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WOODVALE STATE SCHOOL NO.1531 (FORMER)
34 DALYS ROAD, WOODVALE - PROPERTY NUMBER 201427, GREATER BENDIGO CITY

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Greater Bendigo City
Woodvale School
Woodvale School
Woodvale School
Woodvale Hall, west and north elevations
Woodvale Hall, rear (south) and east elevations, note skillion addition at left of picture
Woodvale Hall, War memorial to the north of the public hall grounds
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?
The former Woodvale School is a standard gabled bi-chrome brick school room of the late Victorian period, with an entrance porch to the south and a skillion-roofed lean-to addition to the east. The building is located in the approximate centre of a large, gently sloping and partly treed allotment on the south side of Daly's Road, close to the Bendigo-Pyramid Road intersection. The school has a sandstone plinth laid in random (irregular) coursed rubble, bluestone sills and bi-chrome window heads with cambered soffits. The red brick walls on the front (south) elevation are laid in English bond with a two-course strip in cream brick running round the building and its porch. The gable vents are bullseyes, with bichrome surrounds to the south face. The roofs of the original components (main school room and porch) are simple gables, clad in corrugated galvanised steel; the main roof has three gablet vents to the west. The brick chimney is original. The bargeboards have long finials, with the main upper finial supported on a cross-beam and the porch finial serving as a flagpole. The timber finials are not original. The porch bargeboard is supported on two projecting purlins. The windows to the north elevation have four sashes in two bays, probably added in the Federation period. Inside, the coved and painted timber ceiling linings and decorative ceiling vents are intact, as are the roll of honour, blackboard and fireplace. The lean-to addition may date to the 1960s, although its windows appear earlier indicating they may have been relocated during the construction works. 

How is it significant?
The former Woodvale School is of local historic, social and aesthetic/architectural significance. 

Why is it significant?
The former Woodvale School no. 1531, in Daly's Road, Woodvale, and completed in 1875, is of local historic significance (Criterion A), for providing evidence of the consolidation of Sydney Flat (Woodvale) as a community in the 1870s, following the frenzy of the early gold rushes of the 1850s. Its use for nearly a century, from 1875 to 1962, demonstrates the size and longevity of the local community into the second half of the twentieth century. The former school also remains in use as a public hall, maintained by a local community association. 

The property is of social significance (Criterion G), as a focus of the local community for nearly a century. Former students who perished in World War I are commemorated by the memorials and replanted trees in the grounds, while the recently planted cypress trees maintain this approach, emphasizing the local importance of the property and echoing those originally planted by the school community after the war. The former school is also valued for remaining in use as a public hall. 

The property is also of local aesthetic/architectural significance (Criterion E), as a largely externally intact example of a late-Victorian bichrome brick gabled school building, which is similar in form and details to a number of contemporaneous (1870s) schools in Victoria designed by H R Bastow, senior architect with the Department of Public Works. Excepting the rear lean-to addition, and the windows to the north elevation which were probably added in the Federation period, the school presents externally predominantly as built. Elements of note include the bichrome window heads, chimney cornicing, gablet vents and cross-braced finial. The steeply pitched roof also has picturesque qualities, giving the building considerable prominence in its informal treed landscape setting; the row of memorials is also significant.

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    • Physical Description 1

      WOODVALE STATE SCHOOL NO.1531 (FORMER) - Physical Description 1

      The former Woodvale School is a standard gabled bichrome brick school room of the late Victorian period, with an entrance porch to the south and a skillion-roofed lean-to addition to the east. The building is located in the approximate centre of a large, gently sloping and partly treed allotment on the south side of Daly's Road, close to the Bendigo-Pyramid Road intersection.

      The school has a sandstone plinth laid in random (irregular) coursed rubble, bluestone sills and bichrome window heads with cambered soffits. The red brick walls on the front (south) elevation are laid in English bond with a two-course strip in cream brick running round the building and its porch. The gable vents are bullseyes, with bichrome surrounds to the south face. The roofs of the original components (main school room and porch) are simple gables, clad in corrugated galvanised steel; the main roof has three gablet vents to the west. The brick chimney is original. The bargeboards have long finials, with the main upper finial supported on a cross-beam and the porch finial serving as a flagpole. Timber finials are not original. The porch bargeboard is supported on two projecting purlins. Toothed brickwork at the north end anticipates an extension never built - as noted in the history (above), the original plans and specifications were for a much larger building. The windows to the north elevation have four sashes in two bays, probably added in the Federation period. Inside, the coved and painted timber ceiling linings and decorative ceiling vents are intact, as are the roll of honour, blackboard and fireplace. The lean-to addition may date to the 1960s, although its windows appear earlier indicating they may have been relocated during the construction works.

      There is a white-painted timber toilet to the east of the allotment, twinned with no internal division. To the south of the entrance are the memorials to the seven former pupils, with a row of recently replanted cypress trees behind. The allotment is enclosed to the south by a low wire and post fence.

      The cast iron entrance gates, painted green, were installed in 2004. These were a donation by Neil M and Dagmar V Daly, members of the fourth generation of Dalys in the Woodvale community and dedicated to the memory of Roy and Janet Daly (nee Bayliss).

      The former school appears to be in sound condition.

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Greater Bendigo - Heritage Policy Citations Review

      Author: Lovell Chen P/L
      Year: 2011
      Grading: Local

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