Will you give $40 now to save Everglades? Phone 9258 0156 or send your cheque to the Trust at the address below

Our current feature targeted appeal is Everglades House and Gardens in the Blue Mountains township of Leura, the fruit of a unique partnership between its Belgian owner, Henri van de Velde and renowned Danish landscape designer, Paul Sorensen. Set in stunning mountains vistas, this magical estate evokes the enchantment of the fairytales of yore. It comprises an Art deco-inspired 1930s house with intact original features on an expansive 5.2 hectares of grounds.

The gardens incorporate both a formally landscaped European-style cool climate garden, reminiscent of the verdant glades of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and pristine native bush bordering the World Heritage Listed Blue Mountains National Park. This rare and surprising juxtaposition is possible only in our uniquely Australian landscape. The estate has been cited as “one of the most significant set pieces of Australian modernist garden design”.

 

Everglades welcomes about 38,000 visitors yearly. People of all ages come to be entranced by the house and its magnificent setting and to participate in educational and recreational events, such as the celebrated annual Easter egg hunt, enjoyed this Easter Saturday by over 1,500 visitors, its mediaeval Winter Magic Quests, its Mad Hatter’s Tea Parties and its highly popular plein air art workshops.

The threat to Everglades’ future
The scope, size and complexity of this outstanding property creates particular challenges for the Trust in ensuring that Everglades is preserved, presented and interpreted for the benefit of future generations.

 

Everglades’ integrity, beauty and heritage value are under real and imminent threat right now.
Substantial work to structural elements and original features and fittings is urgently required to prevent further degrading of the building’s fabric and of the grounds. The stunning garden, featuring impressive mature plantings of a wide range of spectacular tree species, needs immediate drought protection.The estate also requires a continuous stream of funds to simply maintain the house and gardens in presentable good order.

For example, interior and exterior painting of the house is long overdue, a fact which shows in the patchwork daubs and peeling paint on some walls. The carpeting is worn and requires replacement. Repairs are needed to stonework, paths and statuary in the vast formal gardens – an expensive enterprise. And simply to carefor and maintain safely and in good health the many towering mature trees that stand in the beautiful grounds is a substantial ongoing cost.  So too, is the cost of replacing those trees which have reached the end of their natural life with new mature plantings, to preserve the original landscape design.

 

Between 2006 and 2009 we need to spend an estimated $500,000 undertaking urgent repairs and upgrading visitor facilities. The Trust with advice from specialist consultants, have prepared a three year conservation program designed to meet the property’s specific needs for which special funding is required.

 

Year 1	Conservation of Everglades House and Squash Court including internal and external repainting to the original scheme for the property, reinstatement of traditional architectural fittings and refurbishment of selected rooms.
		$210,000

Year 2	Major conservation works to the grounds including repairs to the water reticulation and drainage system for drought-proofing, active management and maintenance of the tree and shrub plantings and adjacent bushland,  and preservation measures associated with the extensive network of dry stone walls and pathways.
	$190,000

Year 3	Upgrading of educational services and facilities including the creation of a new Garden Interpretation Centre and Book Shop in the former Squash Court, production of a comprehensive Everglades Guidebook, Website and Signage.
		$100,000

 

Will you give $40 now to help us save this unique heritage gem?

Please do not stand by and let this outstanding heritage estate fall into disrepair and decline for want of funding. The Trust is committed to a program of works which will ensure Everglades retains its beauty and status as a special place, a place of enduring heritage value, for ever, for everyone.

 

Please donate by calling the Trust on 02 9258 0156, or make out your cheque to National Trust of Australia  (NSW), and send to National Trust of Australia (NSW), GPO Box 518, Sydney, 2001.

 

Everglades: fascinating people and history Everglades House and Garden at Leura in the Blue Mountains was developed between 1933 and 1939 by Belgian born industrialist Henri Van de Velde and renowned landscape designer, Paul Sorensen. Henri Van de Velde (1878 – 1947) was a part owner and General Manager of the carpet manufacturing firm Feltex which had its headquarters in Feltex House in George St, Sydney. Thoroughly modern in outlook, Van de Velde sought to create in Everglades the ultimate weekend retreat for his family and business colleagues. Sparing no expense he utilised the most contemporary design philosophies in both the Art Deco inspired house and a surrounding garden which sought to establish a dialogue between a formal designed landscape and the surrounding Australian bush. The combination of Van de Velde’s drive and the skill of Danish born and trained landscape designer Paul Sorensen created a unique environment which arguably has never been recreated elsewhere in the nation. The gardens’ essence was captured by photographer by Harold Cazneaux in c 1938. With the death of the owner, the property went into gradual decline and in 1962 Everglades was acquired by the National Trust for the nation.