FORMER ROBINSON AND WAYNE APOTHECARY SITE

The area is first mapped as allotment 20 of Section C in detail in the 1857 Revised Town Plan of Block A.B. C. D. The site was likely occupied prior as part of the first phase of the Ballarat Main Street development, due to its proximity to Ballarat West and the Gravel Pit alluvial fields. The area was occupied by Robinson and Wayne Apothecary Hall from c. 1853 until 1865. The premises likely went through two stages of development beginning as a timber structure and developing into a bricked ‘fireproof structure in the 1860s. Unlikely many sites on Main Road, this site was continually occupied by a Chemist and Wholesale druggist until the 20th century.

The site is of historical and archaeological significance.

The site is of historical significance as the location of an early residence and chemist and druggist Apothecary Hall during the years of the Victorian gold rush – one of the most significant rushes in world history. The later nineteenth century shows the development and decline of Main Road and the movement of the commercial centre to Sturt Street. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features associated with apothecary’s and doctor offices in the gold rush, and other later 19th-century.