the era prior to the Lucas changes and hence represents the notable owners of that era. It is an historical landmark in an area which is characterised by mid 20th century house designs and aids in the promotion of the special landscape quality of the area with its current garden setting and remnants of its previously larger grounds: of local importance and regional interest. Historically, the property has significant connections with the Madden family. John Madden was crucial in giving Mt. Eliza its social standing. The house and land illustrate the semi-rural nature of pre-subdivision living at Frankston and by implication the Davey preemptive right: of State (and local) importance.