Heritage Hill Museum and Historic Gardens

It's a nice spot to visit considering where it is and it's free. The gardens and house are charming.

An absolutely amazing place to visit. Loved Benga house and all the old products and beautiful restoration that has been done on Laurel Lodge. Lovely gardens and majestic Moreton Bay Figs. Will be back for another visit

Prerty boring really and I usually enjoy history and museums.

Very quite, not much happening. There should be a buzz such as jazz on weekends, farmers Markets and regular advertisement so people know it exists

Makes you forget you are in Dandenong, you think you are in the bush.beautiful

One word only describes this magical place
“Amazing”

Heritage Hill Precinct is of local historical and cultural significance, reflecting the course of the City of Greater Dandenong’s cultural history. Laurel Lodge (1869), Benga (1936) and St James’ Anglican Church (1864) offer a glimpse into the everyday lives of a group of prominent locals who lived in the region during the late nineteenth and early-to-mid twentieth centuries.

Today Laurel Lodge and Benga offer visitors opportunities for learning, participation and creative endeavour through tours, classes and exhibitions. Additionally, they regularly welcome artists for short-term residencies to create new work that is inspired and influenced by the real and imagined histories of their temporary studios.

History of Benga House
Designed by renowned architect Fredrick Ballantyne and built by Norman Taylor in the Tudor Revival style, Benga expresses the aspirations and developments in domestic housing during the inter-war period.

At the time of its construction, it was to be the largest and most expensive house built in the Shire of Dandenong for over a decade. Through it we can explore the social life of the well-to-do family who resided there for more than 50 years. Benga was:

24 squares comprising seven rooms
Deliberately situated on the south-eastern corner of the site to maximise the northern aspect and to ensure that nothing would interfere with the garden's exposure to the winter sun
Built on an L-plan, with the lounge, dining rooms and the bedrooms situated in the northern/sunny side of the house and the service areas, including the maid's quarters, kitchen and bathroom positioned on the southern/cool side
Today, much of Benga serves as a community access gallery with beautiful, professional exhibition spaces available to artists to exhibit their works.

Benga also offers visitors an opportunity to explore life during the inter-war period through the intricate design of the house, period rooms and through access to Heritage Hill’s oral history collection.

The collection includes tapes and transcripts of more than 300 interviews with a cross-section of people from the City. These oral histories are available to researchers and anyone wishing to listen to the life stories of past and present residents. Access to the collection is via prior arrangement only.

Heritage Hill's Gardens
The gardens of Heritage Hill are a part of Dandenong’s history. As well as providing attractive settings for the historic buildings they help us understand how people in the past related to their environment.

The gardens of Laurel Lodge, Benga and St James' Church are all quite different, reflecting the desires of their creators and the diverse uses to which they were put.

Domestic gardens have been an important feature of Australian life since European settlement, both as a source of food and as a place of beauty and recreation. In country towns house blocks of one acre allowed plenty of room for large trees, a vegetable plot, fruit trees, a poultry run and perhaps a cow or horse. It was also fashionable to have large garden beds full of flowers to produce a ‘show’ of massed annuals and perennials.

The Benga Garden was designed and tended to by Mrs Hart for over 50 years. It exists today as an exceptional representation of 1930s garden design with its compartmentalised areas, ornamental trees and shrubs, a formal rose garden, perennial garden beds within expanses of lawn, formally designed paths, a pergola and a sun dial.

The garden has not been significantly altered since the 1930s and is a noteworthy survival of a garden reflecting the period of its creation, designed and maintained by an enthusiastic amateur gardener.