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McCraith House

1954 establishments in AustraliaHouses completed in 1954Houses in Victoria (Australia)Use British English from August 2011
McCraith House Dromana 2012
McCraith House Dromana 2012

The McCraith House is a modernist house located in Dromana, Victoria, Australia positioned atop a stone walled plinth over-looking Port Phillip Bay. Due to its unique geometric shape, this building is commonly referred to as the Butterfly House or Larrakeyah. In 1954, Gerald and Ellen McCraith commissioned emerging Melbourne-based architect partnership Chancellor and Patrick to design the beachside weekender, which was completed in 1956. Exemplary of structurally inspired modernist architecture in Australia, The McCraith house is national heritage listed and remains astonishingly close to its original state including "exterior and interior wall colours, furniture, crockery, even the bed linen".

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article McCraith House (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

McCraith House
Atunga Terrace, Melbourne Dromana

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Wikipedia: McCraith HouseContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N -38.34465 ° E 144.95926 °
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Address

Atunga Terrace

Atunga Terrace
3938 Melbourne, Dromana
Victoria, Australia
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McCraith House Dromana 2012
McCraith House Dromana 2012
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Nearby Places

McCrae Homestead
McCrae Homestead

McCrae Homestead is an historic property located in McCrae, Victoria, Australia. It was built at the foot of Arthurs Seat, a small mountain, near the shores of Port Phillip in 1844 by Andrew McCrae, a lawyer, and his wife Georgiana Huntly McCrae, a portrait artist of note. The homestead is under the care of the National Trust of Australia, and is open to the public. Volunteers who are knowledgeable about the history of the house conduct tours and answer questions. One of Victoria's oldest homesteads, it illustrates how early pioneers used whatever they found locally to build houses and farms using primitive construction techniques. The walls of the house are made of horizontal drop slab cut from local timbers including stringybark from the top of the mountain. Tuck, who was employed by the McCraes and assisted by the older boys of the family, used wattle and daub, bark, messmate shingles and sods as well as slabs and squared logs. Georgiana designed the house and each detail such as the Count Rumford fireplace. The three thousand bricks necessary to build it were sent down the Bay from Williamstown to Arthurs Seat on the Jemima, a small sailing boat. The house is small but well thought out with a separate kitchen as was common at that time to prevent fires. A floorplan drawn up by Georgiana in 1850 exactly reflects the present layout of the homestead with a small addition being done on the side of the house in the 20th century.

Safety Beach, Victoria
Safety Beach, Victoria

Safety Beach is a seaside town in Metropolitan Melbourne on the Mornington Peninsula, Victoria, Australia. Its local government area is the Shire of Mornington Peninsula. At the 2016 census, Safety Beach had a population of 4,821. Safety Beach occupies slightly less than half the area of land between the foothills of Mount Martha and Arthurs Seat and borders Port Philip Bay to its west. Martha Cove is a large inland harbour and residential development in Safety Beach. It was named after its location in the cove at the foot of Mount Martha. The project, which began in 2004, was initially heavily protested by residents. After experiencing considerable financial difficulties, Martha Cove recovered and became a thriving residential community. Golfers play at the course of the Mount Martha Valley Golf Club on Country Club Drive, or at the Safety Beach Golf Course nearby.Shark Bay was the former name of Safety Beach. The scent from cattle farms nestled in the area attracted many sharks to the site. Mornington Peninsula Shire later changed the name to Safety Beach. Many tourists feared swimming in ‘Shark Bay’ for obvious reasons even after the farms were shut down and shark sightings had decreased which now as we know it is named Safety Beach, an attempt to draw tourists to the area, and it worked. Now there are over 100 beach/bathing boxes located on the beach, accommodating thousands of tourists a year. It was a breeding area for grey Nurse sharks in the 1950s and 1960s on the right side of the area towards Mount Martha and although they posed no threat many people would not swim because of the sightings and its subsequent name "Shark Bay". As it also had shallow sand bars, the suggestion was made to change it to "Safety Beach" by the local life savers and council. It was changed around 1963.