La Verna

When I first arrived at Melbourne back in winter 1997, I had representatives from an international student placement agency to pick me and others from Tullamarine airport. They were husband and wife who have apparently found homestays for us. They drove me and two other students (Joes & Nat) to the arranged homestay accomodation in Kew. We arrived at a homestay for Joes & Nat. The homestay looks like a normal house, nice and the host looks friendly. Apparently I would not be staying there, as the place was full.

My homestay is actually at another side of Kew. As we were driving along a really nice and green street, the car suddenly turn left into a gate entrance and huge driveway. I was excited, and I looked at the front window. I saw a huge house.

It was HUGE. MASSIVE. A mansion! What the!?

Mansion! It sounds nice, but I was really scared when I saw it. The wall was made from stone, it was greyish-colored, cold-looking. The garden was massive. It was a big estate, and there were only 3 of us standing there. It was a shock, very different to where I used to live, with plenty of hustle bustle of a big city. At the time, I couldn't help but thinking that I was taken to a place where vampires live and I will be their juicy fat victim. Why the heck did Joes & Nat got a normal, 'homey' place, and I got this count dracula castle?????



When I entered, I saw a 30-ish woman, blondish hair, who smiled widely. Her name is Karen, and she was the host of the place. She was very friendly. The interior walls are painted with warmer white color. Thank God its not grey! I forgot my fear very quickly.

I found out later that she rented part of the place to run her business in international student accomodation. There were approximately 5/6 rooms altogether, with about 10 students. The other part of the place was occupied by some kind of church organization. I had a very nice experience staying there, and made a lot of friends from different background, Johanes, Merry, Lea whom I am still in touch with every now and then.

A mansion typically has a name. It was called 'La Verna', built 1888. I recently googled the place up to find some photos, and to my suprise, the property has actually been sold back in 2004, and the property was sub-divided into 11 lots. The huge garden was bulldozed, and new modern houses were built.

The garden was massive and neatly landscaped, most of it are sadly gone now.

Below are a few recent pictures (2004) I found of La Verna:

View from newly built house on the divided lot:



New houses built on the divided lots:



and below, you can see the extent of the now-bulldozed-garden, la verna is the gray building at the far end:



More:
http://www.walkingmelbourne.com/forum/about695.html
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/02/04/1075853937228.html?from=storyrhs

I moved closer to the city after 8 months, and about 2/3 years later, Karen decided to close her business. I think the stress of dealing with students got to her. :-)

La Verna... ah such great memories.

Apparently it is now occupied by a psychologist. Jeez, google finds everything!