A wall plate at Nanna Francesca and Nonno Anni’s house had painted on it, ‘Casa mia, potresti essere piccola ma per noi sei come un castello’ – ‘My house, you may be small but to us you are like a castle’.
For some reason, from childhood, houses fascinated me. I loved drawing detailed floorplans, peeking in dollhouses or when we shuffled with crowds through a ‘Mater prize home’. I was intrigued too by abandoned or old houses and still seek out the homes of artists or writers, now museums.
While in Sydney recently, I was set on seeing ‘Nutcote’, the house of May Gibbs, Australia’s first female cartoonist and author, illustrator of classics like Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. She had the house built by Neutral Bay in 1925 so it’s 100 this year. It is small and defined as ‘Mediterranean-style set amid native Australian trees and shrubs’. (Perhaps apt!)
On the day I had a look, the guide was running late but I was allowed inside to wander the rooms of dark timber and arches and I lingered inside, relishing the unexpected chance to be there alone. To feel how it may have felt there when May Gibbs lived as a recluse after her husband died. I breathed in the scent of old timber and heard ferry horns from the harbour, a tree creaking as a breeze blew.
In the room where she’d work, her desk was set up as if she’d just popped out to put the kettle on in her tiny kitchen. I looked at the view she so often saw including the gnarled banksia tree. In the bedroom, her bedspread is still on her bed, an old-fashioned style like one Nanna Francesca once gave me. It felt almost an intrusion to be in there, as if I might hear Gibbs’ returning steps behind me. She could be shy and when out wore her hats low, even putting little holes in the brim to see ahead if someone she hoped to avoid was coming.
Gibbs didn’t have children and bequeathed her royalties to the Cerebral Palsy Alliance and Northcott Disability Services. Buying her books or anything ‘May Gibbs’ still supports these charities now more than fifty years on – a truly meaningful legacy.
For a time, developers and politicians tried to demolish Nutcote to build a high-rise. Someone had to stay there to guard it from arsonists trying to burn it down in the night. I’m grateful it was saved. It is a part of our history, even if ‘just’ a modest house. A reminder of a generous artist who created works to connect children to their gardens and bushlands, to realise what unique beauty we have and to protect it. A link also to a past era of simple rooms with a lovely, homely feel and views to plants and trees, that is like a castle really. 💛🌠
Perhaps it’s old-fashioned but I still have a wall calendar where I write up all that’s happening. This year it features paintings by William T. Cooper (1934-2015) an Australian artist who painted mostly natural subjects, especially birds. He painted with extreme precision so if there were a certain number of a certain colour feathers then that is exactly what he depicted.
Zoë Boccabella 