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Euro-Reko (Demolished) 27-29 Burnett Street

Euro-Reko, 29 Burnett Street, St Kilda
Donald McDonald (Photographer), Port Phillip City Collection sk0440

 

 
 


29 Burnett Street
St Kilda,Victoria
Australia 3182
  • Date Built: Date Built 1866
  • Demolished: 1910 - 1918 C
  • First European Land Owner:

    1855 (prior to) Crown Allotments Maps - indentifying areas 24 25 26 and 41 as owned by F G Dalgety. With 41 being where 35 Burnett Street is located. The general area was primarily divided between F G Dalgety and H F Gurner. Burnett Street was not constructed at the point of the original land sales.-  https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/m27

    1857 (prior to) Crown Allotments identified on St Kilda Planning Maps reflecting subdivisions starting in 1843 Crown land sales. https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/m27

    1853 (in) the 12 acres (4.85 hectares) of land referred to as Dalgety’s Paddock was subdivided with the provision of 2 new streets - Burnett Street and Gurner Street. Most allotments  were auctioned  with  Oberwyl being built on five of these allotments (See source Cooper Vol 1 pg 134 and SKHS Place of Sensuous Resort).

    1855 Kearney Map 4 shows the new subdivision and associated streets - 35 Burnett Street is vacant at this point.  https://stkildahistory.org.au/our-collection/resources/kearney-1

    1857 Etloe Hall identified in St Kilda Rates book and also described as being next door to the house owned by Lampierre in Coopers Vol 1.

    1873 J Vardy WW3 Number 115 owned by J MacKenzie  Outline of house now largely formed.
  • Architects:

    Architect Reed & Barnes
  • Owners and occupiers:

    Euro-Reko was built in 1866, as the residence of Peter Davis, a Melbourne councillor and mayor of Melbourne from 1856 to 1857. MMDB references  Cooper V1 pg 278 regarding the link with the aboriginal name Euro-Reka sic meaning 'st kilda'  which seems to relate to the early memories of Mrs Eleanor McWicking nee Nicholson. Her father was Germain Nicholson. Their family lived on the Upper Esplanade and subsequently, in 1851, shifted to Wellington Street, St Kilda. Later in life she wrote a diary of her early life in St Kilda "Further Memories of Old St Kilda'. A copy of some pages of  this diary has been found in the Historical Society records where she makes explicit reference to interactions with the aboriginal people from around 1846. Her diary records the following ( The name Yarra Yarra given to our river means 'ever- flowing' Euro-Reko meaning 'St Kilda' was the name given by Mr Davis to the big house he built in Burnet (sic) St. off Grey Street. Spelling varies including Euro-yroke or Youruk apparently referring to the red sandstone which is the substrate for the St Kilda hill area (information needs validation)
  • Description:

    Description Polychromatic Lombardic style, with cream and white bricks. Euro-Reko was also the home to an important organ that Peter Davis had commissioned William Hill, London, to build. This organ is now in St Peter’s Lutheran Church, Stowell. The property, including its gardens, took up approximately 13 allotments and was demolished somewhere between 1910 and 1918 so the land could be subdivided.
  • History:


    History: Euro-Reko was built in 1866, as the residence of Peter Davis, a Melbourne councillor and mayor of Melbourne from 1856 to 1857. Davis’ company, Peter Davis & Co. owned a 192,000-acre pastoral lease in NSW, called Naradhan East Station. Davis was also the director of the Commercial Bank of Australia and the president of the Fourth Victoria Building Society. After Davis died, his three sons continued to live at the property, with one of them (Alfred Davis, St Kilda councillor) still recorded as living in the house in 1910.
    Occupants Peter Davis and sons
  • Gallery:
    Euro-Reko 29 Burnett Street description 20180220_195915
  • Sources:

    MMDB Entry 932 

    Raggatt St Kilda pg 65-66 Refers to Argus 21-12-1865 R&B Tenders for residence for P Davis.Adjoins Invernon. First house in the colony to be built in the Lombardic styler of red and white pressed bricks. 

    Cooper Vol 1 History of St Kilda page 280 reference Mrs E M McMicking'Memories of Early St Kilda" (nee Germain Nicholson (father?).. Her extensive recollections of St Kilda state that the name Euro-reka meaning St Kilda (Sic); was given to the house in Burnett Street by owner by Mr Davis.

    Vardy Maps - WW3 page 3 Allottment 117 P Davis

    Reference/s:
    St Kilda Historical Society. (2018, April). St Kilda's Lost Mansions: Euro-Reko 29 Burnett Street, St Kilda. St Kilda Times, (224), 2 - 3. Retrieved from https://stkildahistory.org.au/news-and-events/newsletters

     
  • Compiled by: Peter Johnson and Sally Moore