NANGA GNULLE

Nanga Gnulle at 40 Harley Street, Strathdale, a split-level timber and mudbrick house incorporating skillion roofs clad in corrugated steel, clerestory windows and reclaimed brick chimneys is significant. The significant fabric is defined as the exterior of the entire house (including verandah, carport and brick paving), with a nominal curtilage (minimum five metres to all sides) to preserve its immediate setting. The mudbrick outbuildings, of relatively recent date and far more conventional in their expression, are not considered to be significant. Although of some interest, the brick shed and landscaping (with which Alistair Knox had no involvement) are similarly not considered to be crucial to an understanding of the cultural significance of the house.

Nanga Gnulle is of significance for research potential, aesthetic and associative significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

Nanga Gnulle is significant for the carefully considered integration of recycled building materials that were salvaged from numerous important (or merely representative) nineteenth century structures in and around Bendigo that were demolished in the early 1970s. These materials, which would otherwise have been lost, collectively form part of the story of the Bendigo region, and their rare retention within this building has the potential to yield information to contribute to an understanding of the region’s rich history. (Criterion C).

This house is significant as a notable example of the highly distinctive aesthetic style associated with the self-building subculture that became hugely popular in Victoria during the 1970s (continuing into the 1980s and beyond). Characterised by the extensive use of building materials that were either made from scratch (for example mudbricks) or salvaged from demolition sites (for example, reclaimed bricks, stone, weathered timber and architectural antiques), and by a preference for open planning, split levels and often unusual plan or roof forms, these houses are noted for their ruggedness and organic style. Although such houses became widely popular in Bendigo from the early 1980s, Nanga Gnulle stands out as a significantly earlier manifestation that must be seen as an important predecessor of a local trend that still continues to this day (Criterion E).

The house is significant as an excellent and notably intact example of the work of Alistair Knox, an important and influential figure in the development of post-war residential architecture in Victoria (and beyond), specifically for his role in promoting mudbrick construction, selfbuilding and the integration of architectural salvage, all of which became widely popular in the 1970s. One of only three houses that Knox designed in what is now the City of Greater Bendigo, Nanga Gnulle is one of only two that were built, and stands out as the earliest, largest and best example of this work in the municipality (Criterion H).