“Derrinook” – Corner of Gellibrand and Manifold Streets, Colac

            “Derrinook”, on the corner of Gellibrand and Manifold Streets in Colac, was originally built as a private hospital for Doctor William Henry Brown (1861 – 1926) in 1900.

Built in the Federation Queen Anne architectural style, “Derrinook” is, unusually for the style, built of timber.  Federation Queen Anne architectural style, which was mostly a residential style which was inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement in England, but also encompassed some of the more stylised elements of Art Nouveau, which gave it a much more decorative look.  Sprawling across a large block with two street frontages, “Derrinook” has a very complex roofline, a common trait of Federation Queen Anne buildings, aided by a large number of half timbered gables.  The former private hospital also has some beautiful Art Nouveau stained glass windows.  “Derrinook” has a number of “fish scale” pattern panels decorating its façade above the tall windows.  “Fish scales” were very popular thanks to the worldwide craze for all things Japanese in the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries.  “Derrinook” also features very sinewy Art Nouveau fretwork around its bay windows, along its verandahs and employed as decoration on the half timbered gables.  This was also common amongst Federation Queen Anne buildings.  However it is perhaps “Derrinook’s” many elaborate, tall chimneys capped with ceramic chimney pots where the prevailing, and then fashionable, Art Nouveau decorative style is most apparent.  One of the first buildings in Colac to employ electric lighting, “Derrinook” was eventually superceded by the Colac Hospital as a place for medical treatment and recouperation.  With the change in fortunes for so many during the Great Depression, “Derrinook” was converted into smaller self-contained flats in 1935 and remains private residences to this day.  

Queen Anne style was most popular around the time of Federation.  With complex roofline structures, ornamental towers of unusual proportions and undulating facades, many Queen Anne houses fell out of fashion at the beginning of the modern era, and were demolished.

Doctor William Henry Brown was born in Erinth in Kent in 1861 and was educated in both England and Germany.  He studied medicine at University College in London.  He migrated to Australia in 1885 and originally established a practice in the Victorian Gippsland town of Maffra.  In 1891 he moved to Colac where he practiced as a partner with local Doctor T. Foster, before acquiring the practice entirely.  Doctor Brown became very well known in Colac as a physician and surgeon, and recognition of his skills spread across the state and across the country.  His work gained attention world-wide when he published pieces in various medical journals.  With the growth of his renown and his practice, he established “Derrinook” in 1900.  When the Great War commenced in 1914, Doctor Brown travelled to various country towns as a representative of the army and acted as a dynamic speaker at recruitment drives, attempting to raise community responsibility and patriotism.  His wife Clara (1862 – 1939) also worked enthusiastically for the war effort including for the Red Cross Society.  His son, Doctor Arthur Edward Brown (1889 – 1975) followed in his father’s footsteps as a medical practitioner and they two worked in partnership at “Derrinook” after the war.  Doctor Brown retired to his beachside Sorrento residence “Kennagh” in 1921 where he continued to play tennis (as he had in Colac where he presided over the tennis club for a number of years as president), and also took up improvement of the local foreshore.  He also became a member of the Flinders Shire Council in 1923.  He died of heart disease in 1926.     

Located approximately 150 kilometres to the south-west of Melbourne, past Geelong is the small Western District city of Colac.  The area was originally settled by Europeans in 1837 by pastoralist Hugh Murray.  A small community sprung up on the southern shore of a large lake amid the volcanic plains.  The community was proclaimed a town, Lake Colac, in 1848, named after the lake upon which it perches.  The post office opened in 1848 as Lake Colac and was renamed Colac in 1854 when the city changed its name.  The township grew over the years, its wealth generated by the booming grazing industries of the large estates of the Western District and the dairy industry that accompanied it.  Colac has a long high street shopping precinct, several churches, botanic gardens, a Masonic hall and a smattering of large properties within its boundaries, showing the conspicuous wealth of the city.  Today Colac is still a commercial centre for the agricultural district that surrounds it with a population of around 10,000 people.  Although not strictly a tourist town, Colac has many beautiful surviving historical buildings or interest, tree lined streets.  Colac is known as “the Gateway to the Otways” (a reference to the Otway Ranges and surrounding forest area that is located just to the south of the town).

Taken in: Australia / Victoria / Colac (show map)

Taken on: April 22, 2014

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Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/2.8, 1/200 sec, 6.2mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/2.8
Exposure Time:	0.005 sec (1/200)
Focal Length:	6.2mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
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