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MOUNT STURGEON HOMESTEAD COMPLEX
Cavendish-Dunkeld Road DUNKELD, Southern Grampians Shire
MOUNT STURGEON HOMESTEAD COMPLEX
Cavendish-Dunkeld Road DUNKELD, Southern Grampians Shire
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Southern Grampians Shire
23213 Mount Sturgeon Dunkeld facade 2262
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Mount Sturgeon squatting run was established by Dr Robert Martin in 1839. He was a medical practitioner who lived permanently in Heidelberg on the outskirts of Melbourne. It seems likely that he built the original sections of the homestead complex and possibly the oldest part of the existing woolshed. The Martin family was linked by marriage to the family of James Graham, an important early Melbourne merchant and pastoralist. The next owner of Mount Sturgeon was Hugh Glass of Flemington, a speculator, squatter, businessman and notorious politician. He was reputed to be the richest man in Victoria before his financial, political and social collapse and then his death in 1871. He had already subdivided the run and sold Mount Sturgeon to the Armytage family in 1865, in an attempt to recoup his losses. Charles and Caroline Armytage of Como in South Yarra, who had lived at Fulham near Balmoral before retiring to the city, developed Mount Sturgeon rather than Fulham, as their principal pastoral property. The grand new front wing of the homestead was probably built before the death of Charles Armytage in 1876. It is archly conservative in style, form and materials. No architect or builder has yet been associated with the design and construction but Arthur Ebden Johnson, the brother-in-law of Caroline Armytage and who worked on Como and in the Western District at the time, is very likely. Little remains of the original homestead after recent alterations and extensions but the 1870s wing is substantially intact and the whole is in excellent condition. The woolshed which was built in three stages, the sheep dip, cookhouse and workers' cottages all survive. They retain different degrees of integrity and are all in excellent condition. Mount Sturgeon remained in the Armytage family's possession until it was sold to the Soldier Settlement Commission and subdivided in stages into thirty smaller allotments.
How is it significant?
Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria and to the Southern Grampians Shire.
Why is it significant?
Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of historical significance as one of the best examples of a squatting run managed for an absentee metropolitan owner, specifically: Dr Robert Green, of Heidelberg; Hugh Glass of Flemington; and most importantly, the Armytage family of Como, South Yarra. Although Mount Sturgeon, after Fulham, was the second major squatting run owned by Charles and Caroline Armytage and their children, it was the property which became the family's flagship. Mount Sturgeon is a typical example of soldier Settlement after the Second World War. Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of architectural significance for its sequence of development, the conservatism of its major, although unusual, extension.
The Mount Sturgeon squatting run was established by Dr Robert Martin in 1839. He was a medical practitioner who lived permanently in Heidelberg on the outskirts of Melbourne. It seems likely that he built the original sections of the homestead complex and possibly the oldest part of the existing woolshed. The Martin family was linked by marriage to the family of James Graham, an important early Melbourne merchant and pastoralist. The next owner of Mount Sturgeon was Hugh Glass of Flemington, a speculator, squatter, businessman and notorious politician. He was reputed to be the richest man in Victoria before his financial, political and social collapse and then his death in 1871. He had already subdivided the run and sold Mount Sturgeon to the Armytage family in 1865, in an attempt to recoup his losses. Charles and Caroline Armytage of Como in South Yarra, who had lived at Fulham near Balmoral before retiring to the city, developed Mount Sturgeon rather than Fulham, as their principal pastoral property. The grand new front wing of the homestead was probably built before the death of Charles Armytage in 1876. It is archly conservative in style, form and materials. No architect or builder has yet been associated with the design and construction but Arthur Ebden Johnson, the brother-in-law of Caroline Armytage and who worked on Como and in the Western District at the time, is very likely. Little remains of the original homestead after recent alterations and extensions but the 1870s wing is substantially intact and the whole is in excellent condition. The woolshed which was built in three stages, the sheep dip, cookhouse and workers' cottages all survive. They retain different degrees of integrity and are all in excellent condition. Mount Sturgeon remained in the Armytage family's possession until it was sold to the Soldier Settlement Commission and subdivided in stages into thirty smaller allotments.
How is it significant?
Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of historical and architectural significance to the State of Victoria and to the Southern Grampians Shire.
Why is it significant?
Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of historical significance as one of the best examples of a squatting run managed for an absentee metropolitan owner, specifically: Dr Robert Green, of Heidelberg; Hugh Glass of Flemington; and most importantly, the Armytage family of Como, South Yarra. Although Mount Sturgeon, after Fulham, was the second major squatting run owned by Charles and Caroline Armytage and their children, it was the property which became the family's flagship. Mount Sturgeon is a typical example of soldier Settlement after the Second World War. Mount Sturgeon Homestead Complex is of architectural significance for its sequence of development, the conservatism of its major, although unusual, extension.
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MOUNT STURGEON HOMESTEAD COMPLEX
Southern Grampians Shire -
Mount Sturgeon
National Trust
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..esterville
Yarra City -
1 Alfred Crescent
Yarra City
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1 Barkly Street
Yarra City
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