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Hazelglen Uniting Church

Location 1070 YAN YEAN ROAD DOREEN, NILLUMBIK SHIRE Level Included in Heritage Overlay

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Statement of Significance

Hazel Glen Uniting Church at 1070 Yan Yean Road, Doreen, is significant. The church, including its form and materials, the memorial entry gates and border pines contribute to the significance of the place.Hazel Glen Uniting Church is of local historic, representative and social significance to the Shire of Nillumbik.Hazel Glen Uniting Church is historically significant for its ability to demonstrate the early settlement of in the parish of Linton. The Church is the only remaining public building demonstrating the settlement of Hazel Glen, which was later to become Doreen. Constructed in 1872, the brick church replaced an earlier timber slab church that had been erected nearby in 1863. The construction of a larger, more substantial masonry church in 1872 indicates that the surrounding farming community had grown relatively prosperous and large at that time, when compared to other rural localities in the Shire, many of which did not have their own church until decades later. The building also highlights the role of religious buildings in spiritual and community life during the Victorian period. The Church is also significant for its ongoing use by a religious congregation in the area. Historical associations are celebrated though elements such as the memorial gates fronting Yan Yean Road. (Criteria A) Hazel Glen Uniting Church is significant as a representative example of a rural Victorian church. The building conforms to the simple form and Gothic Revival style that many churches adopted in the region from the 1860s up to the interwar period. The use of bluestone and rendered brick is evident elsewhere in the Nillumbik, however is more uncommon in the smaller and more rural township developments in the Shire, where most religious buildings appear to have been built in timber. The original section of the church retains key original features such as the Gothic arch windows with drip moulds. The location of the church on a rise with a clear land around on the site and border pine plantings contributes to the significant setting of the place. (Criterion D) OFFICIAL Hazel Glen Uniting Church is of social significance as a focus of worship and as a community gathering place in the district since 1872 to the present day. The building continues to function in its original purpose for the congregation. (Criterion G)