The Queen Street Facade of the Former Adam Reas Store - Corner Murray and Queen Streets, Colac
Colac businessman, Adam Rea, had been using the former inn, the Crook and Plaid, at number 1 Murray Street as shop premises before demolishing it 1868 to build his substantial shop and residence. The single storey sandstone building has a bluestone plinth, pilasters, quoins and sills and stucco parapet balustrade and has been built in a conservative Colonial classical style. Finely detailed arcaded timber shop front windows may be found on the Murray Street frontage of the store. The shop you see today was part of a group which developed to include the Post Office and Shire Hall and serves as a valuable reminder of Colac's formative years.
The former Adam Reas Store is a well proportioned building that is prominently located at the beginning of the Colac high street shopping presinct at number 1 Murray Road. It stands on a corner and has two important street facades which enhance the streetscape and complement other period buildings close by, the former Colac Post Office and Shire Hall in particular. The building and its distinctive, original, shopfront joinery and fine architectural detailing, is a notable example of Nineteenth Century general store and residence design. Such Colonial shopfronts are rare in the Western District of Victoria and this is a particularly well designed and finely crafted shopfront for this provincial location.
Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac. The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray. A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains. The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches. The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name. The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it. Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city. Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people. Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets. Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).
The Queen Street Facade of the Former Adam Reas Store - Corner Murray and Queen Streets, Colac
Colac businessman, Adam Rea, had been using the former inn, the Crook and Plaid, at number 1 Murray Street as shop premises before demolishing it 1868 to build his substantial shop and residence. The single storey sandstone building has a bluestone plinth, pilasters, quoins and sills and stucco parapet balustrade and has been built in a conservative Colonial classical style. Finely detailed arcaded timber shop front windows may be found on the Murray Street frontage of the store. The shop you see today was part of a group which developed to include the Post Office and Shire Hall and serves as a valuable reminder of Colac's formative years.
The former Adam Reas Store is a well proportioned building that is prominently located at the beginning of the Colac high street shopping presinct at number 1 Murray Road. It stands on a corner and has two important street facades which enhance the streetscape and complement other period buildings close by, the former Colac Post Office and Shire Hall in particular. The building and its distinctive, original, shopfront joinery and fine architectural detailing, is a notable example of Nineteenth Century general store and residence design. Such Colonial shopfronts are rare in the Western District of Victoria and this is a particularly well designed and finely crafted shopfront for this provincial location.
Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac. The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray. A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains. The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches. The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name. The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it. Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city. Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people. Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets. Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).