Melba Estate, Yarra Valley: Up the garden path with Dame Nellie Melba

By Anthony Dennis
November 14 2015 - 12:15am
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Descendants of Melba still come to stay at the house at The Melba Estate, Yarra Valley. Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Bronze stags from Rome sit atop concrete pillars. Photo: Supplied
Bronze stags from Rome sit atop concrete pillars. Photo: Supplied
Dame Nellie Melba's granddaughter Lady Pamela Vestey in the grounds of Coombe Cottage. Photo: Marina Oliphant
Dame Nellie Melba's granddaughter Lady Pamela Vestey in the grounds of Coombe Cottage. Photo: Marina Oliphant
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied
Manager Daniel Johnson says the Melba Estate is "a celebration of Melba's style, elegance and sense of fun". Photo: Supplied

Inside the small gallery at the Melba Estate in the Yarra Valley a flickering black and white newsreel from the 1920s is projected continuously onto a bare wall. In the film is the figure of a rather stout, well-dressed elderly woman arriving at a wharf at the end of a long voyage. She's clutching the hand of a tiny shy, though clearly adoring, young girl in a neat white frock. I know that the woman is the diva, Dame Nellie Melba, the operatic soprano who became Australia's first genuine home-grown global celebrity, returning to Melbourne from North America after another triumphant tour.

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