Artists Flock To A Clifftop Experience
The Age
Wednesday January 24, 1996
The gentle beaches of historic Queenscliff have drawn a number of artists, Christopher de Fraga reports.
THE lure of the sea with cliffs, beaches, good restaurants, coffee shops and nearby vinyards has turned Queenscliff into a mecca for artists in the 1990s as poets, writers, potters and artists have added to its traditional tourism business.
The hills of the Bellarine Peninsula were covered in vines a century ago, and ships' logs showed that visitors on sailing cruises around Port Phillip were able to go ashore to stock their craft's larder with the rabbits, too.
Today, Queenscliff has a fishing industry, is the starting point of the annual Queenscliff to Hobart yacht race, and has some of the better accommodation and restaurants outside Melbourne.
Apart from having the terminal for the ferry between Queenscliff and Sorrento for car trips around Port Phillip Bay, Queenscliff is almost a backwater. That has attracted attention from those across the heads at Sorrento and Portsea.
At the end of the Bellarine Peninsula, on the westerly Point Lonsdale side of the entrance to Port Phillip, Queenscliff has been important for more than a century as the home of mariners, fishermen and the pilots for ships through the dangerous waters of The Rip, separating Port Phillip and Bass Strait.
The quiet aspect of the town, however, has been part of the attraction for the growing artist colony there.
A former art dealer and 10-year Queenscliff resident, Russell Davis, has just sold his art gallery in Queenscliff and now has an arcade of shops in a former Methodist Church built in 1888 in Hesse Street, in which art and craft works are sold.
``Artists find that Queenscliff is only an hour-and-a-half from Melbourne and their metropolitan markets," he said. ``There are more than 50 artists working down here now .
. . from potters to ice carvers."
Author and textile and collage artist Sue Trytell said that Queenscliff's beautiful dawns and sunsets had drawn her to the area. ``And there is a marvellous lack of stress," said Mrs Trytell, who established her studio in Queenscliff nearly a year ago.
Author of The Glory of Gold, Mrs Trytell said that Queenscliff was an untouched little town.
``It is an authentic town with lots of early history. Visually it is unencumbered by civilisation," she said, adding that once artists began working there they rarely wanted to leave.
``Australian actor Leo McKern was in the town last holiday season," she said.
The cartoonist Ron Tandberg experienced the attraction of the coast, and moved to it from Mount Macedon. ``We always holidayed at the sea. I just love it and we were visiting the coast when we saw a house for sale and bought it almost on the spur of the moment," Mr Tandberg said.
Author and poet Barry Hill lives at Queenscliff, as does textile artist and author Deb Brearley, and painting restorer and conservator Pru Keys.
``We have been living down here for 13 years and love the beautiful walks and clean air. With the exception of Christmas and Easter, it is beautifully quiet," she said.
Another artist from the colony said Queenscliff's attractions included the ability of residents to walk everywhere. They did not need to take out the car and the people in the town respected each other's privacy.
``When the tension of your work gets too much, there is always the beach for a long walk," one artist said, Queenscliff has artists' agents, galleries and craft shops as well as studios and potteries.
House prices have begun to rise. Agents say they have a waiting list of buyers for properties that come on to the market. A number of residents from the bottom of the Mornington Peninsula, who were concerned at this area's growing popularity and crowding, have moved to the Bellarine Peninsula, adding to the demand for housing there. This has helped push the demand, which, agents say, has seen Queenscliff bypass the real estate recession.
``Queenscliff is . . . the Eltham of the 1990s," said estate agent Kathy Anderson of Anderson Real Estate.
The president of the Geelong and Bellarine Peninsula branch of the Real Estate Institute of Victoria, Mr Neil Laws, of Jens-Gaunt Real Estate, in Queenscliff, said that a shortage of good properties for sale had seen Queenscliff emerge in good shape from the real estate `turmoil' of the early 1990s.
© 1996 The Age
