WHISTLEWOOD 1870s-2020
History of Whistlewood 1870s-2020 Whistlewood at 642 Tucks Road, Shoreham was built in the late 1870s by Samuel Tuck one of the sons of the early Scottish Peninsula settler Henry Tuck. Whistlewood and its 5 hectares of land is located in the northernmost position of the 6000 acres of the original Tuck holding around Flinders – the land gifted to Samuel Tuck by his father Henry. According to Tuck anecdotal history the house was first named 'Hillcrest'. It is not known who renamed it Whistlewood, however it was known as that by the 1930s. Whistlewood has been owned by 3 families since the 1870s. Originally a larger property until the early 1940s its land was used as a working potato farm and dairy. These being: 1870s - c 1939 two generations of the Tuck family c1939 -1951 architect Charles Smart and family 1951- 1991 Ellen & Alan McCulloch AO 1991- Susan McCulloch OAM & Emily McCulloch Childs The original house, as seen in a photograph c 1910-20s was a 5 room weatherboard cottage comprising front porch, front parlor, two bedrooms (and a sleepout on front verandah) kitchen, back porch/laundry. It has been modified and extended over the years by owner/architect Charles Smart (of the architectural firm later to become Bates Smart) in the 1940s, the McCulloch family from the 1950s with a two storey addition designed and built by architect and Whistlewood resident David Faggetter in 1994. Original 1870s elements include its front, side exterior and internal room layouts, original unvarnished pine floorboards, fireplace, windows, wall paneling, ceilings and room layout. The Boyd/McCulloch studio (as below) remains as does an 1870s-90s domed brick well, a feature of many Peninsula buildings of the era. This is intact and still operates as the main water collection facility for the house. Charles Smart’s two early 1940s
extensions and the 1994 David Faggetter extension remain as reflective of architecture of their eras. Whistlewood has been the permanent residence of the McCulloch family since 1951. As such it is the oldest existing, continuously lived-in house in Tucks Road and surrounding areas by some 50 years. Artistic/cultural significance Whistlewood was purchased by Ellen and Alan McCulloch in 1951 as their permanent family home and in which they lived and worked for 40 years until their deaths in 1991 and 1992 respectively. Their daughter Susan McCulloch OAM grew up at Whistlewood and attended Red Hill Consolidated School and Rosebud High School. Alan McCulloch AO (1907-1992) was founding director of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, founding author of the Encyclopedia of Australian Art and a number of other seminal books on Australian art as well as travelogues. An influential art critic for more than 60 years, notably for The Herald for 30 years, he was described by one obituarist as ‘arguably the most influential art critic of the last half of the 20th Century’. Alan McCulloch was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) and an honorary Doctorate of Laws from Melbourne University. He was the founding and to date, longest serving director, of the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery from 1971 to 1991, building for that gallery and for the Peninsula, an exceptionally strong collection of works on paper and artworks featuring Peninsula subjects. His work in establishing this gallery in its original premises in Mornington, building its collection over 20 years and establishing its current premises, features in the 2020 publication MPRG50, produced by the MPRG to celebrate the 50th anniversary of MPRG. Ellen McCulloch (1908-1991) was an Australian-born actress and businesswoman who starred in one of Australia’s first talking
films in the 1930s before leaving for the US where she lived for 16 years, becoming a US citizen and manager for Elizabeth Arden. In 2019 the Mornington Peninsula Magazine profiled her life. In 1948 Ellen and Alan married in New York city, having travelled across America in an event-filled trip related in Alan McCulloch’s subsequent book Highway Forty. After living in New York for some time, the couple then went to Paris and undertook an equally epic tandem bicycle journey from Paris to Positano, (related in the 1950s book Trial by Tandem) where they lived for a year before going to London where Susan McCulloch was born, then returning to Melbourne and thence to Whistlewood. McCulloch/Boyd Studio In late 1951/summer 1952 Arthur Boyd and Alan built Alan’s art and writing studio adjacent to the house. This 6 x 7 metre wooden building with its southern and rural views remains a working studio today, along with many books, artworks, memorabilia and other items of artistic interest. Alan McCulloch’s archive of more than 6000 letters, manuscripts and other material that spanned more than 60 years of Australian art was formerly housed in the studio. In the 2000s it was acquired by the State Library of Victoria where it has been described as one of the most significant Australian visual arts archives of the 20th century. Alan McCulloch and Arthur Boyd however had earlier frequented the Peninsula, when in the 1930s they, with Alan’s brother, the artist Wilfred McCulloch (1910-1942) and others established an artists’ camp at Gunnamatta where they drew, wrote, swam and surfed the wild, and then very little visited coast. Today the McCulloch family own many of Wilfred’s postimpressionistic oils, watercolours and sketches of that era, housed at Whistlewood and which form an important pictorial
archive of views of the Peninsula in the 1930s. Artistic Visitors Since the McCullochs ownership of Whistlewood in 1951, the house and its 5 hectares have attracted hundreds of artists, writers, academics, actors, dancers, directors and many others as visitors or regular guests. Many have sketched, painted, written and worked at Whistlewood. These have included Alan McCulloch, John Brack, Fred Williams, Arthur Boyd, Charles Blackman, Dorothy Braund, Guelda Pyke, John Perceval, Godfrey Miller, Leonard French, Roger Kemp, Andrew Sibley, Albert Tucker, Russell Drysdale, Louis Kahan, Fred Williams, Clifton Pugh, Harald Vike, Guy Grey Smith, Dorothy Braund, Guelda Pyke, William Frater, Graeme and Inge King, Noel Counihan, George Baldessin, Louis Kahan, Michael Fitzjames, Stanilaus Rapotec, Robert Dickerson, Jennifer Riddle, Ann Heather White, Ken Smith, the Peninsula Plein Air painters and many others. Founder of Melbourne University’s Russian School Nina Christesen and her husband Meanjin founding director Clem Christesen were particularly regular long term visitors to Whistlewood. Likewise Barry Humphries, members of the Victorian Ballet Guild (for whom Alan McCulloch designed sets and costumes) and many other Australian and international theatre personnel including dancers, musicians, film directors a wide range of authors, journalists, commentators, publishers, academics, architects and others in the creative industries. These have included Eric Westbrook, Joan and Daryl Lindsay, Dame Elisabeth Murdoch, Norma Redpath, Inge King, Neilma Gantner, Baillieu Myer, Dorcas McLean, Rudy Komon, Patrick McCaughey, Georges and Mirka Mora, Stephen and Nita Murray-Smith and many others. In 1968 painter L Scott Pendelbury won the prestigious Wynne
Prize for Landscape at the Art Gallery of New South Wales for his painting “Road to Whistlewood”. International arts visitors have included the New York City Ballet (who held a large barbecue in its grounds) the NY critic Clement Greenberg, painter Friedrich Hundertwasser, the violinist Mistislav Rostropovich, commentator and first 'Voice of America' broadcaster, William Winter, Susan McCulloch’s godparents Dorothy and Oscar Hammerstein and many others. Since the early 2000s, Whistlewood has also presented and hosted many visits by Aboriginal artists from around Australia as well as Indigenous musicians and poets for exhibitions, performances, film screenings, poetry readings and other events. Whistlewood and its artistic heritage has featured in several exhibitions relating to artists on the Peninsula at the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery. Whistlewood publishing/art consultancy and home gallery Whistlewood has been the business headquarters of Susan and Emily McCulloch's publishing, art consultancy and home gallery since the mid 1980s. In 1991 author, journalist, book publisher and art consultant Susan McCulloch OAM and her daughter Emily McCulloch Childs inherited the property and undertook renovations while retaining the existing historical features of the house. They cleared 5 hectares of pine trees and planted more than 500 indigenous trees and lower storey plants. The gardens and broader environs are key and integral elements of Whistlewood’s most important core activities – to foster, celebrate, explore, display and educate about the art of place, including Aboriginal art, that of nature and the environment. The McCullochs art consultancy grew with the popularity of its exhibitions of Aboriginal art in the 2000s which introduced
Aboriginal art from around Australia to the Peninsula and which have attracted thousands of visitors, leading collectors, academics and writers – a number of whom have conducted highly popular talks at Whistlewood. Media coverage Whistlewood and the McCulloch family have featured in numerous newspaper, magazine articles in leading media over many decades. These include feature articles in Mornington Peninsula magazines and newspapers as well as those in the Age, the Australian, the Australian Financial Review, Qantas magazine, The Design Files and many others. Archival material Photographic and architectural material includes Charles Smart's architectural plans, Arthur Boyd’s list of building materials hundreds of photographs of Whistlewood's buildings, residents, visitors and environment and remnants of the Tuck family's farm implements. Whistlewood today Today, the activities and spirit of Whistlewood remains as it has for the last 70 years - a repository for art and a place which freely shares its artistic and cultural history and environment. As well, it remains a hub of working creativity. The McCullochs continue to partner with other Peninsula cultural entities including the Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Baluk Arts, the Peninsula Summer Music Festival and other Peninsula art, music and literary groups and to continue to widely share its artistic history and location and promote Whistlewood as a unique Peninsula cultural entity and resource. Enquiries Susan McCulloch M. 0419 896473 | E: susan@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au
1870s-90s Well
L to R: John Brack, Arthur Boyd, Ellen & Alan McCulloch, Albert Tucker . Alan McCulloch outside studio built by Arthur Boyd, 1952, Arthur Boyd by Wilfed McCulloch, Gunamatta c 1936, Dorothy Braund, Guelda Pyke
McCulloch room at Whistlewood featuring paintings by Wilfred McCulloch, Arthur Boyd and others of the Peninsula in the 1930s
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Landscape art by 40+ leading Australian artists from the Mornington Peninsula, Vic, Qld, NSW, WA, NT, the APY Lands, the Pilbara, the Kimberley & Arnhem Land. Illustrated talk+ meet the artists: Saturday January 21 at 3pm. The landscape in contemporary Australian art, Susan McCulloch O A M . RSVP as below.
OPEN DAILY January 7 - February 5 MCCULLOCH & MCCULLOCH
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W H I S T L E W O O D Art Consultancy + Gallery 642 Tucks Road, Shoreham, Vic. 3916 T: 03 59 898 282 M: 0419 896 473 E: wh istlewood@mccu Iloch a ndmccu Iloch .com .au mccullochandmcculloch.com.au
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Whistlewood Contemporary House Gallery ART
It isn't often a house comes with a pedigree like that of Whistlewood ContemP-oraryl Originally the family h o m e of arts critic and writer Alan McCulloch AO, the Shoreham property is n o w under the co-directorship of (terrifyingly impressive) arts writers, curators and publishers Susan
McCulloch O A M (Alan's daughter), and her o w n daughter, Emily McCulloch Childs, w h o have adapted the space to perform as both h o m e and gallery. Whistlewood Contemporary is both intimately personal to the family, and expansively inclusive to visitors. The historic walls display a lifetime of
research, knowledge and love for contemporary Australian Aboriginal art. Pack a picnic and pop d o w n to the Mornington Peninsula for a visit to this one-of-a-kind house and gallery! Stir April, 2018
The Design Files April 2018
The wonders of Whistlewood FEBRUARY 8. 2018 bvPENINSULA ESSENCE
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By Brodie Cowburn Pictures Yanni The property Whistlewood in the hinterlands of Shoreham has a rich and storied history. Built in the 1870s by the Tuck family, the house has belonged to the McCulloch family since the
early 1950s. The McCullochs have an extensive art background and so the property has served as a home for artworks by all sorts of respected and revered artists.
"My father was a well known art critic, the founding director of Mornington Peninsula
Regional Gallery and the author of the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Australian Art. He
was a critic for 60 years in Melbourne and internationally and was instrumental in building the
careers of many famous Australian artists of the 20th century," said Susan of her late father Alan McCulloch,AO.
Some of Susan's earliest memories are of being surrounded by art on lecture tours with her
parents and having artists staying at Whistlewood - such as Arthur Boyd who designed and helped build Alan McCulloch's studio. "I originally trained as a singer then became a book
publisher as well as an arts journalist for leading newspapers and was The Australian'svisual
arts writer for eleven years.• Susan said.
Nearly 150years on from its construction, the McCulloch family's Whistlewood property
doubles as both a family home and a gallery exhibiting largely Aboriginal art from around
Australia. It is managed by Susan and her daughter Emily McCulloch Childs. "Whistlewood has been our business headquarters since the early 80s and has displayed art for decades. We find
that people appreciate seeing art in a relaxed, home-like atmosphere," Susan said.
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Peninsula plein air painters
Landscape artist Ken Smith painting at Whistlewood 2017
Lynley Nargoodah L. Nicole Ma (film director) Japeth Rangi, Fitzroy Crossing Putuparri and the Rainmaker screening and Art Exhibition
Young Kimberley artists from Fitzroy Crossing at film screening of Putjuparri and the Rainmakers and opening of Mangkaja Arts exhibition Whistlewood, 2015
Collective Spirits young indigenous poetry reading/ performance in partnership with Kalang Retreat, 2017