Rockbank Median PriceThe House price is 2% higher than last year.
Surrounding suburbsRockbank Median RentThe House rent is 6% higher than last year.
| | Map | Street view | Nearby property price | | Planning History: | | | Registered as Victorian heritage | This place is included in the Victorian Heritage Register.
Refer to Heritage Victoria's record for this site.
Council's Statement of Significance for the site:
Deanside, the former Rockbank shearing shed and headstation complex, 96 - 103 Reed Court Rockbank, is significant as an early and large stone shearing shed, as a significantly intact pastoral complex, and as a key component of the Clarke pastoral empire which was the most significant supplier of sheep to the Newmarket saleyards in the nineteenth century. WJT Clarke obtained possession of this site in 1853, and may have moved the managers house from WC Yuille's homestation at the Rockbank Inn site; otherwise building of the present complex did not commence until after a destructive fire in 1864 when the woolshed, designed by leading architects Reed and Barnes, was built. In 1876 it was reported that 'nice houses' were replacing the huts at Rockbank, part of a program of improvement undertaken in the late 1870s - early 1880s by (later Sir) WJ Clarke. Other improvements of this era included the complex of large dry stone wall dams across the Rockbank station, the largest of which is adjacent to this complex (now on a different property), and stone wall construction in the 1880s. The complex now consists of a group of six buildings, all constructed of bluestone with galvanised corrugated iron roofs, five of which have now been restored. These are the shearing shed, manager's house, shearers' quarters, boundary riders' quarters, what is commonly known as the cook's house, and stables, which may include a former dairy. The shearing shed had several nineteenth century extensions, but it is possible to distinguish its original and later arrangements and fabric. It includes relics of plant, such as a gantry and line-shafting, which may be original or early. The property also contains a bluestone ruin with a substantial gable end (which appears to have been a killing shed), a large bluestone underground tank, a causeway across the Kororoit Creek, a number of dry stone walls generally in fair-poor condition, and a pig-sty and lime (or brick) kiln (The many recently constructed dry stone walls are not included in this citation.) In addition there are a number of mature exotic plantings, including remnant pine and hawthorn trees.
Deanside (the former Rockbank pastoral station), Rockbank is architecturally significant at a State level (AHC E1, D2). The 16 stand bluestone shearing shed was designed by leading Victorian architects Reed and Barnes. It is amongst the earliest substantial woolsheds remaining in Victoria. It is the most substantial building on the former Rockbank pastoral estate, and the largest former shearing shed in the Shire of Melton. The use of bluestone throughout the complex is distinctive and provid |
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