State heritage protection for Briagolong Mechanics Institute & Collection

The Briagolong Mechanics Institute and its rare library collection have been added to the Victorian Heritage Register and will now receive State heritage protection.

The Heritage Council of Victoria added the institute to the Register in recognition of its State architectural, historical and social significance.

Heritage Council Chair Daryl Jackson said mechanics institutes were vital to the social, cultural and intellectual lives of Victorians from the late 19^th century to today.

“The Briagolong Mechanics Institute was officially opened in 1874 and has played an important role in the community ever since,” Mr Jackson said.

“Architecturally, it is a great example of a surviving mechanics institute in a small country town, with its distinctive yet simple design using local materials,” he added.

“Socially, the building reflects the development of towns all over Victoria, having been adapted to meet the community’s needs over more than 130 years.”

The original 1874 building is now used as the supper room, ladies’ room and entry corridor. Additions over time have included the reading room, hall and stage, ‘smoking room’ and billiard room, which is now the library.

The ‘bio box’ was added to the main hall c.1930 for the screening of motion pictures.

Mr Jackson said the institute’s library collection was a rare example of its kind.

“With more than 1300 books and several unique objects, the collection provides a wonderful reminder of Victorian community life up until the early 1960s,” he said.

The library collection is mostly fictional books from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Notable objects in the collection include:

·     an Australian-made Wertheim piano, which has been in continuous use since 1913;

·     stereographic photographs dating from 1913 and a stereoscopic viewer;

·     two framed illuminated addresses to community members (dated 1893 and 1906)

·     the 'Rules and Regulations' banner for the Mechanics Institute c.1920s; and

·     a cast iron fountain kettle believed to be original used in the 1874 kitchen fireplace.

Thursday 17 July 2008