150 Years Stories

In 1968 ten self-contained homes were built around a courtyard garden at Rushall Park. Known as Pratt Court, the new homes were a tribute to four generations of support to the Old Colonists.

Anne Jeffery loved Rushall Park. She worked in the village as secretary to the superintendent starting in 1942 and donated money to build and live in her own cottage until failing health saw her move to the village’s Residential care where she died in 1994.

Ian Rollo Currie’s name appears in each of OCAV’s four villages. The influence of the Victorian grazier at OCAV began in 1962 and continues today.

Tragedy actor Gustavus Vaughan Brooke (1818-1866), was a friend and partner of founder George Coppin. As a tribute to the relationship, the G V Brooke cottage was built and opened by the Australasian Dramatic and Musical Association in 1876.

Theodotus Sumner and his wife Sarah were two of the Association’s most generous philanthropists, with a deep interest in Rushall Park.

Over 1,000 Victorians flocked to the Association’s ‘Meadow Party’ for an afternoon of boomerang throwing, Punch and Judy Show, performing dogs, and champagne. The fete was attended by the Governor of Victoria the Earl of Hopetoun. Three new cottages were ‘promised’ to be built and endowed immediately.

Actor George Coppin knew only too well the hardships that many actors faced in early colonial times. Just as he saw a need to provide homes for ‘necessitous old colonists’ so too did he see the need to set up an asylum for ‘decayed actors.’ The Australasian Dramatic and Musical Association was founded in 1871.

As a charitable cause, the ‘asylum for decayed actors’ was not popular with potential donors. After protracted legal negotiations, the land, three homes and five actors were transferred to the care of the Old Colonists’ Association. Nevertheless, Coppin’s vision to provide homes for actors, musicians and performers lives on today with broadcasters, musicians, actors, and artists living in Rushall Park and the other three villages.

Ann Timbrell is not a well-known name today but back in the 1860s she was a pioneering silk grower in Victoria. She fell on hard times after her husband died, and moved into Rushall Park.