More people want to see, use and enjoy the former Beaufort Court House since it has been restored, according to the secretary of the Beaufort Historical Society.

The Court House, which was built in 1864, began to fall into disrepair when it ceased to be used in 1982. Lack of maintenance and poor facilities including a lack of heating and lighting did nothing to secure the building's future as an important community asset.

Significant conservation work completed by Mint Inc in 2006 rejuvenated the Court House into the captivating headquarters of long-term tenants, the Beaufort Historical Society.

All the walls have been repainted in original colours and new lighting highlights the beautiful former court chamber ceiling.

This is a very happy place that has become a hub for the community. Local groups increasingly use it as a meeting place, meaning so many more people enjoy the beauty of this historic building.

History

The Beaufort Court House was constructed in 1864 to designs prepared by the Public Works Department. The builder was H Cormach and Co and the works were completed for a cost of 1,449 pounds. At the time, Beaufort was a well established town with two sawmills, two breweries and a population approaching three thousand.

The original architectural drawings remain in the collection of the Victorian Public Records Office. They were drawn by Alfred T. Snow who was a Clerk of Works and Draftsman at the Department at the time. A. T. Snow was responsible for building works in the north western area of the state during the period 1856 to around 1870. Other buildings in the area credited to A. T. Snow include the court houses at Linton and Learmouth, and the post offices at Ararat, Avoca, St Arnaud and Stawell. He also had a significant involvement in the major capital works undertaken within the region during this period including the Ballarat Post Office and Gaol and the Ararat Lunatic Asylum. The Court House building adopts a straightforward temple like form typical of nineteenth century rural and metropolitan buildings of its type. This form is reminiscent of the Senate Building in Rome and thereby harks back to the ideals of classical justice.

The original building comprised the court room with its semi-circular entrance portico and lobby spaces and three rear offices. The judge’s office was located axially with the court room space and was flanked by an office for the Clerk on the southern side of the building and for the Assessor on the northern side.

As well as accessing the main court room space, these offices could be independently accessed from the rear of the building with the Judge and Clerk sharing the south lobby and the Assessor having sole access from the northern lobby. Each office included an open fireplace. Additions were made to the Court House around 1960 when the space allocated to the Assessor was doubled in size and the doorway into the court room was closed off. The enlarged suite of offices was entered from a porch on the north side of the building. Further additions were constructed in 1975 when the Public Works Department designed a series of toilets at the rear of the Clerk’s Office. These additions balanced the earlier addition on the northern side of the building.

Besides Petty Sessions, both the County Court and a Court of Mines sat at Beaufort. Most judges travelled their circuit by rail, however Mr Justice Williams in 1883 was recorded passing through by bicycle, having made it from Ararat in three hours. Cyclists from the Beaufort Club met His Honour some way out of town and escorted him in. The press enthused: 'The judge’s bicycle is a new patent named the Extraordinary and is fitted with wide cranks. It is said to be a safe and fast machine.'

There are three interesting features of the Beaufort Court House. The first is the unusual semi-circular portico providing public access to the court building. An arcade of fine tuck-pointed brickwork lines the internal walls of the portico and frames the pair of entrance doors. As originally conceived, the portico provided a sheltered space for the display of court related public notices; in some court buildings the original court notice board still survives. The bricks of the Court House building were made locally and laid in a mortar rich in quartz, a mineral evocative of the town’s mining traditions. The setting afternoon sun highlights this quartz mortar on the western façade and gives the building a particularly dazzling appearance at this time of day. The Beaufort Court House is one of the few rural court buildings that retain its original court room furniture and fittings, a feature not lost on the Beaufort Historical Society when they took over the building soon after its closure in 1982. In a clever move the Society ensured that the building’s locks were quickly changed soon after they took possession thereby ensuring that the Department of Justice could not commandeer the furniture and send it to the auction rooms.

Further reading:

Michael Challinger, Historic Court Houses of Victoria. Melbourne, 2001

Bruce Trethowan, The Public Works Department of Victoria 1851-1900. 2 vols. Unpublished Research Report University of Melbourne, 1975