Bunyip Commercial and Civic Precinct
High Street and Main Street BUNYIP, CARDINIA SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Bunyip commercial and civic precinct comprising the buildings at 9-34 Main Street, and 2 (Lot 2 PS727491), 2A (Lot 2 PS617792) and 7-23 High Street, Bunyip (including the World War One memorial), which comprise the early core of what has become today's Bunyip commercial and civic precinct. Developed in association with the opening of the railway from the late 1870s, and the boom which occurred after the Closer Settlement and Soldier Settlement in the post-World War One years, the core significant and contributory buildings remain generally relatively unchanged. Contributory places date from the c.1910s to the c1940s:
Individually Significant places include:
- 32-34 Main Street (HO56), Bunyip Public Hall
- 21A, 21B and 21C Main Street (HO60), Nathan's Row
- 19 Main Street (HO59)
- 18 Main Street (HO58)
- 14 Main Street (HO57), Stacey's Railway Hotel
The Bunyip Post Office at 21 High Street is Significant to the precinct.
Contributory places within the precinct are:
- 29-30 Main Street, brick shop & residence
- 27-28 Main Street, weatherboard shop & residence
- 26 Main Street, brick shop & residence
- 24 Main Street, brick shop
- 23 Main Street, Top Pub
- 11 Main Street, Former butcher
- 9-10 Main Street
- War Memorial on Main Street median (corner High Street)
- 2 High Street, brick shop [Lot 2 PS617792]
- 7 High Street, weatherboard shop and residence
- 11 High Street, weatherboard shop and residence
- 15 High Street, rendered shop
- 23 High Street - house
The following buildings or sites are not contributory:
7, 15 [vacant] & 17 Main Street
2A, 17-19 & 21A [vacant] High Street
How is it significant?
The Bunyip commercial and civic precinct has local historic and aesthetic significance to Cardinia Shire.
Why is it significant?
Historically, Bunyip Commercial & Civic Precinct is significant to Cardinia Shire as important evidence of the township's development following the opening of the railway station in the late 1870s, then growing in association with the boom following Closer and Soldier Settlement after the First World War, becoming a major regional town and, by the turn of the century, the largest Shire township. (RNE criterion A.4)
Aesthetically, the Bunyip commercial and civic precinct is significant as a fine example of a small rural township centre, which is notable for its relatively high degree of integrity and largely consistent character. The precinct retains many structures dating from that period when Bunyip was a major town and is significant as a representative example of an interwar commercial precinct, typical of the self-contained centres formed around railway stations in country towns during that era. (RNE criteria D.2 & E.1)
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Bunyip Commercial and Civic Precinct - Physical Description 1
This commercial and civic precinct focuses on the two-storey Railway Hotel and includes shop rows to the east along Main Street (which follows the railway) and a lesser concentration in High Street, to the north.
Contributory and individually significant sites include:
* 29 Main Street
* 27 Main Street
* 25 Main Street
* 24 Main Street
* 23 Main Street
* 20, 21, 22 Main Street
* 18 Main Street
* 13 Main Street
* 1? Main Street
* 2-4 High Street
* 8 High Street
* 9 High Street
* 13 High Street
Although from differing dates these buildings are from the broad period of Post First War development and are generally relatively unchanged. They provide the early core of what has become today's Bunyip shopping centre. Later sites which are visually related are also included. The general characteristics include single storey scale, use of cantilever verandahs, many original shopfronts, the use of red brick and some original interior elements. Civic elements include the large Bunyip hall and more utilitarian ones such as the weatherboarded store on the south side of Main Street, in the railway reserve.Bunyip Commercial and Civic Precinct - Physical Description 2
The Bunyip Commercial and Civic precinct is situated on the side of a hill overlooking the railway and the countryside to the south of the township. It comprises a collection of commercial, civic and residential buildings associated with the development of Bunyip from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth century. Although of differing dates most buildings are from the broad period of post-World War One development and and provide the early core of what has become today's Bunyip shopping centre. As at Garfield, the Bunyip Main Street commercial strip is one-sided and faces the train line, being indicative of its origins. The precinct extends into High Street, which has a very wide central median that contains the Bunyip World War I memorial at the intersection with Main Street.
In Main Street the two, two storey hotels - Stacey's Railway and the Top Pub - are notable landmarks, while the Bunyip Public Hall with its imposing gabled entrance supported on fluted columns marks the eastern end of the precinct. Stacey's Railway Hotel is notable as a fine and very intact example of an early-twentieth century hotel (Please refer to the separate place record for further infromation), while the facade of the Top Pub is less intact. Between these buildings are single storey shops, some with attached residences. The shops are characterised by single-storey scale, use of cantilever or post-supported verandahs, many with original shopfronts, and original decorative parapets in brick, render or board. The contributory buildings are:
- The attached pair at 18 & 19 Main Street with decorative rendered parapets and original or early shopfronts (These are individually listed in the Heritage Overlay as HO58 & HO59)
- Nathan's Row - three attached single storey shops with decorative brick parapets and original tiled shopfronts at 21A, 21B & 21C Main Street (HO60)
- A brick shop with arched parapet, early shopfront and skillion post verandah at No.24.
- A gable fronted brick house with gabled porch and attached brick shop at No.26. It retains an early cyclone wire fence. The second storey addition is not original.
- A weatherboard shop and attached residence at No.27. This has been altered by the replacement of windows to the residence and the loss of the original verandahs.
- A brick shop and attached residence at No.29
The contributory buildings in High Street comprise mostly single storey shops either in weatherboard or brick, some with attached residences (e.g. 7-9 and 11-13). Some earlier shops retain post-supported verandahs (e.g. No.2, which occupies the north-east corner with Main Street and the shop further to the north, which, confusingly is also recorded as No.2 by Land Victoria), while others from the later inter-war or early post-war period have cantilivered awnings (e.g No.15). There are two gable-fronted shops (Nos. 7-9 and 11-13), which contrast with the parapets that characterise most of the shops in the precinct. Notable buildings within High Street include:
- The inter-war post office at No.21. (Please refer to the separate place record for further information)
- The residence at 23 High Street. This is a single storey weatherboard late Victorian to Edwardian cottage with bi-chromatic brick corbelled chimneys. Although residential in character, the cottage's historic use as a police residence links 23 High Street to the commercial and civic precinct. The cottage is a relatively early building in the Bunyip township. Moreover, is in good condition and, externally, near to intact.
The shops and buildings at 15 and 17 Main Street, 7, 17 and 21A High Street and the altered house at 2A Hight Street are not contributory to the precinct. The recent landscaping works in High Street are also not significant, although they have enhanced the appearance of the streetscape.
Heritage Study and Grading
Cardinia - Cardinia Shire Heritage Study 1996
Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
Year: 1996
Grading: LocalCardinia - Cardinia Local Heritage Study Review
Author: Context P/L
Year: 2007
Grading:
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BUNYIP RAILWAY SUB STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H2025
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BUNYIP POST OFFICECardinia Shire
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RAILWAY HOTEL (FORMER)Cardinia Shire
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