12 Alexander Street

Colac VIC 3250

This house was designed in 1956, built in 1957. The house was commissioned by Mr and Mrs Clive Winter-Irving who lived here for only 15 months.
The iconic Boyd design of the home is of timeless, spacious elegance with its organic, harmonious fusion of structure and the environment, is situated upon the apex of a gently sloping site which meets the water's edge of Lake Colac. The organic interior style of vertical timber-lined walls and slate floor with under floor heating reflected Boyd's modern style. The clean structural walls of windows integrate the residents with the environment in exquisite clarity, beginning with the glorious sunrise in the morning and the moon shinning across the waters at night.
Mr and Mrs Eugene McCarthy bought the house in 1959. Mr McCarthy became ill and died and Mrs McCarthy lived here with her daughter and a lady companion. During that time the vertical-timbered house was clad with aluminium. Mrs McCarthy engaged an architect to extend the dining room and installed a toilet downstairs. The current owners bought the house in 1988 and have lived there for 23 years.
The slates used on the downstairs floor came to Australia as ballast in a sailing ship. They were later used as roofing tiles upon the Geelong Grammar School Chapel which burned down in a fire. Mr and Mrs Winter-Irving bought the slates and used them as interesting flooring in this house. Originally there were 3 bedrooms and a nursery/single bedroom upstairs. The bedroom spaces were realigned so that there are now 3 bedrooms with a walk-in wardrobe and an en suite to the master. Original cork flooring remains in the second bathroom areas. The original bath remains, but the steps which were once used to ascend to the bath, now support pot plants at the front door. Downstairs, on the original plan, a Castlemaine rock wall with an open fireplace was shown but never built, a curtain was used instead. There has been a beautiful timber wall fitted in that space to enclose a study and the original kitchen and fittings have been modernised. The current owners have had a number of researchers and university academics visit to examine the house. They have all been of the opinion that this is a very significant example of a Robin Boyd house for three reasons:-
The beauty of the appeal lies in the perfect simplicity of the design.
All alterations completed throughout the years have been architecturally designed and are extremely sensitive to the original concept.
The majority of Boyd homes were commissioned and constructed in Melbourne. There are three in a cluster in Bacchus Marsh, a number in Canberra and just one in Sydney. A Victorian 'country' Boyd home is indeed a rarity.