Yarra Ranges

Heritage Database
Badger Creek Settlement

Location

358 Badger Creek Road, Healesville VIC 3777

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Statement of Significance

The former Badger Creek or Gracedale Village Settlement has high local significance as one of two large settlements established within Yarra Ranges Shire in the 1890s. The late 1890s school, which served both village settlers and Aboriginal children from the Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve, as well as a Public Hall and 1956 plantings by the Badger Creek Progress Association remain within the boundaries of the old settlement. The long use and active care of this place by the Community Facilities, including the re-location and restoration of buildings demonstrates its high social significance to the Badger Creek Community Facilities.

Description

The Badger Creek Public Hall and the original Badger Creek Primary School are the main features that remain from the Badger Creek Settlement.

The Badger Creek Public Hall (V.C. Mullett Hall), at 358 Badger Creek Road, is a fibro and weatherboard building, rectangular in plan with a large extension at the rear. According to the Badger Creek Progress Association, the Hall was moved from Glen Eadie Avenue to its present location in 1978. It is painted cream with green trim and dark red doors. The main section of the hall has a gable roof clad in corrugated iron with overhanging eaves. The front (east elevation) of the hall has a low entry section with a skillion roof and a window. Above the window is a gothic style vent and the words "V.C. Mullet Hall". All windows on the building are covered in wire mesh.

A ramp leads to a door in the extension to the rear of the building. This section of the hall is clad in vertical corrugated iron and has a relatively flat skillion roof. Behind the hall is a pre-fabricated building - most likely a former portable classroom building. At the front of the Memorial Hall, which is used by the Healesville Community Church, is a large gravel driveway and parking area. A new colourbond CFA building is located adjacent to the property.

The interior of the building was not inspected during this study. According to the Badger Creek Progress Association, there is an Honours Board inside listing residents of the Badger Creek district who served in the armed forces during World War I. The interior also features locally milled timber dado and floorboards, and a pressed metal proscenium arch.

The original Badger Creek Primary School is now located on the corner of Badger Creek Road and Glen Eadie Avenue. The school was re-located from the site of the current primary school (on the opposite side of Badger Creek Road) in the 1980s. It is a cream-painted weatherboard single-room building with a corrugated iron gable roof. Tall finials adorn the end of each gable. The building has a verandah supported by square-section timber posts, and a timber verandah floor.

The interior of the building is lined with tongue and groove timber boards, and has an orange brick chimney and fireplace and a timber floor. The interior walls have historical photographs mounted on them, and a 1914-1919 Honour Roll of Badger Creek pupils who enlisted in the War.

An annex and a toilet block, both with gable roofs, are located to the rear of the building while a slab and pole shelter is located to the south of the building.

Two angophora trees with a three-sided post and rail fence is near the Glen Eadie Road. A commemorative plaque by the tree reads, "The angophora tree was planted by the Badger Creek Progress Association 21 October 1956 as a tribute to Robert Eadie (1863-1949) who worked untiringly for the Badger Creek Hall which stood on this site until November 1978." The other angophora tree apparently also has a plaque commemorating the contributions of Mrs Eadie, but this was not seen during the field inspection. Other commemorative plaques around the block include two plaques outlining the history of the location and function of the school building and a 1994 plaque celebrating the centenary of the Badger Creek settlement.

These remaining elements from the Badger Creek settlement are on Crown land. The Badger Creek Progress Association hosts a public meeting to establish the Committee of Management for the site.

Physical Conditions: Good

Integrity: Removed from original site


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