1:04 RMIT Student Anna Carlsson: The McCraith House was graciously gifted by the Dixon Ward family in 2013 and has since served as a retreat and sanctuary for artists, photographers, writers, podcasters, and other creatives in residence. It provides tangible support to the creative sector.
The house, which is located on beautiful Boon Wurrung land on the Mornington Peninsula, is a nationally heritage-listed modernist marvel designed by the highly renowned architectural firm Chancellor and Patrick in the mid-1950s. It is a bold and unique structure that, from the mid-20th century to today, has stood to nurture similarly bold and unique ideas and art.
1:44 Professor Francesca-Rendle Short, RMIT: McCraith House—or, as some like to call it, the Butterfly House—is in Dromana, perched high on a hill with a view across the bay to the city in the distance. It's very distinctive. Some describe it as a desire for infinite space, or a direct connection with the water, horizon, and sky. It's been likened to a bird perched on a rock—extremely dramatic. It pops with colour. It’s exuberant, fun. And in this house, you are in the landscape. It is just very beautiful.
2:20 Bin Dixon-Ward: As a kid, I didn’t have any analysis at all—it was just a great place to be. But as I got older, I began to realise the place was special because it had taken account of the landscape it was set in: the views, the hill behind, the big expansive windows. You’d come up the back steps and open the door—you were basically in the view already. It took me until adulthood to understand how design can affect how you experience a place.
2:55 Andre Dao: It felt incredibly special to be driving down to the Peninsula and arriving at this space that had been created with such care and thought about the experience of people both inside and outside the house. It’s so rare now to think of a house being built with that kind of creativity and love. As a starting point, that’s an amazing place to begin.
3:30 Keshe Chow: I remember coming up the hill and seeing this really imposing structure. It was so striking, and I wasn’t expecting it—it just sort of looms up. I remember thinking, Ah. I could just enter this fantasy land where I had no responsibilities except writing. One of the first things I did was read the guest book. I remember thinking I had just joined this legacy of Australian literature.
4:05 Shokoofeh Azar: Such a beautiful building, in a peaceful environment—somewhere close to the beach and forest, up on a hill. An ideal place for thinking and writing.
4:15 Clem Bastow: My time at McCraith House feels a bit like a dream. I keep looking at my photos to make sure I really had been living there for two weeks. The house has such a peaceful, beautiful spirit—I found it deeply restorative and reassuring.
What I found especially moving was the way it felt like the family had just gone out to the beach and would be back any minute.
4:38 RMIT PhD Candidate Kate Mildenhall: One of the joys of being in Dromana was walking down the enormous hill for a swim in the ocean. A couple of mornings in a row, I saw this older gentleman drawing shapes in the sand. We talked, and he said, “You look like a creative person—what are you doing?”
I said, “Actually, I’m on a residency up the hill. I’ve just broken my book, and I don’t know how to put it back together.”
He got his stick and drew a line in the sand. Then he drew a six-pointed star over it.
“You just start here,” he said. “Then you just follow it through.”
I went straight back up to the house—still sandy and wet, in my bathers—and drew the six-pointed star. I had all these bits of the book everywhere, and I laid them out on the ground. And I thought, This is a way I could shape this thing. I could be this crazy about it—and it could come together in this way.
So, in terms of influence? It was huge.