Home»All Photographs»The William Ricketts Sanctuary

In the 1930s William Rickets bought a four-acre bush block on Mount Dandenong and called it Potter's Sanctuary.
Word spread about the extraordinary sculptures that began to adorn the property. In time, the Victorian Government heard about his work and, in the early 1960s, the land and adjoining blocks were bought for the people. William Ricketts lived on at the Sanctuary into his nineties and continued to create his sculptures until his death in 1993.


Visiting the William Ricketts Sanctuary was an awakening experience for mind, body and spirit. It brought back memories of meeting and seeing the old frail sculptor at work in his workshop on my first sojourn through the tall timber, tree ferns and rocks of his land.

I have visited this beautiful sanctuary several times since, been back on a wet and gloomy day, trying to keep upright on the slippery paths and battling to keep my my camera dry.
Then at the end of October 2014, we were able to take my cousin Marieke Leferink from Holland to the Dandenong Ranges and gave her a sniff of the gum trees and the wonderful surroundings.