The Corowa Courthouse is a

heritage-listed This list is of heritage registers, inventories of cultural properties, natural and man-made, tangible and intangible, movable and immovable, that are deemed to be of sufficient heritage value to be separately identified and recorded. In many ...

courthouse A courthouse or court house is a building that is home to a local court of law and often the regional county government as well, although this is not the case in some larger cities. The term is common in North America. In most other English-spe ...

located at 8 Church Street,

Corowa Corowa is a town in the state of New South Wales in Australia. It is on the bank of the Murray River, the border between New South Wales and Victoria, opposite the Victorian town of Wahgunyah. It is the largest town in the Federation Council a ...

, in the

Federation Council The Federation Council (russian: Сове́т Федера́ции – ''Soviet Federatsii'', common abbreviation: Совфед – ''Sovfed''), or Senate (officially, starting from July 1, 2020) ( ru , Сенат , translit = Senat), is th ...

local government area,

New South Wales ) , nickname = , image_map = New South Wales in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of New South Wales in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Australia , established_title = Before federation , es ...

, Australia. It was designed by

James Barnet James Johnstone Barnet, (1827 in Almericlose, Arbroath, Scotland – 16 December 1904 in Forest Lodge, Sydney, New South Wales) was the Colonial Architect for Colonial New South Wales, serving from 1862 to 1890. Early life Born the son of a ...

, the Colonial Architect, and built from 1886 to 1887 by W. Squires. It is also known as the Corowa Court House. The property is owned by the

Department of Justice A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a v ...

, an

agency Agency may refer to: Organizations * Institution, governmental or others ** Advertising agency or marketing agency, a service business dedicated to creating, planning and handling advertising for its clients ** Employment agency, a business that ...

of the

Government of New South Wales The Government of New South Wales, also known as the NSW Government, is the Australian state democratic administrative authority of New South Wales. It is currently held by a coalition of the Liberal Party and the National Party. The Governmen ...

. It was added to the

New South Wales State Heritage Register The New South Wales State Heritage Register, also known as NSW State Heritage Register, is a heritage list of places in the state of New South Wales, Australia, that are protected by New South Wales legislation, generally covered by the Heritag ...

on 22 December 2000.

History

First explored by

Charles Sturt Charles Napier Sturt (28 April 1795 – 16 June 1869) was a British officer and explorer of Australia, and part of the European exploration of Australia. He led several expeditions into the interior of the continent, starting from Sydney and la ...

in 1838, the Corowa-

Wahgunyah Wahgunyah is a town in northeastern Victoria, Australia. The town is on the southern bank of the Murray River, opposite Corowa, New South Wales, in the Shire of Indigo. Wahgunyah is north east of the state capital, Melbourne and west of Albury ...

area was rapidly taken up as squatting runs. The most influential settler was John Foord, son of a well-known

Parramatta Parramatta () is a suburb and major Central business district, commercial centre in Greater Western Sydney, located in the state of New South Wales, Australia. It is located approximately west of the Sydney central business district on the ban ...

coach-builder, who was attracted by the district when he was overlanding cattle from the Monaro to

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Victoria (Australia), a state of the Commonwealth of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, provincial capital of British Columbia, Canada * Victoria (mythology), Roman goddess of Victory * Victoria, Seychelle ...

in 1839 and immediately returned to take up , straddling the Murray. Agriculture, with wheat and tobacco, developed and the gold rushes of the 1850s (including one at Corowa) created a new, significant market. Foord was encouraged in 1856 to lay out a private town on the Victorian side of the river, called Wahgunyah, and in 1857 he bought

Henry Hopwood Henry Hopwood (18131 January 1869) was an English convict who established the town of Echuca in Victoria, Australia. Early life Hopwood was born in Bolton le Moors, Lancashire on the 21 May 1813. He was the youngest son of Henry Hopwood, a mus ...

Echuca Echuca ( ) is a town on the banks of the Murray River and Campaspe River in Victoria, Australia. The border town of Moama is adjacent on the northern side of the Murray River in New South Wales. Echuca is the administrative centre and largest s ...

punt when Hopwood built his pontoon bridge there. The punt was installed at Wahgunyah but was replaced in 1863 by a privately owned wooden toll-bridge operated by a company headed by John Foord. The bridge was decisive in encouraging urban development on the New South Wales side, where North Wahgunyah, Foord's second private town, became Corowa. The customs houses at the Corowa bridge handled large amounts of wool and the wheat and oats crops were very substantial in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The Court House was designed by the Colonial Architect James Barnet and replaced an earlier court house built in the 1860s on the same site. Construction commenced in May 1886 and was completed in 1887. This Court House was chosen in 1893 for the promotion of an Australian Federation League, where discussions were held by various states in the lead up to the

Federation of Australia The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Western A ...

Description

The courthouse is a red brick building, with darker red brick flat arches over windows; roofs are hipped, corrugated iron. A verandah to front of courthouse has paired timber posts which are fairly plain. The building is symmetrical, but has a

flat roof A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10°. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid c ...

extension to one side. Doors to smaller wings on either side have etched glass panels. The Corowa Court House was designed during the transitional period between the Victorian and Federation era. The building is a

Palladian Palladian architecture is a European architectural style derived from the work of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio (1508–1580). What is today recognised as Palladian architecture evolved from his concepts of symmetry, perspective and ...

composition with a central two storey block flanked on either side by single storey wings. Building detail uses Georgian Revival elements with double hung

sash window A sash window or hung sash window is made of one or more movable panels, or "sashes". The individual sashes are traditionally paned window (architecture), paned windows, but can now contain an individual sheet (or sheets, in the case of double gla ...

s and flat brick arched

lintels A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

over. The central block features a ground floor

veranda A veranda or verandah is a roofed, open-air gallery or porch, attached to the outside of a building. A veranda is often partly enclosed by a railing and frequently extends across the front and sides of the structure. Although the form ''veran ...

h across the front facade which is supported on pairs of stop chamfered timber

columns A column or pillar in architecture and structural engineering is a structural element that transmits, through compression, the weight of the structure above to other structural elements below. In other words, a column is a compression member. ...

decorated with cast iron

brackets A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

Condition

As at 26 October 2000, the building condition was good; with a weatherboard addition at rear. The timber furniture and fittings were still intact, and in good condition.

Heritage listing

As at 25 May 2010, the building was a plain, brick courthouse which is symmetrical, and has pleasing proportions. It makes an important contribution to the character of the streetscape. One of the conferences to urge for the federation of colonies was held in the courthouse 31 July and 1 August 1893. A fine example of late 19th century transitional architecture which has a Georgian Revival appearance. This Court House is of historical and social significance and was used as the venue for discussions held between the various states prior to the Federation of Australia. The courthouse was a venue for the 1893 'People's Conference' organised by the Australian Federation League and the 1902 Premiers' meeting leading up to the River Murray Agreement.* The Corowa Courthouse was listed on the

on 22 December 2000.

References

Attribution