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May Gibbs was an Australian children's author, illustrator, and cartoonist. She is best known for her gumnut babies (also known as bush babies or bush fairies), and the book Snugglepot and Cuddlepie. Nutcote, the unique harbourside house in Sydney, was designed for Gibbs and her husband, James Ossoli Kelly, by the architect B.J. Waterhouse. The house was built on land at Neutral Bay on the shores of Sydney Harbour and completed in 1925. Gibbs lived at Nutcote for 44 years, creating the Bib and Bub comic strip from 1924 until 1967.
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What You'll Learn
Nutcote: May Gibbs' house
Nutcote is the name of the house designed for renowned Australian children's author and illustrator May Gibbs and her husband, Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, a mining agent. The house was built on land at Neutral Bay on the shores of Sydney Harbour, and completed in 1925. The plot of land was found for May Gibbs by her mother, Mrs Cecilia Gibbs, in 1922.
May Gibbs instructed the architect B. J. Waterhouse to design and build a house that would have "compactness, convenience, and charm". The house was purchased for £1,365 with a £500 deposit. The final design, completed in 1924, was one of the smallest residences ever designed by Waterhouse, who later suggested that May name the house 'Nutcote'. Construction was completed by the builder F E Gray in 1925.
Nutcote is a unique departure from Waterhouse’s usual Arts and Craft style houses and can be described as of Mediterranean style. On a steep slope running to the waterfront, its studio overlooks native Australian trees and shrubs. The interior has the Early English/Baronial character favoured by Waterhouse with the generous use of dark stained timber joinery and built-ins of either Californian redwood or cedar. The flooring is the original jarrah timber. It features a long living room with arched windows at either end, carved rafters, recessed bookshelves and rough cast stone-coloured walls, opening onto the balcony where large arches and iron railings frame the bay. The studio, with its double doors off the living room and interconnected with the dressing room and bedroom, reflects the central role of her art in the lives of May Gibbs and her husband.
In 1928, a double garage was built towards the front of the property, designed by Waterhouse and built for the sum of 400 pounds. It housed May’s motor car, a Dodge, in which she would make trips to the Blue Mountains, and other areas. May Gibbs lived at Nutcote for 44 years, creating the Bib and Bub comic strip from 1924 until 1967. Inspiration for her work was taken from the bush in Western Australia, which she knew as a child, and from around Sydney and the Blue Mountains. From the 1950s, her own gardens increasingly provided the stimulus for her work.
On her death, May Gibbs left the rights and royalties to her work to the Crippled Children's Society and the Spastic Centre. Nutcote was left to the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) which, under its charter, was unable to hold property. The house and contents were sold at public auction in 1970. Later owners were interested in demolishing and developing the site. In 1987, concerned relatives and friends formed the May Gibbs Foundation and the community battle to save it began, becoming a nationwide campaign to Save Nutcote for the Nation. The May Gibbs Foundation succeeded in saving the house, which had remained largely unaltered, protected by a Permanent Conservation Order. They were also successful in having it placed on the Register of the National Estate. Nutcote was classified by the National Trust of Australia in 1986 and placed on the North Sydney Council Heritage List in 1987. Convinced by the widespread support for the campaign, North Sydney Municipal Council purchased Nutcote for $2.86m in 1990. The May Gibbs Foundation became The Nutcote Trust and they rented Nutcote from North Sydney Council, restoring the house to how it would have looked in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
On 17 January 1992, the Nutcote Centre for Literacy, Arts and Environment was launched on what would have been May Gibbs' 115th birthday. The house underwent restoration the following year and, on 1 May 1994, it was officially opened as a museum of Gibb's work by artist and illustrator, Elizabeth Durack. Nutcote is now a heritage-listed former artist studio, dwelling, author's study, and education centre and house museum located at 5 Wallaringa Avenue, Kurraba Point, Sydney, in the North Sydney Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia.
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May Gibbs' early life in Western Australia
May Gibbs was born in Sydenham, Kent, United Kingdom, on 17 January 1877. Her parents, Herbert William Gibbs and Cecilia Gibbs, were both talented artists. In 1879, the family planned to move to South Australia to set up a farm due to Herbert's failing eyesight. However, as May had caught measles, her father and uncle went ahead, leaving her mother in England to care for the children. In 1881, May's mother and brother followed, and the family settled in Western Australia.
During her childhood, Gibbs' family moved several times within Western Australia, from Norwood to a farm in Harvey in 1885. At the age of eight, she was given a pony named Brownie by her father, which she rode to explore the bush. This period of exploring the bush and writing and painting about it was formative in the development of her imaginative, anthropomorphic artistic style.
When Gibbs was ten, the family moved to Perth, where she attended Amy Best's Girls' School. She was first published in the Christmas edition of the W.A. Bulletin in 1889. In the mid-1890s, she attended classes at the Art Gallery of Western Australia and took part in an artists' camp in Greenmount, Western Australia, in 1894.
Between 1890 and 1913, Gibbs travelled overseas several times to study art in England. She attended the South Kensington Art School and Chelsea Polytechnic (now Chelsea College of Arts), graduating in 1905 with first-class passes. She also studied at the School for Black and White Artists, run by Henry Blackburn, and took classes at the Victoria and Albert Museum.
Gibbs returned to Perth in 1901 due to ill health, but her desire to study in London persisted, and she returned to her studies there in 1904. She became a regular contributor to Western Mail, with her illustrations appearing in the newspaper between 1904 and 1908. She also exhibited watercolours in the First Australian Exhibition of Women's Work at Melbourne in 1907.
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May Gibbs' career
May Gibbs (1877–1969) was a treasured Australian children's illustrator, author, and artist. She is best known for her iconic story, The Complete Adventures of Snugglepot & Cuddlepie, featuring two gumnut babies and their escape from the big bad Banksia men.
Gibbs was born Cecilia May Gibbs in England in 1877 and emigrated to Australia with her family in 1881, first settling in South Australia before moving to Western Australia. As a child, Gibbs enjoyed exploring the bush and began to paint and write about it. This period of her childhood and her imaginative interpretation of the bush were formative in the development of the anthropomorphic bush setting found in her work.
In 1894, Gibbs attended an artists' camp set up by H.C. Prinsep, a founding member of the Wilgie Sketching Club (later the West Australian Society of Artists). After returning to England to pursue art studies in 1904, she studied at Mr Henry Blackburn's School for Black and White Artists and took night classes at Chelsea Polytechnic. Her tuition in single-line drawing at Blackburn school decided the direction of her career.
Returning to Perth in 1905, Gibbs began a successful career as an illustrator for the Western Mail newspaper. She also contributed to other publications such as The West Australian and Social Kodak. She wrote and illustrated articles, sketches, cartoons, and caricatures, becoming one of Australia's first professional female cartoonists and caricaturists.
In 1916, Gibbs published her first Australian books, Gum Nut Babies and Gum Blossom Babies. In 1919, she married James Ossoli Kelly and moved to Sydney. She continued to write and illustrate children's books, publishing Little Ragged Blossom in 1920 and Little Obelia the following year. In 1925, she and her husband moved into their purpose-built home, Nutcote, in Neutral Bay, Sydney. Nutcote, designed by architect B.J. Waterhouse, served as Gibbs' home and studio for 44 years. During this time, she created the Bib and Bub comic strip from 1924 until 1967, finding inspiration in the surrounding nature.
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May Gibbs' marriage
May Gibbs married Bertram James Ossoli Kelly, a mining agent, on 17 April 1919. She met Kelly, whom she generally referred to as "James Ossoli Kelly", during a visit to her parents in Perth.
In 1922, three years after their marriage, Gibbs' mother, Mrs Cecilia Gibbs, found a plot of land for the couple on the foreshore of Sydney Harbour. Gibbs and Kelly commissioned a house to be built on the land from the fashionable Sydney architect BJ Waterhouse. Gibbs instructed Waterhouse to design and build a house that would have "compactness, convenience and charm". The house, named "Nutcote", was completed in 1925, when Gibbs was 48 years old. The couple moved into Nutcote that year, and Gibbs lived there for 44 years.
Kelly died in 1939, and Gibbs gradually withdrew from society. It is thought that the unsympathetic reprints of her work and increasing poverty contributed to her desire for isolation.
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The restoration of Nutcote
Nutcote, the enchanting harbourside home of May Gibbs, is located at 5 Wallaringa Avenue, Kurraba Point, Sydney, in the North Sydney Council local government area of New South Wales, Australia. The house was built on land at Neutral Bay on the shores of Sydney Harbour and completed in 1925.
The plot of land for Nutcote was found for May Gibbs by her mother, Mrs Cecilia Gibbs, in 1922. May's instructions to the architect B. J. Waterhouse were to design and build a house that would have "compactness, convenience, and charm". Waterhouse was a fashionable domestic architect. The final design, completed in 1924, was one of the smallest residences ever designed by Waterhouse, who later suggested that Gibbs name the house Nutcote. Construction was completed by the builder F. J. Gray in 1925, when May was 48 years old. The house was specifically designed to accommodate May's studio and reflected her lifestyle, needs, and priorities.
In 1987, May Gibbs' cousin Marian Shand, along with her husband Neil Shand and other friends, formed the May Gibbs Foundation to advocate for and raise funds for the preservation of Nutcote as a museum. The community battle to save May's home became a nationwide campaign: "Save Nutcote for the Nation". The May Gibbs Foundation succeeded in saving the house, and it was purchased by the North Sydney Municipal Council for $2.86 million in 1990. The May Gibbs Foundation became The Nutcote Trust, and they leased Nutcote from the North Sydney Council, restoring the house to its late 1920s and early 1930s appearance.
The restoration process was guided by various sources of evidence, including the diaries and letters of May's husband, James Ossoli Kelly, photographs taken by the occupants, and photographs captured by Harold Cazneaux for an article in the Australian Home Beautiful magazine in 1926. Nutcote officially opened as a museum of Gibb's work on May 1, 1994, and has been open to the public ever since, operating as a house museum commemorating the life and work of May Gibbs.
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Frequently asked questions
Nutcote is the name of May Gibbs' house, located in Neutral Bay on the shores of Sydney Harbour.
Nutcote was built on land found for May Gibbs by her mother, Mrs Cecilia Gibbs, in 1922. The house was designed by renowned Sydney architect BJ Waterhouse and constructed by builder F E Gray, completing in 1925. Gibbs lived at Nutcote for 44 years, creating the Bib and Bub comic strip from 1924 to 1967.
Yes, Nutcote was opened as a museum of May Gibbs' work in 1994 and is open to the public from 11 am to 3 pm, Wednesdays to Sundays.
