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DARTMOOR VILLAGE PRECINCT

Location PRINCES HIGHWAY, DARTMOOR, GLENELG SHIRE Level Recommended for Heritage Overlay

[1/1] Extent of Registration -

Statement of Significance

Dartmoor is a small village, located on the Glenelg River, on the Princes Highway. The town itself is small, and now predominately residential. Greenham Street and Wapling Avenue have long been the main thoroughfare of the township, and this route follows the original route from Portland to Penola, and eventually Adelaide, over the Glenelg River. Most of the buildings in the centre of the town are commercial and civic, although most of the commercial buildings no longer operate. The main street is dominated by large carved figures, which have been carved from the remaining stumps of the Cedrus atlantica (Atlantic Cedar) Avenue of Honour, planted to commemorate those who served and fell in World War One. The town started in the mid 1840s, when the Woodford Inn was established on the banks of the Glenelg River, near the river crossing. The town has been primarily a service centre for the surrounding pastoral properties, and later a timber town. The heritage places are mainly clustered in Greenham Street and Wapling avenue, although much has been lost to the east of the village centre. The precinct is in good condition and retains a high degree of integrity.

How is it significant?
The Dartmoor Village Precinct is of historical, social and architectural significance to the Glenelg Shire.

Why is it significant?
The Dartmoor Village Precinct is of historic significance as a township dating from the mid 1840s, as one of the chain of small settlements between Portland and Penola and as the focus for the pastoral properties surrounding the township from the 1840s onward. It is of social significance as the focus for the community's education and recreation, roles that continue to the present. The architectural significance of the town lies in range of buildings constructed from local materials over a long period of time, ranging from the larger religious buildings through to the humble timber cottages which remain.