RANGES HOTEL & TREES

Main Street GEMBROOK, Cardinia Shire

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Cardinia Shire

Ranges Hotel

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • Physical Description 1

    RANGES HOTEL & TREES - Physical Description 1

    This is a long weatherboarded gabled roof structure which once faced its wide verandah to the south down the hill away from the street. This verandah is now enclosed and added to leaving the main facade facing towards the former railway station ground, with its new convex street verandah. The roofline shows the apex of a hipped roof section in the main ridge which has been absorbed by additions to the east and west. The corbel-top brick chimney is early and presumably has also been absorbed in a new roof leve at an early datel. Much of the exterior and interior have been rebuilt or renovated although the openings along the street retain the character of an early hotel building, with multiple doors and double-hung windows. New picket fencing has been erected to the side of the hotel.
    
    Photographs from the 1920s show the main elevated south-facing verandah with its fretted and panelled frieze, shallow timber brackets, turned verandah posts with square bases, a gablet set centrally into the verandah roof, and a slatted balustrade. Views of the 1950s also show a skillion profile north-facing street verandah supported on brick piers, presumably replacing the earlier bullnose verandah (gone). Another undated view of the hotel, from the corner of Redwood Road, shows a much smaller building (minus the eastern extension and enclosed and added to verandah) bushy side garden, a paling fence with a picket gate set between tall capped posts and verandah striping to the street verandah and the return shaped verandah on the south and east faces6.
    
    Inside, there is the notable dining room with its chamfered ceiling, painted decoration and the fireplace, with its iron grate depicting fire gods in cast-iron. This space is one of the few well preserved elements in the hotel and is unmatched in the Shire.
    
    The east side garden survives in part in the form of Trachycarpus fortuneii (Chusan palm), a large Ulmus x hollandica (Dutch elm), large Camellia japonica (camellia) and the tree ferns may also be original or early plantings.
    

    Physical Conditions

    RANGES HOTEL & TREES - Physical Conditions

    Given the above major changes, the hotel is good external condition but dates from a number of stages, with enclosed verandahs and a new convex street verandah. There have been changes in detail inside and out.
    
    

    Historical Australian Themes

    RANGES HOTEL & TREES - Historical Australian Themes

    Historical Themes

    8.1 Timber townships, e.g. Cockatoo, Gembrook

    8.5 Tourist centres, e.g. Upper Beaconsfield, Gembrook

    Physical Description 2

    RANGES HOTEL & TREES - Physical Description 2

    Associations - Sykes, Jessie

    Physical Description 3

    RANGES HOTEL & TREES - Physical Description 3

    Trees: east side garden survives in part in the form of Trachycarpus fortuneii (Chusan palm), a large Ulmus x hollandica (Dutch elm), large Camellia japonica (camellia) and the tree ferns may also be original or early plantings.

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Heritage Study and Grading

    Cardinia - Cardinia Shire Heritage Study 1996

    Author: Graeme Butler & Associates
    Year: 1996
    Grading: Local

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• Public contributions

  Notes See all notes

  ORIGINAL OWNER & builder of the ranges hotel

  06/11/19

  John McMahon was the original owner and builder of this hotel in 1902 and he used pews, materials and stained glass windows from St. Luke's Church in Fitzroy. He was twice Mayor of Fitzroy and the founder of the Fitzroy Football Club. His wife Jane obtained the licence in 1904. John entertained his friends, many of whom were notable people who travelled up on the Puffing Billy train for the day and included the Commonwealth Treasurer & the Victorian Governor. It was a very popular day out.