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Anglican Church Hall (Former Common School No. 860) & Christ Church Anglican Church, 61-63 Stephenson Street, GREAT WESTERN

Location

61-63 Stephenson Street GREAT WESTERN, NORTHERN GRAMPIANS SHIRE

Level

Recommended for Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, makes a significant architectural and cultural contribution to the Great Western township. The building is visually connected to the immediately neighbouring Anglican Church building, and also to the Great Western School. It was erected in 1867 as the first permanent Common School at Great Western, replacing a number of private schools, which were set up to educate the children of miners who had come to the area after gold was discovered in 1858. In 1873 it became known as Common School No. 860, a number which was transferred to the present school when it opened in 1881. The former school building was sold to the Church of England and opened as their first permanent place of worship in Great Western in 1885. When the adjacent Christ Church was opened in 1911, the present building became the Sunday School and Church Hall.

The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original design qualities of a Victorian Primitive Gothic Revival style. These qualities include the parapetted steeply pitched gable roof form, together with the porch gable that projects from the main gable end. Other intact qualities include the galvanised corrugated iron roof cladding, brick wall construction, rendered parapet copings, corbelled gable ends, lancet window, regularly arranged windows at the sides, rendered window sills, pointed timber porch door, and the projecting brick quoins (each 4 courses high). The memorial gates with granite piers, timber post and rail and woven wire fence, and mature pine trees and eucalyptus also contribute to the significance of the place.

The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is associated with the establishment of a permanent school building in the Great Western township in 1867, replacing earlier private schools set up to educate the children of miners who had come to the area after gold was discovered in 1858. It is further associated with the Church of England, who used it as their first permanent place of worship from early 1885. When the present Christ Church was opened in 1911, it became the Sunday School and Church Hall.

The former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and valued by the Great Western community, as a legacy of the centre of education in the township in the 19th century, and later, as part of the Anglican Church.

Overall, the former Common School building and present Anglican Church Hall, 61-63 Stephenson Street, Great Western, is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Religion

Category

Church