HO89 - House 'Balmoral Farm'
2120-2224 Melton Highway MELTON, MELTON SHIRE
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Statement of Significance
The house at 2120 Melton Highway, Melton is significant as one of number of surviving weatherboard houses built in the first decades of the twentieth century as a result of the break up of the Clarke pastoral estate; and as one of only two surviving dwellings with Federation design qualities constructed by the same builder for properties created in the break-up of the Clarke estate. Also of significance is the underground domical rendered brick water tank at the rear, reflecting nineteenth century water storage practices no longer in use. The dwelling is of limited architectural interest as an altered example of a Federation style. Although the context and setting of the original house has been substantially compromised, the essential form, design and construction survive.
The house at 2120 Melton Highway, Melton is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A4). It is one of a number of surviving rural weatherboard houses built in the first few decades of the twentieth century which express the increasing rural prosperity and historic changes of the era, and in particular the break-up of the large pastoral estates, a major contemporary event in Australia's history. The break-up of the Exford, Overnewton and Melton Park estates, and most particularly Sir RHT Clarke's massive Rockbank estate, represented a major turning point in the history of the Shire. As one of only two surviving dwellings with Federation design qualities constructed by the same builder on former Clarke properties, it has a special association with the break-up of the Rockbank Estate. It is also of significance for its remarkable escape from the devastating 1965 bushfire, for which it gained publicity in statewide media. It is significant for its association with the McIntosh family, an early Melton Shire family, since its construction.
The underground tank at the rear of 2120 Melton Highway, Melton is historically and scientifically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC B2, C2, D2). The rendered brick construction and domical form of the tank is reflective of an underground water storage design widely practised in Australia in the late nineteenth and very early twentieth centuries.
The context and setting for the dwelling have been substantially compromised by later reversible additions, although some original design qualities survive of a Federation style, providing limited architectural interest (there are considered to be more intact example of the type in the Melton Shire). The design qualities include the recessed hipped roof form, together with the gable that projects at one side and the returned verandah formed under the main roof. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, horizontal timber weatherboard wall cladding, deep red painted and lapped galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, two partially painted red brick chimneys with multi-corbelled tops, narrow eaves timber framed double hung windows (some with nine paned upper sashes), timber framed doorway, and the turned timber finials on the gable ends.
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HO89 - House 'Balmoral Farm' - Physical Description 1
Physical Description -
The house at 2120 Melton Highway, Melton has an open rural setting with little landscaping, apart from the open grassed area and few eucalypts.
The asymmetrical, single storey, horizontal timber weatherboard, Federation styled house is characterised by a recessed hipped roof form, together with a gable that projects at one side and a returned verandah formed under the main roof. These roof forms are clad in deep red painted and lapped galvanised corrugated steel. Two early partially painted red brick chimneys with multi-corbelled tops adorn the roofline. Modest overhangs are features of the eaves.
Other early features of the design include the timber framed double hung windows (some with nine paned upper sashes), timber framed doorway, and the turned timber finials on the gable ends.
The three-dimensional context and setting of the house is severely interrupted by the introduced flat roof carport at the side-rear, and an introduced house linked with a walkway at the front. Although these represent an intrusion on the original building, the essential Federation design qualities - including forms, construction and some detailing - have been retained.
Towards the rear of the site is also an early domical rendered brick underground water tank. These tanks are a typical part of nineteenth and early twentieth century rural properties in Melton and more widely in Victoria, and illustrate a form of water collection and infrastructure no longer practised. The design of the tank appears to be a variation of early nineteenth century brick lined underground tank design published in J.C. Loudon's Encyclopaedia of Agriculture in 1826, but widely employed in Australia only from the 1860s. It has a low segmental rather than high hemispherical dome.
HO89 - House 'Balmoral Farm' - Historical Australian Themes
Melton Historical Themes: 'Farming', 'Water & Fire'
HO89 - House 'Balmoral Farm' - Integrity
Integrity -
Moderately intact (original building).
Substantially altered (context & setting of original building).
HO89 - House 'Balmoral Farm' - Physical Conditions
Physical Condition - Good
Heritage Study and Grading
Melton - Shire of Melton Heritage Study phase 2
Author: David Maloney, David Rowe, Pamela Jellie, Sera Jane Peters
Year: 2007
Grading:
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