FORMER HEADMASTER'S HOUSE AND ADJACENT IN-GROUND WATER TANK AT KOORNONG EXPERIMENTAL SCHOOL, END KOORNONG CRESCENT (WEST)

What is significant?
The 1939 house and the surrounding site to the title boundaries.

How is it significant?
The house is architecturally, historically and socially significant to the Shire of Nillumbik.

Why is it significant?
The house is architecturally and historically significant because it was designed by the noted modernist architect, Best Overend, with a simple but innovative form, illustrative of early modernist design at the time (Criteria D & H). The house is historically significant because it is the only major structure connected to the innovative Koornong experimental school to survive the 1950s bushfires that devastated the area and is associated with the school's founder, the academic and educator, Clive Neild and the artist, painter and sculptor, Danila Vassilieff (Criteria A & H). The house is historically and socially significant because the Koornong school (with which it is associated) pioneered a concept of education that was concerned with the enrichment of the curriculum and the developing of a self-governing community of children and adults (Criteria A, G & H).

BUTLER STUDY, 2001
The former headmaster's house as the only major survivor of the innovative Koornong Experimental School, is significant to the Nillumbik Shire:

. for its associations with the development of education,. (an important aspect of the history of the Shire of Eltham) by its introduction of a different concept of education concerned with enrichment of the curriculum, development of a self-governing community of children and adults, and individual guidance within an Australian setting;

. for its associations with notable figures such as the founder Clive Neild who was keen to develop the educational techniques and philosophies he had seen in the United States and Europe, its designer,. the much publicised Modernist theorist, Best Over end, and the artist, painter and sculptor, Danila Vassilieff, as well as other lesser known artists; and

- for its simple but innovative form, illustrative of early Modernist designs of the time.

BASIS OF SIGNIFICANCE:

ILLUSTRATION OF THE THEMES

HISTORY

ARCHITECTURE

DEGREE OF SIGNIFICANCE: LOCAL SIGNIFICANCE

EXTENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:

ENTIRE BUILDING AND SITE

Group

Education

Category

School - State (public)