HO39 - House & Bullock Track

The house at 847-1071 Blackhill Road is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). It demonstrates original design qualities of an interwar homestead Bungalow style. These qualities include the broad, steeply pitched gambrel roof form, together with the minor gable that projects towards the front and the return broken back verandah formed under the main roof. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, horizontal timber weatherboard wall cladding, galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, elongated face red brick chimney, stop chamfered timber verandah posts, rudimentary solid timber verandah brackets, timber framed double hung windows (arranged singularly and in groups), timber framed doorway and the decorative gable infill (panelling and timber battening). The farm fixtures, notably the Sunshine gates and rare wooden haystack elevator also contribute to the significance of the place.

The house at 847-1071 Blackhill Road is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A4, H1) for its association with the Beaty family, who have been prominent in the rural history of Toolern Vale and the Shire of Melton. Robert Beaty was a third generation member of this family whose establishment of this Dorset sheep stud property 'Kororoit Park' continued the family's pastoral and farming traditions, and the associations of this land with John Beaty, who purchased it in the 1850s.

The surviving evidence of the former bullock track to the Gisborne district is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC C.2). It has the potential to contribute to a wider understanding of the history of the Post-Contact occupation of the area.

Overall, the house and evidence of the bullock track, 847-1071 Blackhill Road, is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Farming and Grazing

Category

Farm