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HO59 - Rocklands

Other Names

211-241 Mt Aitken Rd, Diggers Rest , 'Garden of Eden'

Location

211 Mt Aitken Rd DIGGERS REST, MELTON SHIRE

File Number

133

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/4]
Rocklands
[2/4]
Side elevation
[3/4]
Window detail
[4/4]
Chimney detail

Statement of Significance

Rocklands homestead at 211 Mount Aitken Road, Aitkens Gap, is significant as a moderately intact example of a Victorian styled homestead and as a physical legacy of pastoral life at Aitkens Gap in the nineteenth century. Rocklands was built for William Beaty, one of three brothers who established substantial homesteads in the area, the others being Pinewood, and Glencoe, a large bluestone building. Rocklands also has significance for its uninterrupted views to Koroit Creek from its prominent elevated site, and for its remnant ornamental garden and orchard that is surrounded by a rubble stone wall. The homestead represents one of few surviving 19th century homestead buildings in the Melton Shire.

Rocklands homestead at 211 Mount Aitken Road is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2, E.1). It demonstrates original design qualities of a Victorian style. These qualities include the hipped roof form clad in galvanised corrugated steel and the polychromatic brick chimney with the decorative bracketed and corbelled top that adorns the roofline. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the single storey height, rendered brick wall construction, narrow eaves with elaborate, paired timber brackets, central timber framed doorway with the round-arched fanlight above, timber framed double hung windows, rendered window sills, rectilinear drip moulds crowning the door and window openings with flanking pointed ends, and the keystone punctuating the drip mould of the main doorway. The remnant ornamental garden and orchard, and the rubble stone wall nearby, also contribute to the significance of the place.

The property is of LOCAL level historical significance (AHC A4, B2, H1) for its local scarcity as a substantial masonry homestead, for its representation of the early European history of the locality, and for its association with the Beaty family, an early and prominent pastoral family in Melton. It is one of the oldest houses in the Shire of Melton.

Overall, Rocklands homestead at 211 Mount Aitken Road is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Farming and Grazing