Oakleigh Median PriceThe House price is 10% higher than last year.
Surrounding suburbs| Bentleigh East | $1,478,300  | | Chadstone | $1,276,400 | | Malvern East | $1,841,200  | | Mount Waverley | $1,665,400 | | Oakleigh South | $1,161,700 |
Oakleigh Median RentThe House rent is 12% higher than last year.
| | Map | Street view | Nearby property price | | Planning History: | | | Registered as Victorian heritage | What is significant? The boiler house, brick chimney, and factory at the former Australian Plaster Industries Ltd. site at 61 Westminster Street, Oakleigh. The plant was built c.1946-48 as part of a new plasterboard factory for Australian Plaster Industries Ltd. The briquette fired water-tube boiler supplied steam for drying plasterboard until it was made redundant by direct firing in 1970. The saw tooth roof brick building with steel window and roof trusses housed the main board production machine as well as warehouse facilities. It was built in two stages, being doubled in size in 1958
How is it significant? The boiler and chimney are significant for historical, technical, and aesthetic reasons at a state level. The factory is significant for historical reasons at a state level.
Why is it significant? The former Australian Plaster Industries factory is historically significant because in 1948 it was the first factory in Victoria where plaster board was manufactured on an industrial scale. Plaster board changed the way buildings were constructed by greatly improving the efficiency of construction through the use of large sheets of pre-made plaster board for lining internal walls. This board was erected dry, eliminating delays caused by waiting for older style lathe-and-plaster to set; it was also more amenable to mass production and easier to install than fibrous plaster sheets. The plant was strategically important to Australia's construction industry during a time of intensive building activity and material shortages following World War Two. The industrialisation this plant brought to plaster based wall linings affected the long established fibrous plaster sheeting industry. Produced in scores of small factories by hand, fibrous sheeting had largely disappeared by the late 1960s as a result of mass production methods associated with plaster board. The Australian Plaster Industries site also required the development of special heavy grades of paper by Australian Paper Manufacturers at their Fairfield mill. It also reflects the transition of industrial development from the inner suburbs to newer suburbs such as Oakleigh, where land was cheaper, and where there was a growing residential population to provide the workforce required.
The boiler house and chimney are historically significant due to their association with the former Australian Plaster Industries Ltd. plaster board factory. It is a rare example of a large and relatively intact boiler house and chimney associated with the post war period of Victoria's industrialisation. The location of the boiler house adjacent to the Gippsland railway line is historically significant as it was specifically located next to the railway line to enable the delivery of fuel for the boiler. The boiler was fired on briquettes produced by the State Electricity Commission of Victoria (SECV) at the Latrobe Valley coal fields which were transported directly by rail to a dedicated |
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