Closer Settlement Houses
6 & 10 ALLARD ST AND 5 BALFE CRES AND 46 & 47 CUMMING ST AND 280 & 284 HOPE ST AND 7 HOPETOUN AVE AND 30 MURRAY ST AND 19, 23 & 32 PASSFIELD ST AND 18, 37, 43 & 51 WAXMAN PDE BRUNSWICK WEST, MERRI-BEK CITY
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Statement of Significance
Closer Settlement schemes were a response by the State Government to the 1890s depression, which had severe impact on Victoria and working class areas such as Brunswick in particular. The aim was to provide agricultural land on a lease purchase arrangement to enable those of limited means to establish a farm and a livelihood. The Brunswick Estate, established in 1900, was the fourth Closer Settlement scheme in Victoria and the first in metropolitan Melbourne. It was extended twice by the additions of the Dal Campbell Estate (1904) and Cadman Estate (1905), creating a total of 161 allotments. The final scheme in Brunswick, known as the Phoenix Estate and containing 73 lots, was established in 1907. Houses on the estates were constructed from 1900 and the estates were fully developed by the beginning of World War I.
- 6 & 10 Allard Street*
- 5 Balfe Crescent
- 46 & 47* Cumming Street
- 280 & 284 Hope Street
- 30 Murray Street*
- 19*, 23* & 32 Passfield Street
- 18, 37*, 43* & 51* Waxman Parade
The Closer Settlement Houses serial listing is of local historic significance to the City of Merri-bek.
The houses provide tangible evidence of the Victorian government's Closer Settlement Scheme, designed as a response to the devastating 1890s depression conditions in Victoria, in the early years of the twentieth century. The Brunswick Estate is of significance as it was the first metropolitan Closer Settlement scheme and provided a model for the metropolitan estates that followed. Spread over a wide area, the houses collectively demonstrate the scale of the original schemes and the range of houses erected by the successful applicants. Whilst typical in style and detailing, the range of house designs is significant as a reflection of the differences in the financial means, skills and backgrounds of the original applicants and has research potential to reveal further information about the schemes. (Criteria A, C & D)
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Closer Settlement Houses - Physical Description 1
This serial listing comprises the most intact examples of the surviving Closer Settlement houses, as follows:
- 6 & 10 Allard Street
- 5 Balfe Crescent
- 46 & 47 Cumming Street
- 280 & 284 Hope Street
- 7 Hopetoun Avenue
- 9 McColl Court
- 30 Murray Street
- 19, 23 & 32 Passfield Street
- 18, 37, 43 & 51 Waxman Parade6 Allard Street
This is an elaborately detailed Federation timber dwelling. In overall form it is symmetrical, with a central front door and paired windows either side. The front facade is timber blockwork, with weatherboards on the sides of the building. The hipped roof is corrugated iron with two red brick, stepped chimneys visible. A highly ornate, bull-nosed verandah extends across the front facade. Verandah detailing includes a centrally placed gabled entrance with carved barge boards, mouldings, and finial, and a deep timber frieze across the whole of the verandah. The timber posts are turned. Set into the gable is decorative pressed metal sheeting. The paired windows are double hung sashes with flat pilasters architrave to the side, and shaped boards below the sill. The front entry door has side and highlight windows. Below the eaves are paired eave brackets separated by elongated diamond mouldings. A wrought iron pedestrian gate hanging on an original timber post appears to be early.10 Allard Street
This is a single storey timber house, with a hipped and gabled corrugated iron roof. The front facade has a return verandah with a bullnose profile corrugated iron roof and cast iron lacework and a bay window beneath the projecting gable, which itself has a timber finial. The chimney is of red brick with a corbelled top.5 Balfe Crescent
This is a timber cottage with double hip metal roof and a low brick chimney set in the valley between. The symmetrical facade has a front door with toplight flanked by timber sash windows and is clad in Ashlar boards that have an unusual pattern with implied quoining at the corners and long boards between. The bullnose verandah is supported by turned timber posts and has a roughcast balustrade that may have been added in the 1920s. Above the verandah are paired eaves brackets. Overall, the house has good intactness and integrity. The verandah frieze is not original. The low timber picket fence is sympathetic.46 Cumming Street
This house is asymmetrical in plan and has a hipped roof with a contiguous return verandah set between projecting hipped bays. Originally built in stages from 1906 to 1912 and renovated c.1930 the Federation/Edwardian origins of the house are demonstrated by the asymmetrical form with a dominant spreading roof, the ashlar boards to the front walls, the casement windows with hoods supported by brackets with intricate Art-Nouveau detailing and the corbelled chimneys with terracotta pots. The porthole window may also be original. The interwar makeover has resulted in the square fluted Tuscan verandah columns on roughcast piers with a roughcast balustrade and the tiles to the roof and hoods. Overall, the house has good intactness and integrity with few visible changes since the 1930s renovation.47 Cumming Street
This is a single storey timber house in the Queen Anne style. It has weatherboard wall cladding on the side and rear walls, and mock-ashlar cladding to the facade. The gambrel roof is clad in corrugated iron, has cast iron ridge capping and finials, and is penetrated by red brick chimneys with corbelled tops and terracotta chimney pots. The tripartite windows are timber-framed, and a small round window, probably leadlit, overlooks the verandah. The corrugated iron roofed return verandah, which has a corner gable, has turned timber posts and elaborate timber fretwork openings, exaggerated horseshoe arches in form. The projecting front gable has curved timber bargeboards, a decorative bracketed finial and two courses of scallop-edged weatherboarding. The window below the gable has carved timber surrounds and a bracketed canopy, the cladding of which has been removed. A side window has a similar canopy.280 Hope Street
This is a symmetrical transitional late Victorian timber house. The facade is clad in imitation ashlar and has a central doorway with sidelights and highlights, which is flanked by tripartite windows. The skillion verandah is supported on turned posts and retains what appears to be most of the original cast iron frieze. Other details include paired eaves brackets separated by diamond and rectangular mouldings. There are two symmetrically placed brick chimneys, each with a string course and stepped cornice. The roof tiles are not original.284 Hope Street
This is an Edwardian timber house, asymmetrical in plan with a hipped roof and projecting gabled bay. The facade is clad in imitation ashlar with elongated and square diamond mouldings at the eaves and pressed metal to the gable end, which also has a decorative barge board and timber trusswork. The entry door has a sidelight and highlights, and the windows to the main elevations are triple casements with toplights, with a skillion hood supported on timber brackets above the window in the projecting bay. The skillion verandah is supported on turned posts and has an intricate timber frieze and moulding to the fascia. There is one brick chimney with a stringcourse and stepped cornice. Overall, the house has good integrity and intactness.The privet hedge along the front boundary is a typical early garden planting and may encase an early woven wire fence.7 Hopetoun Avenue
7 Hopetoun Avenue is a single storey timber Italianate house. It has a facade of imitation ashlar, and the plan is L-shaped. It has a hipped roof clad in corrugated iron, with a similarly clad verandah. The projecting bay, with paired double-hung sash windows, encloses the verandah which has square section timber columns and a cast iron frieze. The front door has stained glass side- and highlights and windows are generally double hung sashes. The house has red brick chimneys with corbelled tops. A modern addition has been made at the rear of the house.
9 McColl Court
This timber house shows two stages of building. The original house, built c.1900, has a M-hip roof with a symmetrical facade clad in imitation ashlar boards. To this has been added a c.1920s gabled porch with strapwork to the gable end, which is supported by fluted Tuscan columns on a low brick balustrade. The tripartite windows on either side of the front door are also a later addition, probably added at the same time as the gabled porch. There are two external brick chimneys along the west side.19 Passfield Street
This is a single storey Edwardian timber house. Its walls are clad in weatherboard, and the hipped and gabled bay in corrugated iron. Windows are a combination of timber-framed double-hung sashes and awnings. There is a rectangular bay window beneath the gable. The house has a bullnose profile verandah with a corrugated iron roof, turned timber posts and a decorative timber frieze. The gable-end has carved timber barge-boards, and shingle-patterned weatherboard cladding. The rendered brick chimney has a moulded top.
23 Passfield Street
This is a single storey Edwardian timber house. The walls are clad in weatherboard, and the roof hipped roof in corrugated iron with red brick corbelled chimneys. The front elevation has a polygonal projecting bay and a return verandah with a corner gable. Windows are timber-framed double-hung sashes.32 Passfield Street
This is a brick house, asymmetrical in plan with metal hipped roof that extends to form a verandah to one side of the projecting bay. There are two corbelled brick chimneys, and a smaller chimney at the rear. The house is positioned at the rear of the block and is concealed behind a c.1960s brick house.18 Waxman Parade
Like other Closer Settlement Houses this home was built in stages and this is evident in the house today. The original hipped roof section has a symmetrical facade with a central front door with toplight flanked by sash windows and is clad in weatherboards. The added projecting bay on the west side on the other hand is clad in imitation ashlar and has a door in the side wall, whilst the window has a metal hood. The bullnose profile verandah, which returns along the west side, has turned posts and what appears to be a metal lattice frieze with brackets. There is one brick chimney. Overall, the house has good integrity. The roof tiles are not original.37 Waxman Parade
37 Waxman Parade is a single storey timber Edwardian house. It is asymmetrical in plan with a return verandah between two projecting gable ends, with a smaller gable on the corner. The roof and verandah are clad in corrugated iron, the latter being supported by chamfered timber posts and a simple timber frieze. The front door is situated on the return and the windows are mostly casements. Detailing on the house includes half timbered gable ends supported on carved timber brackets, oversized bargeboards and ornate window hoods.43 Waxman Parade (Canowindra)
Canowindra is a Edwardian style house, with an asymmetrical facade and verandah on two sides between two projecting gabled bays. The house is weatherboard, which is notched on the entire front (north) elevation, with a corrugated iron gabled roof with terracotta ridge capping and corbelled red brick chimneys. The bullnose profile corrugated iron verandah is supported by timber posts and has a carved timber fretwork frieze. The front door has leadlit side- and highlights while the windows have ornate timber window hoods. The allotment retains some early plantings, including a large oak.
51 Waxman Parade
51 Waxman Parade, Brunswick West, is a small double fronted weatherboard cottage. It has a corrugated galvanised steel gabled roof and bullnose profile verandah which is supported by turned timber columns and bears the remnants of a timber frieze. The centrally placed door is flanked by double hung sash windows which abut the roofline.Heritage Study and Grading
Moreland - Moreland Heritage Gaps Study 2017
Author: Context Pty Ltd
Year: 2017
Grading:
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