Summerhill is a prefabricated iron cottage at 155 Mount Duneed Road,
Mount Duneed
Mount Duneed is a suburb of Geelong, Victoria, Australia. It is divided between the City of Greater Geelong and Surf Coast Shire local government areas. Mount Duneed itself is an extinct volcano and the remains of the crater can be seen in the ...
a
suburb
A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area. They are oftentimes where most of a metropolitan areas jobs are located with some being predominantly residential. They can either be denser or less densely populated ...
of
Geelong
Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ...
,
Victoria
Victoria most commonly refers to:
* Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India
* Victoria (state), a state of Australia
* Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital
* Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...
. It is notable because it demonstrates British technical accomplishment in the history of prefabricated building construction.
History
The development of a
galvanising
Galvanization ( also spelled galvanisation) is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, to prevent rusting. The most common method is hot-dip galvanizing, in which the parts are coated by submerging them in a bath of ...
process in the 1840s, the fabrication of rolled sections of wrought iron from about 1850, and the use of grooved or fluted rollers to improve the production of
corrugated iron
Corrugated galvanised iron (CGI) or steel, colloquially corrugated iron (near universal), wriggly tin (taken from UK military slang), pailing (in Caribbean English), corrugated sheet metal (in North America), zinc (in Cyprus and Nigeria) or ...
in 1844 enabled construction of this building. It demonstrates the innovative solutions provided by the use of imported prefabricated buildings to cope with housing shortages caused by the gold rushes in Australia and
California
California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...
in the early 1850s.
It is a rare example of a two-room prefabricated iron cottage and one of only a small number of this type of building remaining which date from the early 1850s. It is the only known curved roof single storey cottage extant in Victoria. It provides an example of the simple living conditions of some of the early settlers in Victoria. It is listed on the
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register (VHR) lists places deemed to be of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 2017. The Minister for Planning is the responsible Minister. ...
number H1131. It consists of two rooms and is believed to have been brought to Australia by Mr Joseph Williams with his family from England and lived in until a weatherboard house consisting of four rooms was erected in 1860 with further additions in the 1870s. It measures 24 feet by twelve feet and is 9.5 feet high to the top of the segmental arched roof.
Mr and Mrs Joseph Williams and their two sons George and James with their niece Elizabeth Frear arrived in Melbourne by sailing ship 'Lochiel' in 1853, and the cottage was erected in 1854.
[Mount Duneed School Centenary 1878-1978]
References
{{coord missing, Victoria (state)
Buildings and structures in Geelong
Prefabricated buildings