Fuelling - Designed and constructed by Gordon Ford - The garden and its history

 Photographs:   

Gordon Ford bought this land at the end of 1945 immediately after returning from war service in New Guinea. Around the turn of the century, twenty-five acres of bushland were cleared for an orchard of apples, plums and quince. In the 1930's the land was sub divided. 

Boundary planting began at the same time as the house was under construction. A studio erected on the northern boundary of the property in the 1960's is now guest accommodation. In 1997, a series of three interlinked round rooms to the north east of the house became bed and breakfast accommodation. A six-foot high adobe wall surrounds a small waterfall and pond. In keeping with other buildings on the property, mud brick is the medium for these buildings now operating as The Eltham Garden Retreat. 

The utility area to the west of the property includes an area for the propagation of native plants. In 2001, a gently disintegrating cable tram, used as a tool shed made way for a propagating area. The tram was once Gordon's temporary worker home while he was building the house. Fuelling's history partly reflects Eltham's history. Over the past fifty years, local tradesmen have completed all building and restoration work apart from that undertaken by the owners. Idiosyncratic structures remain; the old mud brick 'dunny' now houses an ancient rotary lawn mower; a paling shed leans into the future with sentimental associations to its long dead neighbour- builder. Each represents an attempt to preserve a little of the time when the roots of Eltham's community developed.

Due to the lack of building materials immediately after the war, a prefabricated Triton hut became the original kitchen of the house. As the needs of the family expanded, the house increased in a 'Topsy' fashion. Fuelling' construction is mainly mud brick in a rather haphazard design, something the late Robin Boyd once referred to as 'confused romanticism'. 

Planting close to the house was originally Ideas and elements of Edna Walling's cottage garden influence remain in remnant planting close to the house. In the early 1950's, Gordon Ford worked with Ellis 'Rocky' Stones for two years. His influence is evident in the dry stone walling and rock outcropping. 

Gordon was one of several designers in the 1950's who developed the bush garden concept using wood shavings as a base for the bush floor. The third of an acre of Fuelling's bush garden is the south-west corner of the property. This garden, designed for minimal water usage uses a variety of plants us chosen for their ability to withstand dry seasons. (See Melbourne Water website: http://projects.gui.com.au/plants/html/case_studies_1.htm) 

The removal in 2001 of the only trees not planted by the owners provided potential for extension to the native garden. Planting the boundaries is one of the principles of natural style landscaping. Removal of pittosporum boundary planting takes place regularly with replacements of dense, drought-tolerant native plants such as (Casuarina torulosa, Agonis flexuosa, and several Grevillea spp) 

By replanting each shrub or tree removed with three new plants of the same variety, density and new growth is maintained. Maintenance of the garden is on going, with raking of the Lilydale topping paths, pruning, weeding and replanting. The central feature of the garden at Fuelling is the waterfall and ponds, designed and constructed in 1981, thirty years after development of the main garden. Both the adjacent Adams garden and Fuelling have been in the Australian Open Garden Scheme since its inception.  ..