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KOORNONG HOMESTEAD COMPLEX

Location Henty Highway BRANXHOLME, Southern Grampians Shire File Number 889 Level Stage 2 study complete

[1/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead [2/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead [3/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead [4/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead front [5/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead [6/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead [7/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead north [8/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead north [9/9] 23221 Koornong Homestead staff

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The Koornong Homestead Complex is located about 10kms north of Branxholme. The main house reflects three major periods of construction. Started by George Derbyshire, the local government surveyor in the 1860s, it was substantially extended by Thomas Philip in the late nineteenth century and then modernised and extended in the mid-1930s by William Beggs. All the owners of Koornong have had pastoral interests and Beggs was an important backer of Reg Ansett. The house is complemented by an extensive mature garden, largely dating from the 1930s, the drive and the usual range of outbuildings. The complex is in excellent condition and retains a very high degree of integrity from the Interwar period.


How is it significant?
Koornong Homestead is of historical and architectural significance to the community of Branxholme and to the Southern Grampians Shire.

Why is it significant?
Koornong Homestead is of historical significance as a property representative of the development of the pastoral industry late in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Koornong has particular historical significance for its series of owners, who were important public officials and businessmen, who made valuable contributions to the social, commercial and political fabric of the region.

Koornong Homestead is of architectural significance firstly as an example of the work of the important Hamilton architect, Frank Hammond and secondly as an example of the work of the leading Melbourne architect, Robert Hamilton. The architecture of the homestead is reinforced by the continuing development of the garden.