A Weatherboard Federation Queen Anne Villa - Colac
Situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the Colac township, nestled on a large block well back from the street, is this wonderful Edwardian villa featuring a concoction of Art Nouveau stained glass, half timbered gabling and tall, chimneys.
Built around the turn of the Twentieth Century, this villa has been built in the Queen Anne style, which was mostly a residential style inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it an more decorative look. The weatherboard from which the villa is built, the shingling of the dominant gable and the awning that rund across the facade are all in keeping with the Arts and Crafts movement. Yet the stylised stained glass windows and door panels, ornate chimneys and the fretwork around the enclosed porch are very Art Nouveau in design.
Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation. With complex roofline structures, ornamental towers of unusual proportions and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.
Considering its size and location near to the religious district and the centre of town, a house such as this would have appealed to the moneyed middle-classes of Colac whose money derived from the thriving business district of this large Western District commercial centre. Comfortable and reflecting the prevailing architectural style coming out of Great Britain at the time, it would have shown respectability and would also have been used as a show of wealth.
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 Weatherboard Federation Queen Anne Villa - Colac
Situated on the crest of a hill overlooking the Colac township, nestled on a large block well back from the street, is this wonderful Edwardian villa featuring a concoction of Art Nouveau stained glass, half timbered gabling and tall, chimneys.
Built around the turn of the Twentieth Century, this villa has been built in the Queen Anne style, which was mostly a residential style inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it an more decorative look. The weatherboard from which the villa is built, the shingling of the dominant gable and the awning that rund across the facade are all in keeping with the Arts and Crafts movement. Yet the stylised stained glass windows and door panels, ornate chimneys and the fretwork around the enclosed porch are very Art Nouveau in design.
Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation. With complex roofline structures, ornamental towers of unusual proportions and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.
Considering its size and location near to the religious district and the centre of town, a house such as this would have appealed to the moneyed middle-classes of Colac whose money derived from the thriving business district of this large Western District commercial centre. Comfortable and reflecting the prevailing architectural style coming out of Great Britain at the time, it would have shown respectability and would also have been used as a show of wealth.
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).