Matthew Guy declines request to save Gough Whitlam, Kew birthplace from demolition

Ngara, the 1916 birthplace of the late Prime Minister, Gough Whitlam at 46 Rowland Street, Kew faces injudicious demolition following its $3.3 million recent sale.

It was built in 1915, the block having been bought two months after the wedding of his parents, Fred and Mattie.

Despite some alterations to the façade, it is still clearly recognisable as a typical Federation brick villa, which triggered recent heritage consideration.

However the Victorian Premier Denis Napthine and Planning Minister Matthew Guy declined to save Ngara when approached in May shortly after Boroondara Council unwittingly gave demolition approval to the home with history. Radio 3AW spotted the pending demolition last week.

The house dates back to the 1910 subdivision by Walter Hiscock, an accountant, who had purchased six acres.

His fourth sale was the 1,155 square metre block to the future parents of Gough Whitlam.

Edward Gough Whitlam, future Prime Minister of Australia, was born on 11 July 1916 to Harry Frederick (“Fred”) Whitlam and Martha (“Mattie”) Whitlam nee Maddocks.

According to the birth announcement, the birth took place at Ngara, Rowland Street, East Kew (Argus, 22 Jul 1916: page 13).

The Whitlams took a mortgage out from the State Savings Bank of Victoria on 30 January 1915 under the Credit Foncier programme to finance construction of the house which was completed by May 1915. 

Fred Whitlam was born in Prahran in 1884 becoming a clerk in the Victorian Department of Lands and Survey in 1901, before moving to the Commonwealth Public Service in 1911 at the land tax branch of Treasury.

He moved to the Commonwealth Crown Solicitor’s Office in 1913, just before his marriage.

In 1917 Fred Whitlam was promoted to senior clerk and then moved to the Sydney office in 1918 selling the family home on Rowland Street on 25 October 1917. 

Fred Whitlam and family then moved to Canberra in 1927 to become assistant crown solicitor and was crown solicitor from 1936 until his retirement in 1949. 

The Whitlams sold the house at 46 Rowland Street in 1917 to tailor, Samuel James Woods and Mabel Lucy Woods. 

Later owners, the Swinnertons, made a number of alterations to the house in the late 1950s and early 1960s, with optometrist William Swinnerton acting as owner-builder extending the front bay window, doubling its depth and adding a bowed multi-pane window influenced by the Georgian Revival style.

It was the Swinnerton family who sold it in January 2014 to Youqing Laing through Jellis Craig Real Estate.

The former prime minister Gough Whitlam died today aged 98.

The house is a modest-sized Federation villa with tuckpointed brick and roughcast walls, and a high pyramidal roof with an asymmetric composition created by half-timbered gabled bays to the front and side elevations.

The roof is covered in Marseille tiles with four chimneys showing an Arts & Crafts influence with roughcast shafts, and flat copings resting on brick headers.

Original windows to the side elevations retain floral leadlight casement windows, typical of the time. 

As the house at 46 Rowland Street has suffered some external alterations visible from the public domain – particularly the infilling of the front verandah and the enlargement of the front bay window – it clearly falls short of the strict heritage requirement, according to its heritage consideration.

But instead could have qualified as a place worthy of heritage protection because of its association with a famous person. 

There are a number of places individually listed on municipal heritage overlays, as well as the Victorian Heritage Register, because they served as the residence of a prime minister during his time in office.

As Melbourne served as the national capital until 1927, prior to this all Australian prime ministers had a residence in Melbourne during their time in Parliament. 

• Boroondara HO315 – 10 Howard Street, Kew. A handsome and intact two-storey house built in 1912. Robert Menzies owned and occupied it 1928-60, encompassing his time as prime minister.

• Boroondara HO285 – 167 Cotham Road, Kew. A single-storey double-fronted Federation-style villa of brick construction, which features a distinctive centrally-placed square porch with Art Nouveau parapeted walls. Intact apart from a rear extension. Built in 1911, it was owned and occupied by Billy Hughes 1915-24, during his time as prime minister.

• Southern Grampians HO375 – “Nareen”, Colraine-Nareen Road, Nareen. A Victorian timber homestead owned by the Fraser family 1946-2000 and closely associated with Malcom Fraser during his time as prime minister in the 1970s. The gardens were developed by Malcolm and his wife Tamie.

• VHR H1126 – “Ballara”, 57-73 Glaneuse Road, Point Lonsdale. An early bungalow built in 1907-08 as a holiday home for then-prime minister Alfred Deakin.

• VHR H1998 – “Bruce Manor”, 34 Pinehill Drive, Frankston. An architect-designed, Mediterranean Revival villa built for Stanley Bruce in 1926, during his time as prime minister. He left Australia in 1932. The house is intact and its design was influential at the time.

• Moreland HO298 – 2 Fallon Street, Brunswick. A typical block-fronted timber house of c1906, with a high level of intact detail. It was rented by John Curtain from 1913-15 during his days as an anti-conscriptionist, prior to his WWII-time term as prime minister. The house is of architectural significance and historic interest only for its ‘brief association’ with John Curtin.