201-203 Bastings Street, Northcote

Bastings Street came into existence in 1853 when the Union Bank sub divided land it had seized from William Rucker in 1841. Rucker had been one of first land owners in Northcote in 1840 but had fallen victim of bankruptcy shortly afterwards. The Union Bank had patiently held the land until land values began to rise and then cashed in. The road was quickly known as Bastings Street after the Bastings brothers, Edwin and Horace who built the Peacock Inn on the corner of High Street and Bastings Street, and the general store facing down Bastings Street from High Street.

Sometime during the 1870s Henry Bade settled on five acres of land on the north side of Bastings Street between Vauxhall Road and Slater Street. Here he established a dairy farm. A butcher, James Pitman also appears in the rate book in the immediate vicinity.

In 1898 the farm was being run by William Pitman and in 1903 by Mrs A. Bade. This implies that there were strong links between the Bade and Pitman families. By 1908 the property was owned by Mrs Elizabeth Stahl (or Stadt) who remained there until her death in 1925. It appears that after her death the farm house was altered to make two dwellings, probably by Stahl’s two builder sons, Charles and Ernest. Shortly afterwards the properties along Bastings Street were renumbered and the property changed from no. 261 to 201 and 203 Bastings Street.

Substantial changes had been made to the original brick building. Two wooden extensions have been added to the front of the building, the slate roof replaced by tin and the out houses removed.  However elements of the original house remain intact.  

City of Northcote. Rate books, 1883 – 1901. Northcote: Author.

Lemon, Andrew (1983). The Northcote Side of the River. North Melbourne: Hargreen.

Sands and McDougall’s Melbourne and Suburban Directory 1864- 1974. [Microfiche]. (1974). Melbourne, Australia: Sands & McDougall.

Ward, Andrew (2001). Darebin Heritage Review 2000. Burwood, Vic: City Of Darebin.