PRECEDE
Many would believe Clover Close in Berwick is named after the famous restaurant, but its origins date well beyond that to a most famous resident, as NEIL LUCAS explains in his latest look at the significance of place and street names in the region.
Clover Close, Berwick
This street is named after and located opposite the former famous Clover Cottage Restaurant in Manuka Road but the name “Clover” predates the restaurant by many years.
The property containing the former restaurant in Manuka Road was known to comprise 8.5 hectares (21 acres) in the 1870’s and was owned by a Mr M O’Connor.
Around the 1890-1900 era a weatherboard house was constructed for the local Greaves family and at some stage named “Clover Cottage”.
In 1955 Fred Tuckfield and his second wife Hilda purchased the now 3.5 hectare property for their country residence and to provide a venue for Fred’s interest in breeding new varieties of camellias.
Fred Tuckfield was born in Sale in 1898 and as an adult took on a role as a tea trader where he worked for a company for 14 years prior to establishing his own tea business in 1936.
Tuckfield grew a large tea packaging and distribution wholesale business known as Tuckfield’s Ty-nee Tips Tea, the brand being sold at supermarkets throughout Australia.
Prior to their move to Berwick, Fred and Hilda lived in North Caulfield and the business was located in Prahran where Fred was a member of the Rotary Club of Prahran – one of the earlier Rotary Clubs in Melbourne.
Each packet of Tuckfield’s Ty-nee Tips Tea contained a tea card depicting on one side an illustration of an Australia bird and on the other a description of the bird and its habitat.
Thirteen series of tea cards comprising 32 and up to 96 cards were produced and included in packets of tea for just on 50 years. The company was sold to Cadbury Schweppes.
The tea plant from which tea is produced is part of the camellia species and has the botanical name Camellia sinensis – hence Fred Tuckfield’s interest in propagating and breeding new varieties of camellias and planting them in his large gardens at Clover Cottage.
Fred had a brick glasshouse and a large propagating area in a shade house on the property and was always excited when he achieved a new variety.
In August 1952 Fred won the Royal Horticultural Society’s best bloom with his “The Czar”.
The garden at Clover Cottage was professionally designed in 1955 by John Stevens AM, a landscape consultant, and reportedly the first Australian to establish a professional landscape architectural practice which he did in 1952.
At the rear of the house, Fred developed a large area of native plantings down to the Cardinia Creek.
Hilda Tuckfield died in 1958, and four years later Fred married Muriel Dennis.
Fred and Muriel used to make their property available for viewing each year in aid of the local hospital and the Red Cross.
At tables set up on the front lawn, Fred would pour cups of tea from a huge teapot, and visitors would enjoy the home cooked food prepared by the ladies together with a cup of Ty-nee Tips.
Fred was a great supporter of environmental issues and was the founding chairman and continuing keen member of the Berwick Tree Society, a voluntary group which operated in the 1960s and ‘70s planting trees in local streets and parks.
One of the society’s last projects was planting native plants around the perimeter of Buchanan Park in Clyde Road.
Fred arrived that day at the park, drove into a central position, pulled out a table, and proceeded to provide all the workers with a delicious refreshing cup of his best tea.
When Fred Tuckfield died in 1973, the Clover Cottage property was put up for sale with the new owners John and Engelina Chipperfield and Trevor Burr establishing a purpose built restaurant known as “Clover Cottage” in the front garden tastefully fitting in with the gardens established by Fred Tuckfield, together with some admirable enhancements in the form of an English fountain and a French fountain and gates.
Additional plantings were undertaken resulting in a formalisation of appearance of the garden particularly when viewed from the restaurant.
“Clover Cottage” became known as one of the best country restaurants in Victoria and was immensely popular with the local community for various functions.
In 2017 the property including the restaurant, original house and gardens was sold to a developer.
The subdivision of the property owned by the Beavis family in Manuka Road and opposite “Clover Cottage” created Clover Close.
