Mona Vale Homestead

About this place

Mona Vale Homestead is a heritage function venue and restaurant at 63 Fendalton Road, Fendalton, set within Mona Vale's public gardens on the banks of the Avon River, a short drive from central Christchurch. The homestead is a restored heritage building surrounded by mature gardens, a fernery, a lily pond and the Mona Vale mill pond formed by a 19th century weir in the Avon.

### History

Mona Vale has an unusually well-documented history, and it is genuine.

• The land originally belonged to the Deans brothers; William Derisley Wood leased it and built what became known as Wood's Mill.
• In 1899, Frederick Waymouth and his wife Alice purchased four acres and had the homestead built in 1899–1900 to a design by architect Joseph Clarkson Maddison.
• Waymouth sold to Annie Quayle Townend in 1905. She renamed the property Mona Vale after her mother's house in Tasmania, added nine acres and had a gate house built off Fendalton Road.
• After the 1906–07 New Zealand International Exhibition in Hagley Park closed, Townend bought the Exhibition's fernery, including its plants, and had it reassembled at Mona Vale. She also added the Bath House. She died in 1914.
• In 1939 the property was bought by Tracy Gough, founder of Gough, Gough and Hamer. Gough and his first wife Julia engaged the noted Canterbury landscape architect Alfred Buxton to lay out the gardens in the form enjoyed today, adding the lily pond, a swimming pool at the Bath House, and the rhododendrons, azaleas and exotic trees that define the grounds.
• Sold in 1962 to the Church of the Latter Day Saints. When the church proposed to subdivide and demolish the homestead, public outcry and community fundraising followed.
• The Christchurch City Council and Riccarton Borough Council bought Mona Vale in June 1969 to create a public park, a purchase credited to mayor Ron Guthrey.
• The homestead has operated as a restaurant, cafe and function centre since 1978, with Canterbury catering company Continental as venue manager from that year.
• It closed after sustaining considerable damage in the February 2011 earthquake and reopened in December 2016 following a two-year, $3.2 million Christchurch City Council rebuild and strengthening project. The restaurant reopened in February 2019.

### Spaces

The Homestead is the heart of the venue: a collection of elegant, light-filled rooms overlooking the Avon River and gardens, used for weddings, celebrations, private dining and corporate events, from intimate gatherings to larger occasions.

The Iris Lawn is an expansive garden setting secluded within the heritage gardens, used as a blank canvas for outdoor ceremonies and marquee receptions of varying sizes.

The Bath House is a garden retreat surrounded by tropical planting that accommodates up to 50 guests, suited to private dining, cocktail events and smaller celebrations.

Current seated and cocktail capacities for the Homestead and Iris Lawn are not published on the venue's own site; request the wedding pack or functions and events pack, or confirm directly, before committing numbers. Catering is delivered in house.

### Suitability

Best suited to corporate hospitality, board and client dinners, milestone and incentive functions, cocktail receptions and conference social programmes where heritage character and garden setting matter more than large plenary capacity. Explore other Christchurch venues.