Statement of Evidence and Report to Planning Panel

Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Amendment C235

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo Statement of Evidence

Prepared by Peter Lovell

Instructed by Rigby Cooke Lawyers

March 2021

Prepared by Prepared for

Spring Design and Development Pty Ltd

Statement of Qualifications and Experience, and Declaration

Authorship This statement has been prepared by Mr Peter Haynes Lovell, Director of Lovell Chen Pty Ltd, Architects and Heritage Consultants, Level 5, 176 Wellington Parade, East Melbourne, assisted by Ms Charlotte Jenkins, Heritage Consultant and Ms Libby Richardson, Heritage Consultant. The views expressed in the statement are those of Mr Peter Lovell.

Qualifications and Experience I have a Bachelor of Building degree from Melbourne University and have been director of the above practice, which I established with Richard Allom in 1981. Over the past 40 years I have worked in the field of building conservation and have been involved in, and responsible for, a wide range of conservation related projects. These projects include the preparation of conservation/heritage studies for the Borough of Queenscliffe, the former City of South Melbourne, the former City of Fitzroy and the former City of Port Melbourne. In addition, I have acted as heritage advisor to the Borough of Queenscliffe and the former City of South Melbourne. In the area of conservation management planning I have been responsible for the preparation of a wide range of conservation analyses and plans including those for the Melbourne Town Hall and Administration Building, the State Library and Museum, the Supreme Court of Victoria, Werribee Park, the Regent Theatre, the Bendigo Post Office, Flinders Street Station, the Old Melbourne Observatory and the Mt Buffalo Chalet. I have been responsible for the preparation of strategic planning reports for Government House, Canberra, the Melbourne Town Hall and the Supreme Court of Victoria. In the area of building conservation works I have been involved in and directly responsible for the investigation, design and documentation of a wide range of projects including the ANZ Gothic Bank at 380 Collins Street, the Collingwood, Melbourne and Fitzroy Town Halls, the Athenaeum and Regent Theatres, Parliament House, Melbourne, Government Houses in Canberra and Perth, and the Supreme Court of Victoria Court of Appeal.

I am a member of long standing of the National Trust of Australia (Victoria) and Australia ICOMOS (International Council on Monuments and Sites). I am also an honorary fellow of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. Over the past twenty years I have appeared frequently before the former Historic Buildings Council, now the Victorian Heritage Council, and the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal in relation to matters relating to conservation, adaptation and redevelopment of historic places.

Instructions My instructions in relation to this matter comprised an email request and meeting with the owners to provide a preliminary appraisal of the heritage merits of the proposed listing, and subsequently an email request from Rigby Cooke to provide expert evidence and appearance at this panel hearing.

References As relevant to my consideration of the matter, documents which I have addressed as relevant in the preparation of this report include: • Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1, Volumes 1 and 2 (Context, April 2020) • Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme Amendment C235, Explanatory Report • Planning Practice Note No. 1, Applying the Heritage Overlay

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Declaration

I have made all the inquiries that I believe are desirable and appropriate and no matters of significance which I regard as relevant have to my knowledge been withheld from the panel.

Peter Lovell

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1.0 Introduction This statement of evidence has been prepared for Rigby Cooke Lawyers on behalf of Spring Development and Design Pty Ltd, the owner of the property at 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo and relates to Amendment C235 of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. As related to the subject property, the amendment seeks to include 106 Williamson Street Bendigo in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme and to amend Planning Scheme Map 19HO. The amendment seeks to introduce permanent individual controls (HO931) over the subject property which currently is not included in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay. The subject property is located on the southern corner of Williamson and Mollison streets. The existing building presents as a single storey retail building with glazed shopfronts addressing the street frontages.

Figure 1 Locality plan, the location of 106 Williamson Street is indicated by the red star Source: www.street-directory.com.au

1.1 Preliminary advice In June 2020 Lovell Chen undertook a preliminary appraisal of the proposed inclusion of 106 Williamson Street in the Heritage Overlay (refer Attachment A). The advice involved a limited examination of the heritage issues and concluded as follows: The conclusion of this preliminary review is that 106 Williamson Street Bendigo, on the basis of work completed to date, is unlikely to meet the threshold for local listing as satisfying Criteria A or D, but that it is likely to satisfy Criterion E. In satisfying Criterion E the elements of direct relevance to that criterion are the Williamson and Mollison street’s facades and a depth of the butterfly roof facade behind Mollison Street sufficient to understand the form. The remaining area of the building is of little or no significance.

Should the site be included in the heritage overlay, in considering future redevelopment the options present as follows:

• Retention of the complete building to the extent of the currently mapped heritage overlay area

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• Retention of the street facades with a nominal depth of 6 metres on Williamson Street and 8 metres on Mollison Street

• Retention of the Mollison Street facade and return (8 metres) on Williamson Street, with an 8 metre depth of structure behind

• Demolition and referencing the design aesthetic in the redevelopment The design of the building is not one which readily lends itself to partial retention, nor, in this case is this necessarily a desirable heritage or design outcome. As such the last of these options is one which might seriously be entertained in delivering a preferred whole is site development outcome.

This advice is discussed further in the following assessment.

2.0 Amendment C235 In the exhibited documentation, the subject property is identified as HO931 in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. The Schedule to the Heritage Overlay identifies that external paint controls, internal alteration controls and tree controls do not apply to the property. The extent of the heritage overlay is indicated at Figure 2.

Figure 2 Detail of the Heritage Overlay map 19HO with the subject site indicated Source: Part of map 19HO, exhibited as part of Amendment C235 of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme

2.1 Bendigo Heritage Study Stage 1 The subject property was included in the Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1 (April 2020) (the Study) undertaken by Context. The Study was commissioned by the City of Greater Bendigo to undertake revisions to the Study (initially prepared in 2016-7), to review and update the individual place

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citations to be in line with the updated Planning Practice Note No. 1.1 The Study recommended 18 new individual places, including one place extension, one serial listing and one place of potential state significance. Individual citations were prepared for the 18 sites. The citation for 106 Williamson Street identifies the subject property as being of individual significance and recommends that it be included in the Heritage Overlay on a permanent basis. The Study notes that the Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History (2013) could be expanded upon to incorporate the commercial and industrial history as the Study particularly focussed on the business and industry that has shaped the city centre following the mining boom. In considering post-war development, the Study identified the former Beaurepaire Motor Garage, 404- 406 Hargreaves Street, the Bendigo Bowl (159 Hargreaves Street) and 339 Hargreaves Street (assessed but not recommended as an individually significant place) in the Study as comparable examples of postwar places. Under Section 3.3 ‘Assessing and reporting’ the Study provides the following comment with regard to comparative analysis and post war sites.

Postwar heritage is an expanding area of heritage consideration and not many comparative examples of Modernist buildings are included in Heritage Overlays outside metropolitan Melbourne. In the absence of local examples with existing heritage controls, the comparative analysis considers examples of similar postwar places in other local government areas to establish an appropriate ‘benchmark’. In rare cases, comparisons have been drawn between places within the study area and unnominated places located within the City of Greater Bendigo that do not have existing Heritage Overlays. This was where they provided a direct comparison in terms of their architectural providence, style or type or due to their geographic proximity to the subject site in question.

When the place under assessment was considered to be of equal or better quality than the ‘benchmarks’, it was judged to meet the threshold of local significance and considered worthy of inclusion in the City of Greater Bendigo Heritage Overlay.

Places that were found to be of a lesser quality than the ‘benchmarks’ were not recommended for inclusion in the Heritage Overlay.2

2.2 Heritage citations The property citation prepared by Context includes a statement of significance, history, description, comparative analysis and assessment against criteria. These sections are variously discussed through the statement.

2.2.1 Statement of significance The statement of significance for the subject property is included in the Study, exhibited as part of Amendment C235 is reproduced below:

WHAT IS SIGNIFICANT

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, built in 1959-1960 for the Bendigo Timber Company by builders Green Brothers, is significant. Significant fabric includes the:

1 Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, Planning Practice note No.1, August 2018.

2 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 1, April 2020, p.16

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• original built form and scale of the building, including the low-slung asymmetrical butterfly roof;

• expressed structural steel frame;

• brick walls;

• cantilevered awnings;

• the notable glazing pattern which features bays of tilted windows; and

• recessed entry with stonework wall.

HOW IT IS SIGNIFICANT

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, is of local historic, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

WHY IT IS SIGNIFICANT 106 Williamson Street is historically significant for its association with the Bendigo Timber Company which traded from the site between 1921-87. The subject building was purpose built for the company by Greens Brothers builders in 1959-60 after a fire destroyed all previous buildings on the site in January 1959. It was the third premises occupied by the Bendigo Timber Company on this site, with fires destroying the earlier two buildings.

The Bendigo Timber Company was formed as a partnership between Walter G. Hyett and George De Araugo with business operations commencing on 19 December 1921. Walter Hyett had been a prominent Master Builder in Bendigo, whilst also holding large farming interests in the Mallee region of Victoria. Consequently, he was widely known and respected throughout northern Victoria. George De Araugo was for many years the manager of Hume and Iser, timber merchants, Bendigo, with extensive experience in the timber industry. The combination of these two men laid a solid foundation for a business that was to grow into the largest timber, hardware, joinery and paint establishment operating outside the metropolitan area. A major part of the Bendigo Timber Company’s operations was the manufacturing of kit form houses from the 1930s through until the 1950s under the name of Ready Cut Homes, a company that also had branches in Melbourne and Sydney. The company supplied plans, timber and a builder for the construction of these homes through a payment scheme. It was engaged in the erection of shops, hotels, stores, dwellings and every type of farm building. As the company expanded, it ceased construction operations and devoted its efforts to the supply of building materials to a rapidly expanding client base of builders and the general public. (Criterion A)

The former Bendigo Timber Company building built in 1959-60 is a fine example of an intact modernist commercial building constructed in the post-World War II era. It demonstrates characteristics of the modern architectural idiom developed in the postwar era. Modernist buildings frequently adopted a ‘machine aesthetic’ using industrially processed materials such as steel, concrete, glass and prefabricated elements. The use of long-span structural frames and lintels meant that buildings no longer relied on load-bearing walls and greater areas of glazing were possible. These structural developments brought a new freedom to the expression of walls, windows, and roofs as independent design elements and a similar freedom to the planning of interior spaces. (Criterion D)

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2.2.2 Property grading The property is identified as a significant heritage place in the Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study, Stage 1. A definition for significant heritage places is not included in the Study or at Clause 22.06 – Heritage Policy. Consistent with Planning Practice Note No. 1 a letter grading has not been applied.4 The Greater Bendigo Heritage Incorporated Plans – Permit Exemptions provides a definition for significant places and individual place Heritage Overlay. These are reproduced below:

Individual place Heritage Overlay: is a single heritage place that has cultural heritage significance additional to its context. These places may also contribute to the significance of a heritage precinct. Significant places will usually have a separate citation and statement of significance.

Significant place: A significant place is a single heritage place that has cultural heritage significance independent of its context. These places may also contribute to the significance of a precinct. Significant places will usually have a separate citation and statement of significance.5 3.0 History The citation for the subject property as included in the exhibited documentation for Amendment C235 is reproduced as follows:

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, is a large commercial building, built in 1959-60 as the third premises of the Bendigo Timber Company on this site. It stands on the Crown Allotments 6 and 7, section 6C, Sandhurst, which was purchased by H. Backhaus on 21 April 1854.

By 1891, the Bendigo Tramways Company had erected tram sheds and offices on part of the land. The balance of the allotments was used by the Bendigo Electric Company. The Bendigo Tramways Co. was short-lived; in 1892 the Bendigo Electric Company purchased the land and equipment of the tramway power station, including the buildings and land in Williamson Street. The Bendigo Electric Company provided electric power, equipment and installations on a commercial basis, including street lighting for the Bendigo City council. In 1914 the subject site was leased to Edward Button, carrier, and to C. E. Miller and Co., carriers, in 1920. Around 1921-22 the Bendigo Timber Company took over the lease with the property remaining in the ownership of the Backhaus Estate. On 14 March 1931, a fire burnt the Bendigo Timber Companies stores and mills, located in Williamson Street and Mollison Street, to the ground. Due to the loyalty

3 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 2, April 2020, pp.212-213.

4 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 1, April 2020, p.25.

5 City of Greater Bendigo, Greater Bendigo Heritage Incorporated Plan – Permit Exemptions’, January 2018, p.3.

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of staff, merchants and clients, the business was re-established quickly on the same site and continued to expand.

In 1945, Walter Hyett of the Bendigo Timber Company, leased the site, ‘land and buildings’, rated at £125. Gordon Hyett, who was taken into partnership by his father in 1929, took over the Bendigo Timber Company in 1945 when Walter Hyett went into semi-retirement. In 1957-58, the Bendigo Timber Company continued to lease the site, described as ‘land, buildings etc.’ valued at £740, indicating that further buildings may have been erected on site in the period 1945-57. On 25 January 1959 a fire destroyed the Bendigo Timber Company premises, including yard, offices and stock. The estimated damage was £100,000.

The whole site was subsequently cleared and two new buildings were erected in 1959-60: one to house the Bendigo Timber Company’s hardware store and sales area (the subject site at 106 Williamson Street) and another at 113-133 Mollison Street built by James Michell and Sons, which housed offices and joinery manufacturing operations (today the building, with an altered façade, houses a variety of businesses). The building at 106 Williamson Street was designed for the Bendigo Timber Company and built by Green Brothers of Epsom. In 1986, the Bendigo Timber Company agreed to sell its property in the site bound by Williamson, Mollison and McLaren streets, approximately three acres of land, to make way for a proposed shopping centre. The following year the company vacated the subject site and relocated to new premises, on company-owned land in the Deborah Triangle Industrial Estate at the corner of Adam and Abel streets, Golden Square.

Forty Winks took over the building at 106 Williamson Street soon after the Bendigo Timber Company vacated the site in 1987 and continues to occupy it today.

The Bendigo Timber Company

The Bendigo Timber Company was formed as a partnership between Walter G. Hyett and George De Araugo. with business operations commencing on 19 December 1921.

Walter Hyett had been a prominent Master Builder in Bendigo, whilst also holding large farming interests in the Mallee region of Victoria. Consequently, he was widely known and respected throughout northern Victoria. George De Araugo was for many years the manager of Hume and Iser, timber merchants, Bendigo, with extensive experience in the timber industry. The combination of these two men laid a solid foundation for a business that was to grow into the largest timber, hardware, joinery and paint establishment operating outside the metropolitan area.

When the Bendigo Timber Company commenced business, it was engaged in the erection of shops, hotels, stores, dwellings and every type of farm building. As the company expanded, it ceased building operations and devoted its efforts to the supply of building materials to a rapidly expanding client base of builders and the general public.

Arthur Leggo, a metallurgist who had previously managed the Victor Leggo Chemical Company, entered the business partnership in 1926. Leggo was to play an integral role in the growth of the business afterwards.

In 1929 George De Araugo retired from the partnership, and in 1934 Walter Hyett purchased the interest of Arthur Leggo to become the sole proprietor.

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In 1931 the Bendigo Timber Company produced a catalogue with plans and prices for Ready Cut Homes kit form houses, which could be delivered to a building site, and also arranged a builder, if required, along with finance. The company continued to manufacture these houses until the early 1950s. In 1962 Gordon Hyett left the company and John Bourchier was appointed general manager; he resigned in 1972 when he was elected to the Australian House of Representatives as the Liberal member for Bendigo. He served in the Federal parliament until 1983 when he was defeated by John Brumby.

In January 1973, John Gurr was appointed general manager and, in 1982, a director. Timber Holdings (Alstergren) purchased the company in 1982 and in 1988 the Colonial Sugar Refining Company (CSR) became the new owners. On behalf of CSR, in 1989 John Gurr sold the business to BBC Hardware who were in turn taken over by Bunnings in 2001.6

The context for the construction of the subject building was one in which the Bendigo Timber Company (BTC), as a well established supplier of timber and hardware, and as a builder, was in direct competition with local hardware and timber suppliers, Hume and Iser Pty Ltd.7 The two companies had similar offerings, which in the past had included prefabricated homes. Regarding premises, the BTC operated from a number of locations around Bendigo, but had occupied the site on the corner of Williamson and Mollison streets since 1920-21. The site on the corner of Mollison and Williamson streets had been selected for its central location as compared to the more remote Hume and Iser operations, located on Charleston Street, north-east of the city centre.8 A fire in 1931 burnt the premises to the ground, but it was quickly re-established in the same site. A further fire in 1959, again saw the premises destroyed, and cleared and the current building erected. Aerial photographs from the mid twentieth century show the site as a cluster of buildings around the property boundaries, with a yard for trucks in the centre (Figure 3 - Figure 5). The aerial photograph from 1967 shows the redeveloped site (Figure 6). The new building was constructed to accommodate a new modern showroom and stores, which included the headquarters of the Hardware and Paint Departments (Figure 6).9 The new showrooms largely used the services of local businesses, including Green Bros of Epsom as the builders. Green Bros were also responsible for the construction of other large-scale buildings in Bendigo including the Britannia Theatre10 and Le Breton’s Pictures open air theatre.11 Green Bros also were notable in the 1950s for their pre-fabricated homes which could be purchased in 2, 3 and 4 bedroom packages.12 Located in Epsom, 5 miles from Bendigo, the group offered delivery of the homes and setting down.13

6 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 2, April 2020, pp.206-8.

7 Mike Butcher, The Rose and Iser Story, Holland House Publishing, 2016, p.45.

8 Mike Butcher, The Rose and Iser Story, Holland House Publishing, 2016, p.45.

9 ‘Big Distributing Centre’, Bendigo Advertiser, 20 February 1960, p.11.

10 ‘To-day’s Events’, The Bendigo Independent, 16 January 1915, p.6.

11 ‘Le Breton’s Pictures’, The Bendigo Independent, 6 December 1912, p.6.

12 ‘Advertising’, The Riverine Grazier, 23 November 1951, p.1.

13 ‘Advertising’, The Riverine Grazier, 23 November 1951, p.1.

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The BTC showroom boasted displays of home amenities, power tool sets and large stocks of paints, plumbing fittings.14 The company offices were located at the adjacent site, to the immediate west of the subject site, on Mollison Street. As reported upon at the time of the opening, the BTC maintained a policy of providing the best and most modern service it could to Bendigo.15 On opening, the new showroom was described as follows:

The new showrooms of the Bendigo Timber Co. Pty Ltd are designed with one thought in mind – the convenience of the firm’s many customers. Self-selection of goods – the most modern of buying aids in the Australian hardware trade – is the base on which the company has built the layout of the store. The philosophy of self-selection begins with the showroom office. Here the feature wall, visible from almost any part of the showroom, is composed of a checkerboard pattern showing a complete range of Australian plywoods, including the striking parquet plywood flooring. The outside of the office features all styles of vertical linings. The theme is continued down the centre of the showroom with easily accessible, readily seen open shelving, showing builders’ hardware, house-building tools and plumbing requisites. Backing these display shelves are bulk store shelves holding supplies of all the goods on display. In the showroom store itself the prospective home builder can see at a glance any of the basic requirements necessary for fitting out a house. Every type of bath, stove, hot water system, joinery or washbasin is on the floor. It is the company’s proud boast that everything necessary to fit out a house can be viewed in the building.

Smaller hardware items, such as brushes, can be seen and bought on the self- service principle, so widely applied in the grocery stores of today. A battery of mobile stands and counters is readily available for any special displays of any hardware, paint or plumbing item. Backing the building housing the new showroom is a timber yard, where smaller quantities of all building requirements can be seen and bought. Larger orders can be delivered to the customer from the main company timber yard in Carpenter and Minto Streets.16 As promoted in the 1970s the Bendigo Timber Company claimed to be a regional leader in new products referencing a number of contemporary suppliers.17 The site was sold in 1986, with Forty Winks taking over the site from 1987.

14 ‘Big Distributing Centre’, Bendigo Advertiser, 20 February 1960, p.11.

15 ‘Press a Button’, Bendigo Advertiser, 20 February 1960, p. 10.

16 ‘Service is our watchword’, Bendigo Advertiser, 20 February 1960, p.10.

17 ‘Advertising’, The Australian Women’s Weekly, 26 May 1977, p.70.

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Figure 3 1945 aerial photograph of the subject site indicated Source: Landata, Victorian Land Registry Services, Historical Aerial Photography Collection

Figure 4 c. 1950-4 view of the subject site (indicated) Source: Charles Daniel Pratt, State Library of Victoria

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Figure 5 1956 aerial photograph with the subject site indicated Source: Landata, Victorian Land Registry Services, Historical Aerial Photography Collection

Figure 6 1967 aerial photograph with the subject site indicated Source: Landata, Victorian Land Registry Services, Historical Aerial Photography Collection

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4.0 Description

The description of 106 Williamson Street as contained in the citation for the building, included in the exhibited documentation is reproduced below: 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, is a large commercial building built in 1959-60 by Green Brothers builders as the third premises of the Bendigo Timber Company on this site.

The building is located on the southern corner of Williamson and Mollison Streets. It is built on a large allotment with a recessed corner entry porch facing Mollison Street.

Consistent with the key tenants of modernist architecture the building’s structure and function are expressed as part of its aesthetic. The building is constructed of brick with expressed steel columns and extensive glazing to its two principal facades to Williamson Street and Mollison Street. An asymmetrical low-slung butterfly roof falls from the long sides of the building. A row of clerestory windows sits directly below the roof line facing Williamson Street. The Williamson Street elevation is divided into seven equal bays, stepped to follow the fall of the site and divided by expressed steel columns. Three pairs of bays have consistent and regular glazing with the lower section tilted. The final bay forms the entry porch and is bounded by a single steel column at the Mollison Street corner. Cantilevered verandahs step down the elevation. The entry porch features a wall clad in stonework, which has since been overpainted. The entry porch also features a glazed entry door with highlight windows.

The Mollison Street elevation is similar to the Williamson Street elevation with regularly glazed bays and a cantilever verandah. A second entry way and solid brick wall section can also be noted on this façade.18

4.1 The architects The designers of the building were Eggleston MacDonald & Secomb. The firm of A S & R A Eggleston was formed in 1937 as a partnership between noted architect Alec Eggleston and his son Robert. In the 1930s and 1940s, the firm designed a variety of commercial and industrial buildings. On his father’s death in 1955, Robert Eggleston formed a partnership with two younger members of the practice, Roderick MacDonald and Francis Secomb. The new firm of Eggleston MacDonald & Secomb (EM&S) operated practices in Melbourne and Bendigo. Throughout the 1950s the firm was responsible for a number of structurally expressive buildings in the Bendigo area such as the Bendigo Creche and Day Nursery (1957)19 and the Beaurepaire Tyre Service Station (1959). EM&S also gained commissions for specialised industrial projects, such as the Mason, Firth McCutcheon printing plant in Cheltenham (1958); Redmond Inglis Printers (1962) and Thomas Frame Company (1962-63) in Notting Hill; and the award-winning BHP Melbourne Research Laboratories (1969) in Mulgrave. 20

18 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 2, April 2020, pp.208-9.

19 In February 2016, Expressions of Interest were called for the purchase and relocation of the Nursery and Creche building. https://www.architectureanddesign.com.au/news/city-of-greater-bendigo-seeking-eoi-for-former-ben#

20 Encyclopedia of Australian Architecture, Goad & Willis, 2012, pp. 227-228.

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In the 1960s and 1970s, EM&S undertook commissions for educational institutions including: University of Melbourne; Caulfield Institute of Technology; La Trobe University; Melbourne Teachers’ College; Monash University; and the Australian National University (Acton Campus).

4.2 Bendigo Timber Hardware Showrooms The former Bendigo Timber Company showroom and sales premises is located at the south corner of Williamson and Mollison streets, Bendigo (Figure 7). It is a single storey rectangular building with an asymmetrical butterfly roof, with falls in a north-south direction. The longer façade fronting onto Williamson Street is fully glazed with a deep awning stepping down in three sections to accommodate the east-west site fall towards the corner of Williamson and Mollison streets. The primary entrance to the building, recessed at the corner of Williamson and Mollison streets, takes the form of a square entrance court with a stone feature wall facing Williamson Street, a steel column roof support at the corner, and a glazed entrance and brick wall facing Mollison Street. The Mollison Street facade is comprised of glazed and brick infill sections with a deep awning and a secondary shop front entrance. The prominent feature of the building is in the treatment of the display windows, the lower two thirds of which are angled at an approximate 60 degrees towards the footpath (Figure 9 & Figure 10). The building is a steel frame and brick structure: the street facades (north and west) are comprised of structural steel columns interspersed with steel framed glazing and brick infill to Mollison Street; the south and eastern walls of the building are constructed of brick. The south wall contains sections of clerestory glazing and a former entrance (Figure 11). The interior of the building is open, segregated by a row of steel columns supporting the valley of the butterfly roof form. Although the Williamson Street façade follows the site fall, internally the showroom floor is at one level, resulting in the east end of the building being below the level of the Williamson Street footpath (Figure 12). All exterior surfaces are painted: steel columns and glazing bars; brick walls; stone feature wall; and entire south wall including clerestory windows.

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Figure 7 View of the north facing façade along Williamson Street and recessed corner entrance

Figure 8 View of the west facing façade along Mollison Street

Figure 9 Glazing panels along Williamson Street

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Figure 10 Glazing panels along Mollison Street

Figure 11 View of the south (rear) façade of the building from Mollison Street

Figure 12 View of the interior of the building, looking towards Mollison Street

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Figure 13 Internal view of the Williamson Street facade showing the tilted window frame and awkward boxing out of the cantilever awning structure

4.3 Locating the Bendigo Timber and Hardware Showrooms The Bendigo Timber and Hardware showrooms represent an early commission within the life of the young EM&S practice. Commissions of the practice appear to have ranged from the modernisation of older buildings (Myers, Bendigo 1955; United Insurance Company 1958) to a broad range of emerging new building types, such as the Beaurepaire Tyre Service Station in Bendigo (1959) and premises for companies with specialised needs for modernised industrial processes such as the Office Block and Factory for Mason, Firth and McCutcheon in Cheltenham (1958) (refer Table 1). The former Bendigo Timber Company showroom presents as a building which utilises contemporary materials and construction techniques that were readily available and popular at the time. As a showroom, steel construction enabled a large span open space, as well as facilitating an ‘open front’ retail environment in which the traditional singular ‘show window’ was expanded to the entire façade as a ‘giant showcase’.21

Architecturally, the showroom expresses the Modernist design aesthetic being pursued by a number of younger practices of the day – Boyd, Grounds, McIntyre, Borland. As compared to the work of their contemporaries and their own work in Bendigo and elsewhere, (the Beaurepaire Tyre Service Station and the now relocated Bendigo Creche and Day Nursery), it presents, however, as a less accomplished example. Less successful details include the forming of the angled steel window frames and the boxed out shop entry on Mollison Street (Figure 10)

21 Walter Bunning, ‘Retail Store Design’, Architecture in Australia, July-Sept, 1953, p.70.

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Additionally and of note is the awkward manner in which the awning verandah connects to the facade; on Williamson Street partially cutting across highlight windows above and on Mollison Street concealing the butterfly roof. The awning appears to be a later alteration as the image from the Bendigo Advertiser makes evident, the absence of the stepped fascia to the Williamson Street elevation (Figure 14). The fact that it may have been a later addition is also suggested in the poorly resolved internal detail where the verandah structure penetrates the facade resulting in a boxed out bulkhead which entirely conceals the highlight windows.

Figure 14 View of the building, 20 February 1960 Source: Bendigo Advertiser, 20 Feb 1960, p.7

While clearly exhibiting the features and aesthetic associated with post war Modernist buildings of the time the building presents as potentially one delivered within a modest budget. While embracing modern architecture and contemporary retail design in elements such as the butterfly roof form, angled display windows and a recessed entrance at the street corner embellished with a feature wall, the outcome lacks the cohesion and distinction evident in other of their commissions of the same period. These include the work of the practice in Bendigo and elsewhere completed during the 1950s and 1960s as illustrated in Table 1. Table 1 Examples of work by Eggleston MacDonald and Secomb

Year Type Image

1953 Brights Store, Geelong

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1907

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1955 Myer remodelled façade, Bendigo

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1864

1957 Bendigo Creche and Day Nursery, later Park Road Early Learning Centre formerly in Rosalind Park

Source: National Archives of Australia, 1957 It is noted that a review of childcare services in the City of Greater Bendigo was undertaken in 2013, with plans to close the Park Road Early Learning Centre announced in 2014. The centre was officially closed at the end of 2015.22 In 2016, the building was sold at auction to Gerard K House Pty Ltd and was subsequently relocated to Osborne Street where it is being converted into a private residence.23

22 ‘Bendigo Early Learning Centre to close’, Bendigo Advertiser, 28 October 2014, available at https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/2654995/bendigo-childcare-centre-to-close/

23 ‘A new home for a piece of Bendigo history’, Bendigo Advertiser, 13 October 2017, available at: https://www.bendigoadvertiser.com.au/story/4986686/new-home-for-piece-of-citys-history/

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1954-57 Beaurepaire Pool and Gymnasium, University of Melbourne

1954-59 Beaurepaire Tyre Service Station, Bendigo

Source: Cross Section, July 1959

1958-9 House at Bendigo

Source: Architecture in Australia, January-March 1959, p.91.

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1958 Mason, Firth McCutcheon office block and factory, Highett

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1909

1958 United Insurance Company Ltd, Bendigo

Source: Architecture in Australia, July-Sept 1958

1959-60 Bendigo Timber Company

Source: Bendigo Advertiser, 20 Feb 1960, p.7

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1962 Redmond Inglis Printers, Notting Hill, Victoria

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1916

1962-63 Thomas Frame and Company, Notting Hill, Victoria

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1918

1963 Eggleston MacDonald and Secomb offices, Carlton

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244-1870

LOVELL CHEN 22

1969 BHP Melbourne Research Laboratories, North Clayton, Victoria

Source: State Library of Victoria, Peter Wille, H91.244/1874

5.0 Assessment of heritage issues In assessing the worthiness of this place for inclusion in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay, the Study has identified that the subject site satisfies three of the heritage listing criteria as identified in Planning Practice Note No. 1. Those criteria are as follows:

Criterion A: Importance to the course or pattern of our cultural or natural history (historical significance)

Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places or environments (representativeness).

Criterion E: Importance of exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics (aesthetic significance)

5.1 Criterion A: Historical significance

In meeting Criterion A at a local level the citation for 106 Williamson Street states as follows: 106 Williamson Street is historically significant for its association with the Bendigo Timber Company which traded from the site between 1921-87. The subject building was purpose built for the company by Greens Brothers builders in 1959-60 after a fire destroyed all previous buildings on the site in January 1959. It was the third premises occupied by the Bendigo Timber Company on this site, with fires destroying the earlier two buildings.

LOVELL CHEN 23

operations was the manufacturing of kit form houses from the 1930s through until the 1950s under the name of Ready Cut Homes, a company that also had branches in Melbourne and Sydney. The company supplied plans, timber and a builder for the construction of these homes through a payment scheme. It was engaged in the erection of shops, hotels, stores, dwellings and every type of farm building. As the company expanded, it ceased construction operations and devoted its efforts to the supply of building materials to a rapidly expanding client base of builders and the general public. (Criterion A) This is a site and building with a relatively well documented history. However, the history of the use of the place after the opening of the current building in 1960 remains largely unresearched. The history is one, which as with many places included in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay, accounts for the development of the place over time and identifies individuals associated with that development. In determining that the place satisfies Criterion A the citation notes that the site is associated with the following historic themes taken from the Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History (2013):

5.0 Building Greater Bendigo’s industries and workforce

5.1 Processing raw materials 5.2 Developing a manufacturing capacity While recognising that the site as a whole has a long and interesting history which is associated with the above themes the existing building was a place constructed as a building trade retail premises. As such its ability to evidence these themes is limited. While activities on the greater site – including timber milling, manufacture of kit homes – may have been linked to these themes, the current building is not. As such the building presents as one of many retail premises in the centre of Bendigo and not one which can be elevated for reasons of historical significance. In forming this view it is acknowledged that as noted in the Study, there has been limited consideration of the development of Bendigo in the post war period, but in the absence of such work having been completed the elevation of this building in isolation, on grounds of historical significance does not present as warranted.

5.2 Criterion D: Representative significance

In meeting Criterion D at a local level the citation for 106 Williamson Street states as follows:

The former Bendigo Timber Company building built in 1959-60 is a fine example of an intact Modernist commercial building constructed in the post-World War II era. It demonstrates characteristics of the modern architectural idiom developed in the postwar era. Modernist buildings frequently adopted a ‘machine aesthetic’ using industrially processed materials such as steel, concrete, glass and prefabricated elements. The use of long-span structural frames and lintels meant that buildings no longer relied on load-bearing walls and greater areas of glazing were possible. These structural developments brought a new freedom to the expression of walls, windows, and roofs as independent design elements and a similar freedom to the planning of interior spaces. (Criterion D)

In the initial appraisal of this building Lovell Chen stated as follows:

In a Bendigo context 106 Williamson street presents as a place which pursues Modernist design ideas in a place specific context rather than as one of a distinct class of places. As noted in the citation, there are few comparable places within Bendigo which evidence like Modernist design ideas and those which are noted are similarly discrete events and not readily comparable. As such 106 Williamson Street does not present as a place which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places which is important in a Bendigo context.

LOVELL CHEN 24

In further assessing this issue the BTC showroom is an example of a post-war commercial building located in the centre of Bendigo. Within this group it is one of a small number of buildings of the period which exhibit individually distinct Modernist design ideas. Within the immediate catchment of the Study area these include the Beaurepaire Tyre Service Station (VHR H1736), the Bendigo Bowl and the former Paterson’s store at 339 Hargreaves Street. Beyond these three buildings there are others in the central Bendigo area, which loosely continue Modernist ideas (adopting local and international styles) in later but equally distinct buildings (refer Table 2). While these buildings exhibit the characteristics which are associated with post World War II era commercial development, they do not present as coherent class of places. The BTC showroom, individually, is demonstrative of Modernist design in form and materials, but is not representative of a class of places which is of note within the Study area or Greater Bendigo. Accordingly, it is not a building which meets this criterion. Table 2 Comparisons to the subject site

Year Place Controls Image

1963 59 HO918 Hargreaves (proposed: Street Criteria A, B, D, G) Bendigo Bowl Moore & Hammond

1954- 404 HO150 59 Hargreaves VHR (H1736) Street Beaurepaire Motor Garage

LOVELL CHEN 25

c. late 339 Assessed but 1950s Hargreaves not Street recommended as an JB Hi-Fi individually significant place as part of the Study

‘339-355 Hargreaves Street is a postwar building of some architectural interest in the upper façade design. The ground floor shopfront has been modified. Research into the place's original condition was inconclusive in placing the design within a context for architect or style. Without this information it is considered below the threshold for individual significance as a postwar place.’24

c. late 45 Mitchell Located 1950s Street, within HO3 Bendigo Bendigo Civic Precinct, no individual overlay

c. 52 Mitchell Not included I early Street, the schedule 1960s Bendigo to the -early Heritage 1970s Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme

24 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 1, April 2020, p.49

LOVELL CHEN 26

c. late 49 Mitchell 1960s- Street, early Bendigo 1970s

5.3 Criterion E: Aesthetic significance

In meeting Criterion E at a local level the citation for 106 Williamson Street states as follows:

The former Bendigo Timber Company building is aesthetically significant for its ‘modern’ style where structure and function are expressed as part of its aesthetic. Key features include expressed steel columns and extensive glazing to its principal elevations, an asymmetrical low-slung butterfly roof and clerestory windows. Of particular note are the cantilevered verandahs, lower section tilted windows and the entry porch bound by a single steel column and rubble stonework cladding at the Mollison Street corner. (Criterion E)25 As concluded in the Lovell Chen preliminary appraisal, it is agreed that the Bendigo Timber Company showroom meets Criterion E as a place of aesthetic significance at a local level. As one of a small group dating from the same period, it is a building which exhibits a contemporary modernity as was being pursued by a number of younger post war architectural practices. While not as well resolved as other examples of the work of the architects Eggleston MacDonald and Secomb, and compromised in its appearance by seemingly later cantilever awnings, it remains a locally significant example of a Modernist design. The key features of the design are the extensive glazed shop fronts with angled glass, the corner entrance with stone clad feature wall, the externally expressed steel columns and the butterfly roof form.

6.0 Conclusions and recommendations As a result of this review of the recommendation to include 106 Williamson Street in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay, I agree that the place satisfies Criterion E at a local level and is worthy of inclusion. A revised statement of significance, with marked changes, has been included below.

6.1 Revised statement of significance

The following provides a revision to the statement of significance prepared as part of the Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1. It is recommended this replace the existing statement of significance:

25 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 2, April 2020, pp.212-213.

LOVELL CHEN 27

What is significant

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, built in 1959-1960 for the Bendigo Timber Company by builders Green Brothers, is significant. Significant fabric includes the:

• original built form and scale of the building, including the low-slung asymmetrical butterfly roof;

• expressed structural steel frame;

• brick walls;

• cantilevered awnings;

• the notable glazing pattern which features bays of tilted windows; and

• recessed entry with stonework stone feature wall. How is it significant

106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, is of local historic, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

Why is it significant

106 Williamson Street is historically significant for its association with the Bendigo Timber Company which traded from the site between 1921-87. The subject building was purpose built for the company by Greens Brothers builders in 1959-60 after a fire destroyed all previous buildings on the site in January 1959. It was the third premises occupied by the Bendigo Timber Company on this site, with fires destroying the earlier two buildings.

LOVELL CHEN 28

no longer relied on load-bearing walls and greater areas of glazing were possible. These structural developments brought a new freedom to the expression of walls, windows, and roofs as independent design elements and a similar freedom to the planning of interior spaces. (Criterion D) The former Bendigo Timber Company building is aesthetically significant for its ‘modern’ style where structure and function are expressed as part of its aesthetic. Key features include expressed steel columns and extensive glazing to its principal elevations, an asymmetrical low-slung butterfly roof and clerestory windows. Of particular note are the cantilevered verandahs, lower section tilted windows and the entry porch bound by a single steel column and rubble stonework cladding stone feature wall at the Mollison Street corner. (Criterion E)26

6.2 Extent of heritage overlay and exempt works

As relevant to the establishment of a suitable curtilage Planning Practice Note No. 1 states as follows:

The Heritage Overlay applies to both the listed heritage item and its associated land. It is usually important to include land surrounding a building, structure, tree or feature of importance to ensure that any development, including subdivision, does not adversely affect the setting, context or significance of the heritage item. The land surrounding the heritage item is known as a ‘curtilage’ and will be shown as a polygon on the Heritage Overlay map. In many cases, particularly in urban areas and townships, the extent of the curtilage will be the whole of the property (for example, a suburban dwelling and its allotment). However, there will be occasions where the curtilage and the Heritage Overlay polygon should be reduced in size as the land is of no significance. Reducing the curtilage and the polygon will have the potential benefit of lessening the number of planning permits that are required with advantages to both the landowner and the responsible authority. The extent of the proposed heritage overlay is the building footprint as extended into Williamson and Mollison streets to incorporate the awning verandahs. On the basis that the awning verandahs are confirmed as not original it is recommended that the extent exclude these elements and be limited to the building footprint (Figure 16). Additionally, it is recommended that a site specific incorporated document be prepared to assist in managing future works. The building is one with a relatively large footprint and the elements and features which contribute to significance are primarily associated with the facades to the two street frontages. The butterfly roof form is also of significance, but to a degree this is as associated with the facades and as visible from Mollison Street. While decisions regarding the impact and appropriateness of works is a matter which can be addressed under relevant heritage policy, this presents as a place where it would assist to provide some more explicit guidance. The proposed mechanism to provide this guidance would be a site specific incorporated plan. The plan would provide for permit exemptions from the provisions of the Heritage Overlay in accordance with Clause 43.01-2 of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. Consistent with the existing Greater Bendigo Heritage Incorporated Plan – Permit Exemptions27, a permit would be required if it cannot be demonstrated that a proposal complies with the exemptions set out in incorporated plan, noting that

26 Context Pty Ltd, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1: Volume 2, April 2020, pp.212-213.

27 City of Greater Bendigo, Greater Bendigo Heritage Incorporated Plan – Permit Exemptions, January 2018, p. 3.

LOVELL CHEN 29

the plan does not provide permit exemptions from a permit if required by any other provision of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. The plan would allow for partial demolition and redevelopment of the building as a permit exempt action within specific constraints. Those constraints would be as follows: • Demolition of the existing building to within two internal column bays (approx. 9.2 metres) of the Mollison Street frontage (Figure 17) and to within 4.5 metres of the Williamson Street frontage. • Construction of new works to within two internal column bays (approx. 9.2 metres) on the Mollison Street frontage and to within 4.5 metres on the Williamson Street frontage rising to no higher than two storeys above the highest point of the existing roof.

Figure 15 Currently proposed mapping of the heritage overlay

Figure 16 Proposed revised extent of the heritage overlay (red) with the exempt area indicated (yellow)

LOVELL CHEN 30

Figure 17 View of the interior of the building, looking towards Mollison Street, with the approximate depth of the two column bays indicated by the red line

LOVELL CHEN 31 ATTACHMENT A PRELIMINARY APPRAISAL FOR 106 WILLIAMSON STREET, BENDIGO

LOVELL CHEN A 1

A 2 LOVELL CHEN

MEMORANDUM

TO Spring Design and Development Pty Ltd FROM Peter Lovell/Matthew Spencer

RE 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo DATE 7 July 2020

This memorandum provides a preliminary review of the conclusions of the Heritage Citation prepared for 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo in the Bendigo City Centre Heritage Review – Stage 1. The review has been prepared in the context of a proposed redevelopment of the site which to date had anticipated the demolitions of the subject building.

1.0 Current listings and controls The site is not currently included in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme. The report, Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1, Volume 2: Individually Significant Places, Final report (Context P/L, April 2020), prepared for the City of Greater Bendigo concludes that the site is ‘recommended for inclusion in the Schedule to the Heritage Overlay of the Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme as an individually significant place’ (Figure 1 to Figure 3).

The recommended overlay would include the existing building located at the north-west corner of the site and ‘verandahs in road reserve which extend 3 meters from property line (approximately 36 metres along Williamson Street and 27 metres along Mollison Street)’.

Figure 1 [Part] Map No 19HO with subject site indicated Source: Greater Bendigo Planning Scheme

LOVELL CHEN 1

Figure 2 Extent of proposed HO shown in red, balance of site shown in green Source: Nearmap (6 May 2020)

Figure 3 Extent of proposed HO Source: Bendigo City Centre Heritage Study Stage 1, Volume 2: Individually Significant Places, Final report (Context P/L, April 2020), page 214

LOVELL CHEN 2

2.0 Significance The heritage assessment identifies 106 Williamson Street, Bendigo, as being of local historical, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Greater Bendigo.

2.1 Assessment of significance The Context assessment has found the subject property meets three of the criteria set down in the 2015 VPP Practice Note Applying the Heritage Overlay, Criterion A, Criterion D and Criterion E.

The following comments are made against each of the criterion:

Criterion A: Importance to the course or pattern of our cultural or natural history (historical significance). The property is identified by the citation as historically important by virtue of its relationship with the Bendigo Timber Company: … which traded from the site between 1921-1987. The subject building was purpose built for the company by Greens Brothers builders in 1959-60 after a fire destroyed all previous buildings on the site in January 1959. It was the third premises occupied by the Bendigo Timber Company on this site, with fires destroying the two earlier buildings.

… a business which grew into the largest timber, hardware, joinery and paint establishment operating outside the metropolitan area. A major part of the Bendigo Timber Company’s operations was the manufacturing of kit form houses from the 1930s through until the 1950s under the name of Ready Cut Homes, a company that also had branches in Melbourne and Sydney. The company supplied plans, timber and a builder for the construction of these homes through a payment scheme. It was engaged in the erection of shops, hotels, stores, dwellings and every type of farm building. As the company expanded, it ceased construction operations and devoted its efforts to the supply of building materials to a rapidly expanding client base of builders and the general public.

Comment: The citation does not identify post-war development in Bendigo as a reason for the historical signficance of the place, and that is considered to be appropriate. Post-war development is not explored as a theme in the Greater Bendigo Thematic Environmental History, aside from a brief reference to soldier settlement. There is likewise no reference to modernist development in the document. This would indicate that development in this period has not previously been identified as a major theme in Bendigo’s history, although the historical context provided in the citation suggests that there was a level of commercial development, at least in a concentrated area, in this period. The contextual history in the citation has been prepared for this latest study, rather than drawing on the thematic history. The association of the building with the successful Bendigo Timber Company has been identified as being of historical signficance. The citation emphasises the importance of the production of kit homes to the significance of the company. While the building was owned and operated by the Bendigo Timber Company, it appears to have been used as a traditional hardware shop and its 1959-60 construction date was after the kit home aspect of the business had ceased. The building does not therefore have a strong/close association with the production of kit homes and therefore the historical importance of the Bendigo Timber Company. The statement that the company was ‘the largest timber, hardware, joinery and paint establishment operating outside the metropolitan area’ has not been quantified or referenced. Nonetheless, it is

LOVELL CHEN 3 accepted that this was a long running and successful business in the Bendigo context. The company had a long association with the site which is of some historical interest, although the subject building was the third building on the site. Conclusion

On the basis of this limited assessment the degree to which the subject site and building can be ascribed significance as satisfying historical value at a local level is potentially not met. In many respects the history of the site is likely to be one which is repeated for many such places, many of which would not be ascribed heritage significance as a result. There is nothing which has been identified beyond the fact that the site is associated with a long term successful business which elevates the place above others.

Criterion D: Importance in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places or environments (representativeness). With regard to meeting Criterion D the citation concludes as follows:

The former Bendigo Timber Company building built in 1959-60 is a fine example of an intact modernist commercial building constructed in the post-World War II era. It demonstrates characteristics of the modern architectural idiom developed in the postwar era. Modernist buildings frequently adopted a 'machine aesthetic' using industrially processed materials such as steel, concrete, glass and prefabricated elements. The use of long-span structural frames and lintels meant that buildings no longer relied on load-bearing walls and greater areas of glazing were possible. These structural developments brought a new freedom to the expression of walls, windows, and roofs as independent design elements and a similar freedom to the planning of interior spaces. (Criterion D)

Comment: In a Bendigo context 106 Williamson street presents as a place which pursues Modernist design ideas in a place specific context rather than as one of a distinct class of places. As noted in the citation there are few comparable places within Bendigo which evidence like Modernist design ideas and those which are noted are similarly discrete events and not readily comparable. As such 106 Williamson Street does not present as a place which is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural places which is important in a Bendigo context.

Criterion E: Importance in exhibiting particular aesthetic characteristics (aesthetic significance). With regard to meeting Criterion E the citation concludes as follows:

Comment: From an aesthetic perspective the building presents as an assembly of elements common to Modernist design thinking. These are primarily associated with the two street facades and roof form, rather than extending into the interior, which in many respects is simply a large open plan retail space. While potentially architect designed, the composition does not present as one which is strongly directional in its approach.

LOVELL CHEN 4

As noted in the citation, elements which distinguish the place include the asymmetrical butterfly roof form, a well-accepted feature of Modernist design, particularly in the 1950s, the window system with its slanted glazing and the awning verandah roof arrangement. In all cases the delivery is not particularly refined and while of visual interest is less successful than the Former Beaurepaire Motor Garage, 404- 406 Hargreaves Street, but comparable to the Bendigo Bowls, 159 Hargreaves Street. Regarding integrity, the principal facade appears to be more-or-less intact with all windows in place. Some alteration has taken place at the primary entry. Original door joinery to the main doorway through the portico has been replaced, however, original door joinery survives at a second point of entry along the Williamson Street frontage. Overpainting of the façade brickwork has diminished an understanding of the materiality of the building. The citation notes that ‘the original materiality of the building is still evident, including the feature stonework wall in the inset front entry porch’. While it shouldn’t be overstated, the character of the subject building (lightweight, structurally ambitious with large expanses of glazing, novel window treatments etc) borrows from some important 1950s Melbourne buildings (even Boyd and McIntyre buildings) and it generally seeks to sit within this group (albeit at a substantially lower order of significance). On this basis, the building presents as one which potentially satisfies the criterion for aesthetic (architectural) significance at a local level.

2.2 Conclusion The conclusion of this preliminary review is that 106 Williamson Street Bendigo, on the basis of work completed to date, is unlikely to meet the threshold for local listing as satisfying Criteria A or D, but that it is likely to satisfy Criterion E. In satisfying Criterion E the elements of direct relevance to that criterion are the Williamson and Mollison street’s facades and a depth of the butterfly roof facade behind Mollison Street sufficient to understand the form. The remaining area of the building is of little or no significance.

Should the site be included in the heritage overlay, in considering future redevelopment the options present as follows:

• Retention of the complete building to the extent of the currently mapped heritage overlay area • Retention of the street facades with a nominal depth of 6 metres on Williamson Street and 8 metres on Mollison Street • Retention of the Mollison Street facade and return (8 metres) on Williamson Street, with an 8 metre depth of structure behind • Demolition and referencing the design aesthetic in the redevelopment The design of the building is not one which readily lends itself to partial retention, nor, in this case is this necessarily a desirable heritage or design outcome. As such the last of these options is one which might seriously be entertained in delivering a preferred whole is site development outcome.

LOVELL CHEN 5