Tile Detail of a Victorian Shopfront - Murray Street, Colac

            Many things have changed along the busy Colac shopping strip that runs the length of Murray Street.  Shops have come and gone, and each time the shop front it inhabits is redecorated.  Yet if you look above a shop's awning, you will often find the original building's upper floors and parapets, still very much intact. 

This shop built of red brick with fine stonework has been ornately and lavishly decorated with panels of cyanide and olive green and chartreuse majolica tiles around the arched window and doorway and in panels along the parapet.  The shop's original establishment date of 1883 may be seen in gilt lettering against a Prussian blue background in two panels above the front door.  The building is a testament to the wealthy pastoral past of Colac, and in its day would have stood out as much along the Murray Street shopping strip as it does today.

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

Tags:

Victorian

Victoriana

19th Century

tile

decorative tile

majolica

majolica tile

green

cyanide green

olive green

chartreuse

yellow

crazed

pottery

ceramic

porcelain

glazed

ornamental

detail

pattern

vintage

old

antique

decorative detail

Colac

provincial Victoria

country Victoria

provincial city

Australia

Victoria

cracking

1800s

1883

Murray St

Murray Street

commercial architecture

commercial building

upper storey

shopfront

shop

store

architecture

building

stone work

brick and stone

stone

red brick

brick

window

arched window

arch

balustrade

parapetn

roofline

facade

country town

boom style

Victorian Boom Style

Victorian Boom Style architecture

Victorian Boom Style building

Victorian Boom Style shop

ornamentation

architect unknown

date plaque

establishment date « less

Sets appears in: • Tiles • Victoriana more » • Colac the Gateway to the Otways • A Tiled Victorian Shopfront « less

Groups appears in: • Patterns and Designs • Shop Fronts more » • Melbourne and Beyond • Tiles Tiles Tiles • Storefronts • Patterns • Shop in&out • Architecture and Buildings • architectural photography • Architecture and Forms • Victorianism • Trove: Australia in Pictures • Architectural details and decorative elements • BEAUTIFUL DETAIL (In the Work of the Skilled-Artisan) • Victoria, Australia • Old Buildings & More..... • victoria australia • Victorian Architecture • IMAGE`S OF BUILDINGS - OLD AND NEW • Architecture of Days Gone By • Traditional Tiles • My Australia • Architecture Directory • Hydraulic tiles and others - Pretty tiled floors • old & vintage • Old Buildings and Structures • The Best of Australia and New Zealand • Australian Architecture • 100 Year-Old Buildings • They Dont Make Them Like They Used To • Buildings & Architecture • Old & attractive • Tiling ,Inscription & Pattern Art • Beauty Up Above (Looking Up) • School of Digital Photography • The Victorian Age. • The Victorian World • Victorian tiles • Antique Architectural Details • Gebäude/Buildings • Boutiques d’antan - Old shops • 1883 • Architect Unknown • Carrelages anciens - Old tiles • ANCIENT RELICS • Magic of Photography • A FEAST FOR MY EYES (Public Group) « less

Camera: Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS, f/4.9, 1/160 sec, 18.6mm, ISO 80 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Canon DIGITAL IXUS 80 IS
Aperture:	f/4.9
Exposure Time:	0.006 sec (1/160)
Focal Length:	18.6mm
ISO:	80
Exposure Bias:	0 EV
Flash:	Auto, Did not fire
Exposure Mode:	Auto
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Color Space:	sRGB
Show full info

Stats: 2,967 views

Link to this photo view:
Link to this photo large view: