MONIVAE

Hamilton-Port Fairy Road HAMILTON, Southern Grampians Shire

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Southern Grampians Shire

23059 Monivae Homestead Hamilton Port fairy Rd 1473

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Physical Description 1

    MONIVAE - Physical Description 1

    The house is symmetrical about the front door with side lights and a semicircular fanlight, all surrounded by rusticated quoins, which is further emphasised by a projecting bay in the cast iron verandah. There are separate entrances from the verandah to a passage between the dining room and breakfast room on the south side and the office on the north side. The verandah columns, MacLean's patented composite columns, are paired and,on the ground floor, are set on bluestone plinths. The cast iron panels of the first floor balustrade are especially fine and have a design of crossed diagonals reminiscent of the Regency origin of cast iron verandahs. The paired windows of the principle rooms further emphasis this symmetry. The whole of the facade, while conservative in its styling, is particularly fine in its execution. It represents the more formal extreme of the common domestic Italianate style.

    The interiors of the house survive unaltered except for the loss and, in some sense, compromise of their historic decoration. Their style is a conservative Classicism, of quite strongly architectonic character in the main hall. In 1877 it was described as having Keen's patent polished plaster but this has since been painted. Again, the planning of the rooms is conventional in its hierarchy but grand in its scale. Of special note are the office on the north side of the house with access from within and without and the butler's pantry between the front wind and the service wing. The finest feature of the house is the main staircase, with cast iron balusters which were originally 'bronzed' and a dominating newel post. The stairwell and hall are lit by a large window of patterned glass surrounded by a border of stained glass. The usual range of service rooms extend in a wing behind the front wing. There is a cellar below the service wing reached from an external stairvwell. Beyond this there is a timber laundry, possibly dating from after the construction of the main house. It has been suggested that the first outbuildings were parts of the original Monivae homestead relocated to the new. The woolshed, which dated from the early twentieth century has been demolished and the early wool press removed to a museum in Hamilton.

    Physical Conditions

    MONIVAE - Physical Conditions

    The house is in excellent condition both structurally and in detail. It retains a very high degree of integrity although the decoration of its interiors, from each of its historic periods, and all the furnishings have been lost. The joinery and cast iron of the exterior retains a simple and early, certainly pre-WW2 colour scheme of cream and light stone.

    The garden still retains many significant plantings although the main trees, Pinus radiata of the drive have been cut down recently and little survives in the pleasure garden immediately to the north of the house and associated with the drawing room. Some Italian Cypresses, Cupressus sempervirens in poor condition remain in the drive. Nothing survives of the productive parts of the garden such as the orchard and vegetable patches which were so important to James Thomson.

    Historical Australian Themes

    MONIVAE - Historical Australian Themes

    Theme 3 Developing Local Regional and National Economies
    3.5 Developing Primary Production
    3.5.1 Grazing stock
    3.5.2 Breeding animals

    Theme 6 Educating
    6.2 Establishing schools

    Theme 7 Governing
    7.2 Developing institutions of self-government and democracy
    7.2.2 Struggling for inclusion in the political process

    Theme 8 Developing Australia's Cultural Life
    8.10 Pursuing excellence in the arts and sciences
    8.10.3 Designing and building fine buildings

    Usage/Former Usage

    MONIVAE - Usage/Former Usage

    residential, occupied by a caretaker for the Glenelg Water Authority.

    Integrity

    MONIVAE - Integrity

    Substantially intact

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Southern Grampians - Southern Grampians Shire Heritage Study

    Author: Timothy Hubbard P/L, Annabel Neylon
    Year: 2002
    Grading:

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