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Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.)
6 Woolpack Road BACCHUS MARSH, MOORABOOL SHIRE

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Moorabool Shire
Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.
Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.
Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.
Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.
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Statement of Significance

Built in 1850, of state level historical significance as rare pre-gold rush industrial building. (Potentially) the earliest surviving commercial stables in the state.

The stables are historically significant in providing evidence of the early development of commercial stables in Victoria, and locally of the abattoir industry. They illustrate early transport facilities in Victoria, on the route to the goldfields. They embody the earliest settlement of Bacchus Marsh and its way of life. They are also socially significant to Bacchus Marsh as a well known focal point and early meeting place at the junction of the Geelong and Ballarat Roads.

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    • Physical Conditions

      Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.) - Physical Conditions

      Potential demolition due to expansion of the abattoir. A structural survey by an appropriate expert structural engineer is needed urgently, to assess the structural cracking. The keystone has been defaced and relaid.

      Intactness

      Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.) - Intactness

      Good. The building has had considerable alteration at different times, however the entire form of the stables, most of original roof frame, a window and various items of equipment and decorative elements survive. There is nothing to suggest these elements are necessarily later than 1850. Surviving elements include: west gable end (except a blocked former opening, wall apex and a small timber perch for the birds to roost) and dovecote, winch and boiling batt, winch, pulley, gallows. sub-floor structure (rnorticed &tenoned joints), whitewashed render (to half way up ) to walls, louvred window, signwritten sandstone blocks, carved and dated keystone. The roof structure has been partly rebuilt over stringcourse level. Bargeboards have been removed. The stalls have been altered. pans of the walls reconstructed and a section convened for use as an abattoirs . The yard is on fill, possibly debris of the former hotel.

      SIGNIFICANT INTACT ELEMENTS:

      MATERIALS. FORM.

      OUTBUILDINGS. WALL DECORATION. SIGNS. EQUIPMENT. WINDOW.

      ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITEIRUIN.

      TREES.

      Physical Description 1

      Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.) - Physical Description 1

      A gable-roofed brick commercial stables building of three bays, parallel to the Avenue of Honour, with a skillion extension to the south-west corner. There is a timber roof structure, mezzanine floor joists and dressed and tooled sandstone quoins to corners and openings, which also have dressed sandstone cills. There are four(?) wrought iron cross tie rods terminating in'S' stays. Some posts are in their original position, others are evident from the foundation stones, and mortices cut in the underside of the upper joist.

      At the west end is a dovecote, within the roof structure, with a timber structure forming part of the floor and boxes. In the south-west corner is a gablet over a gallows. This has a crab winch and pulley, certainly used for raising carcasses for butchering. Opposite, near the north-east corner is another winch over an iron-clad, firebrick lined boiling down vat in the north west corner, bearing the inscription "MARTIN'S DREADNAUGHT PATENT YARRAVILLE".

      The surviving timber posts, supporting part of the roof structure, and evidence, from the early illustrations, suggest that this section was probably originally the strappers room. An early etching,13 appears to show this part as the full extent of the building, the stables possibly being a later addition.

      The sub-floor structure (ie. under the relatively recently installed raised floor in th e western two thirds of the building, while the eastern third has cement rendered walls) has morticed and tenoned joints. It reveals the layout of the stalls. There were ten on each side, twenty in total, indicated by the posts separating them. The bricks are handmade and original : 220 x 105 x 60mm. There is one original louvred window. The roof springs from an irregular dressed sandstone stringcourse on the south wall. Some of these stones on the south elevation have traces of signwriting ("LIQUORS, SPIRITS,PORTS", and scrolling). This may be the string course visible in illustrations of the Woolpack Inn itself.

      External walls are rendered to halfway up and formerly whitewashed. Over the north door is a sandstone bas-relief carved keystone of a bull's head with the date' 1850' and indistinct letters 'J.E. Crook'. Other doors are in the east and west ends with two large windows and a smaller window in the north wall. One of these has been blocked up. The skillion-roofed section contains two stalls each with separate entrances, possibly horse boxes.

      A two-bay section of (the hotel?) brick wall survives in front of the north-east comer of the stables. This has brick quoins. Another masonry remnant survives south-east of the stables, about a 1m cube. There is a grindstone lying near the Avenue of Honour boundary. There is therefore, a high probability of the survival of other archaeological evidence relating to the Woolpack Inn.

      There are various mature trees and a cypress hedge along Woolpack Road. (North of the Avenue of Honour is a timber Italianate house).

      (Note: The Woolpack Inn itself was a channing Colonial Regency five-bay, double-storey, hip-roofed town house, with an impressive round-headed doorcase with fan and side lights. It had a stringcourse at first floor level and quoins at corners. A gable-roofed outbuilding is shown at the west side rear and a simple double-fronted, hip-roofed cottage is linked to the hotel with a crenellated wall).

      13 Moore& Oomes. p.13.

      Usage/Former Usage

      Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.) - Usage/Former Usage

      USE: Abattoir.

      PREVIOUS USE: Hotel and stables.

      Historical Australian Themes

      Former "Woolpack Inn" including former stables and sign writing (Bacchus Marsh Abattoirs and Meats Pty. Ltd.) - Historical Australian Themes

      Industry; transport; communitY life.

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Moorabool - Bacchus Marsh Heritage Study 1995

      Author: Richard Peterson and Daniel Catrice
      Year: 1995
      Grading:

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