Hawksburn Railway Station Precinct
SOUTH YARRA, STONNINGTON CITY
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Statement of Significance
-The open landscaped character of the area brought about through broad streets and footpaths, undeveloped front setbacks and landscape elements both within individual properties and the public realm. Low fences and the general absence of carparking, particularly in areas to the south of the station, contribute to this quality.
-The station buildings and associated platforms and elevated walkways and the extent and form of its curtilage arising from the 1914 redevelopment.
-Built form from two distinct periods with very little modern infill illustrates development during the boom of the 1880s and the resurgence of development after the economic recession.
-Intactness of the area to its c.1920 arising from the low proportion of modern infill.
-Intactness of individual buildings to their original states. Dwellings typically survive with their presentation to the street largely unaltered retaining verandahs and decorative detailing. The area is notable for the absence of prominent additions and alterations.
-The consistent, modest scale of the built form. The station, terrace groups and substantial individual buildings such as those to the south end of Hawksburn Road and elsewhere being notable and valued exceptions.
-The detached form of the early dwellings, other than the terraces, with generally uniform (within each streetscape) front setbacks and modest side setbacks.
-Face brick or render materiality (occasionally overpainted) and roofscapes with chimneys, pitched roofs in slate or other tiles.
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Hawksburn Railway Station Precinct - Physical Description 1
Betty Malone notes, 'In the 1880s (Hawksburn) was regarded as a miniature suburb, much like Armadale and Kooyong. Today it is part of South Yarra or Toorak and shares with them their postcodes. One thing is certain, it has little in common with the western third of the block, which is closer in tone to Chapel Street and which came to house a much less affluent community of people'.
This sense of Hawksburn as a high quality suburb detached from Chapel Street and the surrounding thoroughfares persists. To the north and south of the station, polite streetscapes of substantial villas have more in common with contemporary sections of Malvern than adjacent sections of South Yarra or Prahran.
The area to the north of the Station is centred on a group of large Victorian terrace dwellings in Hawksburn Road but includes other polite Victorian villas to their north and a number of substantial Edwardian villas particularly at the southern end of the street. Workers cottages occupy only the least-desirable, low-lying land adjacent to the creek. Victorian villas at 55-59 Hawksburn Road are of some individual distinction for their decorative parapets as is the grand mansion with freestanding stables at No 1. An intact streetscape of timber dwellings to the south side of Walter Street illustrates the variety of dwellings and streetscapes accommodated within the area. Oban and Cassell Streets similarly retain significant Victorian and Edwardian streetscapes. A long Victorian terrace row at 11-21 Oban Street is of some note, as is a group of freestanding Victorian villas along the north side of Cassell Street. Edwardian dwellings through these streetscapes are reasonably generic but contribute to the broad range of scales, forms and architectural expressions that underpin the character and significance of the northern sections of the precinct.
The immediate station environs retain built form from the redevelopment of the station in the 1910s. The station building, dating from 1914, comprises a central platform building accessed by elevated walkways. It adopts a domestic expression with stucco walls and tiled hipped roofs with tall chimneys with terracotta pots. Walkways and entries incorporate curving corrugated iron roofs while skillion-roofed platform shelters employ ripple iron to form decorative valences. The Station building, platforms and access bridges form a complex of some individual note but, in combination with similar stations at Toorak and Armadale, also contribute to an important group of stations along the line. A small retail development to the north of the Station dates from 1914 and retains its original verandah incorporating the City of Prahran crest. A contemporary, two-storey retail group to the south of the Station retains its original shopfronts. The station, in conjunction with associated retail developments provides the focus for the Heritage Overlay area and the principle pedestrian access between the northern and southern sections of the precinct.
Residential areas to the south of the Station are more consistent, responding to more uniform, gently-sloping terrain. Streetscapes of Victorian and Edwardian terraces, villas, cottages and semi-detached pairs in and around Luxton Road, Motherwell Street and Barnsbury Road survive with a high level of intactness and integrity to their c.1920s state. While buildings generally draw from a range of fairly typical nineteenth and early twentieth century builders' models, a number of notable building such as terrace groups in Motherwell Street and Barnsbury Road, an unusual Edwardian attic storey residence at 2 Barnsbury Road and a very early, two-storey villa at 29 Motherwell Street contribute to the interest of the precinct. Two storey commercial premises at the intersection of Luxton and Williams Road are of some significance in their own right. Some interwar flats contribute to the character of the area.
The broad Heritage Overlay area is largely unaltered in terms of modern infill development or prominent upper storey additions. The early character of some streetscapes, most notably parts of Hawksburn Road and Cassell Street, have been diminished by high fences. However, the area otherwise demonstrates a high level of integrity to its mature c.1920 state.
Hawksburn Railway Station Precinct - Historical Australian Themes
The following themes are drawn from the Stonnington Thematic Environmental History (Context Pty Ltd, 2006, Addendum March 2009).
3.3.1 Crown land sales 1840-1850
3.3.3 Speculation and land boomers - subdivision from 1880 onwards
3.3.5 Recovery and infill 1900-1940
4.4.2 Developing state railway systems in the late nineteenth century
4.4.3 Twentieth century improvements
7.1 Serving local communities
8.2.1 Mansion estates and the higher ground - middle class estates in Prahran
Heritage Study and Grading
Stonnington - City of Stonnington Heritage Overlay Gap Study - Heritage Overlay Precincts Final Report
Author: Bryce Raworth P/L
Year: 2009
Grading: Various
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FORMER RICHMOND POWER STATIONVictorian Heritage Register H1055
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MELBOURNE HIGH SCHOOLVictorian Heritage Register H1636
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RICHMOND HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0206
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