The story of this place
In 1934, John and Sunday Reed bought a neglected farm at Bulleen outside Melbourne and turned it into a gathering place for Australian artists who would reshape the country's cultural identity. Sidney Nolan, Arthur Boyd, Joy Hester, Albert Tucker and Charles Blackman all worked, lived, argued and fell in love at Heide. Sunday Reed was the catalyst — a woman of fierce intelligence and passionate conviction who championed Australian modernism when the establishment dismissed it.
Nolan painted his iconic Ned Kelly series at Heide in 1946-47, living there while in a turbulent relationship with Sunday Reed. When he left — for London, and for Sunday's sister-in-law — Sunday reportedly burned some of his paintings in rage. The entangled relationships at Heide — affairs, betrayals, artistic patronage and fierce friendships — produced some of Australia's greatest art and most compelling human drama. The farm is now a museum where visitors walk through the same kitchen where these artists ate, drank and argued about art and life.