Pineville Precinct

The Pineville Heritage Precinct has significance for its diversity of Victorian, Late Victorian, Federation, interwar and to a lesser degree, early postwar building stock constructed between 1850 and 1948. The variation in dwelling design spans both the different periods of residential progress and within each of the design types, being a legacy of the disparate locations of early development, different scales of streets and allotments, and the diversity of socio-economic circumstances of the original owners. Yet, the precinct also has significance for the similar characteristics shared by most dwellings: single storey scale; hipped and/or gabled roof forms; timber weatherboard wall construction; corrugated sheet metal roof cladding; timber framed windows and front, side or return verandahs. Within the context of each street, most dwellings share similar front setbacks. The earliest streets within the precinct: Pakington, Autumn, Gertrude, Potter, Lupton, Pizer, Coquette, Thomas, St. James and Laira Streets are a physical legacy of the layout of the area between 1839 and 1864. A sizeable proportion of the southern half of the precinct had been acquired by James Austin in 1847. He donated land for the establishment of the Wesleyan Church at the corner of Pakington and Lupton Streets at that time. The existing Church building, built in 1876, forms a local heritage landmark, as does the neighbouring Memorial Sunday School (built in c.1920) at 2 Potter Street. Spread throughout the precinct are 8 dwellings built in the 1850s, representing the earliest phase of residential development. The most notable surviving examples include "Pineville" at 2 Gertrude Street and "Dumbarton" at 12 Thomas Street. The other Victorian dwellings built in the 1870s and 1880s are also occur in the area, as are the proportionally large number of Late Victorian dwellings built in the 1890s. These dwellings reflect later subdivisions of 1889 and c.1890-91 with small homogenous groupings contributing to the streetscapes in Coquette, Laira and Thomas Streets. The contextually notable number of Federation era dwellings also contributes to an important phase of residential development between 1900 and 1919. Further subdivision of remaining open land in the area, including the "Pineville" estate in the early 1920s, brought about the construction of interwar and early postwar dwellings, particularly in the newly-created streets of Bowlers and Pineville Avenues, and in Gertrude Street. Also significant to the area is the Geelong West Park that provides an important public landscape, having been established on the northern portion of the former "Pineville" property in 1911. The Geelong West Bowling Club greens and clubhouse soon followed. Other early 20th century landmarks in the area include the Geelong West Fire Station at 95 Autumn Street (built in 1919) and the former Potter Bakery building (established in 1922-23) at 28 Potter Street. The drainage easement in the northern portion of the precinct (between Pakington and Laira Streets) also reflects important infrastructure which replaced a masonry open channel in 1932 that had been constructed in 1891 in the natural creek bed originally known as the Western Gully. In addition to the former Newtown Methodist Sunday School, a number of streets in the area commemorate local soldiers who fought and died in the First and Second World Wars.

The Pineville Heritage precinct is architecturally and aesthetically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). It demonstrates a diverse range of Victorian, Late Victorian, Federation, Edwardian, interwar Bungalow and early postwar Bungalow styles, reflecting the evolution and progress of the area between 1850 and 1948. More broadly, the area has significance for its similar architectural characteristics in the surviving residential heritage buildings, notably: single storey scale; hipped and/or gabled roof forms; timber weatherboard wall construction; corrugated sheet metal roof cladding; timber framed windows and front, side or return verandahs. The detailing to most of the dwellings relates to their stylistic eras. A select number of buildings are atypical to the scale and design of the dwellings also contribute to the architectural significance of the area. These are the Reformed Church at 231 Pakington Street and its neighbouring Memorial Sunday School Hall at 2 Potter Street; "Pineville" at 2 Gertrude Street; "Dumbarton" at 12 Thomas Street; Geelong West Bowling Clubhouse at the north end of Bowlers Avenue; and the former Potter Bakery at 28 Potter Street (representing the only surviving physical legacy of commercial or industrial development in the area from the early 20th century). The Geelong West Park, laid out between 1911 and 1912, contributes to the aesthetic values of the area as an important public landscape. The surviving bluestone kerb and channel and the drainage easement along the route of the original Western Gully, also contribute to the significance of the precinct.

The Pineville Heritage precinct is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A.4, H.1). It has associations with the earliest phases of building development in Geelong West from the late 1840s. Historically, the Pineville precinct embodies several important phases of residential development in the 1850s and 1870-1880s (when the area remained semi-rural), and especially during the 1890s, early 20th century and interwar period, when further land subdivisions allowed for the construction of most of the surviving heritage dwellings in the area. The precinct has associations with some early notable figures, including James Austin (original landholder who donated land for the Wesleyan Church in 1847 and 1868), William Timms and W.J. Reid, original and early owners of "Pineville", Henry Roebuck, Town Treasurer of "Dumbarton", 12 Thomas Street, and John Baxter and Son, builders of several Late Victorian dwellings in the area in the 1890s.

The Pineville Heritage Precinct is socially significant at a LOCAL level (AHC G.1). The former Newtown Methodist Church Sunday School Hall at 2 Potter Street, and more broadly the names of Leckie Place and Bigmore, Lupton, Pizer, Plunkett and Potter Streets are valued by sections of the local community as memorials commemorating the service and sacrifice of locals soldiers who fought and died in the First and Second World Wars.

Overall, the Pineville Heritage Precinct is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Residential Precinct