FORMER CRITERION HOUSE SITE

 The site is first mapped as Allotment 1 of Section 3 on the 1852 Municipality of Ballarat Plan with the occupied being purchased by J. Austin. The ground is described as swampy in the 1850s. The 1861 Gold Fields Plan shows one large structure across the site, likely to be the timber structure built by Hillfling and Greig until 1859. The site contained the Criterion House Drapery Store (est. 1860). The site was redeveloped c. 1960. There is a -1m elevation change between 1858 and 2019. Excavations within the roadway have revealed a timber bridge structure at 0.75m in depth. The site currently contains late twentieth century structures. 

 The site is of historical and archaeological significance. 

 The site is of historical significance as the location of an early commercial premises in Ballarat West during the years of the Victorian gold rush. The site is significant as the Criterion Drapery Store, which was one of the largest stores created in Austral in the 1860s. The site is of archaeological significance due to its potential to contain artefacts, deposits and features that relate to the establishment of commercial operations in the gold rush, and as the Criterion Store later 19th-century activities.