HO119 - House, 107-121 Water Reserve Road, Rockbank

The house at 107-121 Water Reserve Road is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). Although altered and extended, the house still clearly demonstrates original design qualities of an Edwardian style with interwar styled windows. The design qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, hipped roof form and the side gable that projects towards the front, together with the return convex verandah. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the horizontal timber weatherboard wall cladding, galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, narrow eaves with paired timber brackets, multi-corbelled brick chimney, timber fretwork verandah valance, timber framed double hung windows arranged in banks of three and the front timber framed doorway with sidelights and highlights. The adjacent Victorian vernacular styled cottage also contributes to the significance of the place.

The house at 107-121 Water Reserve Road is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A.4). It is a good representative and increasingly scarce remaining example of a rural weatherboard house built in Melton Shire in the first few decades of the twentieth century as a result of the increasing rural prosperity and historic changes of the era. In particular it is a good representative example of farming homesteads created as a result of the break-up of the Clarkes' massive Rockbank estate, which was a major turning point in the history of the Shire. The place is also associated with the important history of dairy farming, and water reserves, in the Shire.

Overall, the house off Water Reserve Road is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Farming and Grazing

Category

Farm