What you need to know
The oldest surviving timber building in Essendon.
Virtual tour
The heritage cottage virtual tour is now available, offering a realistic 3D experience. Explore the culturally significant parts of the cottage interior.
For onsite visitors, an augmented reality experience will soon be available through a free, easy-to-download app which you can access via a QR code.
The heritage cottage
Old timbers on ancient Country
The heritage cottage is the oldest surviving timber building in Essendon.
It was constructed in the 1850s a short distance away from its current site at 1070 Mount Alexander Road.
When that site was redeveloped in 2016, the community rallied to save the cottage and have it relocated to a new location.
When the cottage was relocated to Woodlands Park, the vital heritage heart of the building that contained prefabricated, imported building materials used in its original construction was preserved.
External additions that various homeowners had added to the cottage were mostly replaced in the course of repurposing the building for the next stage of its functional life.
The heritage cottage remains in active use by the community today.
You can use the virtual tour to explore the culturally significant parts of the cottage interior.
Pieces of the heritage puzzle
We can get some idea of what it was like to pass by the cottage in the gold rush era by comparing the present fabric of the building with historical maps and paintings.
An 1856 painting of Flemington shows a house so similar to the heritage cottage that we can use it to reconstruct an original view of this building. A village map from this same time also demonstrates how it was positioned out on its own in the large paddock allotments surrounding the water reserve. This pondage would have been one of numerous places in the local area still being used by First Peoples at this time.
Read more about our First Peoples, the Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung.
Saved from demolition
Moving always presents an opportunity to sort out the things you value from the everyday clutter.
This was true of the process to save the heritage cottage from demolition in 2016. The heritage cottage fabric at the core of the cottage went into storage while decisions were made about its future.
Reconstruction
Reconstructing the heritage cottage in Woodlands Park in 2019 presented the opportunity for a new beginning for the structure. This included constructing the fresh outer wall frame and cladding around the cottage. Today the imported, prefabricated building materials this frame encloses are recognised to be of possible World Heritage Value.
Heritage cottage today
Read the Summary Report (PDF, 4.9MB) for more details of the history and conservation works underpinning the cottage.
