Geometric Wallpaper for Duntroon House
Tamara Design Co was commissioned in April 2022 by Celia Cramer to design a wallpaper that would be used in the preservation and renovation of Historic Duntroon House located in Campbell ACT. I was provided with a piece of the original wallpaper found in the building and took my inspiration from Marrianne Campbell’s water colour natural history collections which are held at the National Libruary of Australia.
Marrianne painted native plants from Western Australia, the Blue Mountains in New South Wales and Moreton Bay in Queensland. Many species from one location were often featured in a single painting. The majority of her work, however, was accomplished in and around Duntroon and Sydney.
In 1854, Marrianne married her second cousin, 36-year-old George Campbell, who had inherited the family home of Duntroon, near what is now Canberra, in 1846. They lived at Wharf House in Campbell’s Cove, now part of The Rocks area of Sydney, until 1857, when Marrianne, George and their two children moved to Duntroon.
Marrianne transformed the home into an imposing, two-storey Gothic revival house. The gardens were redesigned and planted with numerous exotic and rare blooms, as well as various trees from England and trees collected on Marrianne’s travels. The Australian native plants Telopea speciosissima, various Eucalyptus and Callistemon species grew on the estate.