Dictionary of Sydney

The Dictionary of Sydney was archived in 2021.

Varuna

Large Katoomba house built by Eleanor and Eric Dark in the 1930s and donated to the New South Wales government as a writer's retreat in 1989.

-33.722184640895, 150.30659472942

Milestone
Constructed
1939
Name
Alternate
Varuna the Writers' House
Property
Owned by
1939 - 1985
Owned by
1939 - 1987
Owned by
1985 - 1989
Type

Varuna

CC BY-SA 2.0
,
2016
Varuna, in Katoomba, was the home of Eleanor and Eric Dark. In 1989, with one of the most generous individual philanthropic gestures in Australia's literary history, their son Mick Dark gave the house and land to the Eleanor Dark Foundation so it could be used as a place for writers to work, and to discuss ideas around the fireplace, as it had been in his parents' time.