Woolpack Hotel, 374 Sunraysia Highway, ST ARNAUD

The Woolpack Inn hotel, 374 Sunraysia Highway, St. Arnaud, has significance as the only surviving hotel building in the former New Bendigo area. This building was originally constructed in 1875 when the New Bendigo area boasted three hotels, shops, school and cemetery. During the population decline of the area in the 1930s, the building appears to have experienced alterations and additions.

The Woolpack Inn is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level. It demonstrates original and early design qualities of an eclectic Victorian and interwar style. These qualities include the broad hipped roof form that traverses the site, together with a broken back skillion verandah that projects towards the front and rear minor hipped roofs. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the unpainted and lapped galvanised corrugated iron roof cladding, brick wall construction (unpainted), modest side eaves, unpainted brick chimneys with soldier course cappings, timber framed double hung windows, timber framed doorways and the square timber verandah columns.

The Woolpack Inn is historically significant at a LOCAL level. It is the only the surviving 19th century building in the former New Bendigo area that had been established as a result of the gold rush in the mid 1850s and early 1860s. In particular, this building has associated with J.S. Moore, original owner, who had the hotel built in 1875. This building formed part of a small township that also included another two hotels, shops, school and cemetery. The township declined in the 1930s, possibly during the time when major alterations and additions were carried out on the Woolpack Inn.

The Woolpack Inn is socially significant at a LOCAL level. It is recognised and valued by the St. Arnaud community as a legacy of the former New Bendigo township and as a meeting place for locals.

Overall, the Woolpack Inn is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Commercial

Category

Hotel