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THE WOOLSHED

Location 206 LONGS ROAD SERPENTINE, LODDON SHIRE File Number 605473 Level Registered

[1/12] THE WOOLSHED SOHE 2008 [2/12] THE WOOLSHED SOHE 2008 [3/12] THE WOOLSHED SOHE 2008 [4/12] 1 the woolshed east loddon [5/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [6/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [7/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [8/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [9/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [10/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [11/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015 [12/12] H0480 THE WOOLSHED LHA 2015

Statement of Significance

The woolshed at East Loddon Station is unique for its use of materials in that it is a precise, industrialised example of a building type not generally designed with such formality or consequence. The 28-stand shed is of English-bond exposed brickwork, buttressed on all sides with segmental brick arches over all openings. 184 feet long, the building has a saw tooth corrugated iron roof on bolted cast iron trusses with gabled ends distinguished by symmetrical buttressing about the arched entrances with oculus louvres over. The original glass in the clear-story has been largely replaced with iron, but otherwise the woolshed is in original condition. Two extensions have been made to the west and at a date unknown. The shed has provision for 12 further stands with the additional runways bricked in at the time of construction. It does not appear that the extra capacity was ever required. The interior timberwork of the stands and pens are all intact including the counter-weighted gates. The shed was mechanised prior to 1886, firstly with steam engines and then by a pair of oil-driven "Rushton-Hornsby" hot bulb engines. Only the mountings and part of the pulley system remain of these. The shed still contains a "Ferrier" level wool-press and "W & T Avery" scales from Birmingham. The woolshed was constructed in c.1871 for John Ettershank an engineer and pastoralist who, through his partnership in a stock and station agency, was intimately connected with the squatting movement in Victoria. He is also credited with the invention of the first mechanical shearing system. Ettershank, almost certainly, played a significant role in the design of the shed; his signature and notes appearing on the drawings. The final design and drafting has been attributed to the architect W.C. Vahland. Although this is not verifiable, the drawings appear to have been executed by a professional hand, either Vahland's or the builders, Crawford Bros. of Bendigo.