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Farm Complex and Former State School

Location

651 YAN YEAN ROAD YARRAMBAT, NILLUMBIK SHIRE

Level

Included in Heritage Overlay

Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The complex of buildings comprising the former farmhouse and outbuildings; and the relocated school room and shearing shed, located within the Yarrambat Golf Course at 651 Yan Yean Road, Yarrambat is significant to the shire of Nillumbik. The original form, materials and detailing of the farmhouse, shearing shed, two corrugated iron clad outbuildings, school room, and their setting including pine rows and palm trees contribute to the significance of the place. No part of the later golf course, its related buildings and carpark are significant.
How is it significant?
The former farm complex and relocated buildings are of local historic and representative significance to the Shire of Nillumbik.
Why is it significant?
The former farm complex is historically significant as the former River Glen property, which was unusual in Yarrambat in remaining a relatively large lot of 217 acres into the inter-war period. The tenure of the Young’s from 1936 represents the introduction of modern and relatively large-scale sheep farming to the district. The site is also of historical significance because it also contains two relocated buildings. An 1856 Wesleyan Methodist Church was purchased at auction in 1939, dismantled and moved to the farm and re-erected as a shearing shed. The c1920 former Yarrambat Primary School classroom relocated here in 2002 from the site of the existing Yarrambat School. (Criterion A) The complex comprising the former farm & relocated buildings is aesthetically significant for the substantially intact 1930s farmhouse, the 1920s School building and the 1856 former church, converted to a shearing shed. The farmhouse is a typical example of a 1930s farmhouse that retains many of its original features including its overall original form with hipped roofs and projecting wings, the semicircular bay window and the timber framed tri-partite windows. The corrugated iron clad sheds and the established trees contribute to the setting of the place and indicate the former use of the site as a farm. The school building demonstrates a typical standard Education Department style and is instantly recognisable as a classroom building. The shearing shed is unusual as a converted church from the 1860s. (Criterion D)