buildings

Margarets Pages - My Australia series

AUSTRALIA .. Buildings

This is a follow-on of "History" mainly the types of buildings , from the early years onwards. Showing different styles in different areas of different states.

Como, which was built in South Yarra, in Melbourne, Victoria, in 1846, is one of the most famous houses in Australia. Royalty and governors were among the notabilities who were guests at Como.
Dame Nellie Melba once sang there. It is now the headquarters of the National Trust of Victoria, which describes Como as "Melbournes most complete monument to the social life of the mid-Victorian era".

Kyarra in Hunters Hill, a very old suburb in Sydney, New South Wales, was built of sandstone about 1865 by a Frenchman, Jules Joubert. Still used today as a residence.

In Bundaberg, Queensland, a sugar growing city, this house on stilts is typical of many built in Queensland.
The style suits the tropical climate with plenty of air cooling from underneath.

In the decade before federation (1890's), there were moves to have the state of Queensland divided into 3 states - northern, central and southern; and its late-nineteenth century architecture matched this aspiration.
The Customs House (left) in Brisbane, the capital, designed by A.B. Brady in classic revival style, was built of Stanwell stone and crowned by a copper-sheathed dome.

It was at Gympie, Queensland, that the famous Curtis gold nugget weighing 30325 grams was found. This hotel flourished at the height of the boom which saw fifty-one companies operating in the area.
The Hotel that now stands at this spot with same name is a new one built after this was destroyed.
Other Hotels (pubs) in Gympie of this era still survive. (below)

Another style of architecture is St Marys Church in the farming town of Beaudesert, in south eastern Queensland.
This town is south west of Brisbane, towards the border with New South Wales.

St Francis Xavier Cathedral in Geraldton, Western Australia was desinged by Friar Jerome, a missionary who arrived in Australia in 1915. As John Hawes, before becoming a convert to Ramon Catholicism, he worked on a number of buildings in England and the Bahamas. Between 1915-30 Friar designed, and often erected with his own hands, a number of Cathedrals, Churches

Convents, and Presbyteries at Mullewa, Geraldton, and Northampton in Western Australia.
Substantial churches and other places of worship, often replicas of those the settlers remembered ath ome, were built during the first 100 years. Many stand today, not only to the glory of God, but as testimony to the pioneers' devotion.

The Post Office at Campbelltown, New South Wales, where a daily mail service with Sydney began in 1826. Campbelltown had 107 settles in 1811 when wheat-farming was the main activity.

This stately clock tower at Yalumba, one of the largest wineries in the Barossa Valley of South Australia, is a monument to a pioneer's determination. In 1849, Samuel Smith, who had migrated from England, bought 12 hectares of land at Angaston, and planted his first vineyard. He called it Yalumba.
2 years later, he joined the gold rish to Bendigo, Victoria, and returned 2 months later with gold worth 300 pound, and bought 32 more hectares, a plough and horses.

By the beginning of the 20th centruy, the Yalumba vineyards covered 48 hectares, and a thatched cellar had given place to a 2-storied building surmounted by this clock tower. Smith descendants still run this winery. The building is of blue marble, quarried on the property.

Flour grinding played an important part in development of the Adelaide Hills in South Australia, and no mill was more imposing that this one at Birdwood, now used as a Museum.

The first Vaucluse House in Sydney was purchased by the explorer and statesman, William Wentworth in 1827. He rebuilt the home and when he died in 1877 he was buried in the family tomb in the grounds.

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updated 9 May 2009