Carrick Hill facts for kids
Carrick Hill is a special historic home and property in South Australia. It's located at the bottom of the Adelaide Hills in a suburb called Springfield. This beautiful place used to be the home of Sir Edward "Bill" Hayward and his wife, Ursula.
Inside Carrick Hill, you can find a huge collection of amazing drawings, sculptures, old furniture, and paintings. The house was finished in 1939 and looks like an old English manor. It's one of the few old homes in Australia that still has its original land and most of its original items.
After Sir Edward passed away in 1983, he left Carrick Hill to the state of South Australia. Since 1985, a group called the Carrick Hill Trust has looked after it. This means it's now open for everyone to visit and enjoy!
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A Look Back: Carrick Hill's Story
The large property, almost 40 hectares (that's like 100 football fields!), was a wedding gift to the Haywards from Ursula's father. After they got married in 1935, the couple went on a long honeymoon in Europe. They bought many of the cool things you see in the house today, including a grand staircase, from a big sale in England.
Building Carrick House started in 1937 and was finished in 1939. While the house was being built, Lady Hayward designed the beautiful gardens.
The Haywards were friends with many famous artists, and some of their artwork is part of the collection inside the house. Ursula herself was an artist, and her own work is also displayed.
When Sir Edward passed away in 1983, he left Carrick Hill to the state. His wife had passed away before him. The Carrick Hill Trust was then created in 1985 to manage the property.
A famous artist named David Dridan was a close friend of the Haywards. He helped set up the Carrick Hill Trust and was one of its first members.
Exploring the Gardens at Carrick Hill
Ursula Hayward, who owned Carrick Hill, designed the gardens around her home to look like an English country park. She used things like hedges, grassy terraces, and stone paths. You can also see groups of trees, fruit orchards, and special flower beds.
Long ago, there were amazing rows of cedar and poplar trees. From the grassy terraces, you could see all the way to Adelaide and even to the coast! A really special part of the garden, which is quite rare in Australia, is the pleached pear arbour. This is where pear trees are trained to grow flat and woven together to form a beautiful, leafy tunnel.
Carrick Hill Today: What You Can Do
The house and gardens are open to the public for most of the year. They usually close in July for maintenance work. You need to pay a small fee to go inside the house, but walking around the gardens is free! Carrick Hill often hosts special art exhibitions with different themes.
In 2005, Carrick Hill held a fun reunion picnic for former staff of John Martin's, a big department store that the Hayward family used to own. This event happened during the weekend of the Adelaide Christmas Pageant, which Sir Edward actually started!
Carrick Hill has also shown works by famous Australian artists. These exhibitions often feature art from the Hayward collection. Past shows have included works by William Dobell, Jeffrey Smart, Robert Hannaford, and Adrian Feint.
In 2018, Carrick Hill had an exhibition of illustrations by May Gibbs and other artists who drew Australian plants.
Special Displays: The Blade Exhibition
The Australian Museum of Gardening
The Carrick Hill Trust has created special displays in the old stable buildings. These displays are called "THE BLADE: The Australian Museum of Gardening." They show how gardening has changed over the past 250 years.
This collection has more than a thousand gardening books and tools. It was put together with help from the Australian Garden History Society. It shows how much Australians love their lawns and how popular certain plants and machines became. It also includes a collection of tools from Australia and the United Kingdom, donated by Richard Bird.
The collection was highly praised in 2021 for how well it explains the history of gardening.
Gallery
More Information
- Postcards: Carrick Hill's French connection
- Gardening Australia ABC: Sophie Thompson visit to Carrick Hill
- In the Garden with Kim Syrus
