Gembrook Commercial Precinct

The Gembrook commercial precinct which comprises much of the original township area, between Station Road and Gembrook Road. The township developed initially to service the local Gembrook tmber and fruit growing industries, then for tourism in association with the arrival of the railway, and later mixed farming. Individually significant places include:

- 93 Main Street (Sacred Heart Catholic Church, HO63)

- 62 Main Street (Bhutan Pines at Gembrook Railway Station site, HO61,as well as the Oaks, Moterey Pines and Blackwoods, HO61)

- avenue planings of oak, blackwood, flowering gum (which extend along Main Street and beyond the commercial precinct, east to west, from 12 Beenak East Road to 48 Belgrave-Gembrook Road)

- 66A Main Street (Coffee Palace)

- J.A.C. Russell Reserve

- 72 Main Street (Post Office)

- 75 Main Street (Curiosity Shop, only)

-77 and 79 Main Street (the motor garages)

- 81 Main Street (house)

- 97 Main Street (the former Gembrook Store)

68-70, and 81A, 83-87, 89, 91, 91A, 95 and the house at the rear of 75 Main Street are non-contributory.

How is it Significant?

The Gembrook Commercial Precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance to Cardinia Shire.

Why is it Significant?

Historically, the Gembrook Commercial Precinct is significant for the tangible evidence it provides of important phases of the township's establishment from 1874 to service the local timber and farming industries, and its growth in the interwar period when it grew following the coming of the railway, the picturesque rail journey attracting day-trippers and vacationers and later motorists. (RNE criterion A.4) Historically, it is also significant for its associations with the Rev. John Edward Bromby, who laid out an area for the town in 1874. (RNE criterion H.1)

Historically, the Gembrook Station site, the J.A.C. Russell Reserve, and the Sacred Heart Church are significant for the evidence they provide of the early township and its tourism surge after World War One which was greatly enhanced by the new railway and Gembrook's role as its terminus (RNE criterion A.4). The avenue plantings, 66 Main Street (Coffee Palace), 72 Main Street (Post Office), 75 Main Street (Curiosity Shop), 77 and 79 Main Street (the motor garages), 81 Main Street (house), and 97 Main Street (the former Gembrook Store) form the core of old Gembrook and as such contribute to the significance of the precinct. All these places provide physical evidence of Gembrook's history as a tourism destination, and contribute to the historic character of this largely unified civic and commercial precint.

Aesthetically, the oak, blackwood and flowering gum street plantings have signifcance as an element unifying the township and streetscape (RNE criterion E.1).

The former Coffee Palace (now a take-away food store and residence) also contributes to the historic significance of the locality of Gembrook as a surviving example of the coffee palaces opened in many Victorian resort towns in the 1920s and one of the early buildings in the town (RNE criterion A.4). This building, presumably founded on temperance principles like other coffee palaces, has significance also for its associations with locally prominent persons such as Patrick McNulty and his wife, the first owners, and in the late 1930s with the Hickes (RNE criterion H.1).

Group

Commercial

Category

Commercial Precinct