A Streamline Moderne Art Deco Mansion - Colac
This wonderfully sprawling, sleek and stylised Streamline Moderne Art Deco mansion built in the 1930s may be found in the Western District Victorian country town of Colac.
The mansion, which spreads across the block in single and double storey sections, is made almost entirely of clinker bricks, with glazed feature bricks in darker colours above and beneath the windows and around the enclosed vestibule. It has been designed in Modern Ship Style, as Streamline Moderne was known in Australia in the 1930s. This nickname was used because the buildings designed in this style often looked very much like the cascading upper superstructures of ocean liners with their towering decks, railings and porthole windows. It features a rounded front elevation, not unlike the prow of a ship, with a rounded portico enclosed with a wrought iron grille, which is reached by a set of rounded steps. It also has chimneys designed not unlike ship funnels. The mansion has very functionalist windows, and the upper floor has a rounded “waterfall window” which also gives the building a nautical feeling as it looks like the bridge of a ship. Unfortunately, the central panel has at some stage been broken and the window boarded up. The curved glass used in “waterfall windows” is very expensive to produce and difficult to fit. The complex features an adjoining garage of equally grand proportions, displaying the wealth of the family who had this residence built, accessed via a long driveway edged with clinker bricks. The owners were obviously very keen to have a new and modern house as a status symbol, but as was quite common in conservative 1930s Australia, they couldn’t quite accept the flat roof that many Streamline Moderne houses in England had.
The whole property is surrounded by its original low brick wall which also features a capping of darker glazed peaked bricks to match those of the window ledges. The garden itself is quite large and features an expanse of lawn edged by large garden beds of creepers, ground covers and roses. Some of the garden beds feature dry stone edging, whilst others have brick edging to match the mansion and its fence. There are some well established trees in the garden which have probably been there since the mansion was first built in the 1930s.
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).
A Streamline Moderne Art Deco Mansion - Colac
This wonderfully sprawling, sleek and stylised Streamline Moderne Art Deco mansion built in the 1930s may be found in the Western District Victorian country town of Colac.
The mansion, which spreads across the block in single and double storey sections, is made almost entirely of clinker bricks, with glazed feature bricks in darker colours above and beneath the windows and around the enclosed vestibule. It has been designed in Modern Ship Style, as Streamline Moderne was known in Australia in the 1930s. This nickname was used because the buildings designed in this style often looked very much like the cascading upper superstructures of ocean liners with their towering decks, railings and porthole windows. It features a rounded front elevation, not unlike the prow of a ship, with a rounded portico enclosed with a wrought iron grille, which is reached by a set of rounded steps. It also has chimneys designed not unlike ship funnels. The mansion has very functionalist windows, and the upper floor has a rounded “waterfall window” which also gives the building a nautical feeling as it looks like the bridge of a ship. Unfortunately, the central panel has at some stage been broken and the window boarded up. The curved glass used in “waterfall windows” is very expensive to produce and difficult to fit. The complex features an adjoining garage of equally grand proportions, displaying the wealth of the family who had this residence built, accessed via a long driveway edged with clinker bricks. The owners were obviously very keen to have a new and modern house as a status symbol, but as was quite common in conservative 1930s Australia, they couldn’t quite accept the flat roof that many Streamline Moderne houses in England had.
The whole property is surrounded by its original low brick wall which also features a capping of darker glazed peaked bricks to match those of the window ledges. The garden itself is quite large and features an expanse of lawn edged by large garden beds of creepers, ground covers and roses. Some of the garden beds feature dry stone edging, whilst others have brick edging to match the mansion and its fence. There are some well established trees in the garden which have probably been there since the mansion was first built in the 1930s.
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).