THE BARN GALLERY

Formerly known as the "The Red Brick Barn” or "The Boat Shed".

Walking through the front doors of Montsalvat you will pass by reception as you enter The Barn Gallery. The original building, was designed by Justus Jörgensen and constructed in three stages from 1957. 

The first section was built to house a 56 foot motor scow (boat) which Justus had originally planned to restore as a floating studio on the Yarra.

The second stage was a workshop extension on each side of the main "gallery" and the third stage was an artist's studio which extended towards the dam.

The building itself was completely destroyed in 1996 including the boat by a fire deliberately lit by an "arsonist". The only remaining part of the old building was the fire place and chimney.

The large Gothic style doors at the front of the building are copies of the original oak doors which had been recycled from Wilson Hall (University of Melbourne) after it had burned down in the mid fifties. The new doors are constructed from recycled oregon. The main posts came from a wharf near Woollongong NSW and the beams are old railway timbers.

THE GATE HOUSE

As you pass through the gates of Montsalvat on the left hand side is The Gate House building which was built under the guidance of Justus Jörgensen in the 1940's. Students including Helen Skipper and Sonia Skipper together with others made the mud bricks, cut timber posts, beams and joists from trees around Montsalvat. They also gave a hand with rendering and whitewashing.

It was once the residence of Mervyn Skipper, Victor Venn the writer and guitarist Sebastian Jörgensen.

The Gate House was also used as an art and craft shop during the 1970's.

WROUGHT IRON GATES

These large iron gates border the car park and were recycled from Wilson Hall (University of Melbourne).

STEAM ROLLER

Situated to the right of the Montsalvat entrance gates the steam roller was obtained and installed here in the 1960's for the children of Montsalvat to play on.