PASTORIA HOMESTEAD
589 BAYNTON ROAD PASTORIA, MACEDON RANGES SHIRE
Statement of Significance
What is significant?
Pastoria Homestead is predominantly an Arts and Crafts styled building developed in two main stages. The first stage consists of a simple single storey homestead building which is now subsumed into the present building. The second stage of development occurred c.1890 and constitutes the present form. Pastoria has an attic-gable, an open ground level verandah and enclosed rear verandah. The interior contains a wide upstairs gallery overlooking the living area and the drawing and dining-rooms have been decorated with Arts and Crafts wall-papers.
How is it significant?
Pastoria Homestead is significant for architectural and historical reasons
Why is it significant?
Pastoria Homestead is of architectural importance as an early stylistic example of a building type. Whilst Australian architecture was influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement early in the 20th century, Pastoria demonstrates very early influences of the stylistic movement, having been constructed late in the late 19th century Pastoria is architecturally advanced and largely intact; the interiors have been skilfully executed and finely finished. Pastoria retains many of its original 1890s wallpapers and also its superb full length French windows which open out into the garden once tended by Chinese gardeners. The collapse of the economy in the 1890s resulted in a substantial decrease in building activities and thus Pastoria is of significance for its use of stylistic elements which were uncommon at the time due to economic depression.
Pastoria Homestead is of historical importance for its association with early settlement patterns in Victoria and for its connection with prominent Victorians. Pastoria was the residence of early pastoralist George Govett who bought the run in 1853 from William Piper. Between 1853 and 1854 Govett secured a pre-emptive right to the 640 acre homestead block and constructed a single-storey weatherboard homestead. In the late 1850s and the 1860s, Kyneton flourished as a result of gold mining activities. The area had been mainly a rural district, however as people made their way to the gold fields the size and wealth of the township grew. Govett died in 1888 and JB Watson junior, the son of mining magnate and financial investor John Boyd Watson, purchased Pastoria with his inheritance money. Although Victoria was in a state of depression, building works soon followed with the erection of a first floor attic and the remodelling of many of the ground floor rooms; these works led to the present form of Pastoria.
[Source: Report to the Minister.]
-
-
-
-
PASTORIA HOMESTEAD
Victorian Heritage Register H1179 -
Pastoria Estate
National Trust H1179
-
'CARINYA' LADSONS STORE
Victorian Heritage Register H0568
-
1 Alexander Street
Yarra City -
1 Botherambo Street
Yarra City
-
-
