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Maratala
130 Sladen Street,CRANBOURNE, Casey City

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Casey City

Maralata - built in cupboards in front rooms

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Statement of Significance
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Statement of Significance

What is significant?

‘Maratala’, originally known as ‘Farnham’, at 130 Sladen Street, Cranbourne, is significant.

Significant elements of the place are:

· The exterior of the c1930 residence

· The interior of the dwelling to the extent of the T-shaped entrance hall, living room and dining room (both on the west side of the dwelling)

· The Camphor Laurel tree located on the Sladen Street boundary

Elements which contribute to the significance of the place include:

· The rear extension to the dwelling

· The c1930s gabled timber garage

· The c1950s concrete driveway with rolled edges

The shed at the south boundary is not of heritage significance.

How is it significant?

‘Maratala’ at 130 Sladen Street, Cranbourne is of local aesthetic and associative significance to the City of Casey.

Why is it significant?

‘Maratala’ at 130 Sladen Street is of aesthetic significance as it comprises, by far, the most substantial and finely designed Californian Bungalow identified within the City of Casey and one of the most intact interwar houses overall. The house is a highly intact internally and externally and architecturally successful example of the Californian Bungalow. Custom designed for its first owner by architect A C Leith, ‘Maratala’ is an excellent example of the Californian Bungalow style, with a strong Japanese influence, evident in its roof massing, massive brick porch piers, its elegant detailing, and range of construction materials. The interiors are of a similar high quality to the exterior and are an excellent intact example of a typical Interwar interior associated with a fine architect designed residence of this calibre. The interiors include high quality timber joinery with the original varnish finish in the form of panelling, window and surrounds, skirtings, picture rails and custom built cabinetry to the living room and hallway, as well as margin glazed doors to the main rooms and the original fibrous plaster ceilings in the delicate classical Adamesque style. The custom- designed form and quality of external and internal finishes is exceptional, even in comparison to larger examples of interwar dwellings within the municipality. Its presentation is enhanced by the retention of a colour scheme typical of Californian Bungalows, particularly the black painted finish to the weatherboards and timber shingle cladding. The Camphor Laurel planted on the Sladen Street boundary is of aesthetic
significance for its height and multi-stemmed spreading form and as the largest known example of the species within the municipality. Along with the front garden, typical of the mid twentieth century, it provides an appropriate setting for the residence. (Criterion E)

Maratala is of associative significance with the Leith company as the shire’s consulting engineer from 1927 to 1957, as the Shire’s architects in the 1950s, and architects of the 1948 work to the Cranbourne Shire Hall and new council offices in 1978. (Criterion G)

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- Physical Description 1
  
  Maratala - Physical Description 1
  
  ‘Maratala’ at 130 Sladen Street is a timber Californian Bungalow with massive brick piers to the front porch. It is set behind a deep front garden typical of the mid-twentieth century. The garden includes rolled edge concrete curbing which defines the driveway, garden beds immediate to the residence, side and front boundaries (with a square of lawn directly to the front of the residence), a long paved concrete driveway and plantings of shrubs and trees set to the front and side boundaries. The exception to the typical shrub plantings is the very large specimen of Camphor Laurel Cinnamomum camphora of outstanding size (height and spread) located on the Sladen Street boundary.
  
  The principal roof form of the house is a low-pitched transverse gable, though this is largely concealed from the front by a minor gable to the west side juxtaposed with a broad front porch gable at the centre of the front facade. These two front gables are of very low pitch, indicating a strong Japanese influence, as seen in the designs of architects such as Greene & Greene in California.
  
  The gables of the house and porch are filled with timber shingles and visually rest on decorative brackets to expressed purlins. On the side elevations some purlins rest on long struts instead. The roof is clad in recent corrugated steel and there is an external chimney on the east side of the house. It has a roughcast rendered shaft with impressed rectangles at its base, suggestive of the Arts & Crafts style, while the chimney breast is of clinker brick. This same clinker brick is used for the massive stepped piers of the front porch and for the balustrade-cum-planter between them. The house is clad in bullnose timber weatherboards. The 2004 citation stated that they boards were stained, but they are currently painted black perhaps in an approximation of the creosoted finish that was popular for interwar bungalows.
  
  Most of the windows of the house are double-hung sashes with margin glazing to the upper sashes. There are “bottle glass” panes at the corners. Many of them sit in box frames, while there is a bay window on the west side elevation set below deep eaves with expressed rafter tails. Beneath the front porch is an anomalous picture window flanked by two narrow double-hung sashes, which may be a later alteration.
  
  The double front doors have an elongated version of margin glazing, also with “bottle glass” at the corners. Inside, there are margin glazed doors to the main rooms, and fine dark timber panelling to the corridors and main rooms. All of the timber panelling, doors, door and window surrounds, skirtings and picture rails retain their original varnished finish. The house also retains built in cabinets around the living room fireplace and a storage cupboard in the hallway. The main rooms also retain fibrous plaster ceilings in the delicate classical Adamesque style.
  
  The long skillion to the rear of the house appears to be an early extension (prior to 1956), and it has small, square windows. It uses the same bullnose weatherboards and expressed rafter tails and purlins, but the details are simplified compared to the main house.
  
  The front steps and patio linking the front driveway to the front porch appear to date from the 1950s, with crazing paving and mild steel balustrades. The wrought iron front gates and concrete driveway and curbing defining garden beds across the front of the house also appear to date from this period.
  
  At the end of the front driveway is a gabled timber garage and at the rear boundary of the property is a small workshop, also of timber. Both these outbuildings are clad in bullnose weatherboards and have traditional features such as ledged doors (to the garage) and double panelled doors (to the
  
  workshop). However, neither outbuilding is visible in a 1939 aerial photo of the site, while the garage is visible in a 1956 aerial.
  
  Heritage Study and Grading
  
  Heritage Study and Grading
  
  Casey - Casey Heritage Study
  
  Author: Context Pty Ltd
  Year: 2004
  Grading: Local
  
  Casey - City of Casey Heritage Study: Cranbourne, Knox
  
  Author: Graeme Butler & Associate
  Year: 1998
  Grading:
  
  Cranbourne Town Centre Heritage Overlays Review
  
  Author: Plan Heritage
  Year: 2020
  Grading: Local
- Show:
- AVENUE OF HONOUR
  
  Victorian Heritage Register H2345
- St John the Evangelist Church of England Complex
  
  Casey City
- Cranbourne Shire Offices, Public Hall, Court House & Post Office (Former)
  
  Casey City