The Upper Storey of a Victorian Shopfront - Murray Street, Colac
Many things have changed along the busy Colac shopping strip that runs the length of Murray Street. Shops have come and gone, and each time the shop front it inhabits is redecorated. Yet if you look above a shop's awning, you will often find the original building's upper floors and parapets, still very much intact.
This shop built of red brick with fine stonework has been built in Victorian Italianate style, an architectural movement that was very popular between the mid and late Nineteenth Century. the tall arched windows that give the appearance of a loggia is very typical of the movement, as is the use of brick against fine stonework to give the building an interesting appearance. The Victorian Italianate movement gained popularity in Britain and her dominions after architect Thomas Cubitt assisted Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, to design Osborne, the Royal Family's residence on the Isle of White.
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 Upper Storey of a Victorian Shopfront - Murray Street, Colac
Many things have changed along the busy Colac shopping strip that runs the length of Murray Street. Shops have come and gone, and each time the shop front it inhabits is redecorated. Yet if you look above a shop's awning, you will often find the original building's upper floors and parapets, still very much intact.
This shop built of red brick with fine stonework has been built in Victorian Italianate style, an architectural movement that was very popular between the mid and late Nineteenth Century. the tall arched windows that give the appearance of a loggia is very typical of the movement, as is the use of brick against fine stonework to give the building an interesting appearance. The Victorian Italianate movement gained popularity in Britain and her dominions after architect Thomas Cubitt assisted Queen Victoria's husband, Prince Albert, to design Osborne, the Royal Family's residence on the Isle of White.
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).