The Botanic Gardens Precinct

What is significant?

The Botanic Gardens precinct dates from the early development of Queenscliff in the 1850s with the park apparently established around ten years later. The garden retains a series of mature specimen trees, while King and Mercer Streets contain a number of significant residences which date from the early development of Queenscliff. In addition the precinct includes the Royal Hotel, a late nineteenth century building which demonstrates the importance of the town during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries as a fashionable holiday resort.

Specific significant and contributory buildings within the precinct are identified in the attached schedule.

How is it significant?

This precinct is of historical and aesthetic significance to the Borough of Queenscliffe.

Why is it significant?

The Botanic Gardens Precinct is of local historical significance as a group of early residences in Queenscliff, all sited to face onto the Botanic Gardens which was laid out and planted from the 1860s. Several of these residences are associated with persons of both local and state historic significance. The Royal Hotel on the corner of King and Mercer Streets of 1881-2, while later, was also sited and designed to look over the Gardens and towards the sea and there is also a strong historical and visual link between the hotel and the Gardens. While not a particularly intact landscape, the remnant mature plantings (specimen trees) in the former Botanic Gardens are of local historical significance in demonstrating the efforts in the nineteenth century to create a Botanic Garden in Queenscliff, as had occurred in many other Victorian towns and regional centres.

The key early residences in the group are all of historical interest for their associations with particular individuals and families. The houses along King Street have particular associations with early pilots and the houses along Mercer Street have associations with two prominent Victorian gentlemen, W B Wright and Justice Thomas Fellows.

The Botanic Gardens precinct is of local aesthetic significance for its combination of nineteenth century buildings and garden setting with mature specimen trees. The buildings in King Street and Mercer Street are specifically oriented to face the garden, and the two streets are linked by the prominent Royal Hotel as the key corner building. The precinct contains individual buildings of aesthetic (architectural) interest and significance, including a series of relatively modest and austere mid-Victorian residences, contrasting with the more architecturally flamboyant Royal Hotel. The street layout of this part of Mercer Street is unusual in Queenscliff being a gentle crescent shape which is followed by the setback of the buildings along this street.

Group

Parks, Gardens and Trees

Category

Park or Garden Precinct