It was the turn of the 1970s when Brett and Wendy Whiteley moved into what was then a “very old, run-down house” overlooking Sydney Harbour. The couple had spent most of the previous decade living between the bright lights of London’s Ladbroke Grove and New York’s Chelsea hotel, together with their young daughter, Arkie.
Returning to comparatively sleepy Sydney might have felt like a step down – but Wendy Whiteley loved their Lavender Bay home so much that it didn’t matter. Many of Brett’s most famous paintings were produced from its balcony, which offers a prime view of the harbour. The family lived there until the late 1980s, when the couple divorced. They had both battled heroin addiction but, while Wendy managed to get clean, Brett died from an overdose in 1992. Arkie died from cancer in 2001. In her grief, Whiteley spent years and millions of dollars converting the derelict RailCorp-owned land adjacent to their home into a charming secret garden – one now protected by a long-term council lease.
