FORMER POLICE STATION, BALLARAT

The Former Police Station, Ballarat (Huyghue House), designed by the Public Works Department and constructed in 1885, a double storey polychrome brick building on a bluestone base with single-storey extension (interiors and exteriors) and cast-iron verandah. 

• Criterion A: Importance to the course, or pattern, of Victoria’s history. 

• Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places and objects. 

The Former Police Station, Ballarat (Huyghue House) is of historical significance as one of a small number of two-storey police quarters surviving from the late nineteenth century. It is the only police building surviving in the Camp Street Precinct (former Government Camp) from the nineteenth century, as its outbuildings were removed during the twentieth century. The place provides a reference to the long history of police occupation in the Camp Street Precinct since the 1850s. [Criterion A] 

The Former Police Station, Ballarat (Huyghue House) is of architectural significance as one of the earliest two-storey police stations constructed in Victoria, constructed between April and November 1885. It demonstrates the principal characteristics of smaller Public Works Department Buildings constructed in the late nineteenth century, including red brick construction with contrasting bands and fenestration treatment. It is the only known police barracks from the decade that features decorative cast iron to its verandah. It was constructed by Lewis & Roberts using some material from an earlier police barracks facing Lydiard Street North, an 1860 brick building. [Criterion D]