SOUTH GIPPSLAND WATER PURIFICATION PLANT

The South Gippsland Regional Water Authority Purification Plant, designed by Ronald M. Scott and constructed in 1958-60 at Harveys Road, Leongatha. It is a simple vertical parapet block of apparently four storeys in cream brick with a projecting single storey wing to the east. It is actually an architectural shell around the water processing plant. The front of the multi-storey block facing the road has a distinctive canopy with a tipped-up cantilever at its extremity, sheltering the entry steps and supported at either side on five slender rectangular concrete posts. 
 The windows are of multi-panel steel frames. Those on the western side are regularly arranged three per floor with a large loft door at the top level with a projecting cantilevered steel derrick. The front elevation above the canopy has a panel of red brick bordered by a concrete architrave in an equal margin of the cream brick facade, with five levels of square windows set at its sides. The parapet walls are capped white concrete slabs. 
To the eastern side, the original single storey wing has been extended at a later stage in slightly darker brickwork, but otherwise matching the original. This wing has a band of small square windows in the upper part of the wall and hides a complex of concrete tanks and pipework at the rear. A further L-shaped wing at the rear south west corner also appears to be later. 
The building is set on the hillside above the road in a well-tended lawn area with exotic specimen trees. To its east are the large water storage tanks. 

The South Gippsland Regional Water Authority Purification Plant is of local historic and aesthetic significance to South Gippsland Shire.

Historically, it demonstrates the improvements that were made to public infrastructure to cope with the significant development that occurred in the Shire in the post-war period. (AHC criteria - A.4 and D.2) 
Aesthetically, it is an astonishing example of a post war Functionalist building in a rural setting, which is apparently influenced by the work of the Dutch Functionalist architect Willem Dudok. It is unique in the Shire and possibly also in rural Victoria. The dramatic appearance of the building is heightened by the contrast with its surrounding rural setting and is enhanced by the mature landscaping on the site. (AHC criterion - E.1 and F.1)