Dalton Heritage Zone extended

Dalton is the proposed new name for the former Central Heritage conservation area, with two minor extensions.

DALTON ZONE WESTERN SIDE: One extension is a series of properties on the western side of Woodward St, between Moulder and Kite Streets.

DALTON ZONE EASTERN SIDE: One extension is an area to the south-east corner, formed by four blocks of properties fronting Moulder Street, Lords Place, McNamara Street, Kite Street and Peisley Street.

The Dalton Heritage conservation area is based on the original “square mile” town layout in a grid pattern. This area includes a high concentration of sites of heritage significance and includes successive periods of infill development.

The Heritage conservation area has different characteristics for residential areas and the commercial centre.

Residential:

The central area of the city holds the highest number of the very earliest surviving buildings in the town. This includes churches, government buildings and large mansions from the Early and Mid-Victorian periods. Most of these buildings will be individually listed heritage items.

Smaller homes from this period are less likely to be heritage items and will be tucked into later infill areas, often because their larger lots were subdivided later.

Much of the housing stock in the Central Orange HCA is from that burst of development just after the turn of the century. The Federation Italianate predominates along the streets, with fewer examples of the Arts and Crafts and the Queen Anne styles mainly occupying corners. The level of continuity of housing from this period is what gives Orange a strong sense of unity and heritage character. There are numerous areas where rows of Federation Italianate are unbroken.

There is also a fairly high level of Interwar period bungalow infill housing in the earlier areas of the Central Orange HCA, and they have a greater concentration as you move to the outer areas of the square mile, particularly towards the west where they are almost uninterrupted along the street.

A surprising number of front fences and gardens retain their original style and reinforce the identity of the periods.

Central Business District

In the CBD the strong consistency of scale and harmony of styles evident in the early 20th century (from photographic records) has been progressively reduced. For example, ground floor shopfronts from the 1870s to 1920s have been replaced with post 1960s styles and some first storey façades have been covered with metal sheeting.

The Post Office precinct is the main commercial heritage group within the CBD. It includes the Post Office, the former Australian Joint Stock Bank, the Commonwealth Bank, Hotel Canobolas, the Royal Hotel and the former Dalton Bros stores. They provide a heritage focus for the CBD. This focus needs to be protected, but also to be supported by the rest of the CBD character.

Other scattered commercial and public heritage buildings that have been identified as having heritage significance contribute to the city’s heritage even though the commercial core has lost much character due to reconstruction in unrelated styles and materials and abrupt changes in scale over a number of years.