Osborne House is a historic building built in 1858, located in

North Geelong North Geelong is a suburb of Geelong in the Australian state of Victoria. The suburb was bypassed by traffic from Melbourne coming from the Princes Freeway by the creation of the Geelong Ring Road, which was complete in 2009. At the , North Geelo ...

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 ...

, Australia.

History

Osborne House was built in 1858 for local squatter, Robert Muirhead, who named the mansion after

Osborne House Osborne House is a former royal residence in East Cowes, Isle of Wight, United Kingdom. The house was built between 1845 and 1851 for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as a summer home and rural retreat. Albert designed the house himself, in ...

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

's summer residence on the

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. Muirhead commissioned the leading Melbourne architects Webb and Taylor to undertake the work. He lived at the house until his death in 1862, with the house being sold the following year after the death of his wife. The house was leased for a number of years, but was finally sold by Muirhead's executors to James Francis Maguire in 1878. Located on Swinburne Street, on the original 1888 subdivision plan of St Helen's estate it is named Maguire Street. In 1900 the

State Government of Victoria The Victoria State Government, also referred to as just the Victorian Government, is the state-level authority for Victoria, Australia. Like all state governments, it is formed by three independent branches: the executive, the judicial, and th ...

purchased the house as a country residence for the

Governor of Victoria The governor of Victoria is the representative of the monarch, King Charles III, in the Australian state of Victoria. The governor is one of seven viceregal representatives in the country, analogous to the governors of the other states, and th ...

, although it was never used as such. The

Geelong Harbour Trust The Port of Geelong is located on the shores of Corio Bay at Geelong, Victoria, Australia. The port is the sixth-largest in Australia by tonnage. Major commodities handled by the port include crude oil and petroleum products, export grain and ...

purchased the house in 1905 for 6000 pounds. A dining room and seven bedrooms were added in 1910, the Trust using Osborne House as a guest house for a number of years. The Trust offered the house to the

Royal Australian Navy The Royal Australian Navy (RAN) is the principal naval force of the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The professional head of the RAN is Chief of Navy (CN) Vice Admiral Mark Hammond AM, RAN. CN is also jointly responsible to the Minister of ...

in 1911, but the proposal was not accepted at that time. In 1913 the Navy took up offer to use the house as an officer training college. Improvements to the buildings were carried out, including the erection of a block of buildings as quarters for unmarried seamen, two new classrooms, and alterations to the main room to provide a large barrack for 28 cadets. The college was opened by the Governor General, Lord Thomas Denman on March 1, 1913, with Prime Minister

Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher (29 August 186222 October 1928) was an Australian politician who served three terms as prime minister of Australia – from 1908 to 1909, from 1910 to 1913, and from 1914 to 1915. He was the leader of the Australian Labor Party ...

also present. Lord Denman arrived by

torpedo boat A torpedo boat is a relatively small and fast naval ship designed to carry torpedoes into battle. The first designs were steam-powered craft dedicated to ramming enemy ships with explosive spar torpedoes. Later evolutions launched variants of ...

, and 200 invited guests arrived by train from

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

. The college housed 28 cadets, four

petty officer A petty officer (PO) is a non-commissioned officer in many navies and is given the NATO rank denotation OR-5 or OR-6. In many nations, they are typically equal to a sergeant in comparison to other military branches. Often they may be super ...

s, and 10 seamen, together with the instructors and domestics. The initial class of 28 cadets was chosen from 137 candidates. It was proposed as a permanent location for the naval college as it was close to

rail transport Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a p ...

and had safe anchorage in

Corio Bay Corio Bay is one of numerous internal bays in the southwest corner of Australia's Port Phillip, and is the bay on which abuts the City of Geelong. The nearby suburb of Corio takes its name from Corio Bay. Etymology When Hamilton Hume and Will ...

, but the institution was relocated to

HMAS Creswell The Royal Australian Naval College (RANC), commonly known as HMAS Creswell, is the naval academy of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). It consists of the RAN School of Survivability and Ship's Safety, Kalkara Flight, the Beecroft Weapons Range an ...

Jervis Bay Jervis Bay () is a oceanic bay and village on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia, said to possess the whitest sand in the world. A area of land around the southern headland of the bay is a territory of the Commonwealth of Australia ...

in 1915.''Site for Naval College, Jervis Bay'', NAA: A6273 L1925/952, National Archives of Australia During

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Osborne House was used as a

military hospital A military hospital is a hospital owned and operated by a military. They are often reserved for the use of military personnel and their dependents, but in some countries are made available to civilians as well. They may or may not be located on a ...

, and between 1919 and 1924 was used as a base by the

Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service The Royal Australian Navy Submarine Service is the submarine element of the Royal Australian Navy. The service currently forms the Navy's Submarine Force Element Group (FEG) and consists of six ''Collins'' class submarines. The Royal Australia ...

for the J-class submarine. The Geelong Harbour Trust regained control in 1929, with a caretaker being the only resident. In 1937 the

Shire of Corio The Shire of Corio was a local government area located between Geelong and Werribee, about southwest of Melbourne, the state capital of Victoria, Australia. The shire, which included all of Geelong's northern suburbs, covered an area of , and e ...

council purchased the property for use as shire offices. In 1939 the

Department of Defence Department of Defence or Department of Defense may refer to: Current departments of defence * Department of Defence (Australia) * Department of National Defence (Canada) * Department of Defence (Ireland) * Department of National Defense (Philipp ...

took over the premises to use as an army training centre. In 1945 the Shire of Corio regained control of Osborne House to use as its offices. The shire purchased adjoining land in 1947, and remodelled the offices in 1966. The amalgamation of the shire into the

City of Greater Geelong The City of Greater Geelong is a local government area in the Barwon South West region of Victoria, Australia, located in the western part of the state. It covers an area of and, had a population of 271,057 as of the 2021 Australian census. It ...

in 1995 saw the house lie empty for a time.

Today

Today the stables house the

Geelong Maritime Museum The Geelong Maritime Museum is a volunteer-run Community group or not-for-profit historical museum located at 'The Stables', Osborne House, Swinburn Street, North Geelong Victoria, Australia since 1993. The Museum was founded in about 1989, with ...

and the Geelong Memorial Brass Band, the house itself housing various community groups.

References

* {{cite book , last = Begg , first = Peter , title = Geelong - The First 150 Years , publisher = Globe Press , year = 1990 , isbn = 0-9592863-5-7

External links

Geelong Maritime Museum
(official site) Buildings and structures in Geelong Houses in Victoria (Australia) Maritime museums in Victoria (Australia) Heritage-listed buildings in Greater Geelong