217 Cressy Street, Deniliquin

This is 217 Cressy Street, Deniliquin currently occupied by Kevin Cole Real Estate. It is a substantial deco building and I suspect it may have been an office for the wheat board or a similar agricultural body. I say this because there are two circular plaques on the facade that include stylised wheat sheaths in their design.

The building also has two large decorated pieces flanking the steps to the front door. I can only guess at their purpose. On an American building I would suggest they were the base of some form of lights but they aren't that common on Australian buildings. Perhaps they are just for decoration.

Derwent Valley Council Chambers, New Norfolk

The Derwent Valley Council Chambers in New Norfolk, near Hobart, date from 1935. The year is, unusually, on the side of the building but more about that later.

The decoration is minimal but illustrates the rule of three deco principle perfectly.

There are three sections to the building, three steps in the roof line and three steps in the central tower. Three windows on each floor either side of the tower, three flag poles and even three decorative elements above the door with the central one a stepped pyramid shape with, well, three levels.

I mentioned the date on the side of the chambers. You can see it at the left of this picture of the War Memorial Hall, an interesting building in its own right.

A series of headlines in the Hobart Mercury newspaper between 1949 and 1954 show that raising funds and getting approval to build the hall was a drawn out process.

The result though, I think, is a handsome modernist building.

But back to that 1935 year marker. I find it a strange place to put such a marker but there must have been a reason.

Kinnaird Building, Numurkah

The date on this pair of shops in Numurkah, in rural Victoria, indicates that someone called Kinnaird established a business in the area in 1879. No doubt this is true but this particular building is aboyt 50 years younger than that.

Fountain Coffee Shop Sign, San Francisco

A House in Camberwell

This house is on the Golf Links Estate in Camberwell, Melbourne. It has an interesting double porch and balcony arrangement at the front door.

Former State Savings Bank, Portland

I assume from the name on this building that it is a former branch of the State Savings Bank of Victoria. And with a For Lease sign in the window it appears that the Old State Bank Gallery has moved on also.

Tuppel Hotel, Finley

The Tuppel Hotel is a big traditional country pub in Finley, New South Wales. Often country pubs have deep verandahs at street level and an open balcony above but the Art Deco style Tuppel just has a cantilevered verandah proving shade for the footpath but offers no balcony space for drinkers.

The building combines horizontal bands in the brickwork with darker coloured bricks provide columns and fins at the central upper storey windows.

The bands around the chimney a nice piece of decoration easily overlooked.

A series of Art Deco motifs ring the building, just below the roofline, highlighted in red and green while the name of the hotel is spelt out in metal letters on both faces of the pub and is then repeated on the edge of the verandah along the main street.

Next time I'm up that way, I'll invest in a beer or two to see what goodies can be found inside.

Portland Print, Portland

This modest shop is in Portland, in western Victoria and, while there is some Art Deco elements in the brick work of the shopfront, it is the arrangement of the angled main windows, set-back door and the windows above the door that set this building apart from other shops.