Werribee Park Mansion is a living reminder of Australia’s 19th century postural barons. The house was built in the 1870s by the Chirnside family just outside the town of Werribee.
The gardens cover 10 hectares, are tranquil, spacious and full of fascinating examples of gardening from past centuries.
Period piece: The island grotto
The grotto was built in 1877 and decorated by the Chirnside family and the head gardener at the time. The ceiling is completely lined with shells from their holiday home at Point Cooke.
Mussel and abalone shells form patterns in wonderful rings. “And the grotto floor is decorated with sheep’s teeth, backbones and there are also a few of the family teeth in the floor,” Senior horticulturalist, Adam Smith.
Other items have been collected from the garden including seed pods, bark from a casuarina and pine cones. The grotto is beautifully done and shows an appreciation of nature. “We’re just so lucky that it’s retained its original form. The shells are glued on with sap from the trees and made into cement,” Adam said.
The grotto is located on a man made island in the centre of the lake but it includes a fantastic peppercorn tree: Schinus molle var. areira. “The owners originally wanted a willow tree but, because the lake never held water, they substituted it with a peppercorn tree because they’re drought tolerant”.
The remarkably intact grotto, a traditional component of 17th century garden design (boasting wealth and trends of outdoor living), is the only known example of its type in Victoria if not Australia.
...The sunken glasshouse, although not the original, is one of only two known in Victoria (known as a historical piece of 17th century garden design).
Werribee Park is of historical significance for its association with the early establishment of permanent European settlement of the Port Phillip District, dating to 1836 by Edward Wedge.
It is significant for its association with prominent Victorian pastoralists Thomas, Andrew and Robert Chirnside.
In addition to using Werribee Park as a sheep station, it was also a centre for numerous and lavish social activities in the 19th and early 20th century.
The garden includes a great example of a geometric parterre, which can be seen from the balcony of the mansion. Adam Smith, believes it is one of the largest parterres of its type in Australia.
Gardeners plant it twice a year. “There are over 20,000 seedlings in each planting to provide colour all year.”
Mansion Hotel & Spa - opened as a hotel in June 2000
Formerly Saint Joseph’s Seminary and created by the Corpus Christi College in 1926; the Hotel, up until the 1970s, used to house and educate thousands of young men who were in training for priesthood.
Around 1972, the College started to defer students to a new campus on the other side of Melbourne and subsequently closed its doors at Werribee Park after selling the facility to the Victorian Government. The seminary lay desolate and derelict for almost 30 years until Melbourne architects, Wood Marsh transformed it into the award-winning boutique hotel that it is today.
