Pier and Parks Precinct
Gellibrand Street and Wharf Street and Tobin Drive and symonds Street and Hydeia Drive and Weeroona Parade QUEENSCLIFF, QUEENSCLIFFE BOROUGH
-
Add to tour
You must log in to do that.
-
Share
-
Shortlist place
You must log in to do that.
- Download report
Statement of Significance
Statement of Significance as recorded under the Queenscliff Heritage Study 2009
What is significant?
The Piers and Parks precinct comprises two areas of parkland; Citizens and Princess Parks, both of which adjoin the foreshore area and include mature tree plantings and a number of structures of interest such as the wreck bell, band stand, and pavilions. The precinct includes the foreshore area, including the Pilots Station and associated pier, and Queenscliff Pier including its shelter shed and lifeboat shed.
The specific buildings of individual and contributory significance which are important to the precinct are identified in the attached schedule.
How is it significant?
The Pier and Parks Precinct (HO3) is of historical and aesthetic importance to Queenscliffe.
Why is it significant?
The Pier and Parks Precinct is of local historical significance as one of the key areas of activity in the history of Queenscliff. It is strongly associated with the development of Queenscliff as a holiday resort particularly during the boom years of the 1880s but also well into the twentieth century, and included sea and hot water baths, pavilions and other structures associated with recreational activities. While the majority of these have been demolished, the area retains the former Steamer Pier (now Queenscliff Pier), together with a number of other buildings and structures of interest. From the late nineteenth century, gardens were developed behind the foreshore for public recreation and enjoyment and the mature trees in the Citizens and Princess Parks reflect their early history. The precinct has a strong historical and visual connection to the key buildings along the landward side of Gellibrand Street, where a series of nineteenth century resort hotels overlook the parkland and foreshore.
The precinct also has strong associations with the maritime history of Queenscliff, including both navigation and maritime rescue services. In particular, it is associated with the activities of the Pilots Service at Queenscliff since the mid- to late-nineteenth century and this relationship is ongoing. The precinct also contains the Steamer Pier which incorporated the Lifeboat Shed and the Wreck Bell, a maritime structure of considerable historical significance both in the local Queenscliff area and in the wider state context.
Aesthetically, the Pier and Parks Precinct is of significance for its collection of mature specimen trees set in an open landscaped setting fronting the foreshore. Princess Park in particular is an area of great beauty. The precinct provides a landscaped transition between the sea and the town and is a key element in important seawards and landwards views within Queenscliff, including views to the key heritage buildings in Gellibrand Street. Important view corridors exist within the area itself both from the piers towards the shore as well as the various glimpses of the foreshore buildings and structures obtained from the parks.
-
-
Pier and Parks Precinct - Physical Description 1
Description / Character
The foreshore, pier and eastern parks area of Queenscliff evolved with the changing needs and development of the town. During this time the entire foreshore has changed in shape and area as land has been alternately lost or gained with tide movement and man-made filling. Up to the 1880s the immediate foreshore area was occupied by the odd fisherman's hut and the Tide Surveyor's and Customs boatcrews' quarters, situated on the site of the existing pilots' quarters. There were three piers, the Health Officer's and the Pilots' pier to the south, the Baths pier in the centre and the Steamer pier at the end of Symonds Street to the north. Past this pier was the fishermen's pier extending out from Wharf Street. Both the latter piers were later extended to form a breakwater to shelter the fishing fleet. Inland from the foreshore across to Gellibrand Street the area was largely open space with few trees other than in an area immediately inland from the baths.
Extract from the 2009 study
This precinct is formed by the area bounded by Wharf Street between Gellibrand Street and the sea; Gellibrand Street between Wharf Street and the north wall of the Fort; and includes the entire foreshore (beach and dunes) together with the Pilots' and Steamer piers. The area also includes two large areas of parkland adjacent to the foreshore, which contain a number of mature trees. These are Princess Park to the north of Symonds Street and the larger Citizens Park to the south of Symonds Street. A series of roads bisect the parks; Tobin Drive runs through Citizens Park; and Hydreia Drive and Weeroona Parade (both used for vehicular parking) through Princess Park.
Queenscliff Pier itself comprises a substantial timber pier and shelter shed built in the 1880s with a later barrel roofed lifeboat shed. The lifeboat shed and shelter shed are substantially intact. The pier has been both extended and truncated a number of times. The Pier, shelter shed and lifeboat shed are all included in the Victorian Heritage Register.
A smaller pier, further south and adjacent to Tobin Drive, is also a timber structure (of more recent construction than the Queenscliff Pier) and is associated with the Pilots Service. Though it appears to be intact, this pier is of little or no heritage significance other than that it is presumably a replacement of a similar earlier structure in the same location.
Early photographs of the parkland area show that it appears to have been originally fenced with an unpainted hardwood spear headed picket fence with entry gates at intermittent intervals.
Today, Princess and Citizens Parks contain a number of relatively non-descript single-storey pavilions and open sided timber shelter buildings and two brick toilet blocks, as well as a series of structures of more interest and/or significance such as the former shelter pavilion (c. 1926), the Band Stand and the Wreck Bell. The 1926 shelter pavillion building at 1 Tobin Drive is a substantial building in Princess Park which has undergone some alterations and additions (Figure 6).
Located in Citizens Park, the Band Stand is an octagonal timber and corrugated iron bandstand with diagonal strutting to the columns dating from the early part of the twentieth century. It appears to be is basically intact and in good condition.
The Wreck Bell in Princess Park is a large cast iron bell mounted on a bifurcated yoke belfry on a two metre high square timber post on a timber base. A ladder is positioned leading up to the bell. All this fabric is thought to be original.
The precinct also contains two modern, brick built, flat roofed toilet facilities blocks, one to the north (off Weeroona Parade within Princess Park) and the other to the south of the precinct (off Gellibrand Street within Citizens Park); these structures are considered to be generally intrusive in the landscape.
The remaining foreshore buildings are located in Citizens Park off of Tobin Drive and are primarily associated with the Pilots Service, which has operated from this location since its humble beginnings. Designed by prominent architect Bill Corker of Denton Corker Marshall in the c. early 1980s, the current Pilots Service building is a flat roofed concrete structure incorporating a circular control room located at the end of Tobin Drive at the foot of the foreshore dunes.
Although the foreshore area has altered due to the natural processes of the sea and many of the earlier foreshore structures such as the Sea Baths have been removed, the character of this precinct remains relatively intact.
Pier and Parks Precinct - Physical Description 2
Trees:
The trees appear to have been low and scrubby, possibly Tea Tree and Sheoaks. With the influx of day trippers and tourists in the 1880s, the planting out of the lower Princess Park area and the formalisation of the area as a town park appears to have commenced. By the 1900s assorted conifers, including Norfolk Island Pines, Stone Pines, and Cypress are already visible in early photographs. The avenue of cypress that now dominates the east side of Gellibrand Street is not yet visible.
Heritage Study and Grading
Queenscliffe - Queenscliffe Heritage Study
Author: Lovell Chen
Year: 2009
Grading:Queenscliffe - Queenscliffe Urban Conservation Study
Author: Allom Lovell & Associates P/L, Architects
Year: 1982
Grading:
-
-
-
-
-
LATHAMSTOWEVictorian Heritage Register H1052
-
PILOTS COTTAGESVictorian Heritage Register H1618
-
ROSENFELDVictorian Heritage Register H1134
-
-