28 May 2025
Cloyne, in Toorak Road near Kooyong Road is up for sale, and it certainly needs some work ! It’s one of the quirky 1920s houses by Harold Desbrowe Annear, moving on from his pioneering Arts & Crafts into a sort of Georgian, built for a Baillieu relative in 1926. It’s got a port cochere with Ionic columns, and the walls each side flare out at very flat angles.
At first I thought all the panelling and columns inside were original, but no it’s all much later – the stair was originally to one side, the current one is 1960s or 70s. All the multiple pilasters columns etc are more recent – certainly there by the sale pictures from 2011 I found. A bit much actually ! I’m guessing the pool and colonnade out back are the se prior.
It was last sold in 2017 I think, and presumably someone started renovations but never finished them.
An Insta follower tells me in 1971 it was bought by Toorak hotelier William Drever, who had it for some time. And an FB follower sent me this, from 1930, showing the panelling is at least partly original, but that fireplace long gone.
Harold Desbrowe Annear did two similar houses about 100m away, facing each other in Heyington Place.
No 1 was built in 1925, with a port cochere, but this time with a whole room above, which ends up looking like a Singapore colonial house (pic 3). Found some blurry real estate ads from 2003, perhaps the interiors are/were original.
No 4 was built in 1924 and called Aroonda (now Koonda), and has a cute arched port cochere and elaborate window above but like the others is otherwise plain. It’s been greatly extended, but perhaps the stair is original.
I must admit that while these houses are interesting, I don’t like them that much. Both heritage listed in the same small precinct that Cloyne is also in.
Info and early pics from the book on Annear by @h.edquist, other pics real estate.
November 2025
What parts of Toorak looked like in the 1920s just as the large estates were beginning to be subdivided – this is the corner of Hill Street and Chastleton Ave. It’s a curious house by Harold Desbrowe Annear called Arundel, built in 1926 for Charles Merfield, looks pretty untouched. It’s one of a series of smaller Toorak houses he did at this time, each symmetrical with a central porch or portico, this one the least impressive, but heritage listed. First photo from the book on Annear by @h.edquist, old colour one 1992 from the conservation study.
Storey of Melbourne 