Boomerang, Elizabeth Bay


Boomerang is a heritage-listed private house and garden located at 42 Billyard Avenue in the inner eastern Sydney suburb of Elizabeth Bay, in the City of Sydney local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The house was designed by Neville Hampson and the gardens and grounds by Max Shelley, and built from 1926 to 1928.
The first owner was Frank Albert, a music publisher, who resided at Boomerang until his death in 1962. The house remained closed with a caretaker until 1978. From 1978-96 a range of owners bought and subdivided it, creating lots to the east on Ithaca Gardens, and part was acquired by Sydney City Council to extend Beare Park to avert an unsympathetic proposed block of flats to its north-east.
Boomerang was added to the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999. The house has been ranked as one of the most expensive houses in Sydney.
The house was used as a set for the film . In 2011 the garden was redesigned by Myles Baldwin.

History

History of the suburb

Elizabeth Bay had been the site of a fishing village established by Governor Macquarie in for a composite group of Cadigal people - the indigenous inhabitants of the area surrounding Sydney Harbour - under the leadership of Bungaree. Elizabeth Bay was named in honour of Elizabeth Macquarie. Bungaree's group continued their nomadic life around the harbour foreshores. Sir Thomas Brisbane, Governor 1821-5, designated Elizabeth Bay as the site of an asylum for the insane. A pen sketch by Edward Mason from 1822-3 shows a series of bark huts for the natives' in the locality.
Governor Darling granted Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay at Elizabeth Bay in 1826. From 1826-1926 the subject land was part of the Macleay family's Elizabeth Bay estate garden, in which Alexander built his mansion in the 1830s to the west. Built well before the house, the estate was widely considered at the time as "the finest house and garden in the colony" and had a number of areas, in gardenesque style. Its walled "orchard /orangery" was the harbour-side part in which Boomerang was later constructed.
After Alexander's bankruptcy, son George subdivided and sold leaseholds between 1865-82. Billyard Avenue was formed to access some of the earliest allotments. In 1875 his cousin, William John Macleay, acquired the lease of blocks on the corner of Ithaca Road and Billyard Avenue. This allowed him to build his Macleayan Museum for his natural history collections, which had been previously stored in Elizabeth Bay House. These collections were transferred to the Macleayan Museum at the University of Sydney in 1888. William John Macleay constructed a building for the Linnean Society of NSW on an adjacent block in 1885. Several trees possibly from the grounds of the Linnean Hall remain today - some on Boomerang include an old avocado and a large mango on the external southern front wall on the south-east side of the entry gate. These trees are difficult to discern in photographs of the front garden of 1926 & 1929.
Also possibly from this time/Macleay ownership period is a large camellia in front garden on W side of carriage drive near gate. Outside Boomerang remnants of the Linnean Hall grounds include a remnant black bean tree and Moreton Bay Fig line the southern street boundary of adjacent Billyard Avenue properties to the west. Other estate remains elsewhere include a grotto of Art Deco flats across Billyard Avenue.

Boomerang

Albert family

The house was constructed in 1926 for Frank Albert, a music publisher; its architect was Neville Hampson; its garden was designed by M. R. Shelley, possibly in conjunction with Hampson. It was built on the site of an earlier house called Boomerang, being one of a row of Edwardian homes built on an 1875 subdivision of Elizabeth Bay estate. Frank Albert himself had married and built a two-storey brick house in 1902, which he demolished to make way for the newer homestead, also called Boomerang. Albert Music began importing and selling a wide range of musical instruments including a Boomerang mouth organ. The company trademarked the word 'boomerang' and stamped it on German manufactured mouth organs. The distinctive instruments were a run away success selling at a rate of 800 a week by 1897.
Mr A. J. Doust, a landscape gardener active in the Eastern Suburbs in the late 1920s and 1930s is also known to have worked on Boomerangs grounds, perhaps on its maintenance or adaptations as plantings matured.
The private cinema is one of few in Australia and appears a miniature version of the State or the Regent Theatres. It was hailed as one of the wonders of the cinematic world, when it opened in 1928. It was never open to the public and few but the privileged guests at Sunday evening screenings, knew of its existence. Programmes were given out to guests attending sessions. It had burgundy velvet curtains, over 400 concealed lights, sat 200 and was meticulously detailed, with a suite of film processing laboratories and dark rooms behind the projection room. A contemporary film magazine, commenting at the time of its opening, described the set up as the most extravagant in Australia and went on to call it "the best motion picture outfit in the world".
The garden and Shelley's involvement were featured in an article in magazine The Home of 1 February 1929, with photographs by Harold Cazneaux. Clearly based on Hollywood mansions of the period and well known in Sydney society at the time, Boomerang was the scene of much entertaining and subsequent to his death, to much land speculation. The garden, by then-popular designer Max Shelley, contained myriad sun loving shrubs and perennials. Due to the growth of shade trees, the return to a sun-loving garden is no longer a possibility. Shelley's original planting plan turned out to be unsuccessful for Boomerang and changes were made soon after the garden's original concept.
Albert also reputedly owned the adjoining 1880s property to the west, today called Berthong, on which the boathouse of Boomerang survives today. A 1936 aerial photograph by J M Leonard shows Boomerang's formal cruciform harbour-front garden, flanked by palms and shrubberies, with Berthongs open lawn to the west, and another house immediately to the east on what is today Beare Park. Albert was well known in Sydney yachting circles, owning the very large yacht, "Boomerang", which he raced, moored at his private jetty, and stowed below the house in a specially designed area. This boat is today part of the Sydney heritage fleet. This vessel, originally named Bona, was designed by naval architect Walter Reeks and built in 1903. After having had several owners in Melbourne and Sydney it was sold to Frank Albert in 1929, who changed its name to Boomerang. It remained in the Albert family until 1987 when it was presented to the Sydney Heritage Fleet, which has restored it.
Albert resided at Boomerang until his death in 1962, after which the house remained closed with a caretaker until 1978.

Subsequent ownership

In 1978 Boomerang was sold to speculators Tom Hayson and son Ian, who quickly subdivided the estate, and part which was acquired by Sydney City Council for an extension of Beare Park.. The Dawsons redecorated at some expense. In 1980 the property was auctioned but was passed in.
Warren Anderson, a property developer from Western Australia, bought Boomerang in 1981.
In 1981 it was sold to businessman Peter Fox, then a financier of films. In July 1982 it was sold after Fox's death in a car accident to bookmaker Mark Read, who installed the swimming pool on the northern lawn, relocating the sundial to a garden bed in the north-east corner.
In 1985 it was sold to property developer Warren Anderson, and expansively furnished with Regency antiques, paintings and French empire clocks. In 1991 Boomerang was listed for auction but did not attract a buyer. In September 1993 the Bank of New York took possession, after public legal disputes with Anderson. The property was listed for mortgagee auction. Tense competing teams of security guards had a stand off before the auction, triggering Supreme Court of New South Wales proceedings to evict Anderson. In 1993 telephone pager entrepreneur Nati Stoliar and his wife Miki bought the property.
Malcolm Turnbull was once interested in buying the prestigious pile. Post 1996 it was sold to Kowloon-based expatriate funds manager Duncan Mount and wife Sally for $20.7m. Major improvements to the property were carried out under their ownership.
In 2000 Boomerang was listed for auction, selling in early 2002 to cleaning contractors, John and Julie Schaeffer. Schaeffer was also the owner of Bellevue Hill mansion, Rona.
Boomerang was sold in March 2005 below cost for $20 m to billionaire Melbourne trucking magnate, Lindsay Fox of Linfox, who placed the property in his daughter Katrina's name.

Description

House

The house is a Spanish Mission mansion, completed in the Inter-war Spanish Mission style and Spanish Revival Style. It exemplifies the Hollywood-derived taste for the Spanish mission style in a pastiche of palms, splashing fountains and "Spanish" architectural details such as perforated screens, rough stucco, colonnades, grilles, loggias and barley twist columns, combining to provide one of the most successful examples of this style.
The three-storey masonry structure is rendered on external walls, with either ceramic tiled, timber panelled, fabric wallpapered, or plastered walls within. The house has 25 main rooms, six bathrooms, four kitchens, and covers a total of.
The floors on the ground level are limestone paved, high quality timber parquetry in the dining room, former library, central lobby, and upstairs bedrooms of English oak with black ebony and American walnut borders.
Three bedrooms are on the upper floor, as is a servant's bedroom. All four bedrooms have ensuites/attached bathrooms, mostly original with some 1980s/90s fittings added. All bathrooms are elaborately tiled with gold, iridescent blue, or green, or plain white tiles. Three main bedrooms all have inbuilt wardrobes in painted cabinetry, the main bedroom having an unusual fold-out door with two-full-length leaf mirrors, and a revolving five-tiered hat stand.
Two internal staircases access the upper floor, a major and a minor one. The major one is made of marble and bronze.
The lower ground level has a private cinema. Roof tiles are Wunderlich multi-coloured glazed terracotta Cordoba tiles. The property has much external and internal detail work in wrought iron - window grilles, door screens, and light fittings. The house has bespoke decorative panel work on walls, floors and ceilings in coloured glazed ceramic tiles, timber, plaster and terrazzo. External walls have iron grilles in "portholes" of different shapes, with wooden or iron grille gates, and one wooden gate for pedestrian entry off Billyard Avenue.

Garage/Butler's Quarters

There is a separate garage/butler's quarters on the corner of Billyard Avenue/Ithaca Road, which were converted into garage/guests' quarters in the 1990s.

Garden

Elements of Boomerang's garden may relate to its pre-1926 use as part of Alexander Macleay's Elizabeth Bay estate garden. Boomerang's lot before subdivision was part of the estate's enclosed kitchen garden/orchard/orangery. George Macleay subdivided and sold leaseholds of the estate between 1865 and 1882.
In 1875 his cousin, William John Macleay, acquired the lease of blocks on the corner of Ithaca Road and Billyard Avenue. This allowed him to build his Macleayan Museum for his natural history collections, which had been previously stored in Elizabeth Bay House. These collections were transferred to the Macleayan Museum at the University of Sydney in 1888. William John Macleay constructed a building for the Linnean Society of NSW on an adjacent block in 1885. Several trees which may date from the grounds of the Linnean Hall remain today - some on Boomerang include an old avocado tree and a large mango tree on the external southern front wall on the SE side of the entry gate. Both of these latter trees are difficult to discern in photographs of the front garden of Boomerang of 1926 and 1929. The mango tree is a magnificent and densely crowned tree. It is possibly the largest specimen of this species in the City of Sydney local government area. The avocado appears to be in serious decline. Early Linnean Society grounds elements noted to survive in a 2000 Historic Houses Trust book "Elizabeth Bay House - a guide" include a Norfolk Island hibiscus,.
Also possibly from this time/Macleay ownership period is a large camellia in front garden on the west side of carriage drive near gate.
Outside Boomerang remnants of the Linnean Hall grounds include a remnant black bean tree and Moreton Bay Fig line the southern street boundary of adjacent Billyard Avenue properties to the west. Other estate remains elsewhere include a grotto of Art Deco flats across Billyard Avenue. While much more lush, dense and shady than its early planting appears due to additional plantings probably from the 1980s/90s, the mature garden retains its overall character with a Mediterranean/ Hollywood/Islamic flavour and a combination of palms, cypresses, dense tree and English flower planting. Today the dominant theme is subtropical. The original garden was designed and planted by landscape architect M. R. Shelley, perhaps in combination with architect Neville Hampson. Shelley's liberal use of subtropical species - Lord Howe & Cocos Island palms, ornamental bananas, araucarias, Mediterranean cypresses, Chusan or Chinese fan palms, New Zealand cabbage trees and a Mediterranean/Hollywood/Islamic flavour remains today. Mediterranean cypresses have been replaced by the wider growing Bhutan cypresses and Chinese fan palms today.
A large urban residential garden, the structure of the garden is defined by the built elements, in particular the walls, entry drive in herringbone brick, courtyards, terraces in herringbone brick, ponds and external spaces of the garden. The garden retains many of the original planted "structure" of trees and shrubs.
Some 1926 plantings remain, including a collection of palms, Lord Howe Island /curly/sentry palms, Cocos Island palms, pygmy date palms, Chusan, windmill or Chinese fan palms, a large and prominent Norfolk Island pine north of the courtyard to the house's west, Canary Island date palms in the rear garden, Bhutan cypresses, Alexandra palms, Queensland nut/macadamia,.
Many landscape details remain intact from the 1926 original, including multicoloured herringbone brick paving carriage loop and other brick/tile/concrete paving, sandstone crazy paved base to sundial and benches, wrought iron railings, fences and gates, colonnaded courtyard to west, service courtyard to east, matching sandstone benches on the northern lawn, sandstone and bronze sundial, square Moorish concrete and multicoloured ceramic tile planter tubs north of the house on the terrace, original plastered walls with window grills, doors, former tennis court sheds attached to walls, northern terrace, standard steel pole lights throughout, sandstone steps to northern lawn, SE corner colonnaded pergola in iron and timber, boatshed/house/studio, sea wall, jetty, ceramic tiled and sandstone ponds, fountains, terrazzo steps (to western courtyard, to northern terrace, in porte cochere.

Condition

;Garden
A relatively high degree of design and layout intactness to original design, some planting modification and some structural, generally sympathetic and of a high quality matching original. The central sundial on the northern lawn has been relocated to the side garden in the NE corner and a swimming pool was placed centrally in the lawn. The four crazy paved paths that led to the former sundial are gone, although the sundial base and benches bases still use sandstone crazy paving. While much more lush, dense and shady than its early planting appears, the mature garden retains its overall character with a Mediterranean/ Hollywood/Islamic flavour and a combination of palms, cypresses, dense tree and English flower planting. Today the dominant theme is subtropical. Shelley's 1926 flower details have gone, along with the sun levels depleting as trees grew. 1980s changes put some colour back into the garden, which by then was overgrown and shady - including oleanders, cliveas. Shelley's 1926 Mediterranean cypresses have been replaced by the wider growing Bhutan cypresses and Chinese fan palms today.
Older elements predating 1926 may remain from Alexander Macleay's former Elizabeth Bay estate, of which this section formed part of the orangery/orchard, and was close to the former Linnean Society Hall and garden. These include a large mango tree, Mangifera indica and an avocado, Persea gratissima growing against the external wall on the south-east side of the eastern entry gate. Early elements claimed to survive in a 2000 Historic Houses Trust book "Elizabeth Bay House - a guide" include the mango, a Queensland black bean, Castanospermum australe) and a Norfolk Island hibiscus,.
Some 1926 plantings remain, including a collection of palms, Lord Howe Island palms,, Cocos Island palms,, pygmy date palms , Chamaedorea costaricana, Chinese fan palms,, a Norfolk Island pine, Araucaria heterophylla, north of the courtyard to the house's west, Canary Island date palms,, Bhutan cypresses,, Queensland nut/macadamia,.
Many landscape details remain intact from the 1926 original, including multicoloured herringbone brick paving carriage loop and other brick/tile/concrete paving, sandstone crazy paved base to sundial and benches, wrought iron railings, fences and gates, colonnaded courtyard to west, service courtyard to east, matching sandstone benches on the northern lawn, sandstone and bronze sundial, square Moorish concrete and multicoloured ceramic tile planter tubs north of the house on the terrace, original plastered walls with window grills, doors, former tennis court sheds attached to walls, northern terrace, standard steel pole lights throughout, sandstone steps to northern lawn, SE corner colonnaded pergola in iron and timber, boatshed/house/studio, sea wall, jetty, ceramic tiled and sandstone ponds, fountains, terrazzo steps.
;2005 changes:
Front garden - two paths flanking ornamental pool removed. Pool lined and retiled with different tiles. Dead Citrus tree, African olive, Illawarra flame tree removed. Significant groundcover replanting with star jasmine, Clivia cv.s. New box hedging added around ornamental pool. Two large new Canary Island palms added at southern end of pool, symmetrically, replacing two Chinese fan palms which were relocated.

Modifications and dates

Pre 1926 this section of Alexander Macleay's Elizabeth Bay estate was part of its enclosed kitchen garden/orchard/orangery. Possible remnants surviving today include an old avocado tree and a mango on the southern front wall, east of the main entry, possibly also a large camellia in front garden on W side of carriage drive near gate. Outside Boomerang a remnant black bean tree and Moreton Bay Fig overhang Billyard Avenue properties to the west - these were both possibly Macleay estate tree remnants. Other estate remains include a grotto of Art Deco flats across Billyard Avenue.
1926 Boomerang's house was built ; its architect was Neville Hampson; and garden/courtyards made around it, richly planted by landscape designer Max Shelley, possibly in conjunction with Hampson. It was built on the site of an earlier house called "Boomerang", being one of a row of Edwardian homes built on an 1875 subdivision of Elizabeth Bay House estate, Colonial Secretary Alexander Macleay's grand gardenesque folly, widely considered at the time as "the finest house and garden in the colony".
Mr A. J. Doust, a landscape gardener active in the Eastern Suburbs in the late 1920s and 1930s is also known to have worked on Boomerang's grounds, perhaps on its maintenance or adaptations as plantings matured.
The garden and Shelley's involvement were featured in an article in magazine "The Home" of 1 February 1929, with photographs by Harold Cazneaux. Clearly based on Hollywood mansions of the period and well known in Sydney society at the time, Boomerang was the scene of much entertaining and subsequent to his death, to much land speculation.
Albert also reputedly owned the adjoining property to the west, today called "Berthong", on which the boathouse of Boomerang survives today. A 1936 aerial photograph by J M Leonard shows Boomerang's formal cruciform harbour-front garden, flanked by palms and shrubberies, with Berthong's open lawn to the west, and another house immediately to the east pool on northern yard.
Courtyard to west of house - initial 1926 bananas planting is now replaced with pygmy date palms, to match one existing older specimen on south-east side near house - this tree was nearly lost in a big hailstorm in 2000. The front garden - 2 Chinese fan/windmill palms, Trachycarpus fortunei added to south end of the ornamental pool, for some privacy from flats over Billyard Avenue. Then-owner Mr Mount noted he could've put in wider-growing Bhutan cypresses to gain more privacy, but didn't - recognising that neighbours enjoy the front garden too/outlook.
Between June and December 2005 a range of works were undertaken at the property, including:
;Internal ground floor
;Upper floor
;Lower ground floor
;Front garden
;Rear garden

Heritage listing

As at 5 July 2004, one of the most opulently Spanish houses in Australia.
Boomerang has historic, aesthetic and social significance as an exemplary example of large scale Spanish Mission/ Hollywood Spanish mansion and garden in an urban setting, in relatively intact condition, demonstrating the lifestyle possible of wealthy merchant of the 1920s, and the kind of social milieu possible and popular among that class at the time.
It has technical and research significance a rare example of domestic architecture of Neville Hampson in Sydney, and as a rare intact example of the landscape design of Max Shelley, a garden designer active in 1920s Sydney and South Australia from the 1930s onward, with an integration of house and garden rarely seen in Australia.
Boomerang has added historic significance as it incorporates landscape remnants of the former Macleay Elizabeth Bay estate garden, namely remnant trees from the grounds of the Hall of Macleay's Linnean Society of NSW.
Boomerang, Elizabeth Bay was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999.

Attribution