Arthur Peter Stephenson
Peter "Arthur" Stephenson (1921–2006) survived the perils of World War II as a pilot, then led Australia's biggest architectural firm, before turning with great success to farming.
Affectionately called the Prince of Wales behind his back, he was the son and heir of Sir Arthur Stephenson, co-founder of Australia's first truly national and international architectural firm.
Stephenson, who has died at 85 of heart failure in hospital in Benalla, Victoria, grew up in one of architect John Beswicke's eccentric mansions in Hawthorn, Melbourne, moving to South Yarra when his parents separated in 1938. He had two older sisters and the family had a housekeeper, two maids and a gardener-chauffeur. He was educated at Carey Baptist Grammar and Melbourne Grammar; he excelled at many sports despite, or perhaps because of, a slightly deformed left foot that was corrected medically.
Stephenson enrolled at Melbourne Technical College and completed two years of his architectural course before enlisting in the RAAF. In 1940, he went to Canada and Britain as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme, was promoted to flight lieutenant and excelled as an instructor. He saw action over the Western Desert and Italy, where he was wounded. His enduring memory of the war was flying back to base, as the sole survivor of his group, with his dead navigator-gunner in the seat behind him.
After the war, Stephenson completed his architecture course at Sydney University and in 1946 he married Veronica, the daughter of the noted baritone Harold Williams. They had four daughters.
As a member of the family firm Stephenson and Turner, he played a part in its dramatic growth.
In 1952 he obtained a master's at Harvard under Walter Gropius, and on returning to Australia his first big job was to oversee the design and construction of the munitions facility at St Marys on Sydney's outskirts.
In 1966, after being divorced for some years, he married Ethel Hyland, a fellow student in his course at Sydney University.
Stephenson and Turner had operated since the early 1920s, when the founders returned from the Great War—the now-demolished members' stand at the MCG was from those years. But its glory days were the 1930s, the beginning of a major program of hospital construction. The firm's meticulously planned buildings sprang up in every capital city, generally in cream brick; many are still in use.
In Sydney, the Dental Hospital next to Central Station was one of its projects. It won Sulman medals for the King George V and Concord hospitals. It designed Gloucester House at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, the Royal North Shore Hospital, hospitals in Wagga Wagga, Canberra, Darwin, Hong Kong, Taiwan and one in Basra, which was destroyed in the Iran-Iraq war.
Other projects included ICI House at Circular Quay, the first glass curtain-wall building in Australia, that gave way to the Toaster; the Lucas Heights nuclear reactor building and the Spirit of Progress train.
Stephenson and Turner had offices in all mainland states and New Zealand, expanded to Hong Kong and Taiwan, and obtained commissions for large hospitals throughout the Middle East, all administered from Melbourne. By the 1970s the firm had 24 partners, all male with the exception of the inestimable Ellison Harvie, a mentor to two generations of architects.
The country's biggest architectural office had a unique persona. The adjective "blokey" was not then in use, but it could well have applied to Stephenson and Turner.
With the founders dead or retired, tensions arose between the Melbourne and Sydney offices. In 1975, Stephenson, a senior partner, quit, ending a career that had been mapped out for him from birth.
He then turned to farming; he bought land at Flinders, Victoria, built a comfortable house and developed the property Ostlers Hill. He built up a noted Murray Grey cattle stud, while his wife's interest was long-haired sheep. His only previous contact with the land had been as a jackaroo back in his student days. His talents as a farmer soon became apparent.
After a few years at Flinders, the couple ran into trouble when their plans were frustrated by the planning bureaucrats at the local shire council. They sold up and moved to a property at Broken Creek, near Benalla. In 1992, after Stephenson had suffered a stroke, they moved to a smaller property at nearby Broken River.
During their years in the Benalla region they helped to form the Strong Wool Breeders Association and Friends of the Benalla Botanic Gardens. Stephenson joined the board of the Benalla and District Memorial Hospital, serving a term as president.
Stephenson also became involved with Benalla's Anglican Church of the Most Holy Trinity, a beautiful arts and crafts building designed by Walter Butler and registered by the Historic Buildings Council. He decided a gallery was necessary for the growing congregation but he encountered heritage controls and views implacably opposed to his own.
The last decade of his life was marred by ill-health, a galling experience for a man who had led a physical, challenging life for 30 years in the career of his choosing. Stephenson is survived by Ethel, his four daughters and seven grandchildren.
Neil Clerehan, Tony Stephens
[Sydney Morning Herald: September 7, 2006]
