PORCUPINE INN

SYMES ROAD HARCOURT, MOUNT ALEXANDER SHIRE

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Victorian Heritage Inventory

Statement of Significance

• Additional Place Information

  • History

    PORCUPINE INN - History

    Heritage Inventory History of Site: Porcupine Inn established here by Hawkins in 1846. Destroyed by fire and new brick and stone premises erected in 1852. The discovery of gold in Bendigo Creek was reported announced here in 1851. It became an important stopping place on the road to Bendigo in the 1850s and a police cell and barracks ere erected, along with stables and kitchen gardens. From 1860 it became a boarding house until abandoned in 1934. In 1971 the Country Roads ?Board bulldozed the surviving structures.
    

    Interpretation of Site

    PORCUPINE INN - Interpretation of Site

    Heritage Inventory Interpretation: There were several structures on this site and although they have been demolished, there is a strong possibility that there are in situ remains.

    Heritage Inventory Description

    PORCUPINE INN - Heritage Inventory Description

    Scattered stone & brick building debris and historical artefacts along creek and between creek and road. There is a collapsed wooden bridge, with stone abutments across the creek. The site is heavily overgrown with blackberries, wild plum trees, long grass, etc. Several large poplar trees.

    Heritage Inventory Significance: Potentially high archaeological and historic significance. One of the earliest hotel sites along Calder Hwy, with strong links to pastoral era and to the gold rushes, as well as to the construction of the Melbourne-Bendigo railway.

    Recorded by: Vincent Clark. Date Recorded: September 1998 Heritage Inventory Site Features: Area of sub-surface ruins. Building rubble in creek (brick and stone). wooden bridge remains. Poplar trees. Old Calder Hwy.

    Archeological Potential: Potential/Disturbed,Relics/Deposit

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    PORCUPINE HILL RAILWAY PRECINCT (MURRAY VALLEY RAILWAY, MELBOURNE TO ECHUCA)

    

    Victorian Heritage Register H1784
  • SYMES ROAD RAIL BRIDGE

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
  • THOMAS STEVENS' HOTEL AND STORE

    

    Victorian Heritage Inventory
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  Notes See all notes

  Establishment of the Porcupine Inn

  09/04/18

  The Porcupine Inn was established in 1846 by Samuel Hawkings (1816-1867). The initial Inn was a simple wattle and daub shack, one of the first in the area. Hawkings chosen name for the Inn may have been derived from the nearby home station at Mount Alexander which was sometimes known as the Porcupine Mount. Alternatively the name may have been inspired by the Porcupine Inn of his home town in Tywardreath, Cornwall. Hawkings transferred the licence for the Inn to Alexander Walker in 1850.