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BRIE BRIE HOMESTEAD COMPLEX

Other Name

GREEN HILL CREEK; BURRIL BURRIL; BURRI BURRI

Location

Bundoran Road GLENTHOMPSON, Southern Grampians Shire

File Number

837

Level

Stage 2 study complete

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
John Marr, William P. Scott and Charles Gray took up the Green Hill Creek squatting run, at Lake Repose in 1840. Scott soon left the partnership and Green Hill Creek was subdivided in 1846, Marr taking the northern half as Brie Brie and Gray the other as Nareeb Nareeb. John Marr probably built the oldest dwelling surviving on the property which was later used as a shearer's kitchen. He may have built some of the other early buildings such as the unusual combined stable, coachhouse and barn. He died in 1858 in middle age and the property passed to his financiers and executors, Horace Flower and the Hutton brothers, George, Thomas and John who were substantial merchants and businessmen in Belfast (Port Fairy) with extensive pastoral interests of their own. In late 1863 Brie Brie passed to a British based partnership, John Sanderson and Co. which also owned neighbouring runs. It was run by John Sanderson and William Murray, Scots who were related. This model parallels the famous arrangement of Neil Black managing Glenormiston for Neil Black and Co. John Sanderson built the second homestead about 1863 but went to London to manage the partnership's interests there leaving William Murray in charge. He too went to London and his son John Hutchinson Murray eventually ran the property with the continuing help of Walter Gow, another reliable Scot. Gow would have lived in the bluestone manager's cottage which survives. Other working buildings, such as the woolshed, men's quarters and wool classer's hut date from the twentieth century, replacements of those lost to bush fires. Brie Brie was famous as a very successful stud and producer of fine wool. In this it parallels its immediate neighbour and 'sibling', Nareeb Nareeb under Charles Gray and subsequently the Beggs family. The second homestead burnt down in 1891. A new one was built in the position of the present homestead only to be burnt accidentally in 1924. The fourth homestead was built soon afterwards in the fashionable American Bungalow idiom. No architect or builder has been associated with its design and construction. It remains in very good condition with an excellent degree of integrity. In 1895 John Murray established a nine hole golf course, which was one of the only private courses in Victoria, part of which survives. One of the most important components of the homestead complex is the rare private cemetery. It includes the graves and memorials of many of the owners of Brie Brie as well as others connected with the place. Brie Brie was purchased by Ian and Audrey Mann in 1936 who had important pastoral connections in the western District. They died in 1996 and are buried in the cemetery. Brie Brie remains in he Manns' ownership.

How is it significant?
Brie Brie homestead is of historic and architectural significance to the Shire of Southern Grampians and to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
Brie Brie Homestead Complex is of historic significance for its early beginnings and connections with the squatter, John Marr and his financiers and executors, the Port Fairy merchants and businessmen, Horace Flower and the Hutton Brothers. Subsequently it was connected with the British based John Sanderson and Co. partnership, one of the few examples of such capital arrangements in pastoral Victoria. This period is marked by championship-winning sheep and top prices for fleeces. The third chapter of the historical significance of Brie Brie is represented in its ownership by the Mann family, which also has deep roots in the development of the Western District. Although ravaged by successive bushfires and affected by economic and social changes, the Brie Brie Homestead complex reflects the sequential development of the place, its endurance against adversity and its continuing success as a stud and wool growing property.

Brie Brie Homestead Complex is of architectural significance for its typical range and assemblage of buildings within a broad landscape setting, now dominated by the present homestead, the fourth dwelling, which is one of the finest examples of the American Bungalow idiom in the Western District.

The private cemetery at Brie Brie is of special significance for its combination of historical and aesthetic values.

Group

Cemeteries and Burial Sites