Former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church, 69-75 Main Street, GREAT WESTERN
69-75 Main Street GREAT WESTERN, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
The former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church, 69-75 Main Street, Great Western, makes a significant architectural and cultural contribution to the Great Western township, and has visual connections to the Anglican Church nearby. It was erected to the design of the architect M. Ryan from Stawell in 1900. It is believed to have replaced an earlier Chapel named St. Augustine's, which was erected in the early 1870s. Catholic services, however, had been held at the Great Western diggings from 1858, the early days of the first goldrush.
The former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of a rudimentary Victorian Gothic Revival style. These qualities include the steeply pitched roof form, projecting porch gable at the front, galvanised corrugated iron roof cladding and the unpainted brick wall construction. Other intact qualities include the lancet and point arched windows with diamond leadlighting, rendered crosses that adorn the rooflines, rendered window architraves and sills, brick buttresses with rendered copings, gable copings, pointed timber doors, corbelled masonry gable ends and the pointed arched brick voussoirs in the rear gable end.
The former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with the establishment and development of a Roman Catholic community at Great Western from 1858, with the gazettal of the present site in 1862 for use by the Roman Catholic Church, with the erection in the 1870s of a Chapel named St. Augustine's, which it replaced in 1900. The building is further associated with the Ararat architect, M. Ryan.
The former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and highly valued by the Great Western Catholic community for religious reasons.
Overall, the former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church, 69-75 Main Street, Great Western, is of LOCAL significance.
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Former St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church, 69-75 Main Street, GREAT WESTERN - Physical Description 1
St. Columban's Roman Catholic Church, 69-75 Main Street, Great Western, makes a significant contribution to the architectural and cultural amenity of the small rural township, and has visual connections to the Great Western Church. Situated on a large site, the brick church building is surrounded by open grassed areas and eucalyptus. The site is bound by an introduced post and rail and cyclone wire fence, with a recent timber picket gate.
The unpainted brick, rudimentary Victorian Gothic Revival styled St. Columban's Church building is characterised by a steeply pitched gable roof form clad in galvanised corrugated iron. The main gable end has a projecting minor porch gable that is also clad in galvanised corrugated iron. A lancet window, rendered crosses and regularly-arranged masonry block work (following the roof pitch), and symmetrically arranged and central pointed arched windows with diamond leadlights are other features of the main elevation.
The sides of the building are identified by brick buttresses having rendered copings. Between the buttress are pointed windows with diamond leadlights. To one side at the rear is also an early pointed timber door.
Early decorative features of the design included the masonry/rendered corbelled gable ends and the rendered window architraves and sills. The pointed arched brick voussoirs in the rear brick gable end denotes the location of a chancel that was never built.
Heritage Study and Grading
Northern Grampians - Shire of Northern Grampians - Stage 2 Heritage Study
Author: Wendy Jacobs, Vicki Johnson, David Rowe, Phil Taylor
Year: 2004
Grading:
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SEPPELTS CHAMPAGNE CELLARSVictorian Heritage Register H0338
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ST PETER'S VINEYARDVictorian Heritage Inventory
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Former Common SchoolNational Trust
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