250px, Heronswood ''Heronswood'' is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

house located in

Dromana Dromana is a seaside suburb on the Mornington Peninsula in Melbourne, Victoria (Australia), Victoria, Australia, south of Melbourne's Melbourne city centre, Central Business District, located within the Shire of Mornington Peninsula Local gove ...

, on the

Mornington Peninsula The Mornington Peninsula is a peninsula located south of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is surrounded by Port Phillip to the west, Western Port to the east and Bass Strait to the south, and is connected to the mainland in the north. Geogra ...

in Victoria, Australia. Classified by the

National Trust of Australia The National Trust of Australia, officially the Australian Council of National Trusts (ACNT), is the Australian national peak body for community-based, non-government non-profit organisations committed to promoting and conserving Australia's Ind ...

and open to the public, the house, completed in the

Gothic Revival Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style, is listed on the Australian Heritage Places Register, and the

Victorian Heritage Register The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. H ...

. The house is located at 105 Latrobe Parade, Dromana, directly above the beach where Captain

Matthew Flinders Captain Matthew Flinders (16 March 1774 – 19 July 1814) was a British navigator and cartographer who led the first inshore circumnavigation of mainland Australia, then called New Holland. He is also credited as being the first person to u ...

landed on 27 April 1802.

The gardens

Hearn employed William Moat to develop spacious lawns and gardens. Rare oriental and occidental trees were planted, many of which survive to this day. A

cape chestnut ''Calodendrum capense'', the Cape chestnut, is an African tree which was first studied at The Cape in South Africa and cultivated widely for its prolific flower display. The tree obtained the common name of "Cape chestnut" because explorer Willi ...

is one of the most impressive trees today that survived from these early plantings. Moat also developed an orchard and fenced Hearn's property. He planted many pine trees, some of which are still standing. The garden is listed in the Oxford Companion to Gardens as one of only four entries for the state of Victoria, along with the Melbourne Botanical Gardens, Mawallock and Ripponlea. This book, which is worldwide in scope, is an encyclopedia of the art of garden design from the earliest known gardens to the present.

Justice Henry Bourne Higgins

From Hearn, the property was sold to Alexander Sutherland, another university professor, and then, in 1903, to his friend,

H. B. Higgins Henry Bournes Higgins KC (30 June 1851 – 13 January 1929) was an Australian lawyer, politician, and judge. He served on the High Court of Australia from 1906 until his death in 1929, after briefly serving as Attorney-General of Australia in ...

. Hearn had been Higgins' teacher. Higgins was a highly influential politician and Federal Attorney General. He wrote the Harvester Judgement, at Heronswood, which formed the basis of the Australian arbitration system. This ensured Australian workers a fair basic wage. On 13 January 1929 at Heronswood, Higgins took his regular morning walk to Arthur's Seat. ( When younger he also went for a daily morning swim at Anthony's Nose ). As was his habit he then read on the porch. In the early evening he collapsed and died. The Trades Hall in Melbourne flew the Australian flag at half mast. Higgins was buried in Dromana cemetery, with Anglican rites, under the Celtic cross which he had built to commemorate his son. He was survived by Mary Alice Higgins.

Bushfires

On 5 February 1912, ''The Argus'' newspaper reported a bushfire in the vicinity of Arthur's Seat. Several residences in Dromana were destroyed.

"Last evening, at about half-past 5 o'clock, a bush fire swept a portion of the country between Dromana and Rosebud. It swept away the residences of Mrs. Coburn, Springbank, and the summer residence of Mr. Frank Cornell, despite the efforts of a large number of workers. Miss Burrell's house was saved after great exertions. The township of Rosebud is safe, and the fire is now burning in the direction of Boneo. Portion of the same fire swept towards Heronswood, the seaside residence of Mr. Justice Higgins. The fate of the residence was for some hours uncertain, but the flames were finally beaten off. Fires are still burning at Arthur's Seat and towards Mount Martha."

References

External links

{{coord, -38.3441, 144.9440, type:landmark_region:AU, display=title Heritage-listed buildings in Melbourne 1871 establishments in Australia Gothic Revival architecture in Australia Buildings and structures in the Shire of Mornington Peninsula Houses completed in 1871