SHOPS & RESIDENCE

The commercial building at 82-94 Whitelaw Street, Meeniyan, constructed in c.1890 with additions in 1904, is significant. The single storey commercial weatherboard complex consists of a pair of commercial buildings with attached residences to the rear. These separate structures are combined by and common parapet and street verandah and look to have been constructed at different stages. The eastern most building has a simple shopfront with the hip of the roof and the parapet being separate. The western building has a roof that is attached to the parapet, and the roofline shows that the house to the west was built at the same time. Other features of this site include a weatherboard stall with a panelled diagonal board stall in the shop, a splayed entry and stepped twin parapet. The main building has a straight roofed verandah with chamfered posts, and has tri-part, double hung windows. The hipped roof extends to the rear of the main building, while the most Western building has a projecting hip bay to the Whitelaw Street boundary. Some original decorative elements, such as the cast iron frieze are lost. 
Non-original alterations and additions are not significant.

The commercial building at 82-94 Whitelaw St, Meeniyan is of local historic and aesthetic significance to the South Gippsland Shire.

Historically, this commercial complex is the oldest extant commercial property in Meeniyan. These buildings demonstrate the early development of Meeniyan and surrounds in the wake of the opening of the South Eastern Railway in 1892. The complex has been a commercial hub for over 100 years. (Criterion A) 
Aesthetically this group of buildings are a substantially intact group of shops and attached residences, and makes a significant contribution to the historic character of Whitelaw Street and Meeniyan. This building also illustrates a superior level of this type of architectural form, particularly within the South Gippsland Shire. (Criterion E)