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Mount Talbot Homestead

Location TOOLONDO VIC 3401 - Property No B1118 File Number B1118 Level Local

[1/1] B1118 Mount Talbot Homestead

Statement of Significance

The Mount Talbot pastoral run at Toolondo was acquired by Dr Robert Officer in 1847. In 1859 his sons Charles and Suetonius took over the property and apparently in c.1862 Charles Officer had erected a substantial two storey bluestone mansion with encircling timber verandah as an addition to the original single storey homestead. Hamilton surveyor J S Jenkins designed this homestead using contemporary pattern book sources.
Mount Talbot homestead has been in continuous occupation by successive generations of the Officer family since 1847. Charles Myles Officer, a noted pastoralist and pioneer of water irrigation in the Murray River region, lived at Mount Talbot until 1873. The squared bluestone homestead, with unusual bonding pattern, is derived from Australian colonial homestead traditions and enhanced by Italianate side bay windows and timber verandah in an architectural composition characteristic of the Western District in the 1860s.
Mount Talbot homestead is maintained in good condition and is intact. The timber slab outbuildings and fowl house are also relatively intact though dilapidated.
Classified:09/06/1960