IX continued: Great Hall at Montsalvat.

We don't have any old castles or chateaux or anything built prior to 1770 so this reproduction is an unusual site for us to see. A theme park?

From ancient times, prior to the Europeans, the Aborigines left few marks on the landscape and did not use long-lasting buildings, (although, possibly, a patch of stone ground-works were found but the details elude me).

VIII continued: the master, the artists, the muses and Montsalvat.

Sonia Skipper, artist and builder, was declared a 'National Living Treasure' by the South Australian State Government. She had moved to Renmark in later years with her life partner. She died in 2008. A memorial service and later a retrospective were held at Montsalvat.

As young women pioneers of the artists' colony, Sonia and her sister, Helen, found that their grandmother thoroughly disapproved of their liaisons and she purchased a cottage beside Montsalvat for her two unwed granddaughters and children to live.
Sonia Skipper published an autobiography of her interesting years titled My Story.
Ref The Age.

VI. continued: the master, the artists, the muse and Montsalvat.

Great Hall dinners where celebs met round the refectory tables had Jorgensen pontificating over philosophy and matters of interest. A regular who's-who of artists and thinkers rolled up to exchange ideas and to socialise.
For one, as a child, the eminent classical guitarist, John Williams, strummed away for the assembled groups and spent time there as a friend of the younger generation.

VI continued: 'Wotan', the 'Hall of the Gibichungs', 'Erda', Montsalvat and the Shire of Nillumbrik.
(Nillumbrik really is the local shire)

Jorgensen went all medieval, or was it gothic, with fanciful plans for the Great Hall and we can go on exploration of this resulting grand fantasy illuminated by mullioned Tudor windows.
Major feats of recycling were ahead of their time and resulted in a wealth of features and a blend that works well. The stone windows, gargoyles and hugh fireplaces were thanks to Whelan the Wrecker (into demolitions) who became involved and salvaged grand old pieces from city buildings.

On site, as well as painting, Jorgensen taught Sonia Skipper how to build and she eventually trained other workmen. As an artisan she carved stone and wood and used a range of building techniques as a pioneer of the colony.

V. continued: the master, the artists, the muse and Montsalvat.

The Skipper family were arty folk who moved to the artist colony in 1934 and it was their eldest, Helen, who became Jorgensen's mistress.
Second daughter Sonia also developed her art and talents after early influences from the tonal school and the annual artists camp at San-Remo and the tutoring at Montsalvat. Sonia found a lover in Arthur Munday and she and her sister both had their first born within hours of each other.

It is said that Jorgensen's wife, Lily, turned from work in medicine to that of psychology and that she suffered from MS. Medical treatment or any weaknesses were frowned upon by the 'master' and she remained uncared for in her later years until friends intervened and she moved away to the city.
Whether this last information is reliable is hard to say. It is contained in a site with extensive good photos of Montsalvat here.

IV. continued. the master, the artists, the muse and Montsalvat.

About the time of the birth of his and Lily's son Max, Jorgensen had begun an affair with one of his followers Helen Skipper. This relationship lasted for the rest of his life, produced two sons, and occasioned some notoriety in surburbia and the press.
Jorgensen gathered around him a group of friends and followers at the artists' colony. He gave them the opportunity to learn to paint and to master the crafts...carpentry, sculpture, metalwork, tiling and slating. He also offered them the chance of a freer, more meaningful life - a measure of heightened self-knowledge and the possibility of happiness, including sexual fulfilment. Australian Dictionary of Bilgraphy

Helen and children lived in one cottage while Jorgensen continued to live down the hill with his wife Lily.
Perhaps people invariably believe that anyone living a different kind of lifestyle must be up to no good. How wrong they were! We were a most moral and responsible lot, almost puritancial in fact. From The Age quoting from My Story by S Skipper.

III. continued: impresario, artists, muses and Montsalvat.

Justus Jorgensen married Lilya Smith in 1924 and they travelled to Europe to further his interests in art. Lily qualified and worked as a doctor and supported her husband.
They returned to Melbourne and Jorgensen taught in his studios and became independent of the painter, Max Meldrum. He usually shunned exhibitions and hype.
Lily bought land at Eltham (1935) and with the assistance of friends and students, husband Jorgensen began the artists' colony of Montsalvat.

(The bush at Eltham was renowned for providing endless painting possibilities; restrained colour and subtle tonal modulations were features in stark contrast to our overexposed landscape.
A recent Tonalism exhibition at Newcastle Regional Gallery gave us examples in the works by Clarice Beckett and others of the illusive and hazy effects from that school.)

II. Continued: Impresario, artists, muses and Montsalvat.

Justus Jorgenson founded the artists' colony of Montsalvat in Victoria. He was born in 1893 in East Brighton, Melbourne and his cultural heritage was Norwegian.
Justus became articled to his uncle, an architect, and qualified as a draughtsman.
After working briefly in a government office, he learned painting at the National Gallery School in 1915-17. He later joined artist, Max Meldrum and soon became his assistant.
From Australian Dictionary of Biography.

A wedding setting for incurable romantiks or a park in which to wander and picnic or see the galleries or as a corporate venue or for a dining experience, all this and more is Montsalvat.
A short drive from Melbourne, in Eltham, is an acerage with the artists' colony of Montsalvat where a cluster of dwellings lie on a grassy slope where a Gothic fantasy, in stone, rests alongside little French provincial cottages in contrast to a string of naive farmhouses.
Justus Jorgensen was the founder, who, with a group of associates, began building this labour of love in 1935 and he recreated a quaint neo-European enclave. Cutting edge architecture was not for him and he 'grew' this anachronistic settlement which nowdays has become a heritage property for us to enjoy and support.

What's in the bacpac?
Yesterday, the dog and this beetle, just like the one on my necklace, were diversions during the awful trucking 'show' in the park.