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FORMER TURNBULL ORR & CO BOND STORE AND OFFICE

Location 41-43 WHARF STREET PORT ALBERT, WELLINGTON SHIRE File Number 600800 Level Registered

[1/3] FORMER TURNBULL ORR & CO BOND [2/3] 1 bond store & office port [3/3] plan

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
Port Albert developed from 1841 soon after the wreck of the steamer Clonmel led to the discovery of the port. Until the opening of the Gippsland railway Port Albert was the main port for the export of Gippsland’s produce, principally livestock, and for the import of manufactured goods and immigrants. The commercial life of the peninsula was dominated from 1844 into the 1860s by the firm of Turnbull, Orr & Co. The firm’s brick and timber bond stores and offices were constructed in 1844 and are shown on the Wilkinson survey plan of 1848. The existing derelict brick store building and the rendered and parapeted brick office building are probably the buildings shown facing Wharf Street on the 1848 plan although there is much physical evidence of subsequent alterations. The store building has lost its roof and the current rafters are replacements of an earlier set. The west wall has been rebuilt with the original bricks but without the earlier door and window openings. The office building has undergone extensive change with physical evidence that the timber work is much later than 1844, possibly 1890s when it was damaged by fire. A slate roof, itself probably the second roof, has been replaced with corrugated iron. The building has recently been stabilised by the insertion of steel rods and plates. The two buildings have been on separate titles since 1862.

How is it significant?
The Former Turnbull, Orr & Co Bond Store and Office Port Albert are historically, archaeologically and architecturally important to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Former Turnbull, Orr & Co Bond Store and Office Port Albert are historically and architecturally important as probably the earliest surviving buildings in Port Albert. As such they would be among the oldest buildings in Gippsland and therefore immensely important in the history of the region and of Victoria. Their association with the commercial development of the port adds to their significance.

The Former Turnbull, Orr & Co Bond Store and Office Port Albert are archaeologically significant because of the relative lack of deep disturbance of the site since the earliest days of settlement. The whole site from Wharf Street to the alignment of North Street at the rear has the potential to yield important artefactual evidence from the days when the peninsula was a thriving port serving the whole of Gippsland.