Another of the now demolished great houses of Alma Road.
In April 1871, John Oldham, a Melbourne solicitor, 1869 St Kilda Lord Mayor and property investor, bought a large parcel of land from Frederick Perkins Stevens, on the south side of Alma Street (Road) between Lambeth Place and Chapel Street.
The land included two side-by-side wooden houses and paddocks extending south to Argyle Street. Oldham called one of the houses ‘Quinta’, living in one and renting out the other. The name may be because he was the fifth child of James Oldham and Elizabeth Anne Eggleston.
Shortly after purchase, Oldham applied to have his property - which included a six-foot-wide strip along his western boundary containing a council-constructed drain, included in the Transfer of Land Statute.
Land dispute with council:
This prompted the Council to sue both Oldham and Stevens on the basis that the Council wished to establish its perpetual right over the watercourse/drain occupying the strip of land from Alma Rd through to Argyle Street in accordance with the Council’s purported prior agreement with Stevens.
There was some tit-for-tat litigation with Oldham and Stevens initially victorious. However, the Council-sponsored 1873 Vardy Survey map of the area assertively describes the dotted line along Oldham’s western boundary “6 feet belonging to Borough Council”.
The building of Quinta:
In 1874 architects Crouch and Wilson called for tenders to build a villa for Mr John Oldham in Alma Road. This construction seems not to have eventuated and in June 1877 Crouch and Wilson again called for tenders to build a villa for Mr Oldham.
The rate books for December 1877 refer to an unfinished 14 room brick house being built at the Alma Road eastern end of John Oldham’s property which ultimately became the grand mansion called Quinta.
In 1881, Oldham sold the house for £7000 to merchant Henry Berry, who lived there for a period before leasing it in the late 1880s to Simon Fraser – grandfather of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser.
In August 1889, architect William Pitt called for tenders for alterations and additions to Quinta on behalf of W J Woolcott Esq of Alma Road. Builders and decorators Beeler & Davies obliged.
Advertised for sale:
When Henry Berry advertised the mansion for sale in September 1887, it was described as surrounded by two acres of land with frontages to both Alma Road and Argyle Street.
The house comprised the usual grand rooms – library, dining, drawing, breakfast, billiard, plus a grand entrance hall and a schoolroom. There were two bathrooms, many bedrooms, servants’ rooms and utilities. The tower itself contained three fine rooms. The house was sufficiently large, that Mrs Simon Fraser was able to host a ball ‘on a grand scale’ in November 1886.
Bought by pastoralist Andrew Tobin:
In 1893 wealthy pastoralist Andrew Tobin acquired the house and renamed it ‘Wingadee’ after his sheep station near Coonamble in NSW.
Tobin’s descendants remained at Wingadee until 1934 when it was sold, subsequently becoming the Wingadee Guest House and Ammaroo Private Hotel. It was demolished after 1960.