The Yea Shire Hall – High Street, Yea
The Yea Shire Hall in Yea’s main thoroughfare of High Street was originally a single storey building erected in 1877. The grander double storey Victorian Academic Classical building with a tower that stands on the site today was built in 1894 by architect L. J. Bishop. Its construction is of concrete with cement rendering. Its facilities include a ballroom, a stage, two dressing rooms and a supper room.
The Yea Shire Hall has aesthetic appeal and is of social significance, as it was the headquarters of the shire and council meetings, which were conducted in the building’s supper room. Today, the hall caters for the cultural, amusement, entertainment and recreation needs of the community. Remodelling was undertaken in 1894 and extensions in 1923 when the building’s kitchens were finally sewered. The office accommodation was converted to sewered toilet rooms in 1968.
The hall is typical of the mid Victorian eclectic revival and modification of various stands of European Renaissance architecture that culminated in the Academic Classical style. The building is symmetrical with rounded windows and entrance inspired by Roman or Renaissance architecture. The construction date of 1894 and building’s name appear above the doorway on the pediment. The pedemented portico is inspired by a classical temple front, which may also have inspired the Corinthian topped columns that ornament the front. The façade itself, covered in cement render, has the ground floor as a base and the main floor treated like a piano nobile. Other typical attributes of the Victorian Academic Classical style include the balustrade ornamented parapet, which conceals the roof, and perhaps the building’s most impressive feature, the prominent central tower with its mansard roof. The tower employs classical motifs and garland boiseries and features a working clock.
Yea is a small country town located 109 kilometres (68 miles) north-east of Melbourne in rural Victoria. The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea (1808 – 1855); a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year. Settlement followed and the Post Office opened on 15 January 1858. The town site was initially known to pioneer settlers as the Muddy Creek settlement for the Yea River, called Muddy Creek until 1878. When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence, including Molesworth. Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873. Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. A post office was built in 1890, followed by a grandstand and a butter factory (now cheese factory) in 1891. There was a proposal in 1908 to submerge the town under the Trawool Water Scheme but it never went ahead. Today Yea is a popular stopping point for tourists on their way from Melbourne to the Victorian snow fields and Lake Eildon, and is very popular with cyclists who traverse the old railway line, which has since been converted into a cycling trail.
The Yea Shire Hall – High Street, Yea
The Yea Shire Hall in Yea’s main thoroughfare of High Street was originally a single storey building erected in 1877. The grander double storey Victorian Academic Classical building with a tower that stands on the site today was built in 1894 by architect L. J. Bishop. Its construction is of concrete with cement rendering. Its facilities include a ballroom, a stage, two dressing rooms and a supper room.
The Yea Shire Hall has aesthetic appeal and is of social significance, as it was the headquarters of the shire and council meetings, which were conducted in the building’s supper room. Today, the hall caters for the cultural, amusement, entertainment and recreation needs of the community. Remodelling was undertaken in 1894 and extensions in 1923 when the building’s kitchens were finally sewered. The office accommodation was converted to sewered toilet rooms in 1968.
The hall is typical of the mid Victorian eclectic revival and modification of various stands of European Renaissance architecture that culminated in the Academic Classical style. The building is symmetrical with rounded windows and entrance inspired by Roman or Renaissance architecture. The construction date of 1894 and building’s name appear above the doorway on the pediment. The pedemented portico is inspired by a classical temple front, which may also have inspired the Corinthian topped columns that ornament the front. The façade itself, covered in cement render, has the ground floor as a base and the main floor treated like a piano nobile. Other typical attributes of the Victorian Academic Classical style include the balustrade ornamented parapet, which conceals the roof, and perhaps the building’s most impressive feature, the prominent central tower with its mansard roof. The tower employs classical motifs and garland boiseries and features a working clock.
Yea is a small country town located 109 kilometres (68 miles) north-east of Melbourne in rural Victoria. The first settlers in the district were overlanders from New South Wales, who arrived in 1837. By 1839, settlements and farms dotted the area along the Goulburn River. The town was surveyed and laid out in 1855 and named after Colonel Lacy Walter Yea (1808 – 1855); a British Army colonel killed that year in the Crimean War. Town lots went on sale at Kilmore the following year. Settlement followed and the Post Office opened on 15 January 1858. The town site was initially known to pioneer settlers as the Muddy Creek settlement for the Yea River, called Muddy Creek until 1878. When gold was discovered in the area in 1859 a number of smaller mining settlements came into existence, including Molesworth. Yea expanded into a township under the influx of hopeful prospectors, with the addition of several housing areas, an Anglican church (erected in 1869) and a population of 250 when it formally became a shire in 1873. Yea was promoted as something of a tourist centre in the 1890s with trout being released into King Parrot Creek to attract recreational anglers. A post office was built in 1890, followed by a grandstand and a butter factory (now cheese factory) in 1891. There was a proposal in 1908 to submerge the town under the Trawool Water Scheme but it never went ahead. Today Yea is a popular stopping point for tourists on their way from Melbourne to the Victorian snow fields and Lake Eildon, and is very popular with cyclists who traverse the old railway line, which has since been converted into a cycling trail.