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Webster Street and its Heritage

Welcome to the Webster

Street Heritage Precinct.

You are in one of the

important historic precincts

in the City of Ballarat.

On this tour, you will find

out about the people who

lived here and the houses

they built.

The Webster Street Heritage Precinct has a striking range of intact houses, hotels, corner shops, educational institutions and industrial buildings dating from the early 1860s to the 1940s. It is this progression of building styles to the middle of the 20th century that gives Webster Street its special heritage character.

and the Webster Street Precinc

Webster Street

History

The Webster Street area was actively mined during the gold rush of the 1850s. Mining leads criss-crossed this place, with the Inkerman Lead running across Webster Street and Drummond Street and the National Lead running towards Pleasant Street and petering out at Lake Wendouree. The largest nugget found weighed 22 ounces!

If you were standing in Webster Street during the 1850s you would have seen not only miners but also a huge range of people: hoteliers and prostitutes; miners and storekeepers; washerwomen and children. These people would have been from many nationalities and backgrounds, but they all shared one goal: to make a fortune, either on the goldfields or off them. In 1860, for instance, 13 breweries and 14 hotels served the needs of the thirsty Ballarat miners in this area.

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Ballarat is unusual because people from diverse backgrounds and economic circumstances lived so close to each other. This was not the case in other towns. In Ballarat gold made some poor people rich but it made many poor people poorer still—their gamble did not pay off. Either way, many of these people lived in and around Webster Street.

The following are just a few of the interesting houses located in Webster Street. The intact nature of these houses and the beauty of their gardens and surrounds demonstrate how heritage overlays, and the efforts of Ballarat City Council and residents to work together to protect historic buildings, contribute to the city’s unique lifestyle and wellbeing.

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�e places on this heritage trail are private property. Please show respect to the owners and do not trespass. Some significant heritage places are not featured at the specific request of current owners.

Webster Street streetscapeChange

As the miners’ fortunes dwindled, so too did the character of Webster Street change. By the late 1850s, Webster Street extended as far as Lake Wendouree. Ten years later, many cottages had been built on the south side of the street while others were scattered to the north. The area soon became fashionable, with many large houses dominating the street.

Contrast the elegance and style of the Webster Street houses with the miners’ cottages at the Drummond Street end of Victoria Avenue, just one street away. The people who lived in these small cottages may have worked in the mines and other businesses owned by some of the residents of Webster Street. In the early days the miners probably walked from Victoria Avenue, past their employers’ houses, through Webster Street to work.

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4 Webster Street – ‘Peplow House’

Built circa 1860-63 Mid Victorian

This house reflects its period of construction through the decorated under-eave brackets and bluestone work on the edges of the front walls. The arched windows on the top storey are a reminder of this building’s former grandeur. Originally this house may also have featured a palisade-style cast iron spear fence.

External changes to ‘Peplow House’ include the installation of a very basic verandah and fence and removal of chimney tops. These alterations show how the house changed in functionality in the period before the heritage overlay was in place.

‘Peplow House’ is linked to Australian author Henry Handel Richardson, whose real name was Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. Ethel, who was born in 1870, did not live here but her parents and siblings occupied this house from1863 to 1868. Ethel’s older brother John Bailey was well known as a journalist and in the worlds of radical politics and commerce in Ballarat and Melbourne, while her father Walter was a highly respected local obstetrician who helped found Ballarat’s hospital.

This house is described in detail in Ethel’s novel, The Fortunes of Richard Mahoney, which is based partly on Walter Richardson’s life.

24 Webster Street – ‘Cairnhurst’

Built 1865 Mid Victorian

This house features decorative brackets under its eaves but has fairly simple brickwork, except for that above the windows. The house reflects changing values and perhaps fortunes. The front of the house is Mid Victorian but the rear includes Federation and Queen Anne styling which has also been added to sections of the front in the form of a verandah, render and ridge capping.

Architect Henry Caselli designed this house, which he built for £1400. It has three storeys and a half-buried basement.

Caselli was born in 1816 in Falmouth, England, and began his working life as a naval architect. He arrived in Ballarat in 1854 to work as a gold miner at Eureka. By 1858 he was practising as an architect and surveyor.

Henry Caselli designed many buildings in Ballarat, some of which, like 24 Webster Street, can still be seen today. These include the former Congregational Church on the corner of Mair and Dawson Streets—a project he worked on with fellow architect CD Figgis— and the Ballarat Fire Station.

28 Webster Street – ‘Roffensis’

Built 1888-89 Late Victorian

This house features the arched triple windows, bay window, slate roof and moulded ornaments that typify the Late Victorian style. The decorations around the window columns are also typical of this period of housing. The influence of the Queen Anne style of housing is shown by the more complex and picturesque detailing. The front fence is a later addition.

‘Roffensis’ was the home of Walter Cornell, a chemist who arrived in Ballarat from Rochester, England, in 1860. Cornell obtained work with wholesale and retail druggist Wayne and Brind, the largest drug and chemical house in Australia, which he went on to own.

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10 97

111 Webster Street – ‘Glenholme’

Built 1869 Mid to Late Victorian

This house is constructed of red brick and has a slate roof with rendered chimneys typical of the period. It is set well back from the street.

Henry Morres, a surveyor, was the first resident at this fine property. 111 Webster Street is a typical ‘Victorian’ design but the garden, which dates from circa 1873, is of special interest since it is remarkably intact and possibly the finest surviving Victorian-era garden in the state. Although the garden boasts a fine design with clipped hedges, arbours, box hedging and a winding path, there is no record of any professional designer working here.

The slightly sunken oval lawn is a former mine puddling pond, a reminder of the street’s gold mining origins.

114 Webster Street – ‘Trerelffe’

Built 1893-94 Late Victorian

The decorative features around Trerelffe’s windows, and coloured glass panels beside the front door, are both features of the Late Victorian period. The house has very prominent and grand window proportions, particularly the bay window, which highlights the extremely high ceilings. The house also features paired eaves brackets, verandah posts and rendered chimneys. The house’s intricate wrought iron lacework, and palisade-style cast iron spear fence in stone plinths, are also from this period.

‘Trerelffe’ was built for Francis Jago, a boot merchant. Jago was born in Brighton, England in 1834 and arrived in Australia in 1860, establishing his boot business in Skipton Street before moving to Bridge and Sturt Streets.

Housing Styles

Early Victorian (1840 – 1860)

Usually terraced or free standing, with one or two rooms at the front. Simple in plan and design, they appear quite formal and often lack verandahs or decoration.

Mid Victorian (1860 – 1875)

Similar in form to early Victorian houses but with more decoration and a greater use of stucco and decorative brickwork. Have patterned tile floors, timber verandahs and cast-iron lacework.

Late Victorian (1875 – 1901)

Resemble earlier forms of housing but are grander in style, size and ornamentation.

Queen Anne (1895 – 1910)

Derive from English and American styles that referenced architecture from Queen Anne’s reign (1702-1714). Feature grand decoration, complex roof forms and asymmetrical floor plans.

Edwardian (1901 – 1919)

Also known as ‘Federation’. Houses of this time have similar floor plans to Victorian houses and draw from elements of previous eras.

Bungalow (1910 – 1930)

Commonly ‘Californian’ but with Indian and British variants. Combine simple styles with Arts & Crafts movement concepts in natural settings.

Interwar (1919 – 1939)

Single-storey detached houses with simple styles, reflecting wartime materials shortages and the move towards modernism. Have porches rather than verandahs.

34 – 38 Webster Street

Built 1891-92 Late Victorian

These houses have the multi-coloured tuck-pointed brickwork, bluestone window sills, intricate iron lacework and triple bay, arched windows typical of the Late Victorian style. Interestingly, these houses also have earlier Georgian-style arched fan lights above Georgian-style six panel front doors. At some stage the houses have been re-roofed in traditional galvanised iron.

This unusual group of double-fronted, single-storey terraces was built for farmer Edmund Barker, who also owned the three terraces in Loch Avenue immediately behind 38 Webster Street. Barker’s ownership of so much real estate in Ballarat indicates he was a successful man who knew how to diversify his business interests.

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109 Webster Street – ‘Novar’

Built 1885-86 Late Victorian

Designed by architects E James & Co, this large single-storey red-brick villa with its ornate iron lacework reflects the grandeur that characterises Late Victorian architecture. Brick additions to the house were made in 1901.

‘Novar’ was the residence of Edward Stephens, who was a legal manager of several local mining companies. During World War I, the property became the first in Victoria to be purchased by the Red Cross Society for use as a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. After the war, the building functioned as a private hospital until being sold in 1956.

The original name of the house- ’Novar’-was in recognition of Lady Munro Ferguson, wife of the then Governor General, who was also the Countess of Novar and founder of the Australian Red Cross movement.34 – 38 Webster Street