House at 84 Stirling Street

Statement of Significance

House at 84 Stirling Street, a single-storey brick and iron residence, has cultural heritage significance for the following reasons:
it is an elegant, harmonious and picturesque dwelling, forming part of the edge to the scenic Leschenault Inlet foreshore in Stirling Street, and part of the Stirling Street precinct;
it demonstrates the turn-of-the-century expansion of the suburbs of Bunbury along the Inlet, following the gradual subdivision of the historic Stirling estate (Location 26); and is an example of a developed form of late nineteenth century cottage, at a turning point of stylistic development in the history of Western Australian domestic architecture;
it has a close association with George Robert Teede, first Government School teacher and first Clerk of the Town in Bunbury;
it has scientific value as a teaching site with respect to the class of elementary early Western Australian houses; and,
it contributes to the visual coherence and historic authenticity of the Stirling Street-Austral Parade precinct, as an urban space contributing to the community's sense of place in Bunbury.

Extracted from the Documentary Evidence in Heritage Council of Western Australia's Assessment Documentation for 'House at 84 Stirling Street', prepared by Ian Molyneux, 1997.

Physical Description

House, 84 Stirling Street, is a single storey (with two storey addition) brick and iron house built in the Victorian Georgian style of architecture. The walls are painted brick. The roof is hipped and clad with Colourbond. The double hipped roof illustrates the evolution of the common roof form resulting from random additions as seen in adjacent house (No 82). The roof has scalloped timber gutter-boards and a concave, belled, dropped verandah roof which was common before the introduction of the bull-nosed corrugated iron verandah in the 1890s. The facade is symmetrical with a central door with top and side lights, flanked either side by large timber framed double hung sash windows.The verandah is wide and wraps around both sides of the house, supported by timber posts. There are substantial rear two storey additions, however the original form of the house remains intact from the street.

History

Stirling Street formed the northern boundary of Governor Stirling’s grant Location 26 of 100,000 acres). The street was first developed during the 1850s when several lots were granted to the Enrolled Pensioner Guards.

House at 84 Stirling Street is a single-storey residence constructed in c.1880-1900, as a private residence. Unsubstantiated data provided by the Bunbury Historical Society to the National Trust of Australia (WA), in 1975, names the structure 'House – Bin Teede - 1900s', referring to Binsted Teede, a son of George Robert Teede. The date given does not fit with the extant physical stylistic evidence of the belled verandah roof and scalloped gutter boards, but this may reflect later modification of the physical evidence.

House at 84 Stirling Street is associated with the Teede family, descendants of the first Town Clerk, George Robert Teede. An immigrant to Australind on the Diadem with the Western Australian Land Company in 1842, and son of the teacher at York, Teede was a prominent citizen through his positions as first head teacher of the Government School (1862-), Clerk to the Town Trust (1870-71) and Town Clerk (1871-96). The documentary evidence of the development of Leschenault Location 26, Stirling's vast South Bunbury-Picton estate, as the contextual locality for the place, is summarised in 'The Lower Preston River Settlement'.

House at 84 Stirling Street represents suburban Bunbury immediately outside the south-eastern most edge of the townsite confined by Stirling's land selection, a locality that fits the description of a 600 acre parcel of land sold in 1841, and is a part of the turn-of-the-century precinct of houses that follow Stirling Street and Austral Parade (formerly 'White Road'); roads which follow the northern boundary of Stirling's Location 26. The street came to prominence with the division during the gold boom era, into suburban housing lots, of those 10 and 20 acre farming and market gardening lots into which Location 26 had been divided. Such small fringe farms typically then succumbed to the growth of the town of Bunbury. The present title, replacing any earlier form of title, was issued to Kenneth Noel Teede, mechanic of Stirling Street, Bunbury on 27 July 1948, from whom it passed to Mr and Mrs Ross Newburn Elliott in 1975, then to Mr and Mrs Peter Douglas Horn in 1977, and lastly to be occupied by Mr John Myers, solicitor and barrister of Bunbury, and his wife, from 1981. Mrs Myers puts the rear, north-eastern living room date as circa 1950 (therefore attributed to Mr K. N. Teede) and additions and alterations were carried out to the north-west corner by the Myers in about 1982. In 1996, House at 84 Stirling Street continues to be used for residential purposes.

This history is extracted from the Documentary Evidence in Heritage Council of Western Australia's Assessment Documentation for 'House at 84 Stirling Street', prepared by Ian Molyneux, 1997.

Integrity/Authenticity

Although the building is restored, its form remains largely original.

Condition

Exterior: Good

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.