"Toorang", homestead

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE

'Toorang' a single storey Italianate Style Villa on the shores of Lake Connewaree was probably erected for Laurence Ryland in the 1850's as a 7 room rubble stone structure with timber shingle roof and square observation tower. Dr Alexander James Campbell, Presbyterian clergyman, theologian and writer of tourist guides lived in Toorang until 1893. Campbell was influential in establishing educational colleges for the Presbyterian Church including Geelong College and Ormond College. Toorang is an early villa on the Bellarine Peninsula with a picturesque setting on Lake Connewarre with significant historical association with the development of the region.

RECOMMENDATIONS: PROTECTIVE MEASURES

Geelong Regional Commission Register

REFERENCES

Campbell, Rev Sr. AJ - Tourist Guide of Geelong and Southern Watering Places, ML Hutchinson, Melbourne, 1892. p.20 including illustration, opposite p.20 and advertisement to let.

Chambers, Don Campbell, Alexander James (1815-1909) in Pike Douglas (Ed). Australian Dictionary of Biography, Melbourne University Press, Vol 3, 1969, pp. 342-343.

Geelong Advertiser - 20 September 1865 - to let notice.

Geelong Historical Society - Investigator, Vol 9, No. 4. December 1974, pp 107-116. Lake Connewarre and Toorang.

Geelong Advertiser - 9 March 1855, 'tenders for plastering', works of a brick cottage at Lake Connewarre. Agents Messrs F Champion & Co. May be foe 'Toorang' but not positively identified.

Geelong Advertiser - 29 January 1870 reference to Toorang House on lake Connewarre, seven rooms, stone tank.

Balfour-Melville, Frances 'Toorang Memories' in Geelong Historical Society, Investigator, Vol 19, No. 1, March 1984 pp 10-19, including illustration.

Group

Residential buildings (private)

Category

Homestead building