Eric Nicholls’ Life and Work with the Griffins

Episode 4

Genre:                  Mini series documentary

Duration:             56.16 minutes. seconds

Synopsis:             A biography of Eric Milton Nicholls (1902-1965), Australian architect who became partner with renowned American architects Walter and Marion Griffin in Australia.

Director:              Glen McClelland B.Sc. B. Arch.

Producer:            Marie Nicholls B.Arch.

Episode four, the last and culminating episode in a four-part series into Eric Nicholls’ later career, shows personal success and freedom allow Eric to pursue more than just architecture.

The Nicholls family records their winter holidays in the snow, skiing at Hotel Kosciuszko, the Chalet Mt. Kosciuszko, the Australian Ski Club at Charlotte Pass, and finally at Thredbo. Marie interviews Beryl Smith, a keen skier who relays Sasha Nekvapil, an Olympic skier’s, account of setting up the Thredbo ski resort. Sasha Nekvapil, a good friend of Tony Sponar who found the Thredbo site introduces Eric Nicholls to Tony who had the idea of creating a company. Eric Nicholls was one of five principal directors who established the company Thredbo Pty Ltd in 1954. He also mapped out the layout of the village centre based on ideas drawn from European ski towns.

Sastrugi Lodge, Thredbo Village, for Andrew and Katherine Thyne Reed, 1958. Eric’s coupled curved plan with mountain and valley views, is now heritage listed.

Hasemer House, Castle Cove, 1960. Marie Nicholls interviews Malcolm Day, owner and architect. Designed in the early modernist ranch style under the firm Nicholls, Elliot, and Nicholls, with beautiful Middle Harbour views, it is well preserved. An abundance of oak timber veneered joinery, large pocket sliding doors, and Eric’s often-used sandstone pillars, now in smooth face contrasting the previous Griffin-inspired use of natural rough-faced sandstone.

Marie adds into the narrative her house, also located at Castle Cove designed with her husband Ian McClelland, which has a unique oval-shaped plan, spectacular Middle Harbour views, and the site was handpicked by Eric whilst the newlyweds were on their honeymoon, a round-the-world trip for a year, 1960.

Eric and Molly’s trip to South America, 1961-62, visiting over 30 ports and filmed on Eric’s 16mm film camera. They visit historical Aztec pyramids, the UNAM building, and watched traditional street performers, and bathed in natural hot springs, Tikal (World Heritage Site), Pachacamac Temple of the Sun in Peru, Cusco, Machu Picchu (World Heritage Site), Chile, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, Rio, and the Monument to the Dead. We watch the construction of Brasilia, the capital of Brazil, and various Oscar Niemeyer’s icons, including the National Congress building and “water drop” Cathedral under construction. Moving on to Caracas Venezuela, San Juan, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica, where Eric, an avid lover of the Ian Fleming spy novels and movie franchise films the famous river waterfalls onto the sandy beach below, a scene used in the then recently filmed James Bond movie “Dr. No.” released the same year in 1962.

Marie interviews Andrew Hill, CEO of Steiner Education Australia. Andrew describes Eric’s lead in setting up the first Rudolf Steiner School in Australia, 1957. And we see how much the school has evolved with a Glenaeon School Reunion after the Covid lockdown with tours of the buildings, lovely bush grounds, and students creative artworks. One of the buildings has been named the “Walter Burley Griffin building,” honouring Walter’s inspirational ideas for the area.

Eric, as General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society, along with his huge financial and honorary support as chairman of Glenaeon school council and commitment from teachers including Sylvia Brose, transitions the primary school and kindergarten, Dalcross in Pymble into a full mainstream school at Middle Cove. He also designs a new dual classroom building now called the “Eric Nicholls Building” at Glenaeon, Middle Cove, 1961.

After an interview with Eric’s grandson Philip McClelland, who attended Glenaeon, we finish this documentary story with a summary by Andrew Hill noting how Eric and Molly Nicholls’s lives have grown, expanded, and flourished with his business success in architecture after challenging early days. As a result, Eric’s legacy continues to help the community and grow.

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