FORMER CUSTOMS HOUSE

What is significant?
Echuca developed as an important port from the early 1850s, when Henry Hopwood established a crossing place there. The Echuca Customs House was constructed in 1884 to administer customs regulations for the inter-colonial trade that were payable, until 1901, on goods imported to Victoria from the colonies of New South Wales and South Australia; this function dates back to late 1854, prior to the construction of the current building. It was one of only a small number of customs houses built on the Victorian side of the colonial border, and was the most important, situated as it was at the busy port of Echuca. The volume of trade at Echuca was greatly boosted after the arrival of a rail link to Melbourne in 1864. It was a site of competitive and often hostile relations between New South Wales and Victoria, and as such was as a key symbol of the economic need for the Federation of the Australian colonies, which had become critical by the 1890s.

The Echuca Customs House was designed and constructed by the Public Works Department of Victoria. The working drawings for the building were executed by J.H. Harvey under the direction of G. Watson. It features the Public Works Department's distinctive use of polychrome-banded brickwork and round-arch windows with pointed hood mounds and incised keystones. The single-storey structure has a hipped roof clad in slates and surmounted by iron finials. The fine detailing, joinery and workmanship are particularly notable.

How is it significant?
The Echuca Customs House is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?
The Echuca Customs House site is historically significant for its role in collecting customs duties on inter-colonial trade across the Murray River. The building's substantial size and prominent siting demonstrates the importance placed on customs collection by Victoria?s colonial government.

The Echuca Customs House is architecturally significant for its Gothic-inspired form. It is historically and architecturally significant as one of only two examples of customs houses on the Murray River known to survive in Victoria, and as a rare surviving example of a customs house designed and constructed by the Public Works Department of Victoria.

The Echuca Customs House is also historically significant as a critical element of the historic Echuca wharf precinct; it has an important relationship with the other elements in the precinct, including the Echuca Wharf (1867) and adjacent Shackell's Bond Store (1859) [H558], which are amongst Echuca's oldest riverfront buildings.
[Online Data Upgrade Project 2004]

Group

Government and Administration

Category

Customs House