The Mount Martha House, formerly the Mount Martha Hotel, is a former hotel, guest house, and army barracks, and, since the 1970s, a community centre, located at 468 The Esplanade, in Mornington, on the Mornington Peninsula, in the south eastern suburbs of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia. Located on the traditional lands of the Bunurong people, the first structures on the site commenced in 1889. Despite its name, Mount Martha House is neither a house, nor is it located in the adjacent suburb of Mount Martha; it's offical name is the Mount Martha House Community Centre. The community centre was added to the Victorian Heritage Register on 12 October 2000 in recognition of its architectural and historical significance; and, on unknown dates, was also added to non-statutory lists by the Victorian branch of the National Trust and the now defunct Register of the National Estate.
History
Hotel and guest house Between 1889 and 1890, the Mount Martha Estate Company erected the Mount Martha Hotel on a two-hectare (five-acre) site as temporary accommodation to promote summer residences for the wealthy on the Mornington Peninsula. It operated as an hotel, coffee palace, and guest house from the 1890s to 1950 to support the residential development of the Mount Martha Estate. While elements of the planning of the Estate can be discerned in the street pattern and street names, Mount Martha House and The Chalet (the residence of Byron Moore, one of the developers) are the only built remnants of the scheme. It was shown in the estate brochures, set to the north of Watson's villa (Melrose) and at the north-western tip of an extensive bayside residential subdivision which went as far as Bay Road on the north, the Nepean Highway on the east, and Park Road on the south.
Managers The hotel was operated in 1893 by either Miss Johanna Buckley or Miss Rebecca Buckley. As listed in the Victorian Post Office Directory of the early 1890s, the Misses Buckley were variously attributed to manage both the Main Point Hotel in South Melbourne and a boarding house Bairnsdale. Prior to c. 1900, William Detmould was listed as the licensee and Sir Malcolm McEachern as the owner, according to rate books. Madame Elsie Etzenberger, who lived in Granite Cottage, also once owned and ran the Mount Martha Hotel after Detmould. Etzenberger was previously in charge of Gracedale House, Healesville. When World War I broke out her German/Austrian heritage may have inspired her to shift house. Mrs Annie Ferrero operated the hotel after WWI, where she was assisted in her later years, from the 1920s, by William Birdling from New Zealand, when the hotel ran as a guest house. During this time, the guest house served as a focal point for travellers, a place where the coach stopped and the telegraph was connected.
Military use During World War II, in 1939, huts were erected at the Balcombe Army Camp, located in Mount Martha. The Footscray Regiment of the Australian Army, machine gunners lived in the first houses while the militia lived in tents. Subsequently, the 1st Division of the US Marine Corps and the ‘SeaBees’ Construction Brigades then moved into Army Camp, with estimates of up to 30,000 US military personnel transiting through the site, initially as a training facility and then later, as a rehabilitation centre. The guest house was requisitioned by the Australian Army for use as accommodation for servicemen, and is one of the few remnants that both the Second Australian Imperial Force and the United States armed forces occupied Mount Martha during the war. Additionally, the Army provided accommodation for the wives of Australian servicemen at 'Grandview', a Mount Martha guest house. In 1942, the house was used as an officer training facility for the Australian Women's Army Service. After the war, in 1951, the Australian Army purchased the Mount Martha Guest House and adjacent 2 hectares (5 acres) and the former hotel was used as barracks for the No. 30 Women's Royal Australian Army Corps (WRAAC), until 1978.
Community centre The Shire of Mornington purchased the building in 1978 and invited community groups to express interest for repurpose. The proposal from the Mount Martha Bowls Club proposed a lawn bowls club, involving the building of a club house and new rinks, built on the garden next to two tennis courts, the removal of garages and storage sheds, and the construction of a carpark. The Shire however found a better site for the club in Watson Road and the club was content with access to the meeting rooms at Mount Martha House prior to the erection of their clubhouse. Other interested groups included the Red Cross, the junior football club, Rotary Club, the homing club, tennis club, cricketers, and the Anglican church as a service centre. Many others applied. The plaque commemorating the opening of the centre in July 1979 stated:
'...This building was erected in 1901 (sic) as a hotel/guest house. During the period 1939-1976 it was used as an army establishment (WRAAC Barrack) and was purchased by the Mornington Shire in 1978.' The community centre houses an historical collection of documents and artefacts from its varied historical use.
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