Background
During World War II the military in Melbourne occupied a wide and varied range
of private Melbourne homes and some civic buildings
One of these is Frognall, in Mont Albert
Rd, Canterbury.
Frognall was constructed in 1888-9 for the timber merchant Clarence
Hicks, who had gained wealth from the building boom. After the bank collapse and depression of the early 1890s Frognall was
owned by the National Bank of Australasian and occupied by a school. It was purchased by the wool manufacturer Burdett Laycock
in 1901, and occupied by the family until offered to the Crown for wartime purposes in 1941. Frognall was then occupied by
the RAAF Melbourne Wireless Telecommunications Station until 1975, and continued to be used by the RAAF until 1984 when it
was purchased by the City of Camberwell, who subsequently sold the building for use as a private residence.
Frognall
was designed by James Gall as a two-storeyed, towered, Italianate house and includes interior encaustic tiling, ornate moulded
decorations and marble fireplaces. It contains original outbuildings including stables and its original garden layout at the
front.
