Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 - 1954), Wednesday 18 November 1953, page 4


Out Among the

People

Historic Belair Estate To Be Hospital

By VOX

We could not have chosen a more pleasant day than yes-terdav to motor up to

Blackwood to See what a few months hence will be opened as Blackwood district community hospital. Chairman of it all is Mr. Gordon Brown, who is most enthusiastic about the local and Government financial support it has received and the generous acquiescence of the owner, Mrs. F. J. Blades, to let them have it at considerably less than what she would have received in a sale to a private homeseeker. Known As Monalta It is part of the Monalta estate, from which a spacious landscape view toward Mount Lofty summit is seen, a stimulating site for a hospital. Mr. Brown had arranged for a neighbor, Councillor H. O. Hannaford, to be there to tell me something about this historic hills property. He has been in the district for 35 years. The stone homestead set in a forest of eucalypts and sheoaks was built originally

by Mr. Justice (R. B.) Andrews, who, with Mr. Randolph Stow, was the first Queen's Counsel ' appointed in South Australia, in 1865. Mr. George Downer (of G. & J. Downer, solicitors) acquired it and enlarged the home. Mr. Hannaford bought it, with 100 acres, from the

executors of the estate, Mr. J. Fred Downer and Mr. Frank H. Downer, in 1920. Was Wykeham School He lived there until 1926' when, thanks to financial support from Mr. Ronald Angas and others, it become Wykeham boarding school for boys (principal, Mr. C. S. Hutchison, MA, Oxon.), with eight acres of grounds. The school was closed eventually and the property became the home of Mr. and Mrs. F. J. Blades, who transformed the immediate surroundings into a veritable Botanic Garden, and gave it the name of Cherington. Lovely Garden Hurtle James Baynes, gardener for the Blades family for nearly eight years, was busy as usual yesterday when we called and were admiring the roses, flowering shrubs, including1 the snow-white perennial pyrethrum, the birch and other deciduous trees. The old coachhouse, converted into a cottage, will be the nurses' quarters next March when the hospital will be opened with 12 of the 18 beds in the plan. The hospital will retain about seven acres. Incidentally, the Blackwood road frontage of Monalta is now owned by the Education- De-partment as a site for a central school. Sale And Fete On Saturday a fete' and mammoth auction sale of £3,000 worth of goods will be held.

This includes four motor cars, much second-hand stuff of all descriptions. Mr. Bill Bruce has consented to be the honorary auctioneer. As if is always said in those s-elling circles — there is a buyer for everything, it should be a topping sale at bargain rates. As we walked by the big house where contractors were busy Mr. Hannaford said to me, 'So many alterations I hardly know my way round; doors where there was none.' View Of'Plain Hundreds of houses have appeared on those Blackwood and Belair hillsides. Mr. Gordon Brown took me to his home 'on the edge of the world,' overlooking the Adelaide plain and St. Vincent Gulf.No No wonder so many people like to rise above the level ground when they can study the changing moods of nature from the heights. Fleeced For Minda Dick Pounsett (secretary of Minda Home) showed me yesterday this generous letter he had received from Mr. A. G. Traeger Edillilie:— 'Please find enclosed cheque for £6 as a gift to Minda Home. It is the proceeds of wool from sheep that strayed on to my property; I could not find their owner. 'I have arranged this through the local police officer. The wool was sold to Mr. McPherson, Port Lincoln woolbuyer.'Hope 'Hope you will receive this all right and help someone.'