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Bannerman Street Precinct
Bannerman, Bennett, Black, Bolt, Bray, Brown, Buckley, Dillon, Duncan, Green, Harrison, Harry, Hill, McClure, Milroy, Reverie & Thompson Streets & Havilah Road BENDIGO & LONG GULLY, GREATER BENDIGO CITY
Bannerman Street Precinct
Bannerman, Bennett, Black, Bolt, Bray, Brown, Buckley, Dillon, Duncan, Green, Harrison, Harry, Hill, McClure, Milroy, Reverie & Thompson Streets & Havilah Road BENDIGO & LONG GULLY, GREATER BENDIGO CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The development of Bannerman Street heritage precinct was influenced by the topography of the area and its location between a collection of mines located along the Garden Gully line of reef to the west and Hustlers line of reef to the east, which were the wealthiest in the area, operated by the largest company mines and managed by some of the richest mining magnates in Victoria, such as J.B. Watson, Joseph Bell and George Lansell. The companies which operated in this area were also the most successful in Bendigo. They attracted mining investors and speculators, who dominated development in the area. Collectively they contributed to the quartz mining boom of the late 1860s and early 1870s that transformed the image of Bendigo.
It was a mixed area, divided into two, and separated by a small creek which ran parallel to Buckley Street. The creek became the site of sludge drains, which spilled from Garden Gully mine to the low ground near Hustlers mine and marks the position of a cluster of early miners' cottages from speculative development and several gracious homes set in large gardens that were built in Bannerman Street.
In similar fashion to Ironbark Hill much of the local community tended to be inward, self supporting, providing their own social life with localised social activities and industries in small scale venues assisted by the size of the Miners Residency Area, which could accommodate chickens, goats and other animals, vegetable gardens, large trees, outbuildings, wells and specialized stormwater systems and fences. The most significant element within the precinct are the small single gable or double gable roof, weatherboard and sometime brick or stone cottages, which were built in haphazard fashion on leased Crown land, Miners Residency Areas that developed adjacent to the industrial landscape associated with deep quartz gold mining of Garden Gully lines of gold reef. Residences frequently were transported elsewhere and at the same time others were relocated here from other mining gullies. The occupations in the area were often inherited and became highly specialised. Until 1920 the area was occupied almost exclusively by miners and associated skilled tradesmen such as engine drivers, carters, carpenters and blacksmiths and their families. There is a noted progression of self-improvement amongst skills from one generation to the next, for example the blacksmith became cartwright, carriage manufacturer then working in the railways.
These factors have influenced the type of remaining historic cottages in this area, which are commonly very small, flimsily built of timber with many small scale alterations and changes, typical of a working class area. Instead of a major rebuilding program as experienced elsewhere in Bendigo, there are examples of small scale stylistic improvements and contemporary beautifications to the cottages. Next to the small cottages are several examples of more elaborate mine manager's or local retailer's residences with remnant picturesque gardens. The rolling topography of the area is marked by the picturesque mature gardens, large trees and street trees of local Ironbark, which have grown well in the comparatively watered ridge line of Ironbark hill.
A high percentage of the early residents were skilled Cornish miners, who had come from Europe and America via Burra Burra, Kapunda and Moonta in South Australia and California in large affiliated family groups. The massive exodus of Cornish miners and their families introduced their mining labour practices, tributing system, technology and culture to new areas around the world. The miners cottage in the area such as in Buckley, Bray Street and Black Streets are good representative examples of housing built by early Cornish miners and is associated with the simple rural Cornish vernacular house, formerly built in stone adapted to the Australian conditions.
Much of the former mine land to the north, south, west and east of the area now remains reserved as open space and collectively forms one of the most comprehensive collections of mining artefacts which spans the entire period of mining in Bendigo from the earliest reef workings from 1853 through to the 1950s.
How is it significant?
The Bannerman Street precinct as part of Ironbark Hill has historic, architectural, aesthetic, scientific and social significance at a local level to the City of Bendigo. (Criteria A, B, C, D, E and H)
Why is it significant?
Criterion A: Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria's cultural history.
1) The Bannerman Street precinct is historically significant as a good representative example of an early working class miner's settlement dating from the mid 1860s amongst some of the wealthiest deep quartz mines of Bendigo and Eastern Australia. The collection of early cottages clearly demonstrates the way in which the design, fabric and decorative embellishments reflected the evolving status of the owners and provides an important insight into the domestic lives and typical home of the miners and related trades of Ironbark and Long Gully area.
2) The Bannerman Street precinct is historically significant as an unregulated mining settlement that developed on Crown Land and Miners Residency Areas along unsurveyed roads between the mining shafts, battery and engine houses, chimneys, tailing dams, holding dams, and other debris associated with deep quartz gold mining. After the major decline in mining in the early to mid 20th century, these large areas of mining wastelands of sand heaps, old sludge dams and cyanide tailing dams remained un-developed, 'a dry slum'. For much of the 20th century the area became associated with the local low cost working class economy.
3) The group of miner's cottage are representative of the full diverse range of miners' cottages including examples of the typical Cornish vernacular long house built by early emigrant Cornish, who formed a significant ethnic group of miners in the area.
4) The arrival of Cornish miners to the area, often via South Australia, America and New Zealand are associated with one of the great migration streams of the nineteenth century - the movement of British metal miners to the mineral fields of the New World, the United States, South America, Australia, and in the late nineteenth century South Africa.
Criterion B: Possession of uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of Victoria's cultural history.
5) The miners' cottages of the Bannerman Street precinct are associated with one of the unique features of the Victorian goldfields- the Miners Residency Area, which allowed the development of working class suburbs on Crown land amongst mining lands. Most occupiers of homes in the Ironbark Hill area in the period 1866-1882 listed their occupations as miners and associated jobs such as carter, engine driver, blacksmith and mine manager, and most of the houses were built on Miners' Residence Areas.
Criterion C: Potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of Victoria's cultural history.
6) The miners cottages of Bannerman Street precinct are associated with extensive archival materials, including but not restricted to the Quarterly Reports of the Mining Surveyors and Registrars, 1863-91, detailed social demographic information since 1861 particularly in Bendigo and Ballarat goldfields, scholarly research and publications as well as contemporary journals and diaries.
Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places or environments.
Criterion E: importance in exhibiting aesthetic characteristics and/or in exhibiting richness, diversity or unusual integration of features.
7) The miners cottages of Bannerman Street precinct are an excellent representative example of miner's cottage particularly associated with Cornish settlement of Ironbark Hill. It is associated with one of the key elements of the historical fabric of Victorian goldfields, the working class miner's cottage. Stylistic improvements and contemporary beautifications to the cottages have occurred over a hundred years and bring a rich diversity to the basic cottage. There are also examples of more elaborate but typical 19th century Victorian villas with remnant picturesque gardens and some fine Federation and early 1920s bungalows. The hilly topography of the area is marked by many picturesque mature gardens, large dominating trees and street trees of local Ironbark, which have grown well in the comparatively watered ridge lines of Ironbark Hill.
8) The Bannerman Street heritage precinct has aesthetic significance as a cultural landscape that illustrates the rich diversity of a working class miner's settlement, a key feature of the Victorian 19th century goldfields. The cottages form an important element in the cultural landscape of Ironbark Hill, which have collectively retained a high degree of integrity and authenticity. The sporadic and scattered incidence of very small miners' cottages, which were erected prior to the establishment of formal roads, coupled with the hilly terrain and nearby mining archaeological wastelands clearly tells the story of the early alluvial and quartz reef mining boom in Bendigo.
Criterion H: Special association with the life or works of a person, or group of persons, of importance in Victoria's history.
9) Many of the residence of Bannerman Street precinct are particularly associated with the Irish-American architect R.A. Love who lived and worked at 16 and 18 Bannerman Street during the 1860s and 1870s. He is responsible for many buildings in Bendigo especially those associated with local miners.
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Heritage Study and Grading
Greater Bendigo - Ironbark Heritage Study
Author: City of Greater Bendigo
Year: 2010
Grading: Local
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COOLOCK HOUSEVictorian Heritage Register H0790
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CARLISLE SHAFTVictorian Heritage Inventory
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COMET SHAFTVictorian Heritage Inventory
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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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