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A Metroland Villa in Primrose Yellow - Alexandra

The facade of a pretty stylised primrose yellow stuccoed brick Art Deco villa in the north eastern country town of Alexandra.

 

This villa with its low slung tile roof, primrose yellow stucco work, and windows of geometrically patterned leadlight glass windows were very popular amongst the newly moneyed middle-class who could finally afford to buy their own homes. Comfortable and cottage like in the Metroland style of interwar Art Deco architecture so popular in Australia during the late 1920s, this house and many others like it represented stability and respectability, without being showy. It has a neighbouring sister villa painted in cream with slightly different windows, but the exact same layout.

 

Alexandra is a town in Victoria, Australia. It is located at the junction of the Goulburn Valley Highway (B340) and Maroondah Highway (B360), 26 kilometres west of Eildon. The town was settled in the late 1860s, with a Post Office opening on 15 March 1867 (known until 24 April 1867) as Redgate. The town was originally known as Redgate, or Red Gate Diggings. The current name either derives from Alexandra of Denmark (Queen’s Consort to King Edward VII of England) when given a stature of her to the shire; or from three men named Alexander (Alesander, McGregor, Alexander Don, and Alexander Luckie) who discovered gold in the area in 1866. Charles Jones born Herefordshire also discovered Gold on the Luckie Mine in 1866. He bought a Hotel with John Henry Osborne and was the proprietor of the New York and London Hotel Grant Street Alexandra. The railway to Alexandra arrived in the town via Yea from Tallarook in 1909, and closed on November 18, 1978. The Rubicon Tramway connected Alexandra with the village of Rubicon, at the junction of the Rubicon and Royston Rivers. Today many tourists pass through Alexandra on their way to the Mount Buller ski resort from Melbourne. The town contains the Timber Tramway and Museum (located at the Alexandra Railway Station), and the National Trust classified post office and law courts. There is a local market on the second Saturday of each month from September to May, an annual art show at Easter, an agricultural show and rose festival in November, and the annual Truck, Rod and Ute Show in June.

 

 

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Uploaded on April 10, 2013
Taken on March 31, 2013