Lara, Italy
Pirra Homestead, in Windermere Road, Lara, Victoria, was built in the mid-1860s by George Fairbairn, one of Australia's most prosperous pastoralists and a pioneer of Australia's frozen meat export trade, who established the property as a premier sheep stud. The homestead was originally called 'Woodl
ands', but by 1880 the name of the property had changed to 'Windermere'. In the first decade of the twentieth century, the property was sold to the Victorian Government for closer settlement, but the homestead and 637 acres (258 hectares) were taken over by the Lara Inebriates' Institution. After the Inebriates' Institution closed in 1930, the property was sold to James McDonald in 1938, who turned it into a mixed farm. In 1946, he leased the former Inebriates' dormitory building to the States Tobacco Company. After the Tobacco Company folded in 1948, the property was sold to Oscar and Edna Mendelsohn. The Tobacco Company workers were employed by the clothing manufacturer Pelaco, which operated a factory in the former Inebriates' dormitory. The Mendelsohns renamed the property 'Serendip' and established a commercial almond orchard. The water reservoir was proclaimed a sanctuary for the protection...
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