|
|
ISSUE 81 February 2025
|
|
News
Feature
- Lucknow Revisited ‘Stamp of the place, Spirit of the times’ – W. B. Griffin, the Architect
Lucknow chapter (1935 – 1937)
|
|
|
|
Welcome!
Welcome to the Walter Burley Griffin Society’s biannual newsletter. We hope you found the transition to the online format easy and enjoy the digital format!
|
This issue contains many articles of interest, including a feature on a recently emerged, rare artwork by Marion; insights into the work of architect Eliel Saarinen, who was runner up design competition for Canberra; and information about forthcoming events, such as a guided walk through Castlecrag and details about the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America’s exciting 2025 conference. Enjoy!
|
|
Your membership is important to us and allows us to produce this newsletter, host events and fund major projects, such as the sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin!
|
Click here to join the Society or renew your membership. Membership will entitle you to receive future newsletters and priority notification of, and discounts to the Society’s events.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Coming events
Walk through Marion’s inspiring Castlecrag –
guided tour on Sunday 4 May
Discover how Marion Mahony and Walter Burley Griffin created a unique neighbourhood that celebrated the beauty of the Australian bush. Encounter Griffin architecture, secluded walkways and hidden natural reserves. Landscape architect James Smallson will take this guided tour revealing the international significance of the Griffins’ Castlecrag, designed in harmony with the natural world.
|
This 1.5 hour walk, that will include the garden of a Griffin house, is part of the National Trust's Heritage Festival 2025. There will be uneven steps. Please wear comfortable walking shoes, hat and bring water.
|
|
Cost: Adults $20, Members $15, Family $50
|
Numbers are strictly limited to 25, so first in best dressed.
|
|
|
Garden of the Felstead house. Photographer Eric Sierins 2011
|
|
|
|
Walter Burley Griffin Society of America
2025 annual meeting in Mason City
|
The Society’s sister organisation in USA, the Walter Burley Griffin Society of America, will hold its 24th annual meeting on 3 – 4 October 2025 in Mason City, Iowa. Mason City is served by an airport and is located 2 hours by road south of Minnesota.
|
Mason City is home to Rock Crest / Rock Glen, the masterful Griffin urban plan that restored what was a disused quarry into a beautiful landscape, featuring Willow Creek and magnificent Griffin designed homes dotted amongst trees, lawns and gardens. This 18 acre site with 19 proposed houses (only five were built) was a precursor to the Griffins’ later more extensive development in Castlecrag, Sydney.
|
Visits to the five Griffin houses and a host of additional local sites, including the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Stockman House and his Historic Park Inn Hotel, are being organised. Several other Prairie School homes, including examples designed by Barry Byrne, William Drummond and Einar Broaten will be open for tours. Lectures will be presented in the mornings of 3rd and 4th, with house tours in the afternoons. In addition, the Historic Park Inn Hotel, the only remaining hotel in the world designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has been reserved for attendees for 2, 3 and 4 October, and rooms are now available as first come first served.
|
One of the hosts will be the long-time owner of the Melson house, Peggy Bang, a board member of the Griffin Society of America, who presented the Marion Mahony Griffin Lecture in 2016 in Canberra. Bang has sold Melson house to the Mutchler family: Kent, Laura and son, Nick. The family also own the Blythe house, purchased from Bob McCoy in Rock Crest / Rock Glen. Nick, whose interest in Griffin architecture encouraged the family to buy the Blythe house, was recently appointed a board member of the Griffin Society of America.
|
The Griffins ’interest in Mason City came about as a result of Marion’s friendship with Joshua Melson, a Mason City building contractor and developer, who had asked Wright to design a home for him on the side of a cliff. Wright was in Mason City at the time, overseeing the construction of his Historic Park Inn Hotel and City National Bank. Melson did not like Wright’s plan for the house, believing it did not adequately fit into the landscape.
|
Wright left Chicago to travel to Berlin in late 1909 to work on a portfolio of his work for German publisher Herr Wasmuth. He left before the hotel and bank were completed. Melson approached Marion again, and she suggested that her husband Walter Burley Griffin could design Melson's house. Marion was very much involved with the design of the Melson House and did a stunning drawing of the stone house built into the side of the limestone cliff.
|
|
|
Melson House at Rock Crest / Rock Glen, Mason City, Iowa, 2003. Photograph Andrew Kirk
|
|
|
|
Recent Events
Stella James house, Avalon, Sydney
The Society thanks the National Trust of Australia (NSW), owners and custodians of this unique house and its bushland setting, and also importantly Simon, the tenant of the Stella James house, for the opportunity to view the house and hold its AGM there on Sunday 24 November 2024.
|
Guest speaker, conservation architect Dr Scott Robertson, gave a very interesting talk. As he prepared the conservation management plan for the Stella James house and undertook the conservation and repair works in the 1990s for the National Trust (NSW), his talk provided fascinating insights into the house and its history.
|
|
|
On the terrace outside the Stella James house, the Society's President Akky Van Ogtrop introducing guest speaker Dr Scott Robertson, 2024. Photograph Adrienne Kabos
|
|
|
|
The Capitol: Celebrating 100 years of imagination
November 2024 marked the centenary of The Capital Theatre and this extract from RMIT’s website details the history and splendour of this magnificent theatre:
"On 7 November 1924 The Capitol Theatre officially opened its doors to Victorians, screening Cecil B DeMille’s original version of The Ten Commandments. One hundred years later to the day, RMIT brought together industry and creative partners, government, donors, alumni, staff and students to celebrate the centenary of this Melbourne cultural icon.
|
"Hosted by RMIT alumni and 2024 honorary degree recipient Kate Torney OAM, around 200 people gathered for an evening filled with reflection and entertainment.
|
RMIT Chancellor Peggy O’Neal AO addressed the audience, describing her role as 'custodian of the places, spaces and systems that allow the extraordinary happenings of a university to take place. This is one of those spaces of which we should all be immensely proud.'
|
"RMIT acquired The Capitol building in 1999 to use as a teaching space for its film and media students. By 2014 it needed critical repair and the University, with the support of the State Government and donors, undertook a $24.5 million project to restore the building to its former glory.
|
"Over the decades the venue has adapted with the times, transforming from a pure cinema to a high-tech education hub and contemporary auditorium for film, music, dance and theatre.
|
“In times of rapid change and advancement, turning a historic landmark into a practical place of education, culture and innovation, is not commonplace. And as a university community and people of Melbourne, we are the fortunate beneficiaries,” O’Neal added.
In recognition of The Capitol's origins in cinema, Al Cossar, Artistic Director Melbourne International Film Festival (MIFF), took the stage to share how The Capitol has become one of the feature venues for their festival.
|
|
"We know that this is not a space in which to view, but to experience; a room with a potency and personality that cannot help but bond an audience in front of an artist’s vision.
|
|
|
|
Capitol Theatre, Melbourne, 2024. Photograph Michael Thomson
|
|
“It is a beating heart of a place, and what is clear from the point of view of a festival such as MIFF, is that memories are made in rooms such as this, if not inspirations.”
While The Capitol began its days as a movie theatre, over the years it has hosted a vast array of performance art. RMIT has several cultural partners who use the venue including Melbourne Fringe Festival.
|
"Na Djinang Circus, a Melbourne-based contemporary circus company, performed an excerpt of their work “Arterial” which featured on opening night of this year’s Fringe.
The audience was wowed with dance and acrobatics by four performers whose artistic piece explored the ancient connections tying First Nations people together, strong through bloodlines but irreparably damaged through colonisation.
|
"Closing out the night was a sound and light show produced by students Jez Minfaq and Jasmine Griffiths from the School of Design as part of the Heightened Multisensory Experience Studio led by Associate Professor Darrin Verhagen. The 75-second piece brought The Capitol’s famous ceiling to life, illuminating the 33,000 light bulbs embedded in the crystalline ceiling."
|
|
|
|
News
Sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin at Castlecrag
completed but installation delayed
In our July newsletter we were excited to announce that the construction of the sculpture to honour Marion Mahony Griffin by sculptor Sandra Pitkin was almost complete. It was in fact completed in early August ready for installation later that month into the tiny pocket park replacing just two of the car spaces in the carpark at the corner of The Postern and Edinburgh Road, Castlecrag with attractive landscaping.
|
Unfortunately just as the landscaping work was to begin, Willoughby City Council's Mayor halted works, just a month before the Council elections, as there had been new objections from residents about the loss of the two car spaces. This was despite the location having unanimous support from all Councillors at its meeting almost two years earlier on 28 November 2022.
|
The solution was a new location proposed by Council in consultation with the Society and sculptor. The sculpture will now be in the garden bed in front of The Griffin Centre to be enlarged to accommodate the sculpture. While not ideal, as the sculpture was designed and scaled to be viewed from the Edinburgh Road footpath 18 metres away but will now be just a two metre viewing distance from the footpath, it is the best given the circumstances.
|
|
The Council has scheduled installation for this April / May, and once the sculpture is installed the Society will invite all the generous donors to an unveiling event.
|
|
|
At the fabricators's workshop with the inner pod, hand crafted by artist Sandra Pitkin,
being fixed inside the triangulated outer frame, 2024. Photograph courtesy Sandra Pitkin
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marion’s “Pandora’s Box”
A rare, early Marion Mahony Griffin artwork, executed in Chicago before her marriage to Walter, has emerged in Melbourne after its owner, Peter Sayle, contacted me. As the author of a biography on Marion, he thought I could help.
|
Marion’s painting Pandora’s Box had been in Sayle’s family since its acquisition, possibly in the early 1920s by his grandfather, Melbourne journalist and publisher Monty Grover. Sayle often wondered about its provenance until his son, Andrew, saw the distinctive MLM monogram on the bottom left hand corner and contacted me. The MLM monogram (for Marion Lucy Mahony) means it was done before Marion was married to Walter in June 1911 (when she changed her monogram to MMG).
|
The artwork depicting Pandora in a forest with a group of fairies has been analysed by a representative of the National Gallery of Victoria and also myself. It is very clearly done by Marion. A black and white sketch for the work is included in the artworks attached to the Magic of America website https://artic.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/mqc/id/48093/rec/1
This original sketch has the words “Pandora’s Box” along the lower edge. The painting, which is done in colours of pale pinks, browns and white, has a gold frame with the word “Pandora” as its caption.
|
Apart from its being in the one family for three generations, the artwork’s provenance is also confirmed by a very specific reference to it in Magic of America. Headed “Pandora’s Box”, there is a note from a Mrs Dorothea Jorio to Marion. Mrs Jorio is clearly based in Melbourne, but from the tone of her words, it sounds as if Marion was not there at the time of her writing.
|
“I was looking at a picture of yours the other day, a delightful piece of work – at the Monty Grover’s – Pandora’s Box”, Mrs Jorio writes to Marion. “She told me that Septimus Power (a Melbourne painter) had offered any one of his in exchange, but that of course she wouldn’t part with it.” Most likely “she” was Grover’s second wife, Regina Varley, who by all accounts was a vivacious woman, known as Marmie or Ina. It was Varley who left the painting in her will to Sayle, realising his long time love of the work. Sayle has been a wonderful custodian of the work, which he has long admired from his youth.
|
The Griffins most likely brought the artwork to Australia with them when they came in 1914. But did Marion sell Pandora’s Box to the Grover family or did she give it to them? From the tone of the letter, Marion knew that the work was owned by the Grovers and was happy it was there. I don’t know of Marion selling her artwork except when she did commissioned work, such as that for the Marshall Field department store in Chicago.
|
|
The work confirms Marion’s great interest in fairies and her belief fairies were part of the natural world. Pandora’s Box has overtones of the work she did for the Marshall Field department store, as a promotion for their lace. Pandora is also a precursor to Marion’s great mural, Fairies Feeding the Herons, which she did on the walls of the G.B. Armstrong School in Chicago in the early 1930s. Put all three works together, plus Marion's comments about fairies in The Magic of America, and there is a real story to tell about Marion's belief in fairies.
|
|
|
|
Photo of Pandora’s Box, Marion Mahony, watercolour and ink on paper, 506 x 890 mm
|
|
The question is how did the artwork come to be in the home of the Grover family?
Did they know each other?
|
Born in Melbourne in 1870 (a year before Marion was born in Chicago), Grover was interested in art and architecture, and after being articled to a Melbourne firm of architects, turned to journalism. The Griffins may have know him independently, or they may have had overlapping friendships when they both resided in Melbourne. Sayle says his grandfather studied art at the National Gallery of Victoria for a period and was friendly with some of the older Lindsay brothers. But believing he would not be a good artist he looked for another career. Grover went to Sydney around 1907, working at the Sydney Morning Herald before becoming editor of The Sunday Sun. He married Regina Varley (who was also from Melbourne) in 1915, and they both went to London after WW1, from 1918 to 1921.
|
Returning to live in Melbourne in 1922, Grover founded The Sun News Pictorial. The Griffins lived in Melbourne from around 1915 until moving to Castlecrag, Sydney around 1925 and could well have met the Grovers in Melbourne between 1922 and 1925.
|
We would love to hear if anyone has any knowledge or thoughts on how the artwork came to be owned by the Grover family or any ties between the Griffins and the Grovers. Kindly email any information to contact@griffinsociety.org or glendak1871@yahoo.com.
Glenda Korporaal
|
|
|
|
Eliel Saarinen revisited. Looking at the work of the Canberra design competition’s runner up
What would have happened if the second prize winner of the design for Canberra,
Finnish architect Eliel Saarinen, had won first prize?
|
The plan for Australia’s new capital city, designed by Walter Burley Griffin and his wife Marion Mahony in the cold Chicago winter of 1911, was a clear winner. Their design was unique in the way the proposed city nestled into the landscape of the plains, rivers and surrounding hills.
|
In 1912 Saarinen was runner up to the Griffins and his design, by comparison, was more complex in a grander, European style. While it also proposed turning the Molongolo River into water basins, this plan featured a denser urban character, with buildings reflecting a Beaux Arts inspiration.
|
Saarinen was experienced in urban design, having won an international competition for the design of Tallinn in Estonia in 1911 and from 1917 to 1918, worked on a city plan for greater Helsinki. Following his entry into another famous architectural competition – the design for Chicago’s Tribune Tower in 1922 where he also came second – Saarinen moved to the United States in 1923.
|
First settling in Chicago and then lecturing at the University of Michigan, Saarinen was asked to design a campus for the Cranbrook Educational Community in Bloomfield Hills, near Detroit. This campus was intended to be an American equivalent to the Bauhaus, and in 2024 delegates of the Frank Lloyd Wright Conservancy Conference toured the campus, to view the work of Saarinen. WBGS committee member Glenda Korporaal and author of this article was fortunate to attend.
|
|
|
|
Eric Saarinen and Glenda Korporaal, Detroit, September 2024. Photograph Vin Plant
|
|
|
Conference members also toured the 1956 General Motors Technical Centre, outside Detroit, a mid-century modern campus which was the first independent project by Saarinen’s son, Eero. As an aside, Korporaal well remembers arriving in 1981 for the first time in Washington D.C. as a young journalist, feeling somewhat overwhelmed at the starkly modern floor to ceiling glass of the Dulles International Airport, which was also designed by Eero in 1958.
|
At the conference, Korporaal was able to meet Saarinen’s grandson, Eric Saarinen, a filmmaker who is raising funds for a movie about his grandfather. Eric joked that his grandfather became globally famous for being a second prize winner!
|
While not winning the design competition for Canberra, Saarinen and his family went on to live a rich life in the US. Had his plan won the competition for Canberra and he moved to Australia, Saarinen and his family may not have been able to carve out such an international reputation. While the father and son team of architects became famous in America, the work of Griffin and his wife Marion, in Australia and then India, was little known in their home country.
|
Glenda Korporaal, journalist and author of "Making Magic, The Marion Mahony Griffin Story".
|
|
|
|
Update on Griffin’s grave in Lucknow, India
|
Further to our article in the previous News Update Issue 80, July 2024, the Society thanks Mr Prateek Hira, a significant figure in Uttar Pradesh and Indian tourism for his time and attention given to recent work at Walter Burley Griffin’s grave at Nishatganj cemetry, Lucknow.
|
Peter Graves, former Chair of the Society’s Canberra Chapter liaised with Mr Hira
who has kindly organised repainting of the grave’s metal fence, and the addition of an interpretive sign to the headstone providing information about Griffin and his major achievements.
|
|
|
|
Feature
|
The following article by Dr. Rani Massey is reprinted from Rhetorica Quarterly Vol 2, Summer 2012, a literary journal of the Arts. Acknowledgement and credit to the Department of English and Modern European Languages, University of Lucknow and Professor Ranu Uniyal, Head of the Department, is stated by Dr.Rani Massey.
|
Lucknow Revisited ‘Stamp of the place, Spirit of the times’
– W. B. Griffin, the Architect, Lucknow chapter (1935 – 1937)
As I reflect on this picture taken in 2012, I realise that sometimes in life the seemingly less meaningful events gain momentum to become the meaningful. It was a casual invitation to partake in the ceremony in which the Canberra Centenary delegation (Australia), visited the Nishatganj cemetery (Lucknow) to reconnect spiritually with the final homeland of the American architect W.B.Griffin who had designed their city Canberra.
|
|
|
Image from Hindustan Times, Lucknow, Friday September 28, 2012 in article titled
“A Tribute to W.B.Griffin” that reported on the visiting Australian delegation that symbolically sprinkled water, brought from Lake Burley Griffin, onto Walter Burley Griffin’s grave in Lucknow. Dr Rani Massey is at far right.
|
|
Earlier, an article “Time to Commemorate”, in The Hindustan Times had also caught my attention in this context. All this spurred my curiosity to greater heights. It finally gravitated towards more investigation to unfold the saga of the architect, W.B.Griffin
who dared to venture out to alien Eastern lands to prove his mettle in those times when ‘Globalization’ was unheard of. Through his work he chronicled the spirit of the times, in this context Lucknow.
The architectural feats of Walter Burley Griffin, the famed American architect of the late 19th and early 20th century, had come under the arc lights, especially with the Centenary Celebrations of Canberra, the Federal capital city of Australia, which he designed, after having won the Federal Capital Design Competition in 1912. He is acclaimed for his passionate foray into landscape architecture in three dynamically different continents – America (citizen), Australia and lastly India under the Colonial Rule. His journey culminated in further creativity in Lucknow (1935–37) before his untimely death here. He was followed by his talented wife and creative partner Marion Mahony (1936–37) who endeavoured to ceaselessly support his projects.
Further, on garnering support on this topic, our Isabella Thoburn College Librarian offered to connect me to The Tagore Library (univ.) and its core team of librarians who were extremely gracious in locating the old files and documents concerning Griffin. In the volume, “History of Lucknow University”, B.N.Puri stated that Griffin was commissioned to design the new library, but the project fell through.
However, the Griffins received many commissions: designed the temporary pavilions for the United Provinces Exhibition of Industry and Agriculture; Pioneer Press Building; Library for the Raja of Mahmudabad for his rare collection of books and manuscripts and many private houses like Bir Bhan Bhatia House and a memorial to King George V – his only link to the British imperialism. Marion and Griffin produced more than 50 projects between November, 1935 and February, 1937. ...
Interestingly, on my journey of unearthing more material, I read that Griffin captured precious moments in his letters; one such being in which he shared his appreciation of excellence and poise of the young women students on his visit to Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow.
India by now was bracing itself towards modernism, as well as freedom from the colonial shackles. The fresh new spirit enthused Griffin to free his designs from the colonial past by adapting to local specificity, rather than replicating the imperial style of the British architecture. This ingenuity remained his legacy to the world of landscape architecture.
On the cultural scene, maintaining a Zenana may be cited as the efforts of the Nawabs to salvage the waning Mughal culture at this point in history. Ahmad Ali in Twilight in Delhi (1940), endorses the drastic political/social/cultural changes taking place in the first decade of the 20th century. This was the socio-cultural spirit and ethos which Griffin faced – adjusting to the expectations. He contributed to the designing of social space through his construction design of a Zenana for the Raja of Jahangirabad. His most significant patrons were the Taluqdars of Jahangirabad and Mahmudabad.
Under the Nawabs, Lucknow experienced a Renaissance that represented the last great flowering of the Indo-Islamic genius. The city whose skyline was dotted with ‘domes and arches’, was also by this time being given a face lift by Sir Harcourt Butler, the Lieutenant Governor who restored Lucknow as the capital of the United Province in 1920. The exhilarating spirit of the National Liberation struggle, and the impact of the Soviet Revolution in the 1930’s inspired a cultural revival in the form of Progressive art and Literary movement. It was into this unique old civilization which was gaining new heights of aspirations that Griffin stepped. His arrival marked the beginning of a new chapter in Lucknow’s urban evolution.
Behind the razzle dazzle of a new Lucknow skyline, tell-tale signs of life gone by remain lurking, to be further explored and conserved. The space Griffin shared/reflected is an inspiring testimony to the history and heritage of Lucknow.
Dr.Rani Massey
Head, Department of English (Retd.)
Isabella Thoburn College, Lucknow
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Vales
Vale Noel Reidy OAM 1932 to 2024
|
|
|
Noel Reidy OAM, c.1975, reproduced from Willoughby City Council's 'Mayors and Councillors of Willoughby'
|
|
|
Noel Reidy’s impact on the City of Willoughby was remarkable and his legacy contributed to many attributes of this community, which we continue to benefit from today. Elected as Mayor of Willoughby for a record 15 times between 1975 and 1991, Reidy presided over a period of rapid change, as the Chatswood commercial centre developed into the largest retail centre outside the Sydney CBD.
|
Born in Canberra, Reidy became a telecommunications engineer with the Post Master General’s Department. His transfer to the Lower North Shore in 1964 resulted in the Reidy family settling in Castle Cove.
|
Joining the Castle Cove Progress Association and through his involvement there, Reidy was pressured to stand for council and was elected as an alderman in 1971, and mayor in September 1974. Reidy was re-elected as mayor each year until 1980, when he stood down to devote more time to his young family. Two years later he was persuaded to stand as mayor again, and in each subsequent year until 1991.
|
Alongside the development of the Chatswood commercial centre, Reidy supported the development of Chatswood Mall and Transport Interchange, and the opening of the Bicentennial Reserve. Willoughby Library at Chatswood, the Dougherty Centre aged housing complex and the Municipal Art Prize were established under his tenure. In 1989, the City of Willoughby was proclaimed by the Governor of NSW.
|
Also, very significantly, Reidy’s casting vote as mayor in July 1975 saved the Griffin designed Willoughby Incinerator from demolition. The incinerator had ceased operating in 1967 and, without maintenance, became neglected. A few years later the issue of whether to conserve or demolish the former incinerator became contentious. In October 1974, Alderman John Crew moved that Council jointly with the National Trust of NSW, approach the Commonwealth Government to apply for funds under the National Estate Program to restore the building. When it came to the vote the following July, a motion to retain the incinerator and to apply to the National Estate Program for a $10,000 grant to repair the building and another $50,000 to restore and convert it to community use, was passed on the casting vote of Mayor Noel Reidy.
|
|
|
|
Vale Gilda Baracchi 1937 – 2024
|
|
The well respected film and television professional Gilda Baracchi spent her childhood at Castlecrag. Born in 1937, her memories of the early Castlecrag community and residents gave valuable insights to the history of this suburb.
|
Gilda was the daughter of playwright, Betty Roland, and journalist, anti-war activist and co-founder of the Australian Communist Party, Guido Baracchi. Gilda’s grandfather Pietro Baracchi was a government astronomer and made a key early contribution to the Mt Stromlo Observatory, near Canberra, procuring telescopes and optical equipment and is recognised by the naming of a street after him in Canberra.
|
Born in 1937, the family lived in 'Pangloss' (later 'Camelot'), the home designed by Eric Nicholls for the Baracchis. Completed in 1939, the house was designed so it could be transformed into a stage. Gilda recalled the group that called themselves 'The Pangloss Players' performed at the house, but the theatre productions came to an abrupt end with the fall of Pearl Harbour. After the war, Roland made 'Pangloss' available for many cultural events which she wrote about in one of her books.
|
|
|
|
Gilda Baracchi (front right), Deirdre Maddocks behind and other Castlecrag children waiting near The Parapet for evacuation to the Megalong Valley, 1942. Photo courtesy Gilda Baracchi.
|
|
|
Gilda and her close friend Deirdre Morton (nee Maddocks), who lived at the neighbouring Griffin designed Wilson House, attended preschool at Castlecrag together. Later, they would reminisce about the freedom and communal support of Castlecrag – the rich environmental and political life there – though they didn’t understand it properly at the time.
|
They would talk about the Māori dancers performing on the roof of a Griffin home, plays in the amphitheatre and mainly the freedom to roam. There were also stories of visiting American soldiers, and the shame of having bed bugs. Gilda recalled either her mother or Deirdre’s mother, Ula Maddocks, sleeping on the outside verandah.
|
|
|
|
Gilda Baracchi’s 8th birthday party with Ula Maddocks (left back) and parents Guido Baracchi and Betty Rowland. Photo courtesy Gilda Baracchi.
|
|
|
From the age of eleven, Gilda lived with her mother in the Montsalvat artists' colony in Eltham, Victoria, and in 1952, the two moved to London, where Roland wrote for television and women's magazines. Gilda remained in London until she was 20, when she returned to Australia.
|
Gilda began work in the Australian film and television industry in the 1960s; after three years in a film studio in Paddington, she trained in continuity. Until the late 1970s, she worked in continuity on television series including the iconic series Skippy (1969), The Rovers, and Spyforce, and on films including Alvin Purple, Mad Dog Morgan, and The Last Wave. Gilda was also script supervisor for three films directed by Peter Weir – The Cars That Ate Paris, Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave.
|
In 1977, Gilda was selected for the first Women's Training Course at the Film and Television School. She followed this with a course at the American Film Institute, completed in 1979. Her first film as executive producer was made on a $3000 budget for the American Film Institute, and was nominated for an Academy Award.
|
Throughout the 1980s, Gilda produced Australian films including historical dramas Manganinnie and Bush Christmas, coming-of-age drama Niel Lynne, and marsupial-werewolf film The Howling III. Roland was instrumental in having Castlecrag children Michael and Nicky Yardley, who lived at GSDA No. 2 Dwelling, cast in Bush Christmas which was Nicole Kidman’s first film. Manganinnie gained Gilda an AFI Award nomination for Best Film.
|
In the early 1980s, Gilda acted as a consultant to trainees and producers on the Australian Film Commission's training schemes. In the early 1990s she made a considerable contribution, at the Australian Film, Television and Radio School, as Head of Producing.
|
The Walter Burley Griffin Society is indebted to Gilda for her contribution as one of the panellists in Rediscovering the Griffins’ Castlecrag: The people and places in the 1930s and 1940s, reminiscing about growing up in Castlecrag, fondly remembering the bush as her playground and that very special rock just next to 'Pangloss' which was her cubby house.
|
|
|
|
Gilda Baracchi speaking (third from left holding the microphone) in 2016 at the Griffin Society’s panel discussion “Rediscovering the Griffins’ Castlecrag: The people and places in the 1930s and 1940s” https://www.griffinsociety.org/films-videos/
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Membership renewal for 2024 / 2025 is due in July 2024
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Postal address
c/- 140 Edinburgh Road
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
