Heritage
Ned Kelly
Euroa is famous for the Kelly Gang robbery at the Euroa National Bank in 1878.
Farmers' Arms Hotel Museum
25 Kirkland Avenue
Euroa VIC 3666
Email: info@euroamuseum.org.au
Secretary: Gaye Wallace, Phone 0448483547
President: Roma Joyce, Email roma.joyce@bigpond.com
Open: Wednesday & Sunday 1 - 4pm
Other days by appointment
Cost of entry is $5
Note: There is wheelchair access to main building and cottage.
Housed in the historic Farmers Arms Hotel which was first licensed in 1876. We hold an extensive collection of local artefacts, including clothing, household items, farm machinery, war memorabilia and much more. We also hold a great collection of photos, along with local and family history. We have a variety of local history books and souvenirs for sale.
Euroa Heritage Trail
Below is a brief guided introduction to early Euroa. However you can choose to download the 2 page guide if your prefer.
Euroa Heritage Trail guide (PDF, 2.8MB)
The early buildings of Euroa are an inheritance from another world: when Victoria was a British colony at the height of Queen Victoria’s Empire. Its buildings stand as evidence of the confidence and foresight of early settlers and traders. Whilst still retaining their value as reliable premises, the buildings display an elegance and solidity lacking in modern construction. Besides buildings, a few other items of interest are noted herein.
According to the Department of Planning there are buildings that offer great potential for conservation and restoration in harmony with growth of the future.
1. The Farmers’ Arms Hotel was licensed by J Shelswell in 1876 and served as a hotel for about 35 years. In the 1920s Mrs Edith Smith turned it into a boarding house and ran it as such for over 50 years. In 1974 it became the Farmers’ Arms Hotel Museum.
2. The site of the first Shire Hall is opposite the Farmers’ Arms Museum in Kirkland Avenue. In 1833 the Council purchased the Rechabite Hall and shortly afterwards upgraded it by incorporating new offices in front of the earlier structure. The hall was used until the present Shire Hall was built in Binney Street in 1939.
3. The Hume and Hovell Cairn which commemorates the 1824 journey of the first explorers through this district was erected adjacent to Burton’s Bridge in 1924.
4. The Church of England which stands in Clifton Street, was built for £800 and was completed in November 1884. This is the nave of the present church. Additions to St Paul’s over the years include the English Gothic Bell Tower designed by Louis Williams added in 1929, and a Baptistry and Lady Chapel in comparatively recent years.
5. Euroa Primary School No. 1706 is situated on Clifton Street adjacent to the traffic lights. The school opened as State School No. 1706 in 1876, replacing Euroa School 217 which was a non-vested Church of England School. Various changes and additions have been made over the years.
6. The Methodist Church (now Funeral Chapel) was built by G. Whyte in 1897 at a cost of £30. This simple red-brick Gothic Chapel is a notable landmark in the town and important for its location, ending the run of red-brick buildings in Binney Street.
7. In 1890 George Diggle built the handsome Euroa Court House in Binney Street and it remains in first-class condition. It was designed by J.T. Kelleher of Public Works Department and is a rare example of Victorian Court Houses designed in Romanesque style. It is notable for its picturesque massing, the heavy portico with its arched entry and the large bulls-eye vent over the portico.
8. The Roman Catholic Church in Kirkland Avenue was built in 1886-87 by Lawrence Hanlon, of Benalla, the architects being Tappin, Gilbert and Dennehy. It is a simple redbrick Gothic Chapel of imposing proportions. The church cost £2000 to erect. The first Church was built in 1866 on the same allotment. Facing Binney street is the Presbytery built in 1906.
9. In Kirkland Avenue near the RSL Clubrooms is the site where James Kirkland had his station homestead when he held “Urowa” Run from 1844 to 1851. Kirkland was thus the resident squatter at the time that the original town survey was made in 1850. The plaque is beside Twomey’s Bridge. In the grounds of the R.S.L. are the three Victoria Cross Memorial Trees.
10. In Kirkland Avenue is the old Euroa Flour Mill. Jared Graham built and operated the mill from 1873. Subsequently it was owned by J Birkett, C Lance, Palmer and Son, Palmer Bros. (who updated the building in 1903) and W McGregor (who purchased it in 1909 and closed it in 1917). Brands of flour produced were “Pride of Victoria” and “White Eagle”. It is important historically as one of Euroa’s early large industries, and notable architecturally for its Romanesque detailing such as the banded brickwork central arch (now painted over) and the Art Nouveau-patterned, rendered bank at the parapet line.
11. The Presbyterian (now Uniting) Church in Kirkland Avenue was built in 1889, it replaced their first church which stood behind the Seven Creeks Hotel. The original Manse is still there in Foy Street.
12. When King Edward VII came to the throne in 1901 an oak tree was planted to commemorate the occasion. That tree, with guard and plaque, stands at the Kirkland Avenue-Railway Street junction.
The Masonic Lodge, built about 1901 with extensions in 1906, is said to be intact with no other alterations.
13. 45-47 Railway Street is the A.P. Gardiner Building (named after its original owner) which has hosted a variety of businesses over the years. It was built in 1901 after the first weatherboard store was burnt down.
14. The third National Bank built in Euroa stands at the corner of Binney and Railway Streets (opposite the site of the second – the “Kelly” bank). Erected in 1885 it cost £5000 to build, the contractors being O’Dea and Kennedy and the architects Tappin, Gilbert and Dennehy. The building is one of the best examples of banks designed in the Queen Anne style in Victoria. It is registered by the National Trust.
15. “Blairgowrie” in the centre of the Binney Street shops, has a very attractive facade and was built by H. London, chemist in 1890. Later occupiers of this commodious building included chemists HW Potts, Jas Blackie and GB Spiers. Note the first owner’s name “HL” & FL London” and the date of erection “1890” worked into the outside decorative pattern around the top of the arches.
16. 61 Binney Street – The Newsagency, was built around 1900. It retains its original shop front and is noted for the clerestory lighting.
17. Opposite the Post Office is Burton Stores, the longest running
family owned business in Euroa. Forerunner of the businesses on this site was Gleeson’s, Euroa Trading Company and Alex Miller and Co. (who began business there in 1892) and from whom Burtons took over in 1928
.
18. An earlier Post Office built in 1884 burnt down in 1889 and the present two-storied Post Office was built by the Public Works Department in 1890. Built of red-brick with rendered dressings and in Romanesque style; notable for its asymmetrical massing and central two-storey section which has tripled Italianate arches, over a large banded Romanesque arch. In 1968 the building was extended in a complimentary style.
19. Salvation Army Barracks was built on the site of the old saleyards in 1892 in McGuinness Street. It is where the first kindergarten was held from 1945-1964.
20. Opposite the Memorial Hall is the handsome building erected as the Colonial Bank in 1889. It later housed the Bank of Australasia, then the ANZ Bank until that bank moved to Binney Street in the early 1970s. This building is a fine example of Boom classicism and is notable for its superimposed trabeated system over red brickwork and for its upper storey arcaded loggia on the Railway Street side. The building is a rare example of its type within the region.
21. The Euroa Public Hall in Railway Street was built in 1884 in red-brick by Maurice Garrett at a cost of £1537, raised by public subscription. From 1920 it has been known as the Memorial Hall when Edward Stribling presented it to the R.S.L. It originally incorporated a number of shops and offices.
22. The Euroa Hotel was built without the verandah by George Sutherland in 1884 in Railway Street. The style is an adaptation of Queen Anne work suitable for a country hotel, the architects being the then well-known to Euroa Tappin, Gilbert and Dennehy. C.L. Boos’s weatherboard North Eastern Hotel was previously on the same site. The new brick building was claimed to be the best of its kind outside Melbourne. It is an important part of the group of red-brick building facing the railways in this part of the town.
23. Near to the site of the third and fourth National banks built in Euroa is the site of the second Euroa National Bank - that was robbed by the Kelly Gang in December 1878. MMK’s office is now on that block at the junction of Binney Street with Railway Street.
24. The station opened when the line came through in 1873, with the first permanent station building erected in 1878 at the time the Kelly Gang robbed the bank. The platform was initially 91m long, being extended to 120m in 1900. A second 91m long platform once existed against the goods shed wall and in use between 1880 and 1904 to permit the handling of two crossing passenger trains. An iron footbridge linked the two platforms between 1900 and 1904.
25. On the northern side of the railway line is the still imposing structure - the North Eastern Hotel – which was erected by Michael McKenna in 1889 at the corner of DeBoos and Elliott Streets. It cost a total of £9000 which included furnishings. The building contains 300,000 bricks and has 48 rooms and was built by O’Dea and Kennedy. It is notable for its fine second storey verandah and High Victorian style and exemplifies confidence in the town towards the end of the century.
26. Euroa’s first Butter Factory, built in 1891 was destroyed by fire in 1901. Plans for the imposing three-storey present building were quickly drawn up and construction carried out by a Mr Beck for £7000 totally fitted up, late in 1901. The building is of great historical importance to the district for its major role in Euroa’s largest industry at the turn of the century. The building is functional in design but notable for its quality of brickwork, regular windows, its sheer size and for the fact that things such as its original brick chimney from 1891 remain.
27. At the north-east end of Railway Street is the Seven Creeks Railway Bridge built in 1872 of large iron girders on brick piers. Comprising eight 40 feet spans it was constructed several feet higher than originally intended when a severe flood was witnessed by authorities.
28. The forest was cleared to make way for Euroa Cricket Ground (now Memorial Oval) c1884 by volunteers. This great sports oval nestles picturesquely near the east end of Railway Street. Just inside the main gates is a silky oak tree, with guard and plaque attached, which was planted in 1911 to commemorate the coronation of King George V.
29. “Plym” 23 Railway Street was built in 1890 and noted for its Quoin work, verandah posts and cast iron frieze.
30. Vega was constructed in the early 1900s for Edward Stribling. It was originally half timber and half brick. News was made when he had a septic tank installed in 1908!
31. “Wittabrenah” 6 Noble Street. Parts of this house date from the 1880s when a six room cottage was built facing Dunn street. Later owners extended it in 1894 and again in the 1900s.
32. At the Tarcombe and Gobur Streets intersection is “Fermoy” which was built as early as 1857 by Maurice Garrett. From 1863 to 1912 it was the Euroa Inn with Maurice Garrett the licencee. And remained in the family until 2001. This is Euroa’s oldest known structure. Between the Seven Creeks Hotel and Fermoy is what is known as ‘Old Euroa’.
33. “Birchill Cottage” in Templeton Street was built c 1870 by the first president of the Shire of Euroa, Mr Hugh McGuinness.
34. The Seven Creeks Hotel is at the corner of Tarcombe and Foy Streets. John DeBoos commenced a store in a tent on this corner in 1853 when the Sydney Road was alive with traffic passing through. He built a single storey brick hotel there in the early 1860s. The bar is part of the original building. A second storey facing Foy street was added in 1910 and later on, extensions were made facing Tarcombe street. (John Deboos was not on the land prior to opening his store, he came from Melbourne where he had been working for the Argus newspaper.
35. Burton’s Bridge over the Seven Creeks is named for Alexander S. Burton V.C., one of 3 local soldiers who were awarded the Victoria Cross.
