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Wickham

Other Name

Ratharnay

Location

37-39 King Road,HARKAWAY, Casey City

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

The former Ratharnay, built in 1854 for Wilhelm 'Butter' Meyer, Swiss settler who ran a district butter-dealing business, has regional significance as one of the earliest homestead buildings surviving at Harkaway, one of Victoria's major German settlements. Despite alterations and extensive additions at the rear, Wickham has significance as a very early brick cottage. The original smokehouse remains detached and intact apart from roof replacement. Both buildings provide an excellent example of early construction techniques in handmade bricks produced from the site. It has significance for its associations with Jacob Hessell, German Lutheran school teacher, who was there in the 1870s, and with Sir John Medley, Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University, its owner in the 1950s.

Group