DUNMORE TURKISH BATH HOUSE AND HOMESTEAD KITCHEN

3039 WOOLSTHORPE-HEYWOOD ROAD BROADWATER, MOYNE SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    DUNMORE TURKISH BATH HOUSE AND HOMESTEAD KITCHEN - History

    The Turkish bath house at Dunmore was erected in 1866 for Scottish immigrant and pastoralist Charles Hamilton Macknight. The chimney was built by stonemason John Perry, from Cornwell. The bluestone was probably quarried locally. The bath house was most likely added after the homestead had been built in the 1850s. Macknight was the son of Dr Thomas Macknight, a minister of the High Church, St Giles, Edinburgh, and was a temperance advocate. The bath house was essentially a steam bath, with steam being made by the hearth (right hand side of the structure) rising up through the floorboards. The internal lining of this building was timber so would have been full of moisture. The Dunmore homestead was destroyed in a fire in 1939; the kitchen building and the bathhouse were the only section of the original homestead to survive the fire. The Turkish bath house is of historical significance as a rare example (if not the only example) of a bath house built for a mid-19th century pastoral homestead. The bath house is also significant for demonstrating new interest in personal hygiene which was achieved through bathing. It also has local historical significance for its association with prominent Western District Scottish squatter Charles Hamilton Macknight (1819-1873).

    Interpretation of Site

    DUNMORE TURKISH BATH HOUSE AND HOMESTEAD KITCHEN - Interpretation of Site

    The Turkish Bath house is constructed of squared, coursed bluestone. There is visible stepped cracking above a pointed portal and highlight window (no glass remaining in situ), as well as above the main doorway. The design is Gothic, and there are two chambers likely serving as a changing room and bathing room. The lintel stone above the doorway remains and is inscribed 1866. A wooden door on eastern wall has been repaired and/or replaced at some stage but no longer functional. The gabled roof is steeply pitched and clad in corrugated iron. This is in a fair condition, with some corrosion and movement of sheeting visible. A stone chimney is set into the roof line of the right of the main doorway. This is in a more serious state of disrepair with some coursing in a state of collapse above the heath brickwork. The woodwork/ timber skillion adjoining the chimney to the bath house proper is badly deteriorated with wood collapsing into the structure and blocking entry. The later 20th century additions of a weatherboard skillion on the left side and to the rear (north) section remain but are collapsing and hazardous. The adjacent bluestone kitchen building is in a ruinous state. It includes a bread oven and evidence of two rooms, indicating a past residential use and is associated with the earliest stage of housing built on the site by the McKnight family.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    DUNMORE TURKISH BATH HOUSE AND HOMESTEAD KITCHEN - Heritage Inventory Description

    The Turkish Bath house is constructed of squared, coursed bluestone. There is visible stepped cracking above a pointed portal and highlight window (no glass remaining in situ), as well as above the main doorway (see Plate 1). The design is Gothic, and there are two chambers likely serving as a changing room and bathing room. The lintel stone above the doorway remains and is inscribed 1866 (Plate 5). Wooden door on eastern wall has been repaired and/or replaced at some stage but no longer functional. The gabled roof is steeply pitched and clad in corrugated iron. This is in a fair condition, with some corrosion and movement of sheeting visible. A stone chimney is set into the roof line of the right of the main doorway. This is in a more serious state of disrepair with some coursing in a state of collapse above the heath brickwork. The woodwork/ timber skillion adjoining the chimney to the bath house proper is badly deteriorated with wood collapsing into the structure and blocking entry. The later 20th century additions of a weatherboard skillion on the left side and to the rear (north) section remain but are collapsing and hazardous.
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