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Former Police Cells

Location 15 Heales Street,, TALBOT VIC 3371 - Property No B5127 File Number B5127 Level Regional

[1/1] B5127 Police Cells

Statement of Significance

The Former Talbot Lock-up was constructed by GF Langridge & Co in 1863 at a cost of ₤749. built by William Phelan. Designs was by the Public Works Department.
The Lock-up is constructed of coursed rusticated bluestone on a smooth finished plinth and the corners and openings have arrised edges. The building has three cells and a lobby and is planned with a long gabled wing. The roof is clad with slate, has broadened eaves and the gables have simple timber bargeboards. The building is substantially intact and retains the grilles to the slit windows, its iron doors and cast- iron roof-plumbing (one down-pipe has been removed).
The Talbot Lock-up pre-dates the other two known examples of this type of lock-up in Victoria (Smythesdale, 1869 and Bairnsdale, 1890) and is complete with the residence and stables. It is a reasonably rare surviving example of a sizeable country lock-up in bluestone given additional significance by its siting within the public precinct of the town and in proximity to its related police buildings and as a survivor of the middle years of the Talbot and Clunes gold rushes.
The Talbot police buildings derive their significance primarily from the bluestone lock-up but, taken as a whole, present a significant reminder of the police work on the goldfields of Victoria.
[Source: Historic Buildings Council]
Classified: 05/08/1982