HO64 - Plumpton Park

The house at Plumpton Park, 412 Plumpton Road, is architecturally significant at a LOCAL level (AHC D.2). Although altered and extended towards the rear, the house still demonstrates original design qualities of an interwar homestead Bungalow style. These qualities include the steeply pitched hipped roof form, together with the minor hipped roof that projects towards the side and the broken back return verandah formed under the main roof. Other intact or appropriate qualities include the asymmetrical composition, single storey height, horizontal timber weatherboard wall cladding, deep red painted and lapped galvanised corrugated steel roof cladding, broad eaves with exposed timber rafters, timber verandah posts, capped timber verandah balustrade, timber framed double hung windows with nine paned upper sashes and the timber framed front doorway. The windbreak of mature cypresses contributes to the setting of the place.

Plumpton Park at 412 Plumpton Road, is historically significant at a LOCAL level (AHC A4). It is an example of the small farming established in the wake of the break-up of the large pastoral estates that dominated the Shire of Melton in the nineteenth century, in particular those associated with the Clarke estate (AHC A.4 and D.2). This was a turning point in the history of Melton Shire. With the name Plumpton Road, its name recalls Australia's first 'Plumpton' greyhound coursing enclosure, built by Sir WJ Clarke to the south west of the farmstead. This site is also significant for the adjacent Clarke's Plumpton Dam (identified separately), and for Harry Houdini's 1910 flight, one of the claimants to the first powered flights in Australia.

Overall, Plumpton Park at 412 Plumpton Road is of LOCAL significance.

Group

Farming and Grazing

Category

Farm