Many of the previous styles of architecture were aimed at producing public buildings such as Post Offices, Parliamentary Offices, Churches, cathedrals, Town Halls, Universities and the like. The styles were supposed to be grand and representative of opulence, optimism and victory over the limiting obstacles that often beset Australia’s economy and outlook – the tyranny of distance and the like.

But Victorian Rustic Gothic was a style that was aimed predominantly at the household market – for homes for real people, and while most of these ‘real people’ were of the upper middle class to upper class, there was room for the almost common man to find expression surrounding his own situation. And then there were those pattern books again – responsible for a great deal of building and renovation. Publications such as Loudon’s Encyclopaedia of Cottage, Farm and Villa Architecture, and Vaux’s Villas and Cottages were extremely popular in their day, and promoted many of the designs we still see apparent in our towns today.

There was only one thing that did not translate, as it were, to the Australian climate – the designs created for the damp and cold English climate were not really suitable to the hot and drying Australian climate. Many of our own architects found it more practical to use the Victorian Rustic Gothic as a base for their designs, and then added verandahs. The Americans used this same adaptation to good effect.

The style is also called Rural Gothic in some instances and is supposed to promote the feeling of intimate country gentry, even when the buildings were larger.

The setting of these houses was generally stand-alone countryside. And characteristics were:

• Asymmetry
• Uneven silhouettes
• Steep pitches in roofing
• Outstanding gables
• Ornate dormers
• Bay windows
• Leadlight
• Finials
• Decorative bargeboards

Images of Victorian Rustic Gothic