Bendigonia, Queens Road

3 August 2025

This house still stands at 25 Queens Road, one of the dozen or so mansions left there or on St Kilda Road – it’s great, but the main front is obscured by planting.

It’s a very vigorous example of Gothic style, with multiple bays and many gables, each with their carved barge boards, now missing the big finials (and painted dark so you can’t see the detail). In fact, I’d say it’s the best Gothic mansion (left) in Melbourne, though it wasn’t such a popular style.

It was built in 1883 for J E Gard, who was big in mining in Bendigo, hence the name ‘Bendigonia’. The architects were Beswicke & Wilson; John Beswicke went on to a prolific career of houses, shops, and some town halls too, such as Hawthorn.

Gard lived there until 1914 I think, when it became a private hospital, called Vimy House in 1920- they sold in 1970 and built a new hospital in Kew. There’s a couple of outbuildings, which I think appear on the 1896 MMBW map. It was converted to flats maybe in the 80s ? And the ground floor front one has some nice plasterwork, and what might have been a conservatory, with a big door and timber ceiling.