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Post Office, General Store & Residence

Location 920 YAN YEAN ROAD DOREEN, NILLUMBIK SHIRE Level Included in Heritage Overlay

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Statement of Significance

The Doreen Post Office and General Store (1932-33) with attached residence (1908) at 920 Yan Yean Road, Doreen, is significant. Significant elements of the place include: ? The original form of the General Store with splayed corner to address its siting on the intersection of two major roads ? The original materiality of the building, including brick walls and corrugated iron roof ? Key detailing of the General Store, including parapet wall with projecting courses, original lettering, and small window above door level ? The original form of the attached residence ? The original timber materiality of the attached residence ? Original key details of the residence, including exposed rafters, timber framed windows and chimney Other buildings and elements on the site are not significant. Post-war alterations are not significant.The Doreen Post Office and General Store 920 Yan Yean Road, Doreen is of local historic and representative significance to the Shire of Nillumbik.The Doreen Post Office and General Store is historically significant as an early social centre for the township of Doreen, having functioned as the Post Office since 1902. The period of ownership by the Owens during the 1930s is especially significant, as the family was the longest serving storekeepers, and the current building relates to their occupation. The Post Office and General Store also has associations with the tourism history of the Shire. From the late nineteenth the General Store facilitated excursionists from the city en route to the scenic points of interest in the district. It is one of only a few surviving premises that evidence the early township of Doreen and at this key crossroads within the Shire. (Criterion A) The Doreen Post Office and General Store is significant as an example of an interwar brick corner commercial building with earlier attached residence. The prominent corner location on a crossroads is also evocative of the Post Office and General Store’s role in the centre of social activity in the town. The General Store retains its original brick walls, parapet with cornice and lettering, corner entry and upper windows. The residence retains its original roof form, weatherboard walls and front inset veranda. (Criterion D)