FORMER POLICE STATION COMPLEX

Other Names

Warrnambool Police Station ,  South-West TAFE

Location

7-9 GILLIES STREET WARRNAMBOOL, WARRNAMBOOL CITY

File Number

835112

Level

Registered

Statement of Significance

What is significant?

The Former Police Station Complex including the former police station, residence, stables and lock-up.
 

How is it significant?

The Former Police Station Complex is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria. It satisfies the following criterion for inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register:
 
Criterion A
 
Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s cultural history.
 
Criterion D
 
Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects
 

Why is it significant?

The Former Police Station Complex is historically significant for its associations with the police force in the southwest of Victoria in the late nineteenth century. As a complex of substantial masonry buildings constructed from 1883 to 1888, it demonstrates the prominence of Warrnambool during this era, as well as the size and importance of its police force. Retaining its station building, stables, residence and lock-up the complex allows the operation of the police force during this period to be better understood than most other places with the same association. [Criterion A]
 
The Former Police Station Complex is architecturally significant as a notable example of a late nineteenth-century police complex. As a complex the place is reasonably intact, retaining buildings constructed for different purposes including a police station, stables, lock-up and residence. The buildings were designed by ER Laver for the Public Works Department and are stylistically cohesive. The two-storey Classical style police station is one of relatively few large-scale police buildings in regional Victoria from the period. The stables are of solid stone construction and are an impressive example of the building type. [Criterion D]
 

Group

Law Enforcement

Category

Gaol/Lock-up