Point Cook Homestead,
Point Cook Homestead Road,
Point Cook

A homestead and associated buildings set within an evocative coastal landscape comprising a single storey bluestone building and nearby bluestone stables.

1997

Context Pty Ltd

City of Wyndham Heritage Study 1997

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eng

Point Cook Homestead and associated buildings is set within an evocative coastal landscape, strongly reminiscent of what is thought to be the landscape character of the area during the mid-late ninetenth century. The main house (or homestead) is a single storey bluestone building (1857), possibly with the earliest sections dating from 1849. The nearby bluestone stables date from 1857. There are a number of mature trees and older plantings on site.

The first parts of Point Cook Homestead may have been built by William Drayton Taylor, holder of a pastoral lease over a large area including Point Cook in 1849, or by the subsequent lease holders Alexander Irvine. When Thomas Chirnside purchased the Pre-Emptive RIght in March 1852, it is recorded that there was a six-roomed weatherboard cottage and other valuable improvements on the property.

Thomas was joined by his brother Andrew in the task of establishing a vast pastoral empire.Thomas Chirnside had already purchased land in Werribee in 1851, expanding his holdings over the years and creating Werribee Park (1876/7), one of the best known mansions to the west of Melbourne.

The homestead dates from c1857, being built from bluestone by the Chirnsides. A three-roomed cottage may have been part of a six-roomed cottage probably built by Taylor c1849. The bluestone stables which remain today were built on the property around 1857 to house valuable bloodstock imported by Thomas primarily for racing, hunting and coursing.

The setting of the homestead is important, with the garden retaining substantial trees from around the turn of the century and the views to the bay remaining undeveloped. The remnants of an early jetty (built between 1853 and 1861) and a later 1920s jetty extend into the bay. The partnership between Andrew and Thomas was dissolved in 1882, and Thomas returned to live at Point Cook when in the colony. Ill health forced him back to Werribee Park in 1887 and his death in 1887 was by suicide. The whole Chirnside property was then held by Andrew, and after his death three years later by his two sons. Point Cook became the beach house, and a new timber wing was built.

In 1920 the property was sold to Sydney Dalrymple who occupied it for about 5 years before selling a large portion to Cheetham Salt Works. The house has a variety of owners between this time and 1978 when it was occupied by the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works, becoming part of a new metropolitan park.