George Wharton, from Association member to Architect

George Wharton was the Association’s second architect, whose contribution to the village was three bluestone cottages, and the introduction of the verandah. Wharton was active in public life, president of the second Victorian Institute of Architects, and established a Chair and architecture course at the University of Melbourne.

Appointed to the position after George Johnson’s death at sea, Wharton was not only a useful architect for the Association to draw on, he also had contacts with wealthy merchants and businessmen. He was generous, too, donating part of his commission for the Clarke Cottage, to the Old Colonists in 1880.[1]

His design for the Clarke Cottage did not stray too much from Johnson’s earlier designs, except for introducing the verandah – an antipodean nod to the traditional English porch.

His second pair of bluestone cottages, built in 1882, were the Goldsbrough and Campbell Cottages, and again did not deviate from the original Johnson designs.

In 1887, Wharton left for the UK, paving the way for architect Joseph Crook to weave significant changes.

[1]OCAV Minute Book, 12 January 1881.