The architect of a two-storey office block slated to be built adjacent to the Central Deborah gold mine says his building would make a statement. 

But Kandu Consultants director John Gullan said he designed the $945,000 building to reflect mining activity. 

“It has pre-rusted steel work panels with quite an eclectic design that represent rusted cables and old machinery,” Mr Gullan said.

“Other colours used on the building are representative of rusted corrugated iron and then we’ve introduced a bright red colour to give it a bit of ‘oomf’”. 

The development application for 173 High Street currently before the City of Greater Bendigo planning department sits in the newly created ‘High Street Boulevard’ – a precinct created by rezoning in January. 

The aim of the rezoning was to encourage a medium high-rise construction boom in a key gateway to the CBD which is currently dominated by car yards and vacant lots. 

“It’s certainly going to be noticeable when it’s constructed given that on either side you’ve got relatively low, one-level structures,” Mr Gullan said.

“But someone’s got to be the first.”  

The architect said comparable buildings generally took around six months to construct but said this particular site presented a number of challenges. 

“There’s no other access to the site other than by the front, High Street [the Midland Highway],” he said. 

“So a lot of the material will be prefabricated off-site and lifted into the site by a crane once its built...but that would likely be subject to approvals and probably done at times prescribed by VicRoads.

“So it’s hard to predict exactly how long it will take in this case.” 

The site also presented a number of challenges in the planning stages – which began three-and-a-half years ago. 

The site’s proximity to the Bendigo Creek meant the developers needed approval from the North Central Catchment Management Authority. This resulted in the back eight metres of the near 55m-long block being deemed unusable – even for parking – meaning the developer could only offer 12 car parks not the original 18 proposed.

While its frontage onto the Midland Highway with its rows of plane trees, tram lines and traffic made for extensive consultations with VicRoads. It is also on an Aboriginal Heritage Sensitive Area.

But Mr Gullan said that paper work had been done and now all that remained was approval from the city.

“Once that happens we’re ready to go,” he said.