Cottage holds sporting history

OCEAN Grove’s Broome Cottage, a rare surviving example of an interwar Georgian Revival mansion, has been listed for sale following a stunning renovation after being spared from demolition in 2013.
Rewind almost 100 years, and a young athlete was planning a different kind of demolition, honing his craft on a tennis court at the same location, 1-5 The Avenue.
Jack Hawkes was an outstanding young talent who attended The Geelong College from 1909-1919. He excelled at cricket, football and athletics. His family owned a property in Geelong and another – “Imbool’’ – at Ocean Grove, which had a small Victorian cottage set high on the ridge overlooking the Barwon River estuary.
Apart from its stunning panoramic coastal views, Imbool featured a tennis court on the flat land behind the original cottage, and it was here, according to the Geelong College heritage page, that Geelong wool-buyer Russell Keays helped to “polish Jack Hawkes’ strokes and school him in tactics, in what responses to make, when to use spin, when to use lob, and how to use his service most effectively.’’
Keays must have been a pretty good coach – in the ensuing years Hawkes went on to play Davis Cup for Australia three times (1921, 1923 and 1925), before he won the men’s singles championship of Australia in 1926 – the event we now know as the Australian Open.
Hawkes demolished fellow countryman Jim Willard 6-1, 6-3, 6-1 on the grass courts at Memorial Drive in Adelaide before taking the men’s doubles with Gerald Patterson and mixed doubles (Esna Boyd) for a remarkable trifecta at the time.
Two years later Hawkes won the Wimbledon crown title as well as a swag of other events at home and abroad, before moving on to become patron of the Davis Cup Foundation. He eventually retired to the Bellarine Peninsula and died in 1990 after a short illness.

The current Broome Cottage was built in 1933-34, and The Victorian Heritage Database Report’s Statement of Significance describes its eclectic design as “a legacy of the affluent lifestyle of the original owner, Miss (Margaret) Gladys Bell.’’
Miss Bell belonged to a family of graziers and pastoralists from the Leigh and Shelford areas and was known for her philanthropy towards many community projects and groups, including the Ocean Grove Surf Life Saving Club, where she donated the first club boats named the “Gladys Bell” and the “Gladys Bell II”.
The Broome Cottage tennis court is no longer, after part of the property was subdivided and sold in recent years, but the building stands as a reminder to the opulence of the 1930s, retaining myriad period features as part of its renovation.
Bellarine Property agent Ben Roberts said the height and scale of the building made it a rare and desirable offering and he had already fielded inquiries from as far away as London in the UK and California in the US after listing it earlier
this month.
“You couldn’t build something of that size and height for the money and it’s one of the best renovations I’ve seen,’’ he said.
“The owners, a local family, have done an amazing job staying within the heritage conditions and balancing that with some modern flair.’’
Broome Cottage, at 3 The Avenue Ocean Grove is for sale with Bellarine Property by expressions of interest, which close at 4pm on August 24.