A house in Ararat

A first look this house in Ararat is a fairly conventional house with a pitched roof but the closer you look the more details emerge.

Firstly, the low wall around the property is constructed of several different coloured bricks. The house itself introduces a couple of other brick colours aswell.

Each of the windows is cut into the corners of the house.

The porch at the front door uses glass bricks to interesting effect, highlighting the stepped decoration between the brick pillars.

And then we have the chimneys. Rendered white slabs against the creams of the bricks of the house and the tiles of the roof. Stepped higher and wider in the centre compared to each side, a design echoed in the three vertical lines on the front of each chimney.

Ararat Town Entry Signage

The Ararat Advertiser reported on 25 Mar 2008 that the Ararat Rural City Council had adopted a new design for signage on the main road entrances to the town.

The design incorporates details from Ararat's Art Deco buildings in front of a Mount Langi Ghiran backdrop. It already features on flags in some of the town's roundabouts and three dimensional installations of the new design will be located at each of the five main entry points to the town.

Ararat is a former gold-mining town located in rural Victoria on the Western Highway and is recognised as the Gateway to the Grampians.

The Advertiser article reports that several Councillors did not like the new design and one even said it left her cold.

I love it. The colours are subtle and it uses town Art Deco assets to provide unique branding for the town. The concept of Rural Deco has become quite popular in recent years with the concept most notably at Innisfail in Queensland and Ranfurly on the South Island of New Zealand.

Congratulations to Ararat Rural City Council I look forward to visiting the town in the next few weeks and see their Art Deco buildings for myself.