| Photographs: | |
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| List: | Register of the National Estate |
| Class: | Historic |
| Legal Status: | Registered (25/08/1981) |
| Place ID: | 13626 |
| Place File No: | 8/02/002/0001 |
| Statement of Significance: |
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HMAS Creswell is historically significant for its association with the development of the Australian Navy.
Founded in 1911, it was the first College established for the training of Naval officers based on the Royal Navy training system.
From 1930 to 1958 many of the buildings on the College site were leased out as holiday accommodation, at a time when tourism was developing as a major activity in the Jervis Bay region. Although its teaching activities were transferred to HMAS Cerberus (RNE 14748) during the period 1930 to 1958, the Navy continued to use the Jervis Bay port for training and rescue activities. During World War Two the Navy, Army and Air Force made extensive use of the HMAS Creswell site and its surrounds for training.
From 1944 to 1946 the RAAF adapted several buildings for the rehabilitation of airmen and ex-prisoners of war.
(Criterion A.4; Australian Historic Themes: 7.4 Federating Australia, 7.7 Defending Australia, 7.7.1 Providing for the common defence, 4.3 Developing Institutions, 3.23 Catering for tourists, 8.3 Going on holiday 6.3 Training people for the workforce, 6.4 Building a system of education.) HMAS Creswell is significant for the high quality of its architectural design. The site reflects both military college planning and contemporary architectural styles. The form is representative of early 20th century planning, with its geometric layout, and use of perpendicular axes punctuated by significant buildings. HMAS Creswell also displays deliberate placement of formal and informal elements. Its central formal Quarterdeck and imposing Clock Tower as a terminal feature of a central axis, echo traditional British naval designs. The informal arrangement of residences is stated to reflect 'Garden City' principles. Although the site is divided into functional precincts, it achieves an overall sense of unity, as the separate elements are designed to integrate. Unity within the groups of buildings is achieved through the sympathetic use of scale, massing, detailing and colours. The place demonstrates integrated landscape design, with its formal vistas, seaviews and its use of eucalypts, both natural and planted, creating the parkland setting. (Criterion F.1). HMAS Creswell has a richness of features that collectively contribute to its importance as significant cultural landscape, consisting of the architectural features, their landscape setting, the waterfront landscape including wharf and breakwater and the formal designed layout. The architectural features consist of the Quarterdeck area with the Gymnasium and Clocktower and Laboratory Blocks (assets 96, 97, 99, 101, 102, and 103), the Midshipman' Mess and Galley (assets 121, 112, 115, 114, and 20), Cerberus Block (asset 111), the Hospital (assets ), the Captain's House (asset ), the Wardroom and Officers Mess (asset 127), the Canteen (asset 137), the Police Post (asset 80), the Waterfront including the Waterfront Flats and Workshops (assets 88 and 151), the historic residences (assets 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12). Also included are the period garages and sheds associated with the buildings, the tennis courts and residential gardens (Criterion A 3). The character of its bay side setting adds to the significance of the College. HMAS Creswell is located within the Booderee National Park. The territory of Jervis Bay, with its surrounding shores, ocean beaches, lakes, estuaries, forested slopes and heath covered plateaus, is an area of exceptional beauty, possessing considerable environmental, scientific, cultural and historic value. Approximately 30,000 ha of the surrounding area of Jervis Bay is listed on the Register of the National Estate (RNE 001587). The design of the college itself, along with its plantings and landscape design, creates a satisfying and attractive unity in design, scale, materials, texture and colour, which has, for the most part, been preserved in subsequent additions. The historic college buildings, those surrounding the Quarterdeck and the period style residences have a distinctive period charm (Criterion E.1). The HMAS Creswell precinct is significant as a British style of military institution with its formal areas and hierarchy of residences. Architecturally, many of the residences mirror typical bungalow houses of the Federation period. In addition, there are notable buildings dating from the establishment of the College in 1913-1915 which reflect Federal Capital style architecture. The precinct has high integrity as an extensive military campus expressing early twentieth century period style design in its layout and architecture (Criterion D.2.). HMAS Creswell has significance for its association with several notable naval officers, such as Vice Admiral Sir J.A. Collins, Rear Admiral H.B. Farncombe and Rear Admiral H.A. Showers. Creswell is also associated with the important Commonwealth architect J.S. Murdoch, who was responsible for several early building designs. (Criterion H.1.) It is possible that Indigenous cultural values of national estate significance exist in this place. As yet the Australian Heritage Commission has not identified, documented or assessed these values. |
| Official Values: Not Available |
| Description: |
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History With the formation of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) in 1911, several sites were inspected to determine a location for a Naval College to train its officers. The Navy favoured building near Sydney, but after discussion in Parliament it was decided to build the College at the proposed Federal Capital port in Jervis Bay. The Naval College, then, would mirror the Army's officer training college at Duntroon, Canberra. Construction began at Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, in 1913 and continued until 1915. The primary buildings were designed by John Smith Murdoch, the architect responsible for other important Federal Capital buildings, such as the Provisional Parliament House. Building proved difficult due to the isolated location. During this period construction workers lived in a "tent city" where the RAN golf club is currently located. Meanwhile, training of officers began at an interim college at Osbourne House in Geelong, Victoria. The first intake of students at Jervis Bay commenced in January 1915. Training continued throughout the First World War, with the first class of graduates (1916) seeing active service. Three men from the College's first intake were promoted to Flag Rank, including the Navy's first Australian Chief of Staff, Vice-Admiral Sir J.A. Collins, Rear Admiral H.B. Farncombe, and Rear Admiral H.A. Showers. During the 1920s it was decided that the College was too costly to maintain. In 1930 its operations were removed to HMAS Cerberus, at the Flinders Naval Depot in Victoria. The site's buildings were leased out as houses, hotels and holiday accommodation. The cadet's accommodation blocks became "Jervis Bay Guest House" and "Westward Ho", the wardroom became "College House Hotel", the hospital "Naval Lodge Hospital" and the Captain's Residence "Canberra House". World War Two saw extensive use of Jervis Bay by the Navy, Air Force and the Army. This included a RAAF rehabilitation unit that was established on the eastern side of the Quarterdeck. From 1944-46 the facility treated injured airmen and ex-prisoners of war. In the early 1950s overcrowding and the less favourable location of HMAS Cerberus prompted a Navy decision to return the College to Jervis Bay. In its absence many of the site's original problems had been fixed, including connection to the electricity grid, and increased infrastructure in the area due to a growth in tourism. Some local residents resisted the Navy's return. The College was re-opened in 1958 and commissioned HMAS Creswell, in honour of William Rooke Creswell, whose lobbying had helped to create the RAN. The Navy conducted extensive refurbishment of the site. Several buildings considered unsafe were condemned. Due to the "holiday camp period" many building's colour schemes had changed from austere browns and whites to white, yellow and light blue paintwork. Jervis Bay gained national prominence on 10 February 1964 when the aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne collided with and sank the destroyer HMAS Voyager while on exercises 30km south east of the bay. Search and rescue vessels from HMAS Creswell were involved in the rescue efforts. 232 men were retrieved, 82 died. Substantial changes in the College's curriculum took place during the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1968 the Naval College became associated with the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and was accredited to teach university courses. Consequently a new science block was opened that year. The increasing number of students also necessitated the building of three extra accommodation blocks - Farncombe House (asset 108), Collins House (asset 109) and Dowling House (asset 110) - in the Midshipmens precinct. In 1977, three buildings considered unsafe since the navy's return to the site were demolished, including "Links House" (the former seamen's block), "The Anchorage" (the former cooks and stewards block) and "Geelong House" (the former cadet's accommodation blocks). In 1985 plans were raised to move other Naval facilities to join the College at Jervis Bay, including the Fleet Base East, then located on Garden Island. The proposal met with opposition from environmental, peace and local groups, and was eventually abandoned. The College's association with UNSW continued until the Australian Defence Force Academy opened in 1987. Since then it has concentrated on professional naval studies for RAN officers. Description HMAS Creswell is located in Jervis Bay, within the Booderee National Park. The Wreck Bay Aboriginal Community and the Commonwealth Government jointly manage the park. Approximately 30,000 ha of Jervis Bay is listed on the Register of the National Estate (RNE 001587). Jervis Bay is valued for its historical and cultural importance, its aesthetic qualities, and its high diversity of flora and fauna. Within this setting HMAS Creswell is located on a promontory overlooking Jervis Bay. The naval base itself covers an area of about 40ha. The heritage listed area is generally bounded on the north by the high water mark and includes all wharf and seaside structures. In the east the boundary extends south along the high water mark to a point closest to building 169, then again extends south along Franklin Road. In the south the boundary is formed by College Road, Robertson Crescent and Captains Drive, but extends south to include buildings 2 and 180 (police post). In the west the boundary is Morgan Avenue and a line extending north from the intersection of Lanepool Avenue and Elridge Road to the high water mark, thus including building 146 (sailors mess). The RNE boundary excludes assets 17 and 18 (officers married quarters). In November 2001 the AHC recommended a more detailed heritage assessment be prepared to determine if they should be included in the RNE listing for HMAS Creswell. The boundary also excludes assets 32 -37, and 42 and 43 (sailors' married quarters). HMAS Creswell contains many of the original buildings constructed in c.1913-1915, as well as additions built in later years. Apart from the removal of the seaman's quarters (where the present gymnasium stands), the cadet's accommodation block ("Geelong house") and a stewards' block, the rest of the original buildings remain, with some minor alterations, repairs and additions. Newer buildings constructed in 1968 include the science block and three accommodation blocks (assets 108-110). Within the heritage precinct there are thirty buildings which are considered to have individual heritage significance. Other buildings not considered individually significant are considered to have contributory significance to the national estate values of the precinct as a whole. The site design for HMAS Creswell is influenced both by contemporary ideas about garden cities and traditional British naval design, such as that of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, England. It also contains less formal academic and residential structures. As a whole HMAS Creswell reflects this juxtaposition of garden city planning, Georgian revival style buildings and beaux-arts influenced design. The original layout of the College also reflects functions analogous to the organisation of a ship. This can be seen by its division into precincts. These are the Quarterdeck, waterside, instructional, sailors, midshipmens, officers, warrant officers, married officers, hospital, and non commissioned officers' precincts. Although it has many characteristics of a self-contained town, the naval/military character of the site thus creates a sense of unity which may be absent from a civilian setting. Garden city planners envisioned a civic core of formal geometry, surrounded by informal residential areas. In many cases these designs incorporated a formal axis linking major buildings. This axial geometry is evident in the layout of HMAS Creswell. A levelling of the natural ridge line at the Jervis Bay site enabled the creation of a central Quarterdeck parade ground. The site's major north easterly axis bisects this Quarterdeck. The axis extends from the gymnasium building with its prominent clock tower (asset 96) along the length of Morrison Avenue, terminating at the sailor's accommodation, mess and recreation block (formerly the College hospital, asset 146). All of the "formal" roads are either aligned along this central axis, perpendicular to it, or mirror its direction. Grant Street, Cowan Road and Forster Road all run parallel to the parade ground. In contrast, the "informal" roads serving the residential areas are arranged according to the topography of the site and do not conform to the same geometric order. Similarly, buildings that serve less formal functions are set apart from the axial geometry. Architectural accents emphasise the axis and denote the relative importance of each building. The dominant building in the instructional precinct is the gymnasium and clock tower (asset 96). The prominent clock tower overlooking the parade ground mimics Aston Webb's designs of the Royal Naval College at Dartmouth, England. The gymnasium/clocktower is designed in an Inter-war free classical manner with Doric columns and classical entablatures. The basic timber building is formalised by the use of concrete masonry. The body of the tower itself is buff, with red brick around the clock face and a red tiled roof. Other original buildings in the instructional precinct are assets 96, 97, 99 and 102. The chaplain's office (asset 99) and armoury (asset 97), both originally study blocks, face the quarterdeck on either side of the gymnasium. Their designs mirror each other and create a balanced facade along the parade ground. As with asset 96, the buildings are formalised by central porticos at the main entrance. To the north east of the gymnasium is the academic block (asset 102), originally a laboratory. The front of the building faces onto a court which encircles the instructional precinct. Like the gymnasium it is designed in a free classical manner. The steps leading up to the four Doric columns at its entrance give the basic timber building a more formal tone. To either side of asset 102 are assets 101 and 103. It is likely these wings were built sometime before 1920 to provide additional accommodation. Towards the north west of these buildings is the waterfront precinct. This area contains two original buildings. On Franklin Road is a two storey timber building (asset 88). It was constructed in 1921 as an administration block for engineers. In 1949 it was converted to a block of four flats, with internal subdivisions for kitchens and bathrooms, and internal stairs added to side elevations. The ground floor currently serves as an administrative centre for the waterfront. The north elevation has a monumental quality with formal pilaster and deck - indicative of its former administrative function. The interior is characterised by very high ceilings. Facing the waterfront to the west is the original engineering workshops (asset 151). Across the quarterdeck from the instructional precinct is the midshipmens precinct. Facing the gymnasium across the parade ground is the Cadet's Dining Hall (asset 114). Influenced by Georgian revival style, the symmetrical design features a simple red tiled roof, yellow exterior paint work, and a front portico supported by Doric columns. To the north west of the Cadet's Dining Hall is Cerberus House (asset 111). The two-storied timber-framed structure is symmetrical in design. Its eastern facade extends along 60 metres of the quarterdeck. Geelong House, a structure that mirrored Cerberus House on the other side of the Dining Hall, has been demolished. To the south west of Cerberus House, on Forster Road, is the library (asset 113). To the south east of asset 113, along Forster Road, is the victualling/clothing store (asset 121). To the south east of the midshipmens precinct is the officers precinct. Original buildings located in this area are the wardroom (asset 127) and the administration building (asset 126). Notably, the wardroom reflects the bases' change in colour scheme after the 'holiday period'. The lower half of the building is painted yellow, with light blue trimmings on doors and mantles. The residential and accommodation buildings (assets 2 to 12), c.1915, are clustered informally to the south of the quarterdeck. They are designed in a less formal style, and are for the most part single storey buildings constructed almost entirely of timber. These detached houses with verandahs and asymmetric bungalow form mirror typical timber residences of the Federation period. Originally these roofs were tiled with terracotta, but the roofs of assets 5, 7, 8 and 9 have since been replaced with corrugated galvanised iron. Two former residences that lie outside the conservation area (assets 17 and 18) including their garages, although modified internally have historic character that contributes to the period aesthetic of the campus. One notable exception to the standard style of housing design is the Captain's residence (asset 1), located on Captain's Drive to the south east of the quarterdeck. Set apart from the other accommodation buildings, it commands an important position overlooking Jervis Bay. The building's exterior appears similar in design to that of Bridges House, the Commandant's residence at Duntroon, Canberra. The Captain's residence is a two-storey building with stucco over brickwork on its lower level and weatherboards to the upper level. The hipped roof is covered with red glazed terracotta tiles. Several steps leading to a classical portico form the main entry to the house, presenting a wide front porch area. The portico's Doric columns support a roofed balcony. There are verandahs on both the south east and north west corners of the house. There is also a small balcony at the first floor level at the rear of the house, and an enclosed first floor balcony on the south east corner. For the majority of the buildings, it is the exterior not interior fabric that is considered to be of cultural significance (Cox & Corkhill, 1982). There are several exceptions, in which the size, location and relationship to adjacent functions make the interior spaces significant. These spaces occur in the gymnasium (asset 96), Cadet's Dining Hall (asset 113) and the post office (asset 137). Aesthetic Value The college has an exceptional siting on a promontory overlooking Jervis Bay and the surrounding hight quality bushland serve to enhance the developed and built areas of the establishment. Within the built areas the modestly scaled weatherboard buildings are complemented by a restrained landscape treatment which together constitute a very attractive complex very well related to the human scale. The precinct affords diversity of aesthetic experiences form bushland, bay and beaches to formal areas of the Quarterdeck, functional area of the waterfront, features such as the clock tower and ship bell. |
| History: Not Available |
| Condition and Integrity: |
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Some buildings have been demolished, others have been modified unsympathetically; generally, though, the site has maintained its integrity. November 2002: Buildings have generally been well maintained. The Cerberus Building is currently unoccupied and in need of maintenance. A conservation management plan for the place is currently being prepared |
| Location: |
| About 40ha, College Road, Jervis Bay. The area is generally bounded on the north by high water mark and includes all wharf and seaside structures; in the east the boundary extends south along high water mark to a point closest to Building 169, then again extends south along Franklin Road; in the south the boundary is generally College Road, Robertson Crescent and Captains Drive, but extends south to include Buildings 2 and 180 (police post): in the west the boundary is Morgan Avenue and a line extending north from the intersection of Lanepool Avenue and Elridge Road to high water mark so as to include the whole of building 146 (sailors mess). |
| Bibliography: |
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Bibliography Australia. Defence Housing Authority. (1996) "The heritage homes of the Australian defence force: one hundred Australian homes and two hundred years of history". Barton, ACT: Defence Housing Authority. Cox and Corkhill. (1982) "HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay: master plan and management report". North Sydney: Cox and Corkhill, Pty Ltd. Eric Martin and Associates. (2001) "HMAS Creswell, Jervis Bay, ACT. Conservation and Management plan for twelve residences". Canberra; Defence Housing Authority. Lewis, Tom. (2000) "Historic HMAS Creswell". Jervis Bay, ACT: Royal Australian Navy. Master plan of HMAS Creswell. Australian construction services. Swinden, G, (1995) "Naval History", in Cho, George et al (eds.) Jervis Bay: a place of cultural, scientific and education value. Canberra: Australian Nature Conservation Agency, pp29-34. Taylor, Ken (ed.) (1988) "The Heritage of Jervis Bay". Canberra: National Trust of Australia (ACT). |
Report Produced: Wed Feb 10 02:41:49 2010