The man walking Queenscliff through its history

FROM one corner of Queenscliff to another, John Barrett says there are stories waiting to be told, and he loves sharing them with people.

Barrett helped develop the Queenscliff Heritage Walk and guides it every week to some of the town’s notable buildings, while tracing its maritime past.

He first came to Queenscliff in the early 1970s and bought a second home there in 2005. By the time he retired around 2010, he found himself busier than ever.

Starting as a volunteer at the Queenscliff Maritime Museum, Barrett soon joined the Queenscliffe Historical Museum, where he was asked to take on the idea of a heritage walk. He has since gathered a library of historical photographs to accompany the tour.

“It’s about that level of interest in having a story to tell about a particular location,” Barrett said.

The Vue Grand, in Hesse Street, is just one destination on the tour. Barrett said it was not the first hotel on the site, as the existing 1881 building replaced Adamson’s Australasian Hotel, a weatherboard structure constructed in 1858.

He has a more recent fond memory of the hotel’s dining room, which hosted entertainment every Sunday between 2010 and 2015.

“I remember I went to one of the luncheons there on a Sunday and Marina Prior was the guest vocalist, and she did the first number with a grand piano and a little backup group.

“And she said ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I don’t need to have this microphone any more’ and put it down on the grand piano. She said ‘This room has the best acoustics of anything I’ve ever sung at’.”

Barrett said the Baillieu connection to Queenscliff is also well known. Former Victorian premier Ted Baillieu, who served from 2010 to 2013, remains patron of the Queenscliffe Historical Museum, but the family’s ties stretch back to 1853, when his great-great-grandfather arrived in the town as a 21-year-old.

“There’s those sort of stories to be told almost all the way down the street,” Barrett said.

“Queenscliff was occupied very much as a government town in the 1850s to 1900s with defence, fishing, navigation, quarantine and so on. There was a lot of action here, and I describe it as what it was: the Riviera of Victoria.

“We had paddle steamers bringing people in and the train was connected in the late 1870s, which connected to the western district of Ballarat and Melbourne.”

He said the town’s built heritage has been carefully protected, pointing to a comprehensive study commissioned by the Borough of Queenscliffe in the 1980s that assessed almost every property of significance.

“It tells you in intimate detail who built the house and what should be done to retain it, and there’s pretty strict heritage overlays on it,” Barrett said.

“There’s a few that have escaped that one, but such is life.”

Barrett will lead the Queenscliff Heritage Walk tomorrow from 2-3pm, with the walk starting at the Queenscliffe Visitor Information Centre.

The walk is also part of this year’s Australian Heritage Festival, which runs until 18 May.