"BURN BRAE" - YINNAR ~ UNIQUE PRESSED METAL...

* Fabulous Victorian Italianate residence
* 3 big bedrooms each with fireplace
* Separate lounge and dining rooms each with fireplace
* Solid fuel heating plus split system
* Approximate 12 acres (4.682ha) divided into 8 paddocks
* Town water supply

DESCRIPTION The homestead at 'Burn Brae' is a simple late Victorian Italianate villa, with verandahs on two sides, and a hipped roof, now clad in colourbond. Of typical design, form and layout, the building is notable for its internal and external cladding material: Both the exterior and interior walls are covered with pressed metal sheeting in a variety of ornate patterns. The external cladding
simulates rusticated stonework and is believed to be a product produced by Wunderlich, which
was known as 'imitation rockface'. Internally, an extraordinary array of pressed metal sheeting
with art nouveau-influenced designs has been used in the hallway and main rooms. In the hallway
and some rooms one design is used up to dado height, with a contrasting design above. The
hallway features a pressed metal clad arch with columns.
Other features include:
- a centrally placed front entrance door with sidelights and highlights
- decorative eaves brackets
- the return verandah supported on turned timber posts with cast iron frieze and brackets.
- three brick chimneys with corbelling
- original double hung sash windows
Part of the verandah was been enclosed, and there is an addition clad in a fibreglass material
manufactured to look like the original cladding.
There are two outbuildings to the rear of the house; a small gabled weatherboard building, and a
corrugated iron clad building.
Condition Good Integrity High
Threats Key elements
Designer W Young (builder) Builder


HISTORY THEMATIC CONTEXT
The squatters were not destined to keep control over their large tracts of leasehold. After the
goldrushes significantly increased Victoria’s population, the government introduced legislation
that promoted more intensive use of the land and enabled many former gold miners to 'select' land
and develop farms. Under a series of land acts, the former squatting runs were thrown open for
selection. Selectors began arriving in 1865, as a result of the Grant Land Act. A decade later, the
railway line that was under construction provided further inducement to select in the area and a
Lands Office was opened in Traralgon. As a series of land acts were passed, conditions that the
selectors had to fulfil changed. For prospective selectors moving to Flynn’s Creek, for example,
after the lease on the Loy Yang run had been extinguished in 1877, boundaries had to be fenced, a
house built and a designated proportion of the land had to be cleared and cultivated each year.
Selectors had to live on their properties.
Selection has had a major impact on shaping the land in this region. It attracted large numbers of
people to the area, resulted in widespread clearing of land, and was responsible for many of
Latrobe City’s towns and communities developing. Selection led to the foundation of institutions
such as schools and churches and to new local government areas.
Although selectors faced many difficulties carrying out their schedules of improvements including
floods, fires, caterpillar plagues, poor prices and limited capital, land on the plains and river flats
was transformed from forest and scrub to cleared paddocks, fenced crops and pasture. Swamps
were drained. In the early 1880s, selectors began penetrating the southern regions of the City,
selecting land in Jumbuk, Boolarra, Budgeree and Callignee. The rainfall was higher in the
densely forested Strzeleckis and it was assumed the land was fertile because of the giant trees that
grew there. Ahead of them was the Herculean task of clearing the giant trees, and of trying to get
their produce to market (Context, 2008:4).

PLACE HISTORY
The homestead at 'Burn Brae' was constructed on the crest of a rise in 1912 by W. Young
(builder) for William and Ellen Bond. Local opinion is that 'Burn Brae' was built of pressed metal
to reduce the risk from bush fires. In 1987, an addition was made to the house, which was clad in
fibreglass sheeting, made to look like the original cladding.
William Bond and his brother, George, were among the early selectors in the Yinnar district.
William married Ellen O'Hara.
Pressed metal sheeting was first manufactured in Australia in 1890 by Wunderlich Patent Ceilings
And Roofing Co. Ltd, following earlier popularity in America. It was commonly used for ceiling
linings, and sometimes as internal wall linings. Pressed metal sheeting was one of an increasing
range of mass produced building materials that were available for use by the early twentieth
century in the ordinary house although generally more expensive than wood or plaster. As well as
internal linings, the Wunderlich catalogue of 1897 listed a wide range of metal products in zinc,
copper or aluminium, including roofing, cornices, gable fillings, pediments, crestings etc. Sheet
steel, imported from John Lysaght Ltd, Bristol, England (The company which perfected the steel
rolling process c.1900) from about 1906, enabled this cheaper material to replace zinc. Exterior
cladding was produced in (at least) rough cast and 'imitation rock face' and was promoted as being
inexpensive, cheap to pack and freight and easy to attach. This made it particularly suitable for use
in remote country areas.

SOURCES
Context Pty Ltd & Dr Meredith Fletcher, 'Latrobe City Heritage Study. Volume 1: Thematic
Environmental History', 2008
Stephen M. Legg, 'Heart of the Valley. A History of the Morwell Municipality', 1992, p.42
Chris Johnston, 'Latrobe Valley Heritage Study', 1991

Creation Date 1912 Change Dates 1987
Associations
William & Ellen Bond
Local Themes
2. SETTLING THE LAND: LAYERS
OF SETTLEMENT
2.2 Selection