Liam McNally
Moorabool council has nominated five places of significance to be included on the Victorian Heritage Register.
In the culmination of a decade of work, council has reviewed potential heritage places and precincts in the western portion of the municipality and identified 106 individual places and seven heritage precincts across Ballan, Blackwood, Bungaree, Gordon, Lal Lal, Millbrook, Mount Egerton and Wallace as meeting the threshold for inclusion within the heritage overlay.
Five of the places identified were recommended for nomination to the Victorian Heritage Register.
The Hunterston homestead at Egerton Road, Ballan, has been put forward as one of the earliest and most intact homesteads within the municipality. Constructed from locally quarried freestone between in the1840s, for Tasmanian pastoralist William Patterson in the earliest days of the colony of Victoria.
The former Police Quarters Courthouse at Clarendon Street, Blackwood has been nominated as a rare surviving example of buildings associated with 19th century law and order in the Victorian goldfields.
The Monterey Pine at Blackwood Cricket and Recreation Reserve has also been nominated, the specimen directly north of the entrance gates is of outstanding size, with an unusually large trunk diameter, form and height – the wider precinct has also been added to the local heritage overlay.
The former London Bank of Australia, in Bungaree has also been suggested – it is an exemplar of the type of banking services offered in early 20th century rural Victoria by the London Bank of Australia, in this case, as part of the larger Ballarat East branch.
Lastly, the Former Police Residence and Lock Up Bungaree has been nominated as a rare example of a complex of rural police buildings in Victoria dating from the late 1850s and early 1860s.
Councillor Rod Ward said the heritage review was an extraordinary piece of work and commended everyone involved in its preparation.
“Years have gone into this work and I just think it’s an absolutely outstanding piece of work that’s going to protect the history and the heritage of Moorabool Shire Council,” he said.
