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Directions to story points 12 plus. Cross over to the centre median strip.
At number 172 High Street is the IGA store. This is the beginning point for the southbound story points. Pause the video and take a closer look, then play to learn more. At 172 High Street, Edmund Snell established a welcome mart in 1863. Today it is an IGA general store. Snell sold and re-bought the business several times. He was very active in Shire politics, being the Mayor in 1865. He also invested heavily in local mining ventures.
At 160 High Street, the newsagency 1887 to 1890, it was operated continuously for over 100 years. It is part of a small group of double-storey shops in Avoca.
140 to 138 High Street, the Victoria Hotel.
Dating from the 1850s, it is an example of grand 19th century hostelry. It formed the focal point for the community, boasting a theatre room as well as offering stabling, meeting rooms and high entertainment. Many overseas artists and Melbourne theatre groups performed here. A visitor described it in 1869, 'It is altogether the finest upcountry place of its kind I have ever seen.'
130 High Street, Albany. Albany House, 1868. It was a drapery store for over 130 years and was the leading dressmaking, millinery and gentlemen's department store in the region.
124 High Street, the Avoca Post Office, 1872. It is a single-storey red brick building with intersecting hip and gable, slate roof. Very similar to the Avoca Primary School and typical of mid-Victorian era public housing architecture.
Next to the post office is a former mechanic's garage. It later became a bus depot. Note the pressed metal sheeting.
122 High Street, Avoca Knitting Mill. One of the few factories to operate in the Shire in the 20th century. It employed 32 local women making wool and cotton underwear. Today it is the Pyrenees Shire Information Centre.
118 to 116 High Street, the Albion Hotel, 1868. It had accommodation, billiard room, barbershop. Bathrooms, free stabling and stalls for farmers' horses. A coach to Lexton left from the Albion. It closed in 1937.
114 High Street, former State Savings Bank, 1924. This substantial modern building is derived from the Romanesque Art Nouveau style.
112 High Street, the Holland Drapery, 1866. Expresses the post-Gold Rush prosperity era. Initially it was a hay and corn store servicing women in the police camp nearby. Later it became a wine depot for the Mackereth family.
117 High Street in the 1930s. Looking north from where the public toilets are today. This is the front page of the first edition of the Avoca Mail and Pyrenees District Advertiser. Dated Friday, December 11, 1863. Not surprisingly, it reveals a fascination with the four Bs – booze, in terms of the hotels, boots, banks and butchers.
Happy Trails. Avoca has one of the widest main streets in Australia. This was to enable large team bullock drays, transporting wheat, wool and timber, to turn around easily. We hope you have enjoyed the Avoca Art and Historic Buildings Story Trail. Has your curiosity been rewarded? Feel free to share this Story Trail with friends. Happy Trails. The Avoca Art and Historic Buildings Story Trail is an initiative of Advance Avoca. It is produced by Geo Tourism. And more Story Trails can be found at www.avoca.vic.au.