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GEELONG ON SHOW
After the success of Open House Melbourne’s fifth anniversary program in July with 135,000 visits to
100 open properties, the Heritage Council has joined a new regional venture as heritage sponsor of
the inaugural Open House Geelong.
Following the example of Open House events across the world, Geelong will be unlocking its most
significant buildings and spaces to explore for free.
For one day only on 10 November, visitors to Open House Geelong will have access to up to 10
buildings and spaces not normally available to the public. Visitors have the opportunity to participate in
guided tours, marvel at architecture and rich urban design and soak up the history of the city
renowned for its strong manufacturing and wool industries.
From 10am to 4pm, visitors will be able to explore green buildings, historical gems and other
significant buildings. Organisers expect to announce the list of properties for the pilot event shortly.
MURTOA
The Murtoa Grain Store or Stick Shed will again be open for the Murtoa BIG weekend on 6 and 7
October.
The Stick Shed will be open from 11 am to 4 pm both days with a range of other local events the same
weekend including Murtoa Show on Friday 5 October, a live music event and Murtoa Cup day races
on Saturday, a two day art exhibition and a monster market on Saturday morning.
The 270 metre stick shed was built in just a few months in 1947 as the first bulk grain storage facility
and has been restored in recent years with Heritage Council funding.
Last year’s event (below centre) attracted around 1350 people but it will take many more to fill the vast
expanse of the former Grain Store.
For further information see http://www.murtoa.net/big-weekend
VARIED ADDITIONS TO REGISTER
An award winning Brutalist style Union building, an early concrete block building in regional Victoria
and a rare timber Howe Truss Bridge near Buchan were added to the Victorian Heritage Register in
October.
The distinctive Graeme Gunn designed Plumbers and Gasfitters Union Building in Victoria Street,
Carlton, is one of the earliest and finest examples of the Brutalist style in Victoria.
The building (below) received a Victorian Architectural Award Citation in 1971 and the 25 Year RAIA
Victorian Architecture Award for Enduring Architecture in 2007. The design influenced architecture in
Victoria throughout the 1970s.
The Plumbers and Gasfitters Employees' Union, formed in 1911, was originally housed in the Trades
Hall complex on the corner of Victoria and Lygon Streets. By the late 1960s the union had outgrown
these premises and Gunn was commissioned to design a new building on an adjacent site.
The design of the office building was intended to establish an identity for the union, meet its increased
space requirements and provide for possible future expansion.
The three storey building has car parking and mechanical services at ground level, office space for the
client on the first floor and lettable space on the floor above. The structure, designed to enable the
addition of two extra floors, is of reinforced concrete with an off-form finish on all external and major
internal surfaces. Windows are aluminium-framed with dark smoked glazing and are deeply recessed
on the west facade to provide some sun control.
The Heritage Council registration noted that adopting a tough Brutalist exterior, the building was a bold
statement of growing trade union power. “The design emphasises both structure and material with an
unorthodox and purposeful arrangements of masses and voids. The vertical imprint of the patterned
tempered formwork lining, and the regular set of filled holes which indicate the rod supports for the
formwork, show an honest use of construction materials and exposure of natural finishes. The clear
indication of circulation patterns, as evident in the dominant front staircase, is an important Brutalist
characteristic.”
One of the state’s first concrete block constructions, the two-storey Foster Building in Johnson Street,
Maffra, was constructed in 1908 for prominent local landowner Askin 'Alf' Foster.
Designed by the Maffra architect Stephen Ashton, the building was an early example of hollow
concrete block construction which began to be adopted in Victoria in about 1905 when American
block-making machinery became readily available.
The Foster Building is of architectural significance as a very early, intact and unusually ornate
example of precast hollow concrete block construction.
The building is unusual for its use of a variety of block patterns on the front facade to replicate the
appearance of a stone building, an interesting application of the new concrete block technology.
The main advantage of concrete blocks was that they could be made by owner-builders or unskilled
labour on-site, using hand-operated machines, a range of moulds, and sand and gravel obtainable
nearby; only the cement had to be transported.
This minimised both transport and labour costs, which explains the widespread use of concrete blocks
in country areas. Concrete blocks were also fire and termite resistant.
Described at the time of its construction as 'the most up-to-date building in Gippsland', the Foster
Building originally had shops at each end with residences above, and in the centre was a solicitor's
office on the ground floor and Alf Foster's office upstairs. The early picture (below right, courtesy of
Maffra and District Historical Society) shows the original verandah form.
A timber-framed verandah with decorative fretwork shades the footpath and a long transom window
along its inner edge lights the shop windows below. The original shop fronts have all been replaced.
The rear wings of the two shops and residences once enclosed a U-shape courtyard, but single storey
additions at the rear of numbers 69 and 71 and the enclosing of the upper and lower verandahs has
obscured the original form.
Internally the ground floor shops have been altered, but the original solicitor's strong room on the
ground floor has been retained (bottom below centre), as have many original features in the former
residences, such as the room arrangements, some staircases, fireplaces, ceilings and joinery.
The 1927 Murrindal River Truss Bridge on Basin Road Buchan, which consists of a single timber
Howe truss span and five stringer approach spans, is one of only two remaining single-span CRB
truss bridges.
It is accompanied by timber stringer approach spans and timber trestle supports, consistent with the
timber technologies which accompanied most of the single truss spans built in the State.
Supported by the 1918 Developmental Roads Act, designed to provide improved access from remote
areas to main roads and railways, and a 1925-26 a special grant under the Unemployment Act, the
bridge was described by the CRB in its Annual Report as "virtually a viaduct".
The Bridge is also of aesthetic significance for its placement in a striking high-country landscape
setting, on a winding road, crossing a fast-flowing river in a steep-sided wooded valley and with an
impressive hilly backdrop (below left). The bridge is now closed to vehicular traffic and has been
made suitable for pedestrian use, with a new concrete road bridge built upstream.
This six-span Murrindal River bridge consists of five stringer approach spans of 9.1 metres and 24.5 m
timber Howe truss span of a standard CRB design. This simple truss design was suited to fabrication
in remote areas and was used extensively from 1919 to the late 1920s.
The western approach spans are widened and gently curved. The transverse deck remains in place
and is unusual in that the timbers are spaced approximately half their width apart, possibly to improve
longevity. Until recently the deck was topped by two strips of running-planks for motor vehicles, but it
is now completely covered in longitudinal planks. The timber trestles supporting the truss and the
girder approach spans are supported on mass concrete piers (below centre). True timber trestles, as
found here, are rare in Victoria.
BOYD OPEN HOUSE
Six homes designed by Robin Boyd from 1954, culminating in the 1967 Featherson house in Ivanhoe
(below left), will be open on Sunday 7 October.
The main interior is an indoor garden with four floating platforms above the garden. Sited on a sloping
block, a full wall of windows overlooks neighbouring parkland and a transparent roof enhances the
natural light.
The six houses, including the Ednie House (below centre) and the Date House (below right) are open
from 10 am to 4 pm on Sunday for a self guided tour. Booking is essential with details of the
addresses of all houses provided with tickets.
Tickets for the six houses are $90 per person with discounts for students and Robin Boyd Foundation
members; tickets are not available for individual houses. See www.robinboyd.org.au or email
[email protected] or phone 03 9820 9838.
OTHER DIARY DATES
Art Gallery of Ballarat, 40 Lydiard St North, Ballarat: Capturing Flora: 300 years of
Australian Botanical Art until 2 December. www.artgalleryofballarat.com.au
National Wool Museum, Geelong: Wish You Were Here, Postcards from Geelong: more
than 300 postcards telling the story of Geelong , until 2 December.
Old Treasury Building, Spring St, Melbourne: Gold and Governors: 150 years of the Old
Treasury Building on display to 30 November 2012. www.prov.vic.gov.au or
www.oldtreasurybuilding.org.au
Deakin’s Cultural Heritage Seminar series: Deakin University’s City Centre campus, Level
3, 550 Bourke Street, Melbourne, last Wednesday of each month, 5.30pm start finishing by
7pm. For details see http://www.deakin.edu.au/arts-ed/chcap/seminars/index.php
Inherit is published monthly by the Heritage Council of Victoria.
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