ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL HERITAGE
SIGNIFICANCE & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE
COUNCIL
NAME:
KILMORE OUTDOOR RECREATION PUBLIC HERITAGE PRECINCT
LOCATION: Precinct is bounded to the south and east by Monument Road (the southern section known in
some maps as Anderson Road); by Hunts Road, Kilmore East Road, East Street and Foote Street
to the north; and by White Street and Rutledge Street to the west.
FILE:
13/002867
HERMES NUMBER: 194925
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RECOMMENDATION TO THE HERITAGE COUNCIL:
 That the place NOT be included in the Victorian Heritage Register [Section 32 (1)(b) of the
Heritage Act 1995.]
TIM SMITH
Executive Director
Recommendation Date:
21 March 2014
EXTENT OF NOMINATION
All of the land shown on plan titles ‘Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct – Nomination to
the Victorian Heritage Register’ (below), being all of Crown Allotments 60K, 60L, 60M, 60N, 60P and 56D
Parish of Bylands, and Crown Allotments 13M1, 13M2, 13M3, 13M4, Parish of Glenburnie, and Crown
Allotments 8, 9 and 10, Section 30, Township of Kilmore, Parish of Bylands.
The precinct is bounded to the south and east by Monument Road (known in some maps as Anderson Road
in the south), by Hunts Road, Kilmore East Road, East Street and Foote Street to the north, and by White
Street and Rutledge Street to the west
[Note: The nominated area includes all of the land referred to as the ‘Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Precinct’
in the ‘Mitchell Shire Stage Two Heritage Study’, January 2006, comprising the Kilmore Public Park and
Garden Reserve (including all parklands and golf course and bushland area), Kilmore Cricket Reserve and
Kilmore Reservoir, but in addition includes the Kilmore Racecourse Reserve and Kilmore Creek.]
The extent of nomination is shown in green on the following diagram.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
RECOMMENDATION REASON
REASON FOR NOT RECOMMENDING INCLUSION IN THE VICTORIAN HERITAGE REGISTER
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
SUMMARY OF HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION
Kilmore is said to be the oldest inland town in Victoria. It was first mentioned in 1843 when William
Rutledge planned a township in the south-east corner of his Special Survey, an area of 5120 acres he had
purchased in 1841. It was not until 1849-50 that the Government Village of Kilmore was surveyed, to the
south of Rutledge’s land, and its first Crown land sales were held in 1853. The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation
Public Heritage Precinct is part of the land to the east of the town which was proclaimed in 1853 as a series
of reservations for public purposes: as commonage or common land, land for a Police Paddock and space for
future expansion of the town. In 1862 a reservoir was constructed in the Police Paddock as the town’s first
permanent water supply, which was in use until 1893. From then until 1964 it was used as Kilmore’s
swimming pool. The reserve has a long association with sport in the town. Cricket has been played in
Kilmore since 1850, and the Kilmore Cricket Club was formed in 1857. The club has played on the reserve
since that time. Work began in 1856 clearing common land to the north of the Police Paddock for a
racecourse, which is still in use. On Monument Hill to the east of the site is a monument commemorating
the centenary of the journey of the explorers Hume and Hovell through this area.
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct comprises about 157 hectares of public land. It
includes the reservoir, the golf links, the Kilmore Creek parklands, Monument Hill bush land and
conservation area, the cricket reserve and the racecourse. The flat land of the precinct is dominated by
open space, with minimal hard surfaces, buildings or other above ground structures. The main visible
nineteenth century element is the reservoir, now part of the golf course. There are substantial numbers of
exotic trees, including stands of Pinus radiata planted in c1895 and c1924, as well as remnant indigenous
vegetation, including old candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubida), which dominate views to and from Monument
Hill. The Hume and Hovell monument is a bluestone lookout tower, relocated from the old Kilmore Gaol,
which once provided views over the town and the country traversed by Hume and Hovell, but these views
are now obscured by tree growth.
RECOMMENDATION REASON
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct is of local historical, aesthetic and social
significance but does not satisfy the criteria for significance at a state level.
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct was identified in Lorraine Huddle’s 2006 ‘Mitchell
Shire Stage Two Heritage Study’ as being of local significance. (The racecourse was not included in the
precinct in this study.) A review of Huddle’s assessment by Context Pty Ltd in 2012 as part of the planning
scheme amendment process supported significance at a local level. Huddle noted that the integrity of the
Precinct is diminished because it is now difficult to visualise the boundaries of the original reserves, or their
relationship with the town. No early structures survive on the site apart from the reservoir.
The Kilmore recreation reserves are not unique, or particularly notable, in Victoria. Between 1853 and 1858
61 Crown reserves were set aside throughout the colony, 42 of which were for recreation (as racecourses,
recreation reserves, cricket grounds, parks and gardens or botanic gardens). Although Kilmore was
established in 1843, and is therefore considered to be one of Victoria’s oldest towns, the recreation reserves
were not set aside until 1853. The nomination associates the precinct with the establishment of Kilmore as
Victoria’s first inland town, but the various reserves were not in existence when Kilmore was established, but
date from a later time period when there were at least 90 townships in existence in regional Victoria. No
information was supplied with the nomination to justify significance of the Kilmore reserves at a state level,
or evidence that they are more significant than many other reserves in the State.
There are several Crown reserves (or parts of reserves) included in the Victorian Heritage Register, but in all
cases the registration is not for the reserve per se but for events, buildings or plantings of state significance
which are associated with the reserve. For example the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park (VHR
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
H2047) is an outstanding example of an intact 1850s goldfield and is considered to be of historical, scientific,
archaeological and aesthetic significance at a state level. The Eureka Historic Precinct (VHR H1874) is the site
of the Eureka Rebellion, an event of national historical significance. Rosalind Park at Bendigo (VHR H1866)
includes several individual buildings of state significance, has important plantings and is historically
significant as the site of the Government Camp established in 1852 to serve the local goldfields. The Kilmore
Precinct has no buildings or plantings or associations of more than local significance.
In 1824 Hume and Hovell were the first Europeans to travel overland from New South Wales to the Port
Phillip District. To mark the centenary of their journey, 37 monuments were erected across Victoria, which
together trace their route. A comparative analysis of Hume and Hovell monuments was undertaken by Dr
David Rowe during his assessment of the Hume and Hovell Monument at Lara, near Geelong, which led to its
inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR H1547). The Lara monument was included as a
representative sample of the 37 Hume & Hovell memorials, as the most southerly (marking the end point
reached by the expedition) and the only one to record the names of the six convicts on the expedition.
Rowe noted that the Kilmore Hume and Hovell monument ‘is the most unusual and possibly the most
substantial erected’. But this does not make it of state significance. The 2006 ‘Mitchell Shire Stage Two
Heritage Study’ states that the Kilmore Hume and Hovell Monument has potential state significance,
because it was ‘a vantage point used by Hume and Hovell to navigate through the mountains via the Kilmore
Gap to Port Phillip’. The nomination does not mention that the association of the hill with the Hume and
Hovell expedition is contested within the local community. The Kilmore Historical Society has suggested that
Monument Hill was never visited by Hume and Hovell and therefore has little historical significance. The
Lara Hume and Hovell monument has already been registered as a representative example of the 37
throughout Victoria, and it has not been demonstrated that the Kilmore monument is more important than
the other 35 examples in the state.
The Executive Director considers that the Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct is of local
significance but is not worthy of inclusion in the Victorian Heritage Register.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
RELEVANT INFORMATION
LOCAL GOVERNMENT AUTHORITY: MITCHELL SHIRE
HERITAGE LISTING INFORMATION:
Heritage Overlay: Yes (Part only: HO104 Lake Precinct)
HISTORY
Contextual History
[Information from: R. Wright, The Bureaucrats’ Domain: Space and Public Interest in Victoria, 1836-84,
Oxford University Press, 1989; the website http://home.vicnet.net.au/~kilmore/history.htm; and Lorraine
Huddle, ‘Mitchell Shire Stage Two Heritage Study’, Vol 4, 2006.]
The colony of Victoria (then part of New South Wales) was first settled in 1835, but no land could be sold
until it was surveyed. The survey of what was to become Victoria was begun in 1837 by Robert Hoddle in
the area around Melbourne. Land was divided into parishes of 25 square miles within which section lines,
allotments, roads and village site were located. Hoddle gradually extended the grid of surveyed land north
and west from Melbourne.
Between 1836 and 1884 successive governments set aside and withheld from sale about two million acres of
Crown land reserves for ‘the public interest’. These were intended for such future uses as towns, roads,
government offices, police paddocks, powder magazines, schools, cemeteries, military establishments, parks
and gardens and sporting and recreation reserves, as well as reserves to protect water and access to water,
and mineral and timber resources.
Hoddle was Surveyor General from 1836 until 1853, but during this time he failed to assign space for public
purposes in his town surveys, so no land was set aside for recreation and other public purposes during that
time. In 1853, Latrobe used his power to formalise ‘township reserves' of such lands ‘as may be required for
the site of churches, schools, or parsonages, or for the construction of high roads or railways or railway
stations, or other internal communications, whether by land or water, or for the use or benefit of the
aboriginal inhabitants of the country, or for public buildings, or as places for the recreation and amusement
of the inhabitants of any town or village or for any other purpose of public defence, safety, utility,
convenience, or enjoyment, or for otherwise facilitating the improvement and settlement of the Colony’.
Establishment of Kilmore
Like most inland townships, the establishment of Kilmore was a result of private entrepreneurial activity
rather than government initiative. The area was settled in 1837 by squatters, and when a mail run from
Sydney to Melbourne was established late in the same year the future site of Kilmore became an important
camping and watering place on the route. In 1841 the Irishman William Rutledge purchased a Special Survey
of 5120 acres and in 1843 drew up a township, which he named Kilmore after his home town in Ireland, in
the south-east corner of his land. Township allotments of about one acre, and suburban lots of 20 acres
were mapped out and a number of blocks were sold. The northern part of the present town of Kilmore is on
Rutledge’s original land. Kilmore is often described as Victoria’s first inland town.
In 1849-50 in response to the growing popularity of Kilmore as a place of residence and trade, the
Government Village of Kilmore was surveyed, immediately south of the town that was growing within
Rutledge’s Special Survey area. The first Crown land sales in the area were held in May 1853.
Crown reserves in Victoria
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
The Victoria Government Gazette in 1853 published an inventory of 250 existing township reserves, including
Kilmore, in the colony. These were established with the aim of facilitating the improvement and settlement
of the Colony. It was essentially a pre-gold-rush image of site value and the environmental worth of Victoria,
and evidence of the need to preserve environmental resources for the future public interest.
Between 1853 and 1858 61 Crown Reserves were set aside throughout the colony, 42 of which were for
recreation (as racecourses, recreation reserves, cricket grounds, parks and gardens or botanic gardens).
These were considered to add ‘imagined gloss’ to otherwise shabby towns and also built respectability and
helped define the growing settlements. Between 1857 and 1874 more than 1770 sites were set aside for the
public interest in Victoria, the largest acreage being for the protection of physical resources, especially
timber and water, but there were also 69 cricket reserves and 207 recreation reserves set aside. Many of
these reserves are still prominent features of the Victorian landscape.
Place history
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct comprises a section of the land that was
proclaimed in 1853 in association with the township reserve. Part of the reservation was for community
purposes and comprised a Reserve for Commonage (or common land), a Reserve for Extension (for future
growth of the town) and a Police Paddock. The original L-shaped reserve fits around and abuts the southeast corner of Rutledge’s Special Survey. Part of these reserves now form the Kilmore Outdoor Recreation
Public Heritage Precinct, which includes the Kilmore parklands, the golf course and reservoir, Monument Hill
and the Kilmore Cricket Reserve as well as the Kilmore Racecourse Reserve.
Cricket club
The game of cricket is recorded as being played in Kilmore from 1850. The Kilmore Cricket Club was formed
in 1857 and in 1858 a ten acre ‘Cricket and Recreation Reserve’ was set aside within the Reserve for
Commonage (excised from the Police Paddock). The Kilmore Cricket Club has operated from that site, with
minor recesses, until the present day. A weatherboard club house was built in the 1930s, which was
replaced by new brick veneer clubrooms in 1976.
1862 Reservoir
The police paddock was fenced by the Government in 1850. By then it included a police barracks, stables
and a police residence. In 1862 the Government constructed a reservoir in the Police Paddock as the town’s
first permanent water supply. The 1862 reservoir ceased to be the town’s water supply in 1893 when a
reticulated water system provided water from Mt. Disappointment. The Kilmore Swimming Club was
established at the ‘Old Res’ in 1895, and served as the town’s swimming pool until 1964. Around the
reservoir are native trees, including Candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubuda), some over two hundred years old, and
Pinus radiata, planted during lake beautification works in 1895-96 and 1924-25.
Racecourse
In 1856 clearing began on the northern part of the Commonage site for a racecourse, and in 1862 the
Kilmore Recreation Ground and Racecourse was gazetted. A grandstand built in 1873 was relocated in 1947
to the west side of the track, and was demolished in 1997. This has been the long-term home for the
Kilmore Turf Club, St Patrick’s Racing Club and the Kilmore Harness Racing Club, and has been the venue for
major community events, including Shows, markets, rodeos and community picnics. The Kilmore Football
Club played games in the centre of the racecourse from 1887. Agricultural shows have been held there since
1947.
Golf course
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
In 1911, the former Police Paddock block and the Monument Hill bushland were gazetted for ‘Public Parks
and Gardens’. At the same time, a large portion of the former Police Paddock was placed at the disposal of
the Kilmore Golf Club, and with a fair amount of clearing and removal of trees, the new links were formed.
The land acquired by the Golf Club included the Reservoir.
Hume and Hovell Monument
In December 1824 the explorers Hamilton Hume and William Hovell passed through the Kilmore Gap east of
Kilmore on the way to Westernport, and it is claimed that Hume or one of his party ascended the hill now
known as Monument Hill. As part of plans to celebrate the centenary of the journey, Kilmore received a visit
from the Centenary Committee, which decided to connect Monument Hill (already a scenic viewing spot)
with the forthcoming centenary. The community response to the visit was the erection of a lookout tower in
1924 on the summit of the hill. The advantage of this location was reported in the Argus and the Kilmore
Advertiser: ‘from it many miles of country travelled by the exploring party is directly under view, covering
the track taken by them after leaving Murchison, up the Sunday Creek, which rises in the ranges commanded
by the Outlook, down the valley towards Wandong and then to Mount Disappointment, which is also under
view from this vantage point’. The directors of the Kilmore Dairy Company donated the stone tower
(sometimes referred to as the guards’ tower) from the old Kilmore Gaol. Mr James Proudfoot demolished
the bluestone tower and rebuilt it in a similar form at the lookout. Mr R. Bowers had the task of repairing
the road to ensure the drays could transport the material to the summit. By the end of the twentieth
century the lookout tower had fallen into ruin, but in 1999 it was restored and reopened for its 75th
anniversary celebrations.
Vegetation
Apart from the pines and Candlebarks around the reservoir, there is old remnant vegetation, which
delineate the layout of the golf course and form a picturesque backdrop to the cricket ground and
monument. They dominate the views of and from Monument Hill and its walking tracks.
VICTORIAN HISTORICAL THEMES
02
06
08
09
Peopling Victoria’s places and landscapes
2.2
Exploring surveying and mapping
2.7
Promoting settlement
Building towns, cities and the garden state
6.4
Making regional centres
Building community life
8.4
Forming community organisations
Shaping cultural and creative life
9.1
Participating in sport and recreation
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct comprises about 157 hectares of public land. It
comprises six overlapping character areas (or sub-precincts): the reservoir, the golf links, the Kilmore Creek
parklands, Monument Hill bush land/conservation area, the cricket reserve and the racecourse. The flat land
of the precinct is dominated by continuous open space, with minimal hard surfaces, buildings or other above
ground structures. The main visible nineteenth century element is the reservoir, now part of the golf course.
There are substantial numbers of exotic trees, including stands of Pinus radiata planted in c1895 and c1924,
as well as indigenous vegetation, including old candlebarks (Eucalyptus rubida).
OBJECTS AND INTERIORS
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
N/A
INTEGRITY/INTACTNESS
Lorraine Huddle (in the ‘Mitchell Shire Stage Two Heritage Study’, Vol 4) identified the Kilmore Outdoor
Recreation Precinct as having diminished integrity because it was difficult to read the different reservations
in the landscape, noting that ‘although one can precisely see the existing reserves on a township plan, it is
really difficult to visualise the relationships between the different reserves and the urban centre, either from
the Monument Hill or the town’. Huddle further states that the ‘existing physical boundaries are imprecise,
particularly the boundaries between the golf course and the lake/reservoir and the golf course and the
cricket ground’. No early structures survive on the site apart from the reservoir.
Monument Hill is natural bushland that is appreciated by the community for its flora and fauna. The views
from the lookout which have been claimed to contribute to the significance of the monument are now also
obscured. The nomination states that the Hume and Hovell monument provides ‘panoramic views’ and
‘interpretative views over the land explored and the route taken by Hume and Hovell’. These statements are
not supported by the current situation. The Kilmore lookout monument, like some other early scenic views
points around the state, no longer effectively functions as a lookout due to tree growth within the
surrounding land. It is now difficult to see the mountains and certainly not possible to see any of the
sporting reserves (apart from small section of race course) or the town.
CONDITION
Good
COMPARISONS
There are several Crown Reserves (or parts of reserves) included in the Victorian Heritage Register, but in all
cases the registration is not for the Reserve per se but for events, buildings or plantings of state significance
associated with the Reserve. Examples are:
 the Castlemaine Diggings National Heritage Park (VHR H2047), which is an outstanding example of
an intact 1850s goldfield and is considered to be of historical, scientific, archaeological and aesthetic
significance at a state level;
 Eureka Historic Precinct (VHR H1874) is the site of the Eureka Rebellion, an event of national
historical significance;
 The Maldon Court House (VHR H1652) is located on the town’s cricket/football ground. It is one of
the most notable court houses in Victoria and forms part of the important historic townscape of the
former gold-mining town;
 the Malmsbury Botanic Gardens (VHR H1993) and White Hills Botanic Gardens (VHR H1915) at
Bendigo are among the earliest botanic gardens in Victoria and are outstanding examples of their
kind;
 Rosalind Park at Bendigo (VHR H1866) includes several registered individual buildings, has important
plantings and the reserve is also listed due to it being the site of the Government Camp established
in 1852 to serve the local goldfields.
The Crown land reserves listed on local heritage overlays are also usually included because of their
association with significant events, buildings or plantings.
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct is not unique. Most townships in regional Victoria
have Crown land reserves for various community purposes, e.g., for recreation, meetings and museums.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
The Hume and Hovell Monument is one of 37 such commemorative structures in Victoria, four of which are
in the Mitchell Shire. A comparative analysis of Hume and Hovell monuments was undertaken by Dr David
Rowe during his assessment of the monument at Lara, near Geelong, which led to its inclusion in the
Victorian Heritage Register (VHR H1547). The Lara monument was included as 'a representative sample of
the 37 Hume & Hovell memorials marking the route taken by Hume and Hovell across Victoria', as the most
southerly (marking the end point reached by the expedition) and the only one to record the names of the six
convicts on the expedition. Where other memorials associated with the centenary celebrations have been
considered, they have all been assessed as having Local Significance. In all cases, the listing has only been the
monument and a small curtilage of surrounding land.
ASSESSMENT AGAINST CRITERIA
The precinct is significant for the following reasons, but not at the State level:
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct has local historical significance as an area that was
set aside for public use in 1853 and has been continuously used for public outdoor recreation since then. It
was the site of the town’s first police residence and its first water supply and has had a close association with
the history of sport in Kilmore. Monument Hill has local historical significance for its association with the
1824 Hume and Hovell expedition and the 1924 centenary celebrations.
The Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct has local aesthetic significance for its picturesque
landscape setting which contributes to the rural setting of Kilmore.
KEY REFERENCES USED TO PREPARE ASSESSMENT
Victoria Government Gazette, Reserves from lease of crown lands beyond the settled districts, Wednesday
April 6 1853, pp 455 to 467.
R. Wright, The Bureaucrats’ Domain: Space and Public Interest in Victoria, 1836-84, Oxford University Press,
1989.
Lorraine Huddle, ‘Mitchell Shire Stage Two Heritage Study’, Vol 4, 2006.
Jim Lowden, ‘Kilmore Remembers’, December 2013.
Mitchell Shire Ordinary Council Meeting Minutes, 26 August 2013; Attachment to Ordinary Council Meeting,
Item 7.1, Planning Scheme Amendment C56 – Summary of Submissions and Officer Response; and Mitchell
Planning Scheme Amendment C56, submission to Planning Panel, November 2013.
Kilmore Wallan Bypass Planning Study, Section 7.3 Activities and Places of Interest.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
ADDITIONAL IMAGES
1853 map showing Rutledge’s Special Survey (top left), the 1853 Government Town Survey (bottom left) and the
Crown Reserves on the right: the Reserve for Commonage (top, future site of racecourse), Police Paddock (with
the square of the cricket ground on its north side and site of reservoir to south) and Reserve for Extension.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
Hume and Hovell Monument
View west from monument. Part of racecourse is visible on the left.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925
Views from Monument Hill are largely obscured by trees.
The reservoir, constructed 1862 on land originally reserved as the Police Paddock.
Now part of Golf Course
Embankment of the 1862 reservoir, now part of the gold course.
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Name: Kilmore Outdoor Recreation Public Heritage Precinct
Hermes number: 194925