Guelda and Polly Pyke were Jono’s father’s first cousins; and were always very much part of Jono’s and his sister Anne’s life.
Polly was the eldest and an eccentric character with a dry quick wit. Her sister Guelda, also eccentric, was an artist and part of the vibrant Melbourne art scene in the late 40’s and 50’s.
Guelda in her studio
A still life by Guelda
At this time Melbourne was awash with new modernist ideas in the arts and architecture. Guelda was taught by George Bell, one of the early modernist painters. In these classes she mixed with other influential young painters of the day, some of whom remained lifelong friends. It was likely that through this group Guelda met Alistair Knox, an emerging young architect, who the sisters commissioned to design their house at Templestowe.
Polly and Guelda with two other friends, also sisters, bought a working apple and peach orchard in Templestowe. Stella Park, as it was called, was named after the orchardists’s wife.They were not alone in moving to the outer suburbs, as the area was becoming a favourite with many young artists. John and Sunday Reid had already established their retreat at Heide, where they nurtured a circle of artists, writers and intellectuals. Heidi had become a place for the discussion, creation and promotion of modern art and literature. Alistair Knox was also working in the area, known especially for his mud brick houses.
The RMIT Design Archives have in Knox’s words a description of the project at Stella Park.
Knox reminisces:
One day in 1948 I was approached by an executive of the Art Gallery of Victoria on behalf of four ladies who proposed to build three houses on a twenty-acre peach and apple orchard in Templestowe – a joint house for Polly and Guelda Pyke, and separate ones for Val and Yvonne Cohen. They were all unmarried at this stage, although Val was anticipating marriage in the near future and her mother proposed to live with Val’s sister Yvonne in the second house. As the Pykes’ was a joint building, the two women decided to occupy separate sections of the building, especially as Guelda required a private area for her work as a practising artist. They had independent means, and this gave me my first opportunity to produce three sizeable houses amid the pink and white plum blossoms that covered the northern slope and looked over the river towards Eltham. It was an idyllic scene, particularly as these would be almost the first houses that could be seen from that direction. This was before any orchards had been subdivided, and the unbroken pattern of fruit trees separated by lines of ancient pines had remained unaltered since the land was first settled by a largely German community a hundred years earlier.
I had opted for timber construction on concrete slabs because there was a slight improvement in the supply position and because I thought earth-building would prove too great a strain on my elegant artistic lady clients, no matter how they thought about it before it all began.
https://alistairknox.org/buildings/64
Polly in her lounge room (Photo by Fred)
Guelda in her kitchen (Photo by Fred)
Stella Park was very much part of Jono’s childhood. Below he has recorded his memories of that special place.
Listening room
Stella Park — audio recording
Transcript
This is an interview with Jono recording his earliest memories of Stella Park So Jono what would your earliest memories of Stella Park be Driving up with Janie in the old Plymouth or Holden on a Sunday through the orchards up the Temple Park through the big trees up to Dusty Drive past the peach orchards parking under the pergola and walking into Gilda's kitchen which was always lovely with lovely old things mementos and lovely smells and looking out onto the orchard
Okay so what do you remember liking the most in that room The view the sun coming in What was the view of The orchards down the hill to the Yarra River Often in flower I suppose or once a year in flower Yeah often in flower going to pick peaches and apricots too and I loved the stone floor all the paintings all the knick knacks the kitchen covered in every type of artefact you could think of Gilda and Polly always welcomed us knowing there was a lovely afternoon tea being able to play on the front lawn running free not restricted Did you remember Polly's dog Pierre Yeah I remember Pierre very well a Golden Cocker Spaniel I thought he was black A Golden Cocker Spaniel who she loved and he was unfortunately bitten by a snake and he died after about four years Yes I remember Pierre very very well And did you walk down to the Yarra That was one of the things we always did it seems so far We'd walk down the hill through the apple orchard and the deep furrows Peaches too And peaches down the hill down to the dam at the bottom then up the hill through the orchards again over into the next property going up to the top of the hill then walking down another hill again through orchards all around us that were in flower eventually down to the Yarra River Yes I remember that Always followed by Pierre Polly and Gilda Gilda in her funny old clothes and Polly looking a bit more resplendent than that And I can remember when we went with Anna and Thomas that sometimes for lunch Gilda would cook the mushrooms that she had found the big orange mushrooms from under the pine trees and we'd all eat them with trepidation wondering if we'd live to see through the night Did she used to do that when you were little Yes she used to do that When we were little we always heard her mushrooms and we never ever got sick or I'm sure we didn't We always absolutely loved the food because it was always quite different And there was wine served I can remember that Polly and Gilda I'm not sure if Janey drank it but Polly and Gilda did And what was the food What sorts of things Olives cheese salami things like feta Gilda bread which was her lovely bread made with all kinds of nuts always ice cream fresh fruit always something nice to drink And I can remember that quite a feature of Stella when I knew it was that Gilda and Polly would talk about the citrus orchard and citrus was a big thing as well as Gilda's vegetable garden Yes we used to go up to the citrus orchard which was near the dam and we used to play around the dam We used to look for lizards in the rocks They had a rock wall rock garden there and there was a citrus garden up there too And they did have a lovely rock garden too And did you ever go to the other houses Valerie and Yvonne's We went to Valerie and Yvonne's once but I can't really remember it It was a similar style It would have been about 200 metres away from Gilda but I don't remember it at all And of course you couldn't see any of the other houses No you couldn't see the other houses You always thought you were just by yourself and you couldn't see any houses or any property anywhere And in those days Polly had a great big Citroen a very exclusive car and Gilda still had her little bongo van which she drove around in quite a dangerous van Because she could transport paintings Transport paintings And then the other fabulous room was Gilda's studio What do you remember about that We always went to Gilda's studio I can't remember not being able to do anything there We would show her paints and the smelt of oil paints and all her paintings over the floor and her cushions she used to sit on Drawings everywhere Drawings everywhere It was quite a mysterious room for us though again it was very light And I think we just accepted it That's how it was We came into it And Gilda had a big fireplace in her Yeah I never saw that I don't think that fireplace had ever been lit not with us anyway I don't think so no I can remember it a lot I think I might have been I don't remember that And Gilda did you sit on the floor on cushions and things Yeah we all sat on the floor on cushions and things She'd always ask us what we were doing She'd frequently go overseas I remember in 1961 I gave her my pen knife when she was up with Dorothy Braun overseas through India and overland So yes and then Polly would also go overseas to Brasilia and up the Amazon They were always going to seemingly remote spots which in those days they were And Gilda's end was full of sort of artefacts from Bali and Balinese material and cane but Polly's end which was the original end the original sitting room before they built Gilda's end on that was really different wasn't it Yeah that was much more structured with not so much trinkets and artefacts much more like Polly ordered in life And bigger And bigger I remember my mother said my father Philip came up just before he died in 1953 and sat on Gilda's bed so at least he saw it So they must have started the property in about early 1952 I know they purchased it in about 1951 In 1948 Knox received the commission There you go So they were always very happy days extraordinary days and we always look forward to taking friends up playing on the front lawn exploring the dams going down to the Yarra picking fruit having lovely lunches all in glorious sunshine Fantastic Thank you
Left to right: Jono, Polly, Guelda, Anne, in the garden soon after the house was built.
Anne, Jono and friends in the orchard.
Anna and Thomas and I were also lucky to have experienced visits to Polly and Guelda at Templestowe. We too loved sitting on the floor at Guelda’s end eating hot chutney, Guelda bread and other assorted goodies, exploring the house and garden and walking to the Yarra.
Anna, Thomas and friends
Left to right: Pasquale, local vegetable grower, Polly, Jono, Thomas and friend
Stella Park was an ambitious enterprise for four very adventurous women. Polly and Guelda both loved their part of it. They lived there until in their eighties they could no longer look after the property. We were lucky to have have known it.