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FORMER QUEENS WHARF

Other Names

STONE JETTY , EASTERN JETTY , EASTERN PIER , CUSTOMS WHARF/JETTY

Location

EASTERN BEACH GEELONG, GREATER GEELONG CITY

Level

Heritage Inventory Site

Statement of Significance

STATEMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE SIGNIFICANCE: DRAFT ONLY

What is significant?

Eastern Pier, Geelong consists of a stone jetty, surfaced in bitumen with a timber-piled, concrete surfaced extension. First known as 'the jetty', it was begun in 1840 by convict labour. Assisted immigrants were also employed in building the stone jetty. The stone jetty was completed in 1843 and was called Queen's Wharf. A portable timber customs shed was sometimes placed on the jetty. The jetty was extended with timber in 1847 and by the mid-1850s, it was also known as Customs House Wharf. From the early twentieth century it was known as Eastern Pier, but sometimes referred to as Stony Pier.

The timber section of the pier was removed in 1959 and replaced with a new pier extension with a concrete slab surface.

How is it significant?

Eastern Pier is historically and archaeologically significant to the state of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

The Eastern Pier Geelong is historically significant for its association with the period of first permanent non-Indigenous settlement in Victoria and with the pastoralists who travelled from Van Diemen's Land to establish pastoral stations in Victoria. The pier is significant as a surviving example of infrastructure provided by the Government in the earliest years of permanent non-Indigenous settlement. It is significant for its link to the establishment of customs facilities at the Port of Geelong and to the granting of free warehouse status to that port. Eastern Pier demonstrates the vital role that maritime infrastructure played in the economic and social development of Victoria. Eastern Pier is a surviving example of the use of convict labour to carry out public works in Victoria in the early years of settlement and is a rare documented example of a public site where assisted immigrants were employed.

The Eastern Pier, Geelong, is archaeologically significant for its potential to reveal information relating to the earliest phase of non-Indigenous settlement in Victoria and in the Geelong region.

Group