Geelong. 1 Malop Street. The old Dalgety and Co Wool and shipping building now incorporated into a 14 storey office building. It was built in 1924 in stripped classical style.
Some of the commercial buildings of Geelong have heritage listing or are of special historical importance. At 1 Malop Street is the former interwar stripped classical building of Dalgety Wool Merchants and shipping agents. It was built in 1924 and has now been incorporated into a 14 storey office block. Next door at 9 Malop St. is the former London Chartered Bank built in 1860 with classical elements and an almost fortress like appearance. It is built in local sandstone. It became an English Scottish and Australian bank in 1921 but is now purely used for commercial purposes. Across the street at 8 Malop St is the Trustees building. It was built in 1857. Additions in 1886 gave it the current appearance and is probably when it became the Trustees Building. On the next corner of Malop and Clare streets is the former Carlton Hotel. An old hotel on this site from the 1850s was rebuilt as a modern Art Deco building around 1930 with porthole windows, wrought iron on the doors, coloured tiled walls to the street etc .On the next corner with Moorabool Street and Malop Street is the National Mutual Building. It was built in stripped classical style in 1929 and is still a city landmark. On the opposite corner is part of Market Square. This big square was once a park but the site was converted to shopping. The Market Square along Moorabool Street was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. It began life as Solomon’s store. Like many public buildings in Geelong it has a cupola on each street corner of the building. Further along at 79 Malop Street is the fine CML or Colonial Mutual Life insurance building. It was built in 1923 and the fine stone and cement corner tower with its cupola has an historic clock in it dating to 1856. A clock tower was built in the middle of the 1850 square. When the square was redeveloped the clock was put into the CML tower. Further along Malop Street at 138 is the former Corio Chambers used for city lawyer offices. It was built in Queen Anne style in the 1890s and although it is on a corner with Yarra Street it does not have a cupola. Instead it has a small spire instead and three pediments in the steep angled roof. The decoration or entablature around the windows is superb. It was later known as Southern Union House as the Union Investment Company had offices here. It is still a city landmark.
Brief History of early Geelong.
The local Aboriginal people, the Barrabool tribe were possibly shocked when Captain Matthew Flinders sailed into Port Phillip Bay in April 1802. He sighted the You Yang Ranges and mentioned the Indented Head now known as Portarlington near Geelong. A major survey of the bay was undertaken by British officers in 1803 from a camp in what is now Sorrento. A party of 50 crew and marines around 300 convicts made camp here in October 1803 to found a new penal settlement for NSW. They were led by Lieutenant Governor David Collins. Bush was cleared, crops were sown but the settlement floundered and was abandoned in January 1804 when it was moved to Van Diemen’s Land with the founding of Hobart. It was many years later before white explorers Hamilton Hume and Captain William Hovell ended their overland exploration across NSW to Corio Bay near Geelong. White settlers rather than explorer came to Port Philip Bay in 1835. The group was led by John Bateman of Launceston who made a treaty with local Aboriginal groups to acquire large tracts of land around the bay from Geelong to Melbourne. Bateman’s group soon moved from their first camp at Indented head (Portarlington) to near the Yarra River and what is now Melbourne. John Fawkner, who had been the son of one of the convicts to land near Sorrento in 1803, arrived in late 1835 with a group of prospective white settlers from Van Diemen’s Land. They settled at Hobsons Bay also near Melbourne but the area near Geelong on Corio Bay remained untouched at this time. Except for one convict who escaped in 1803 and lived an isolated existence till the white settlers arrived. He was William Buckley.
In 1836 the first pastoralists moved into the Geelong region with David Stead and John Cowie on the Moorabool River and Alexander Thompson on the Barwon River (Kardinia estate meaning sunrise in local Aboriginal language). By 1837 there were enough pastoralists and their workers in the region for Magistrate Foster Fyans to be stationed at the Barwon River and Constable Patrick McKeever to be the first police officer there. The town of Geelong was surveyed in October 1838 with the first land sales in 1839. The first general store, the Wool Pack Inn and a wool store opened around his time and by 1841 there were 82 houses and over 400 residents and the town had its own newspaper. The main streets were named after places and people mainly who were early settlers– Moorabool, Yarra, Bellarine, Corio, Gheringhap, Swanston and Malop, Ryrie, McKillop, Myers, Brougham, Fenwick and etc. The name of Geelong came from a local Aboriginal languages meaning either “white sea bird” or “cliff” or “going up”. Within a short time there was a saddler, Wesleyan place of worship (not quite a church), a post service etc. In 1848 Geelong was declared a port for exporting wool, grain, hides, tallow etc. A year later (1849) it was officially proclaimed a town with its own Town Council and a mayor as the self-governing colony of Victoria was created from NSW. The growing Industrial Revolution in England and the great demand for wool for England’s woollen mills boosted the town’s growth and optimism which was exploded by the discovery of gold in central Victoria and Ballarat. Geelong was able to supply needed goods for the goldfields etc. In 1851 Geelong had 8,291 inhabitants but by 1853 it had 22,000 thanks to gold from Ballarat being received and exported from here. The basalt and sandstone Customs House was built in 1856 in Brougham Street when exports began from here rather than at Williamstown near Melbourne and immigrants landed directly in Geelong. The first Town Hall was built in 1855 and a telegraph connection with Melbourne was established in 1854. The fine sandstone Telegraph Station with a timeball for shipping on its roof was built in 1858 and still stands next to the former Post Office. The first railway in Victoria linked Melbourne and Geelong in 1854. A private company began building the Melbourne to Geelong railway in 1854 but it was not completed until 1856. The first railway station was replaced with the current one between 1877 and 1881 hence the polychromatic brick work which was popular at that time. A new railway line was built from Geelong to the goldfields at Ballarat starting in 1858 with completion of the link in 1862. A short tunnel was cut through the hill beyond the railway station in 1875 to allow trains to travel to South Geelong and on to Colac. By the mid-1850s Geelong was the third biggest town in the Australian colonies and a well-established city and it continued to greatly significantly in the 1860s. Brougham Street near the bay was lined with impressive wool stores and warehouses at this time and they still grace that street.
Geelong. 1 Malop Street. The old Dalgety and Co Wool and shipping building now incorporated into a 14 storey office building. It was built in 1924 in stripped classical style.
Some of the commercial buildings of Geelong have heritage listing or are of special historical importance. At 1 Malop Street is the former interwar stripped classical building of Dalgety Wool Merchants and shipping agents. It was built in 1924 and has now been incorporated into a 14 storey office block. Next door at 9 Malop St. is the former London Chartered Bank built in 1860 with classical elements and an almost fortress like appearance. It is built in local sandstone. It became an English Scottish and Australian bank in 1921 but is now purely used for commercial purposes. Across the street at 8 Malop St is the Trustees building. It was built in 1857. Additions in 1886 gave it the current appearance and is probably when it became the Trustees Building. On the next corner of Malop and Clare streets is the former Carlton Hotel. An old hotel on this site from the 1850s was rebuilt as a modern Art Deco building around 1930 with porthole windows, wrought iron on the doors, coloured tiled walls to the street etc .On the next corner with Moorabool Street and Malop Street is the National Mutual Building. It was built in stripped classical style in 1929 and is still a city landmark. On the opposite corner is part of Market Square. This big square was once a park but the site was converted to shopping. The Market Square along Moorabool Street was built in 1912 and opened in 1913. It began life as Solomon’s store. Like many public buildings in Geelong it has a cupola on each street corner of the building. Further along at 79 Malop Street is the fine CML or Colonial Mutual Life insurance building. It was built in 1923 and the fine stone and cement corner tower with its cupola has an historic clock in it dating to 1856. A clock tower was built in the middle of the 1850 square. When the square was redeveloped the clock was put into the CML tower. Further along Malop Street at 138 is the former Corio Chambers used for city lawyer offices. It was built in Queen Anne style in the 1890s and although it is on a corner with Yarra Street it does not have a cupola. Instead it has a small spire instead and three pediments in the steep angled roof. The decoration or entablature around the windows is superb. It was later known as Southern Union House as the Union Investment Company had offices here. It is still a city landmark.
Brief History of early Geelong.
The local Aboriginal people, the Barrabool tribe were possibly shocked when Captain Matthew Flinders sailed into Port Phillip Bay in April 1802. He sighted the You Yang Ranges and mentioned the Indented Head now known as Portarlington near Geelong. A major survey of the bay was undertaken by British officers in 1803 from a camp in what is now Sorrento. A party of 50 crew and marines around 300 convicts made camp here in October 1803 to found a new penal settlement for NSW. They were led by Lieutenant Governor David Collins. Bush was cleared, crops were sown but the settlement floundered and was abandoned in January 1804 when it was moved to Van Diemen’s Land with the founding of Hobart. It was many years later before white explorers Hamilton Hume and Captain William Hovell ended their overland exploration across NSW to Corio Bay near Geelong. White settlers rather than explorer came to Port Philip Bay in 1835. The group was led by John Bateman of Launceston who made a treaty with local Aboriginal groups to acquire large tracts of land around the bay from Geelong to Melbourne. Bateman’s group soon moved from their first camp at Indented head (Portarlington) to near the Yarra River and what is now Melbourne. John Fawkner, who had been the son of one of the convicts to land near Sorrento in 1803, arrived in late 1835 with a group of prospective white settlers from Van Diemen’s Land. They settled at Hobsons Bay also near Melbourne but the area near Geelong on Corio Bay remained untouched at this time. Except for one convict who escaped in 1803 and lived an isolated existence till the white settlers arrived. He was William Buckley.
In 1836 the first pastoralists moved into the Geelong region with David Stead and John Cowie on the Moorabool River and Alexander Thompson on the Barwon River (Kardinia estate meaning sunrise in local Aboriginal language). By 1837 there were enough pastoralists and their workers in the region for Magistrate Foster Fyans to be stationed at the Barwon River and Constable Patrick McKeever to be the first police officer there. The town of Geelong was surveyed in October 1838 with the first land sales in 1839. The first general store, the Wool Pack Inn and a wool store opened around his time and by 1841 there were 82 houses and over 400 residents and the town had its own newspaper. The main streets were named after places and people mainly who were early settlers– Moorabool, Yarra, Bellarine, Corio, Gheringhap, Swanston and Malop, Ryrie, McKillop, Myers, Brougham, Fenwick and etc. The name of Geelong came from a local Aboriginal languages meaning either “white sea bird” or “cliff” or “going up”. Within a short time there was a saddler, Wesleyan place of worship (not quite a church), a post service etc. In 1848 Geelong was declared a port for exporting wool, grain, hides, tallow etc. A year later (1849) it was officially proclaimed a town with its own Town Council and a mayor as the self-governing colony of Victoria was created from NSW. The growing Industrial Revolution in England and the great demand for wool for England’s woollen mills boosted the town’s growth and optimism which was exploded by the discovery of gold in central Victoria and Ballarat. Geelong was able to supply needed goods for the goldfields etc. In 1851 Geelong had 8,291 inhabitants but by 1853 it had 22,000 thanks to gold from Ballarat being received and exported from here. The basalt and sandstone Customs House was built in 1856 in Brougham Street when exports began from here rather than at Williamstown near Melbourne and immigrants landed directly in Geelong. The first Town Hall was built in 1855 and a telegraph connection with Melbourne was established in 1854. The fine sandstone Telegraph Station with a timeball for shipping on its roof was built in 1858 and still stands next to the former Post Office. The first railway in Victoria linked Melbourne and Geelong in 1854. A private company began building the Melbourne to Geelong railway in 1854 but it was not completed until 1856. The first railway station was replaced with the current one between 1877 and 1881 hence the polychromatic brick work which was popular at that time. A new railway line was built from Geelong to the goldfields at Ballarat starting in 1858 with completion of the link in 1862. A short tunnel was cut through the hill beyond the railway station in 1875 to allow trains to travel to South Geelong and on to Colac. By the mid-1850s Geelong was the third biggest town in the Australian colonies and a well-established city and it continued to greatly significantly in the 1860s. Brougham Street near the bay was lined with impressive wool stores and warehouses at this time and they still grace that street.