HO21 - Toolern Park
1558-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road TOOLERN VALE, MELTON SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
Toolern Park homestead, 1658-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, Toolern Vale, is significant as a surviving nineteenth and early twentieth century farm complex still partly owned by descendents of the original owners, the Campbell family. Established before 1866, the remnants of the original house are identified by the brick rubble and nearby mature conifer and other plantings (that indicate the original driveway). The existing timber house has significance as an intact example of an Edwardian style. Two dry stone walls contribute to the significance of the place. There is also a large dam with bluestone retaining walls on the property; a smaller dam is now on a new allotment in the same ownership.
The house at Toolern Park, 1658-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, Toolern Vale, is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). It demonstrates original design qualities of an Edwardian style. These qualities include the recessive hipped roof form, together with the gable and skillion verandah that project towards the front. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, horizontal timber weatherboard wall construction, galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, two face brick chimneys with multi-corbelled cappings, narrow eaves, timber verandah posts with simple timber brackets, timber framed double hung windows (including the tripartite windows under the front verandah and projecting gable) and the timber bargeboards and decorative timber gable infill. The nearby mature conifers (as indicated in the Description below) also contribute to the significance of the place.
The property's substantial dry stone walls and brick remnants of the ruins of the original house are scientifically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC C.2, F.1). The brick remnants have the potential to yield interpretive information about the historical development of the property, while the dry stone walls probably date to the early-mid 1850s, and represent a type of mid-nineteenth century construction that is now redundant. The larger wall incorporates the remnant of a post and top rail fence, a vestige of their use by the Oaklands Hunt Club during the twentieth century.
Toolern Park homestead, 1658-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, Toolern Vale, is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A.4, H.1) as one of the notable early farms in Melton, and for its association with James Campbell, one of Toolern Vale's earliest settlers, and his descendents, including Dr Archie Campbell.
Overall, Toolern Vale homestead, 1658-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, Toolern Vale, is of LOCAL significance.-
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HO21 - Toolern Park - Historical Australian Themes
Shire of Melton Historical Themes: 'Pastoral', 'Farming'
HO21 - Toolern Park - Integrity
Integrity - Substantially intact
HO21 - Toolern Park - Physical Conditions
Physical Condition - Good
HO21 - Toolern Park - Physical Description 1
Physical Description -
Toolern Park homestead, 1658-1672 Diggers Rest-Coimadai Road, Toolern Vale is situated in a rural setting on the slopes of a volcanic hill. It comprises a timber Edwardian house, dry stone wall fencing, brick rubble (representing the site of the original house) with a mature Conifer and other plantings nearby the original house and driveway. Other mature trees are situated nearby the existing homestead. Also on the property are two large dams with bluestone retaining walls.
The existing asymmetrical, single storey, horizontal timber weatherboard, Edwardian styled homestead is characterised by a recessive hipped roof form, together with a gable and a skillion verandah that project towards the front. At the rear are later additions. These roof forms are clad in deep red painted galvanised corrugated steel. Two early face brick chimneys with multi-corbelled cappings adorn the roofline. Narrow overhangs are features of the eaves.
An early feature of the design is the front verandah. It is supported by timber posts with simple timber brackets.
Other early features include the timber framed double hung windows (including the tripartite windows under the front verandah and projecting gable) and the timber bargeboards and decorative timber gable infill.
A weatherboard laundry has been added to the rear of the house.
The original house and other outbuildings (hay and machinery shed) were destroyed in the 1965 bushfire.
There are some significant exotic trees around the farmstead: an old and unusual Mexican cypress (Cupressus lusitanica) near the original homestead site; one Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) in the driveway; and two cypresses in a paddock (Cupressus lusitanica orientalis, and Cupressus platycladus).
A substantial dry stone wall, of about 8 courses in height with some of its coping course remaining, and 250 metres in length, also incorporates the remains of a post and single-rail fence. There is disputed information that the Oaklands Hunt Club used to maintain this top rail, which provided a solid jump on their regular hunts. The eastern part of the fence, shown on the 1916 Ordnance Map, now consists of only a low stone wall below post and wire fencing. Another smaller fence runs perpendicular to this, in an approximately southerly direction. These walls are of significance. The larger one at least is possibly an early (northern) property boundary, and so likely to have been built very early, probably by the mid 1860s. There is a smaller dry stone wall behind the shearing shed which is one or two courses high, but whose date is thought by the current owners to be much later.
The two dams on the original property (the smaller one near Coburns Road is now on an adjacent property, subdivided off in recent decades) were enlarged over time, and contain some rough dry stone walling on their low sides. The large dam has a rough stone lined wall of about 50 metres in length, which is of historic interest as a substantial examples of the distinctive type of 'stone wall' dam construction in the Shire, it is not proposed for heritage controls.
Heritage Study and Grading
Melton - Shire of Melton Heritage Study phase 2
Author: David Maloney, David Rowe, Pamela Jellie, Sera Jane Peters
Year: 2007
Grading:
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FORMER TOOLERN PARK HOMESTEADVictorian Heritage Inventory
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HO21 - Toolern ParkMelton City
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"1890"Yarra City
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"AMF Officers" ShedMoorabool Shire
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"AQUA PROFONDA" SIGN, FITZROY POOLVictorian Heritage Register H1687
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'NORWAY'Boroondara City
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1 Mitchell StreetYarra City
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