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GEELONG ON SHOW
A house once purchased, but never used, as the Victorian Premier’s Country Retreat, is
among significant places which will be open for visitors to explore for free as part of the Open
House Geelong on 10 November.
Built for squatter Robert Muirhead in 1858, Osborne House (above) became Australia’s first
Naval Training College in 1913, was a Naval Convalescent Hospital and home of Australia’s
first Submarine fleet. From 1938 it was used by the Shire of Corio and, following
amalgamation, eventually returned to community ownership.
Another highlight will be the Peace Memorial (below centre) located in Johnstone Park,
providing a rare opportunity for visitors to enter this Heritage-listed building and see
elaborate architectural features, as well as Geelong Town Hall (below left)and the Barwon
Water boardroom and Mural.
And not all the attractions have a heritage focus: The public will also be able to take a tour of
the TAC building (below right) to discover how the building has achieved a five star NABERS
rating which includes the underfloor displacement air-conditioning and rainwater harvesting
among its many initiatives
Believed to be the first ever Open House program in a regional centre, the program will run
from 10am to 4pm, with the Heritage Council of Victoria the program’s Heritage sponsor.
Organisers believe Open House Geelong is set to become a major event in the city, bringing
people from far and wide to experience the best of Geelong.
The list of participating buildings and how to get around Geelong is available so visitors can
start planning their day. Programs will be available via openhousegeelong.org.au and
www.facebook.com/OpenHouseGeelong and at the visitor information booth located on the
Ground Floor at the Moorabool Street entrance of Market Square Shopping Centre on the
day.
Open House Geelong would not be possible without help from volunteers and partners. To
volunteer for Open House Geelong please email [email protected] by 31
October 2012
Open House Geelong is an initiative of Leaders for Geelong and is proudly supported by the
Heritage Council of Victoria, The Transport Accident Commission, Central Geelong
Marketing, Kings Funerals, Green Dezign, Deakin University, Shell, Barwon Community
Legal Service and Target.
REGISTER
Gippsland’s oldest surviving hospital complex and one of the oldest homesteads in the
Plenty Valley were added to the Victorian Heritage Register in October.
The former Bairnsdale Hospital in McKean Street is one of the few relatively intact 19th
century hospital complexes in the state.
The four hectare reserve was set aside in 1885 and a design competition was won by
Melbourne architect Harry Gibbs. His buildings are set in landscaped grounds with a curved
carriage drive at the front of the main building.
Gibbs’ design (above left) of a two-storey central block, single-storey pavilions on each side
and the Contagious Diseases Ward to the south, are an outstanding example of pavilion
planning, a major advance in hospital design which became widely adopted from the mid-19th
century in order to decrease the spread of infection.
The main central block was built by W J Yates and opened in June 1887. The Contagious
Diseases Ward and the north pavilion were added in 1889, and the matching southern
pavilion in 1902, all built by McKnockiter Brothers. In 1911 a nurses' home (above right) was
built to the south by the McKnockiter Brothers, an Infectious Diseases Ward was added in
1913 and a Children's Ward in 1925.
In 1940 a new hospital was built on another site and the old hospital became a Benevolent
Home. In 1975 it became the Gippsland Geriatric Centre, and later the Gippsland Centre for
Rehabilitation and Extended Care. In 1998 the property was sold for use as a school.
The Gibbs-designed buildings are brick and stucco pavilions in a style influenced by the
Gothic Revival and Tudor modes, with slate roofs, gabled vents, iron finials and decorative
chimneys. The front of the two-storey central block is decorated with three gables with
cement corbel tables, and it is linked to the single-storey wings on either side by verandahs,
since obscured by rooms added at the front.
To the south is the small red brick Contagious Diseases Ward, in a similar style to the main
building. At the rear are the Infectious Diseases and Children's Wards, both unadorned
single-storey brick structures with corrugated iron roofs. The Nurses' Home to the south is a
single-storey Federation style brick bungalow.
Fashoda (above) in Bridge Inn Road, Mernda, in the Plenty Valley, is a rare surviving
example of a mid-19th century farmhouse with a detached kitchen.
The original 640 acre lot purchased in 1851 by politician Henry ‘Money’ Miller, was
subdivided as the Township of Separation a short time later, but little evidence of this
remains.
The site was purchased in 1859 by Alfred Hibberd, in 1861 by Jane Ewing (later Hardesty),
and, following her death in 1897, it remained in her family until 1973.
Once a complex of timber farm buildings, all that now remains is the house, the detached
kitchen, a small dairy building to the south and the remains of a cow shed, located in a
garden setting with mature trees.
The house has an M-shaped roof with a surrounding integrated verandah, with roofs of
corrugated iron over split timber palings. The house is clad with vertical tongue and groove
lining boards, which is extremely rare, and, being softwood, the timber would have been
imported.
The original house had four rooms, but several rooms have been added and parts of the
verandah enclosed in the 20th century using tree stumps and split weatherboards. Many of
the windows are 12-pane double hung sashes which slide within the wall.
The detached kitchen to the west of the house, linked with bluestone rubble paving, has a
steeply sloping gabled roof of corrugated iron over palings, partly supported by large
unshaped morticed tree trunk posts. The walls are clad with weatherboards, which are split
rather than sawn on the end walls.
The construction methods and materials of the kitchen building, once split into two rooms,
indicated it had probably been built c1855 and was likely to have been used for
accommodation until the house was built.
The north room has a brick double-sided chimney, a floor of thick timber boards laid almost
on the ground and a timber-lined ceiling which followed the roof line up to the purlins. The
south room was more roughly finished with a brick floor, no ceiling and split palings visible
beneath the iron roof.
MURTOA
Around 1000 people visited the Murtoa Stick Shed for the Murtoa BIG weekend on 6 and 7
October, when an admission fee was charged for the first time in recent years.
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.
BOYD OPEN DAY
Robin Boyd Foundation’s final open day for 2012 will focus on Courtyard Houses,
showcasing how courtyards have been used over generations and encouraging a fresh look
at this feature.
Used over centuries in various countries, the courtyard provides light and privacy and a
protected outdoor living space. The Courtyard Houses open for this special event
demonstrate the value of such a feature in our climate and for our lifestyle.
The feature house will be Roy Ground's 1953 'Hill Street' house. Winner of the 1954
Victorian Architecture Medal, the house is a square featuring a circular courtyard.
The houses to be open date back to Walter Burley Griffin and Marion Mahoney’s 1922 Salter
House, with its atrium courtyard at the centre. The house also features Griffin’s signature
Knitlock concrete masonry construction system and tessellated concrete roofing tile system.
Other houses will include Boyd’s Walsh Street home, with its separate parents' and children’s
wings and courtyard with obscure glass side walls; Neil Clerehan's 1964 'Fenner House' with
its two internal courtyards; and Graeme Gunn's (Merchant Builders) 'Ridge House' built in
1967.
The houses will be open on Sunday 2 December. Admission fees are charged for the day
and pre-paid bookings are essential. Check www.robinboyd.org.au for updates.
OTHER DIARY DATES
RHSV, 239 A’Beckett Street, Melbourne: Royal Historical Society of Victoria Conference
2012: Celebrating 50 years of local history in Victoria, Friday 16 November and Saturday 17
November. www.historyvictoria.org.au/events/rhsv-conference-2012
University of South Australia, North Terrace, Adelaide: Future Approaches to Historic
Houses, their Gardens and Collections - New ideas for old houses: how to give the customer
what they want and make money, Wednesday – Friday, 28 – 30 November.
www.community.history.sa.gov.au/events/2011-324
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, generally last Wednesday of each month, 5.30pm start
finishing by 7pm. For details see http://www.deakin.edu.au/artsed/chcap/seminars/index.php
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