FORMER MORDIALLOC STOCK POUND

Archaeological features, deposits and artefacts could be present below the ground surface. While surface features associated with the historical fabric of the Mordialloc Stock Pound have been removed, subsurface components exceeding 75 years old are potentially present. The site dates from c. 1906, and is shown on archival photographs and MMBW plans from the 1920s and 1930s. It was demolished by 1963. The site is more than 75 years of age. 

The Mordialloc Stock Pound is historically and archaeologically significant to the state of Victoria, The Stock Pound was constructed sometime before 1906, based on the earliest reference to a stock pound or detention yard at Mordialloc in local newspapers was from June 1906 (Brighton Southern Cross 1906). This type of site is unique as it is not well-represented in the Victorian Heritage Database and inventory, with only one other mentioned, being the Drysdale Stock Pound in Geelong City. The Mordialloc Stock Pound site would be the only one within Greater Melbourne.

The Mordialloc Stock Pound is associated with the economic life of the Mordialloc area. The location of the Mordialloc Stock Pound close to the centre of the early town and at the intersection of the highway, the railway and the Mordialloc Creek and Port Phillip Bay may have been important. It was positioned at the nexus of all the major travel routes through the area and in the town itself and the Moorabbin-Mordialloc Grazing Common was adjacent, on the south side of the creek from the Stock Pound (Whitehead 2021). Grazing was crucial to the economy of the district surround Mordialloc and recovery of lost cattle and horses was important to the local community. Lost cattle and other animals could have been easily transported there and it was a central point from which animals could be reclaimed or sold. The Mordialloc Detention Yard holds significance within the Mordialloc community, being an early example of a stock pound in the greater Melbourne area and the state. This relates to the theme of ‘Grazing and raising livestock’ (4.3) and to theme ‘Living in country towns’ (6.5) as set out in Victoria’s Framework of Historical Theme