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FORMER DRILL HALL

Other Name Listed as number 411 in Hardcopy report prepared by Context in 1999 Location 395 Barkly Street, FOOTSCRAY VIC 3011 - Property No 1008030000 Level Included in Heritage Overlay

[1/2] HO93 (1) - Drill Hall, 395 [2/2] HO93 (2) - Drill Hall, 395

Statement of Significance

The Footscray Drill Hall and adjacent Officers' Mess were built as a result of the introduction of compulsory military service within Australia prior to the outbreak of WWI, and it was one of a number of drill halls built between 1911 and 1918 in Victoria. The site is thus intimately connected with Australia's preparations for WWI.

It represents the Footscray community's endeavours to establish a local militia and training facility prior to WWI, and may be the only Footscray site that also represents the considerable community conflict over compulsory military service at this time.

The Drill Hall/Officers' Mess group was one of nearly fifty such buildings erected between 1911 arid 1918. Around one third of these buildings are still extant. Most are no longer used as drill halls, and few are protected. While it cannot be claimed that the Footscray Drill Hall group is rare or unique, it is part of a diminishing number of buildings that reflect this aspect of history.

The Footscray Drill Hall group is a relatively intact exemplar of the pre-World War I drill halls, and as such is highly significant.

The design of this drill hall type [one of two designs employed for the 1911-1918 buildings] was strongly influenced by the then Commonwealth architect John Smith Murdoch, and is thus significant. In other respects the drill hall is a strong, but strictly utilitarian, structure.

The drill hall and mess complex has high social and cultural significance, particularly within the suburb of Footscray. It is potentially significant to those associated with the Footscray militia units as a place where military traditions have been practiced and handed-on, as a meeting place over many years for this "community", and as a symbol of military service, in war and peace times, and of sacrifice in war.

It is significant to the Footscray community as a local landmark, largely because of its corner site and location next to the Whitten Oval, for its association with events having a profound effect on the community (WWI and WVVII), and as a symbol of the local community's response to the need for national and local defence.