In an oft passed-over satellite suburb of Geelong sits a secret bounty of MCM gems. The older streets of Leopold signpost with design clarity the era of their establishment with strips of early 60s project homes where skillion roofs, carports and modest family dreams abound. In the outer rural holdings though are residences from a later 1960s and 70s period, altogether greater in size and architectural pedigree with this c.1978 one here, a classic example. This architect’s* own home drips, unchanged, with all the idiosyncratic joys typical to such a build; the sunken lounge, freestanding fireplace, floating staircase, exquisite hand cut bricks, swirling mosaic tiles, cork relief walls, bulkhead lighting and inbuilt mezzanine beds in the kid’s rooms…we could go on and on. The busy beauty inside gives way to a soaring exterior with echos of Japan, alpine regional styles and earthy textures framed by mature black she-oak, a local native tree possessing all the moody, MCM gravitas of a monterey pine to our minds. All in all this one is a truly swinging and startling offering – Bellarine locals (or those wanting to be) this one’s worth a look in.

*Architect – Graham F. Lyons