Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Innovation and Industry) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken before in this place about Geelong’s strength as a heritage city and, I believe, our tendency to undersell that heritage. Today I would like to talk about one particular street that is especially important because its architectural story is the story of our city. From the earliest days Ryrie Street or, as it was once known, Great Ryrie Street, formed the central core of Geelong, a city which dates back as far as 1838. Ryrie Street was the traditional commercial strip that evolved as the town grew and it can still lay claim to being a great and grand thoroughfare. There is a wonderful photo of Ryrie Street, dating back to 1917, which shows a wide boulevard of merchants and country businesses. This was the age before Ford, and the street is dotted with horsedrawn carriages, cyclists and the odd pedestrian. Down the middle of the street were tramlines, indicating the arrival of electricity. In 1917 Geelong was an important provincial transport and trading centre and had been the wool capital of Australia for well over half a century.

The buildings in Ryrie Street chart that history. The old telegraph station, built in 1857, is one of Geelong’s earliest and most historic buildings. It represents Geelong’s Georgian past and reminds us that, unlike Ballarat and Bendigo, Geelong was a pre gold rush town and a major centre of trading and shipping. The building is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register, as is the old post office next door, which dates back to 1889. This is a classic boom-time building, when the restraint of colonial architecture gave way to optimism and extravagance.

From the 1860s furniture warehouse at 34 Ryrie Street to the 1870s YMCA building through to the 1915 market building, Ryrie Street plots the evolution of Geelong in stone and brick. These days not all the buildings are at their best. In the 1960s building owners were forced to remove verandahs because the posts were considered a hazard to cars. It seems hard to believe now that such a thing could happen, and unfortunately many buildings still bear the scars of that decision. In 2006 the Geelong Verandah Study was completed, and this is a valuable reference point in the city’s planning scheme. It provides advice on appropriate signage design, colour schemes and the reinstallation of verandahs, taking current safety and building regulations into account. To their credit, some owners have rebuilt verandahs. The Geelong art supplies building is a recent example.

Much of Ryrie Street is in the Geelong Commercial Heritage Area, which provides a level of heritage protection. But more can be done. Already the Victorian government, through the Transit Cities unit, is promoting shop-top apartments. There is great potential for these and other developments to enhance the city’s heritage values. We do not want to recreate the past and we cannot do that, but by acknowledging the past we can breathe new life into Ryrie Street. It can become one of the region’s and the state’s best tourist attractions. On 22 July I will meet with representatives of the City of Greater Geelong, among them the city’s consultant heritage adviser, Dr David Rowe, and Councillor Cameron Grainger. We will walk down the street. Everyone is invited to attend.

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