Since writing the article on the New Mystic Lake Estate (BBCN issues 111
&112) I have had the pleasure of people contacting me with their own
stories. The most notable is The Basin resident Gary Pope, a gentleman with a
history that spans the entire timeframe of the estate's existence. Conversations with Gary have filled in so many
gaps in the estate's history and what he knows could easily fill a book and
here’s hoping one day he makes that a reality. He has inspired me to go back up
the mountain and dig a bit deeper, literally, this time into Gary’s family’s home
at the New Mystic Lake Estate.
If anyone is interested in what the legendary Mystic Lake looks
like, there is a wonderful black and white picture hanging in the Chocolate
Dragonfly at the Basin shops that displays it beautifully.
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| Gary, Yola and Bill with Stella in the back. |
But first some background.
Gary’s parents: Bill and Yola Pope, bought and began building on their
plot in 1953.
It was for Gary’s nana Stella Patrone, who was a single independent
woman who craved solitude and simple living away from the city. Stella moved
into Lot 61 Alamein Avenue New Mystic Lake Estate in 1955, also there to
celebrate the move was a six-month-old Gary.
Stella thrived in her new abode, with no electricity or running water, a
kerosene fridge, and an open fireplace for cooking that doubled for heating.
She enjoyed her own company, except for her soul mates, her rescue pups Monty
and then Whiskey, where she spent her time reading and establishing a garden in
the sparsely populated estate. Every fortnight Bill, Yola, and Gary would travel
up from Blackburn South -then on the outskirts of the metro area- to visit,
bring wood and continue working on the house which in time became known as “ The
Ranch”.
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| Lot61 Alamein Avenue. 1950s |
The house afforded amazing views and looked directly up at the mountain
in a time where Stella could watch the remaining transmission towers being
erected on top. Not that it interested her. Stella never had a television the
entire time she occupied the home. She had a battery-powered transistor radio
that gave her all her entertainment and information needs.
The house’s construction helped accommodate these views with the street
frontage being 14 feet (4.2 metres) high on the east elevation and 8 feet (2.4
metres) on the West tapering down to nothing at the back door due to the fall
of the block.
As the years progressed Gary spent many weekends and holidays at Alamein
Avenue, exploring the area and getting to know the other brave souls who built
on the steep and solitary blocks in the isolated and quiet estate. One
exception was the house on the opposite side of the road. The weekender owned
by the Meisel family faced the Mountain Highway. A large two-level house built
for entertaining, with a large room underneath to accommodate parties, the
house also sported a swimming pool. Not only was this a place to have a cool
dip for Gary, but it was also an opportunity for employment for Stella, who
cleaned the house up during the week after parties the previous weekend. Shopping
was usually dropping into the nearby general store or catching the bus a short
walk down the highway to the Basin or Boronia.
Staying up in the estate was not without its drama. Stella enjoyed
walking her dogs and early in 1959 unwittingly passed by the infamous murder
site of another resident of the estate; Dr. Annie Yoffa, a Doctor in her late
60s who had purchased land on the estate but insisted on living in a tent.
Stella thought something was odd when her dog Monty reacted strangely and was
in some discomfort when approaching the tent. Days later Dr. Yoffa’s body was
discovered. She had been murdered by one of her ex-patients who was later
deemed insane.
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| Mr Meisel's house with Gary in the pool. Stella on the left behind him, |
During
her time at the property, Stella planted close to a hundred pine trees around
its borders and grew some amazing rhododendrons and azaleas, as well as a large
arbor that supported a climbing rose outside the home and fruit trees. The
property was littered with garden beds. Gary recalls how
he and Stella would visit the ruins of Ferndale property as a kid, and aware of
the fabulous gardens of its heyday when an army of gardeners serviced the
property. Many of the 3-leaf clover-shaped metal tiles which were used as
garden bed ornate frames still remained, and since the properties were
only a short distance apart some found their way to Lot 61. Hexagonal ceramic
tiles, anything you could scrounge up from the stuff people used to throw
out along the 1-in-20 ( Mountain Highway) in those days that his Nanna would
improvise into some sort of free decoration in the garden.
Both house and the garden narrowly survived two bushfires in 1962 (the
one that took out Ferndale) and 1968 which made Stella appreciate the CFA and
formed a close relationship with them. Electricity came to the estate in the
late 1960s and for a short time Stella even had a telephone but by then she was
preparing to leave.
Stella had to move out in 1971 when her health made it
too difficult to live by herself and she moved in with the family in Blackburn
South. where she lived until she passed away in 1976. The house then continued as a family holiday home. Gary even spending his honeymoon there, until it was sold in the early 1980s to the final owner, who in turn
gave it up when the Forestry Commission claimed back the area as National
Park. With that reclamation meant everything had to go, all the introduced
trees and plants, the buildings, and all traces of human habitation.
To be continued.
originally published in BBCN issue 322 June 2023
