FORMER CENTRAL VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE (BALLARAT SALE YARDS)
1020 LA TROBE STREET DELACOMBE, BALLARAT CITY
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Statement of Significance
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FORMER CENTRAL VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE (BALLARAT SALE YARDS) - History
European settlement at the former Central Livestock Exchange (Ballarat Sale Yards) at 1020 Latrobe Street, Delacombe dates from March 1838 when Scottish Pastoralists Archibald Buchanan Yuille and his cousin William Cross Yuille family established a 10,000 acre sheep run, on traditional Wadawurrung land, near present day Lake Wendouree. The run corresponds to the now inner suburbs of Ballarat, extending south as far as Sebastopol. Following the discovery of gold between the Yarrowee River and the Sovereign Hill Park in 1851, the first Gold miners into the area, searching along creeks and waterways, would have utilised bullock tracks laid down by the Yuille’s. As a booming gold rush town Ballarat quickly became one of the most populous inland towns in Australia becoming a municipality in 1855, a borough in 1863 and a city in 1870. In 1862, in response to demands from local stockmen, the municipal council temporarily set aside 15 acres of land of an allotment at Delacombe fronting onto La Trobe Street (the eastern allotment) for the development of a livestock sale yards. The yards, laid out to a design by Mr. Baird the Town Surveyor were formally opened in 1864. Based on a plan of 1867, the allotment to the west of the cattle yards, comprising a large rectangular plot of unsurveyed crown lands, was the site of two marked features; a Mine shaft operated by the Hand and Band Company near present day Gilles Street South and McMahon’s House/ Public Bar located opposite the south west corner of the Royal Park (Victoria Park). The mine shaft was one of four operated locally by the United Hand in-Hand and Band of Hope Company (Hand and Band Co.) to explore the Inkerman Lead Gutter. Shaft no. 4 operated from 1866 until1875 at which point the shareholders decided that the investment required to continue prospecting outweighed the potential returns. McMahon’s property is referenced in 1868 by an Officer of the Board of Land and Works describing it as a public house that would interfere with the workings of the sheep yards. In 1875, with an increase in trading, the council extended the sale yards into the eastern half of the Western Allotment then known as Cardigan Square. This extension comprising a 2 acre sheep pen is shown on a map dated December of that year. A handwritten annotation on the map describes the Hand and Band mine shaft as abandoned. The McMahon house is not depicted, likely cleared away in advance of the Gilles Street South Road extension. In the 1880s, under the stewardship of the newly appointed Cattle Yard Inspector Mr. William Brazenor, the Saleyards underwent a major redevelopment to increase capacity. Improvements involved redesigning the stock pens and constructing a dedicated railway branch line. Throughout the pre-war period, the local authority continued to invest in the facility erecting timber sheds and installing ramps and water troughs. In 1909 a new Federation style Administration Building was added fronting onto La Trobe Street opposite the junction of Stonepark Road. This attractive red brick building, divided into inner and outer offices, was designed by Arthur Ferrai, the City Surveyor, and provided long overdue facilities to manage the increasing volume of transactions. The still extant building is a free standing, single story red brick, five bay office topped with a hipped roof mounted by a lantern light with symmetrical corner chimneys. Internally the building is arranged around a cruciform passage with four groups of offices. During the war years, a portion of the western allotment, was set aside for a railway easement to service the Commonwealth Government’s Guncotton Factory located to the south. Post war this infrastructure continued to be used by the Imperial Chemical Industry Co. until the licence was revoked in 1971. In 1963 of a new pig sales pavilion was built at the corner of Gilles St. South and La Trobe Street. Internally the pavilion housed an octagonal sales ring surrounded by tiered timber seating. Other additions to the western allotment included a truck wash and an extension to the truck unloading areas. Sustained capital investment throughout the 70’s and 80’s resulted in general improvements to the yards infrastructure that continued to increase sales. By 1981 the pig pavilion alone was processing 2000 head a week with equally impressive numbers for cattle and sheep. By the late 1980s the saleyard was largely becoming a self-governing operation that resulted in a rebrand to the Ballarat Livestock Selling Centre and later in 2010 the Central Victorian Livestock Exchange following the yards’ sale to Palisade Investments. In October 2018, after over one hundred and fifty years of continuous operation the Sale yards moved to a new 70,000 sqm undercover facility at Miners Rest.FORMER CENTRAL VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE (BALLARAT SALE YARDS) - Interpretation of Site
The study area’s development history indicate there are five main phases of occupation and use. Of most relevance to the study area’s archaeological potential are phases 2, 3 and to a lesser extent 4 Phase 0: Pre 1837 – Pre-contact Aboriginal occupation and use Phase 1: Informal use, pastoral run (1835-1851) There is no information suggesting the study area was used formally during this initial pastoral phase. Activity in this area was likely short term and transitory limited to open camp herding and moving stock to water sources. Potential archaeological remains would include stray finds and evidence of land clearance. Isolated artefacts, if recovered, would likely not meet the required heritage threshold to be considered of significance. Phase 2: Gold Rush(1850s-1863) Following the discovery of gold on Yuill’s Ballaarat Station in 1851 the wider area was quickly flooded with prospectors initially panning and puddling for alluvial gold and later sinking shafts to access subterranean gold reefs on the hills and gullies either side of the Yarroree River. Tent villages and access tracks were quickly developed to service the diggings that in later years gave way to formally surveyed blocks and allotments emanating from central Sturt Street. Based on early cartographic sources the study area, south of Victoria Park, was originally just outside the municipal boundary drawn up in 1855. An 1861 map entitled ‘Ballaarat gold field no.1’ described the local topography as a mix of open forest land and undulating basalt plains. Despite the gazetting of Victoria Park in 1861 as a public recreational facility eight different mining companies retained interests in the park and its immediate surrounds. The nearest operation to the study area was no. 4 shaft owned by the Hand and Band Company. This enterprise evolved from a number of amalgamations, it was originally the Hand in Hand Company founded in 1856, that later joined with the other companies including the Band of Hope company active in the present-day Victoria Park area to form The United Hand in Hand and Band of Hope Company (c.1872), commonly referred to as the Hand and Band Company. The company had four shafts no.1 is at the southern end of Victoria Park, opposite the Sutton and Winter streets intersection. No. 2 is in the south-east corner of Victoria Park, No. 3 probably sited in the western section of Victoria Park and no. 4 was just beyond the south-west corner of Victoria Park, under a parking area in the saleyards. This location is confirmed in the Bagizawe Map of 1867 that marks the presence of the shaft and a nearby house known as McMahons. In an article in the Ballarat Courier from February 1873 the manager of the Hand and Band Company reviewing recent activities including sinking No. 4 shaft and putting in pumps and constructing reef drives and ‘her ‘works to get at the ground before the Winter Freehold got it’ . An update on progress in the shaft from the following year notes the company has ‘ ‘25 men employed in the top level, from whom we are to receive one-half the gold they may obtain, the company paying for firewood and engine-drivers. The water cylinder referred to in previous report, recommended by your mining manager and engineer for pumping the water at the blind shaft in the 425-feet level, has since been erected, and, notwithstanding having had a large influx of water in that shaft, we have been enabled to sink it to the required depth, namely, to the 500-feet level, and have now three parties extending this level; two from the blind shaft, and one from main shaft, which will enable us to reach the main gutter in a very short time . The final mention of the shaft from the local press is dated March of 1875 when under pressure from the Bank and with difficulty raising capital from shareholders the Hand in Band Company faces a sale of its claim, plant and machinery. The No. 4 Shaft is described as unprofitable and although the writer concedes that there are are prospects to reach gold deposits the investment required may outweigh the potential returns . The gloomy future predicted in this article must have been realized for based on the surveyor’s map of December 1875 the shaft is described as abandoned. Regarding the nearby McMahons site a file from the Board of Works, dated 1868, notes that McMahon’s public house ‘would interfere with the planned development of the sale yards’. The inference is clear and on later maps the house/bar is no longer extent. Surviving archaeological evidence from this phase could include domestic waste from temporary camps or tenements, foundations/cess pit for McMahon’s public house and material culture relating to mining activity – shaft entrance, foundations of associated structures, wash deposits etc. Given the level of subsequent development including the yards, the road the railway easement and ancillary services the potential for archaeological remains from this phase was assessed as low. Phase 3: 19th century Development of sale yard (1863-1876) In 1863 Thomas Baird the Town Surveyor, acting for the Council, laid out the sale yards on a 15 acre reservation complete with fenced off drafting and selling pens connected by interlinked gravelled lanes. The yard was situated to the southwest of the town, a quarter of a mile from the No. 1 shaft of Band of Hope Gold Mining Co. and was supplied by piped water pumped by a windmill from Wendouree Swamp. In 1875 the yards were extended into the adjacent 17-acre western allotment formerly known as ‘Cardigan Square”. A map drawn up in 1867 by E.W. Bagsizawe prior to the acquisition shows this allotment as unsurveyed Crown lands containing the aforementioned ‘Band of Hand’ Shaft and McMahon’s Public House. Both these sites were cleared to accommodate Gilles Street and to develop the western allotment for cattle and horse yards Additional features added in the late 19th century include the development of a railway branch line and trucking platform. The railway infrastructure has largely been dismantled and survives as a relict embankment, although of local interest has no archaeological significance. what survives now from this phase includes original bluestone picture paving and some remnant fencing. These extent features are of local significance and have limited archaeological interest. Phase 4 & 5: 1905 – 1960s – 1960’s to Present Throughout the 20th century the sale yards benefited from local and state investment improving and expanding the facilities. Additions to the eastern allotment included the construction of an administration office built in 1909 and in the 1970-80’s a redrafting of the site masterplan resulting in new drafting yards and sales pens. In the largely undeveloped western allotment, a railway easement was installed during the war years, that curved from near the northeast corner of Winter and Learmonth Street across the western half of the site towards a corridor east of present day of Hazel Road. Post 1960, developments in the eastern half of the allotment included new Pig selling pavilions and a new concrete paved cattle and horse yard fenced with tubular steel fencing. The current Heritage Overlay for the former Sale yards includes three principal features as follows: • The administration building; • a representative portion of the yard with bluestone paving, ramps and fencing to provide clear articulation of heritage approval processes and outline any further archaeological investigation that may be required in advance of the study area’s redevelopment; and • the Pig Sales Pavilion at the southern corner of LaTrobe and Gilles St. South. Other than the mine shaft and McMahon’s Public House there is little documentary evidence to suggest there are more additional subsurface features of archaeological significance within the study area. A summary of the archaeological potential for the site is provided below: Phase 1 1838 - 1851 Site use: Pre-Gold Rush, Traditional country of Wadawurrung and Dja Dja Wurrung, Land described as open forest land and undulating plains, 1839 Arrival of Squatters- Yuille’s Est. 10,000-acre Sheep Run. Activities Establishing stock routes following Aboriginal pathways, Sheep rearing on pastoral run, Land clearing Potential Remains Low potential to find Isolated artefacts, Loss or discard of materials such as farm or survey tools, Tree boles, wash deposits, old fence lines Phase 2 1851-1863 Site use Gold Rush, Influx of migrant miners, informal occupation and settlement of both surveyed and unsurveyed Crown Land Activities Unrecorded occupation or use, Informal transient mining camps, Formal suburban development on surveyed allotments, Access roads, Mining or depositional activity Potential Remains Low potential to find evidence of mining debris, drainage features, encampments, house sites, cess pits, stray finds Phase 3 1863-1876 Eastern Allotment Site use15-acre site developed into cattle yard Potential Remains Original fabric from receiving yards, drafting and sales pens, walks and lanes partially paved mostly gravelled, piped water Western Allotment Site use 17-acre allotment known as Cardigan Square set aside for a Public Space, Band and Hand Co. had mining claim and sunk shaft no. 4 on site. McMahon’s Bar and Public House shown on map. Potential Remains Low potential to find material culture associated with mining -including shaft, structural elements, machinery -puddling machines, engines, water pumps, pipes etc Building foundations (unplanned public house probably of timber construction), commercial and domestic waste from house/public house/cess pit Phase 4 1876-1905 Eastern Allotment Site Use Sheep/Cattle Yards Yards extended and developed, Potential Remains high for yards, pens, walkways, races, ramps, fencing, water services- troughs, pipes, spoon drains, hard standing, ancillary buildings Western Allotment Site use New Sheep Yards, cattle and pig yards extended into western allotment, 1875 Mine shaft abandoned and covered, McMahon Public house cleared away. 1886 Railway line opened Potential remains Low for surface Mine features and McMahon house Phase 5 1905 – 1960s Eastern Allotment Site use Continued expansion of yard, development of New administration building (1909) Potential remains – underground features associated with Administration building Western Allotment New Wartime Railway easement to west of site (1941) and development of Sales pavilion (c.1963) and adjacent sheds (1964) Potential remains low potential of unrecorded sale yard features, railway infrastructure
Heritage Inventory Description
FORMER CENTRAL VICTORIAN LIVESTOCK EXCHANGE (BALLARAT SALE YARDS) - Heritage Inventory Description
The site is located at 1020 Latrobe Street, Delacombe, Ballarat VIC 3356 (Property no. 2018755). and comprises the former site of the Central Victorian Livestock Exchange (Ballarat sale yards) defined by two large rectangular blocks to the southeast corner of Victoria Park bound by Winter Street to the North, Latrobe Street to the South, Learmonth Street to the west and Brazenor Street to the east. The area is divided by Gilles St. South, an access road. The site occupies 12.3 ha of Crown land and is currently zoned for industrial use. Internally from west to east the ground is made up of grassed over yards, hard standings, covered sheds and shelters, open pens and loading and unloading ramps. Notable structures include a brick built, detached, administration building dated 1909 and a Selling Pavilion c.1963. The western block measures approximately 85,460m² and the eastern block 59,500 m². The Ballarat Sale yards is currently owned and managed by Development Victoria.
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