The house on Falls Rd, Mt Dandenong, features an underground bomb shelter accessed from the pantry.
A Melbourne homestead with a secret wartime bomb shelter has changed hands after almost a century in the same family.
The Mt Dandenong house, built circa-1918, conceals a piece of Australian history beneath its pantry – with the underground concrete room even hosting dinner parties.
Kathy Parton said her mother, father and aunts had purchased the Falls Rd hardwood home for two reasons, as a retreat from Melbourne and a place to withdraw to during World War II, if needed.
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“They bought the house because of it (the bomb shelter), they were worried if the Japanese forces came to Darwin that they would then come to Melbourne, so the plan was for the family to go there,” Ms Parton said.
She estimated that about 40 visitors could fit in the shelter, which requires a ladder to access from the pantry’s floor.
“It’s like a room, at a few dinner parties people ended up going in to have a look,” she said.
“I think my uncle even had a dinner party in there.”
While the family never actually used the space as a bomb shelter, Ms Parton’s uncle did use it as a wine cellar.
The five-bedroom house which contains the shelter was originally built by master craftsman Algernon Elmore who established a Blackburn workshop in the 1910s.
The house is named Knockfierna, meaning “hill of content”.
Inside the bomb shelter which also served as a wine cellar.
Ms Parton recalled playing football, making daisy chains and pretending to write her first book as a child at Knockfierna.
Ms Parton said the house was named Knockfierna, meaning “hill of content”.
The word also translates from the Irish “Cnoc Fírinne” into the “hill of truth”.
Knockfierna, which has been in Ms Parton’s for roughly 95 years, remains like a time capsule inside, she added.
“It’s such a special house and it’s created so many memories for our family,” she said.
“My dad took long service leave for three months of my childhood and we lived there and I rode to school on a horse.
“One of mum’s favourite things to do was to six on the back veranda with a gin and tonic and watch the sunsets, and the kookaburras and rosellas would come in.”
Ms Parton’s mother Anne recently passed away and her father Ian is now aged in his nineties, leading to a family decision to sell Knockfierna.
The home is filled with antique-style items and furniture.
Bell Real Estate Olinda’s Amanda Rakusic says the 16 buyers who inspected the property were wowed by its peaceful setting and old-world charm.
Open the pantry and descend down a ladder into the bomb shelter.
Bell Real Estate Olinda’s Amanda Rakusic said the house sold off market for $760,000 to new owners who are planning to renovate and live there.
Ms Rakusic said it was the first home she had seen listed with a bomb shelter but that some properties in the region featured safety bunkers, in case of bushfire.
“A a lot of vendors up here – although you don’t often get a bomb shelter – will have bunkers for fire safety and will also use those for wine storage,” she said.
Mount Dandenong and District Historical Society secretary Wendy Britt described Knockfierna as a “hidden gem”.
She said the home was originally commissioned by lawyer and politician Frank Brennan, who served as the federal Batman MP from 1911 to 1931 and 1934 to 1949, and his wife Sheila.
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