Nilja garden back in bloom
by JAMES POYNER
7th September 2026
A FIRE in October 2007 took away an important piece of Warrandyte history.
The Nilja homestead, located at the end of Alexander Road
The fire was reported at the time as arson, with Police stating they believe it was “deliberately lit”.
The property had been vacated and services disconnected after the land/home was sold to the State Government; at the time, the land was under Parks Victoria ownership.
A summary of the rich history of Nilja Homestead was published in the November 2007 Warrandyte Diary; this has been reproduced here.
The Nilja property was originally part of Longridge Farm at the end of Alexander Road, but was sold to Mr and Mrs Booth in 1919 as a separate title.
The name ‘Nilja’ is believed to be derived from an Aboriginal word meaning ‘blue hills’.
The Booth family arranged for a house, of weatherboard and corrugated iron construction, to be transported from Port Melbourne and installed on the Warrandyte site.
Nilja was originally used as a holiday home.
However, the Booths extended the house and eventually moved there permanently.
In 1948, Mr and Mrs Ruttledge bought the house and moved in with their daughters Olive and Dorothy on Boxing Day.
They had barely settled in when a neglected campfire ignited surrounding bush and threatened the house.
The Ruttledges put the fire out with the help of their neighbour, Albert Speers.
Eventually the property came into the sole ownership of Dorothy Ruttledge.
In 1973 she married Sir George Reid, and they lived at Nilja.
Sir George was MP for the state seat of Box Hill, which included Warrandyte (1955–73).
He was a member of the Bolte cabinet from 1955 to 1972.
As Attorney-General, he introduced legislation into Parliament that led to the setting up of the Victorian Ombudsman’s office.
Dorothy, now Lady Reid, continued her extensive involvement in community affairs.
She was a lay reader at St Stephen’s Anglican church, a member of the inter-church council, and a supporter of the Brotherhood of St Laurence.
Her other interests included the Warrandyte Arts Association and the Warrandyte Historical Society.
The Reids lived happily at Nilja until November 1988, when they moved to a smaller home in East Doncaster.
Sir George died in 1993 and Lady Reid the following year.
Nilja passed to the ownership of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works and later came under the administration of Parks Victoria.
The homestead stood on a natural fire path, but amazingly survived the bushfires of 1939, 1949, 1965 and 1969.
The 1965 fire burnt either side of the house, destroying outbuildings, but the house was left intact.
In 2007, the house was lost, but its garden survived.
Following decades of neglect, Friends of Warrandyte State Park (FOWSP) took it on as a project, with volunteers determined to remove invasive weeds — such as agapanthus, which had not only completely filled the garden, but had also begun to invade the adjacent gullies —and eventually restore the garden.
With the support of a Lions Club of Warrandyte grant, FOWSP has been able to engage a contractor to advance weed control efforts and buy effective guards to protect the plantings from deer, rabbits, and the locally abundant kangaroos.
The garden has large shady trees — some native and some rare exotic species, plus a variety of old-fashioned flowers which bloom in succession.
With the homestead gone, the garden now stands as a marker of Warrandyte (and Melbourne’s) history.
As many who garden will know, just doing something once does not create a sustainable landscape; environmental projects often fail because of a lack of follow-up, but the Lions grant will allow FOWSP to continue to maintain the Nilja garden for the foreseeable future.
