Former Shire of Marong Hall

The former Marong Shire Hall, located at the south-east corner of Adams Street (Calder Highway) and High Street (Alternative Calder Highway) was constructed in 1908. It is a single-storey building with a taller hall/chamber at its centre and an entrance loggia, and is built of red tuck-pointed brickwork, with relief afforded by a stuccoed cornice, loggia spandrels and pediment vents, painted a light/neural colour. The building combines Classical and Baroque motifs. The symmetrical front (north) elevation is distinguished by a three-arched loggia with moulded imposts and flanking wings. A recessed pediment, over the loggia, features the shire coat of arms in a foliated surround to its tympanum. The loggia windows are arched double-hung sashes with coffered apron-sills; the central door is windowed and two-leaved with a lunette fanlight. The paired windows on the flanking wings are double-hung sashes with cambered headers. The loggia spandrel is inscribed MARONG SHIRE HALL. The hall roof is hipped with slate tile cladding and has small slatted dormer vents. The rear wall of the main hall/chamber appears to have been intended as the link to an additional structure, as evidenced by the segmental arch in its central bay. The rear also has a set of more recent additions, with a connecting wing to the newer buildings. The former Marong Shire Hall is set back from Adams Street behind a landscaped garden, bisected by a concrete pathway. The entrance is via a granite Marong and District Soldiers Memorial gateway, installed after World War I. There are three mature palm trees to the west lawn.

How is it significant?

The former Marong Shire Hall is of local historical, social and aesthetic/architectural significance.

Why is it significant?

The former Marong Shire Hall is historically significant (Criterion A) for its capacity to demonstrate Marong's central role in the administration of the former Shire of Marong from 1908 to the 1990s, after supplanting Lockwood in this role. When completed in 1908 it followed approximately 40 years of agitation on the part of the town elders for a municipal hall at Marong. The involvement of noted Bendigo architects William Vahland and John Beebe in the design of the building is significant (Criterion H). Vahland was locally prolific for many years, before teaming up with Beebe, having begun his architectural practice as the office of William Charles Vahland in 1857, and forming partnerships with other architects through to Beebe in the very early twentieth century. The former Marong Shire Hall is also of some social significance as the building which was at the centre of local government in the former Shire from 1908 until the 1990s, and the seat of civic activity and local government for many decades (Criterion H).

The former Marong Shire Hall is of local aesthetic/architectural significance (Criterion E). The building is largely externally intact to its main presentation and is a well resolved and prominently located shire hall which combines Classical and Baroque motifs. It is also relatively unusual as a building in this period which demonstrates Baroque Revival influence, outside the major centres of Melbourne and Bendigo. Elements of note include the finely executed red tuck-pointed brickwork, the pedimented central entrance loggia, and the contrasting use of stucco to cornices, loggia spandrels and pediment vents. The significance of the building is enhanced by its prominent corner location and generous landscaped setting, which includes vestiges of an early garden layout, the granite soldier's memorial to Adams Street and mature palm trees to High Street. The building is additionally of interest as a comparatively late example of a small brick shire hall in the Bendigo region, with others mainly built in the 1860s and 1870s.

Group

Community Facilities

Category

Hall Public