BAXTER STREET PRECINCT

The Baxter Street precinct comprising the area bounded by Chapel Street, McIvor Road, Back Creek, Bayne Street and Bendigo Creek (Joseph Street), containing the area colloquially known as 'Irish town' is significant. Within the precinct are part of Arnold, Hargreaves and McCrae Streets, as well as Havelock, Holt, Hopeton and Larritt Streets. 

Significant elements within the precinct include:

. St Kilian's Catholic Church 173 McCrae Street (HO179) 

. St Kilian's Hall 173 McCrae Street (HO183)

. St Kilian's Ladies Hall 181 McCrae Street (HO184) 

. 168 McCrae Street (HO180)

. Catholic Presbytery 174 McCrae Street (HO181)

. Marist Bros. Hall 118 Hargreaves Street (HO145) 

. 56 Chapel Street (HO106) 

Contributory elements in the extension to HO2 include:

. 34 Arnold Street

. 38 Arnold Street

. 44 Arnold Street 

. 46 Arnold Street

. 48 Arnold Street

. 50 Arnold Street 

. 14 Havelock Street 

. 21 Havelock Street 

. 22 Havelock Street

. 24 Havelock Street 

. 28 Havelock Street 

. 30 Havelock Street

. 31 Havelock Street 

. 32 Havelock Street

. Havelock Street trees (elms) 

The Baxter Street precinct is of local historic and aesthetic significance. St Kilian's Church complex has historic associations with the prominent Roman Catholic clergyman Dr Henry Backhaus. 

The Baxter Street Precinct provides a snapshot of the early residential development of Bendigo. Located just outside the city centre and focussed around the St Kilian's Church complex in McCrae Street, the church was established in 1857 by important Roman Catholic clergyman Rev Dr Henry Backhaus. The current buildings represent the church's redevelopment in 1888 by Backhaus and architect W C Vahland. The association is strengthened by the rather rare Australian practice of a gravesite at a church with Backhaus' grave being adjacent. (Criterion H) 

The area is an important reminder of Irish immigration to Bendigo in the1850s, many of whom settled around St Kilian's Church and are documented in early rate books as living in the surrounding streets. The precinct is also associated with alluvial gold mining carried out along the Back Creek and Bendigo Creek from the early 1850s. Later associations with the Sandhurst Tramway Company from 1897 and their association with the Electricity Supply Co. of Victoria are remembered in the naming of Tramways Avenue and a small triangle of land and curved roadway leading to the tram depot. (Criterion A) 

Land sales in the area, largely conducted throughout 1860s-1875, resulted in a number of allotments being developed with examples of Victorian style houses; it was by the end of the Edwardian era, however, that this area's character had been formed, with houses lining both sides of Baxter Street. The area is significant for its retention of a large proportion of Victorian and Edwardian era houses and several commercial premises also dating from these eras. Later Inter-war houses also form contributory elements that are compatible with the scale and form of the older dwellings. The area is characterised by small single storey houses with hip and gable roofs, consistent setbacks, construction materials of both weatherboard and brick, front gardens and low fences.

The mature elm trees on streets including Havelock, Hargreaves, Hopetoun, Baxter and Tramways Streets are important contributory elements. Gravel verges, where they occur in Havelock Street, provide more informal and older aesthetics to the public realm. 

James Delacour's bakery stood at the Hopetoun Street corner and Joseph Hadden, cab driver, at the McCrae Street end. Among the more important houses of this era are 66 Baxter Street, inhabited by Robert P Foster early last century, and 76 Hargreaves, Daniel McCall's house, but most houses are representative of the period (such as Constable Thomas Scholes' house at 30 Baxter), combining to produce a cohesive expression of the city's development at that time.