83 Maling Road

What is significant?
The former Stationmaster's Quarters at 83 Maling Road, Canterbury. This is a 'TT' (double-T) Victorian Railways residence created out of two former 'T' gatekeeper's houses, moved to this site and joined into a single dwelling c1897.

The following architectural features of the house contribute to its significance: the double-T plan including two recessed entrance porches and the complex gabled roof; the corbelled brick chimneys; the six-over-six timber windows and surrounds; the triangular gable vents; any surviving four-panel external doors.

The north and south side verandahs are not significant.

The current site of the house also contributes to its significance.

How is it significant?
The former Stationmaster's Quarters is of local historic and architectural significance to the City of Boroondara.

Why is it significance?
Historically, as the earliest surviving building of the Canterbury Railway Station which opened in 1882. The coming of the railway was crucial in allowing suburban development of Canterbury in the early years of the 20th century. Its location is also of significance in illustrating both the changing role of railway employees in the 1890s and the growing importance of Canterbury in the late 1890s. Prior to 1890, level crossings were manually operated by gatekeepers housed in small, T-shaped dwellings which afforded them views of the rail tracks in both direction. This occupation was phased out during the depression of the early 1890s as a cost-cutting measure, and the 'T' houses moved for use elsewhere. Two such 'T's were joined on this site around 1897 for the Canterbury Stationmaster, marking the beginning of the suburb's substantial growth. (Criteria B & A)

Historically, as the only known 19th-century Victorian Railways residence to survive in the City of Boroondara. (Criterion B)

Historically, for its associations with Victorian Railways and its employees who occupied this property from the 1890s until the 1980s, beginning with Patrick O'Regan who lived here from 1897 to 1908. (Criterion H)

Architecturally, as a representative and intact example of a 'TT' Victorian Railways dwelling, and the only example identified in the Melbourne metropolitan area. In comparison with other surviving 'TT's in Victoria, it is highly intact. (Criteria D & B)

HO145 Maling Road Shopping Centre and Residential Environs, Canterbury

Maling Road Shopping Centre and Residential Environs, Canterbury, is an area of heritage significance for the following reasons:

- The precinct is a comprehensive and architecturally notable illustration of the effect of the railway's arrival in the Victorian era and the railway's further development around WWI. This is expressed, in part, in the distinctive street pattern that runs axially from the Canterbury Railway Station. It is also expressed in the well preserved residential and commercial development which was largely complete by WWII.

- The Maling Road and Canterbury Road commercial strips demonstrate a high level of architectural excellence, strong Victorian, Federation and interwar-era expression and a high degree of visual cohesion. The Maling Road strip also contains individually notable buildings that have a high degree of integrity and landmark value; the Post Office (1908), the Canterbury Theatre (1912) and Malone's Hotel (1889).

- The place is a highly representative Victorian and Federation-era residential precinct with individually notable houses. The precinct is interspersed with strong and well preserved interwar elements that offer an historic and architectural contrast and create streetscapes of high aesthetic interest.

- The precinct contains well preserved residential and commercial examples from the 1920s-30s, which reflects the premier status of Camberwell as an urban growth area during that period.

- The precinct has an historic association with Terry & Oakden, the designers of the original Claremont Park Estate and one of Victoria's most important architectural firms, and other important architects of the time such as Ward and Carleton and Ussher and Kemp.

- The precinct includes public landscaping elements such as asphalt paving, basalt pitching, kerbs, channels and mature trees and garden plantings, some of which date from the beginnings of the Claremont Park and Highfield Estates.

Group

Transport - Rail

Category

Railway Residence/Quarters