Bluestone: 150 Years of the Dennys Lascelles Woolstore is an honest account of the colonisation of the region and events leading up to the opening of the woolstore. Bluestone will tell the stories of those who have walked these halls and will explore the progress of Geelong and those who lived here through the ages.
On 1 August 1872 the CJ Dennys & Co Woolstore opened adorning the corner of Moorabool and Brougham Streets Geelong. At the time of opening the basalt bluestone woolstore was the second largest store in Victoria and by many accounts the “most elaborate”. On the day of opening there was a banquet for 200 people on the third floor that was of course followed by a wool sale.
The Woolstore sits on Wadawurrung country on the site of an ancient water way a place of cultural significance. With invasion Wadawurrung peoples’ lives changed forever but they continued to live on country and many of their stories are captured in this exhibition.
When the Woolstore was opened it was an innovation in colonial architecture with advanced design for lighting and ventilation. The bluestone came from Fyansford quarries (with the dressed portion from Ballarat) and the bricks came from the kiln in West Geelong.
Bluestone will consider the many faces of CJ Dennys. On the one hand Dennys has been memorialised for his kindness and generosity but on the other Dennys was a frontiersman who committed acts of frontier violence—a story that the Museum tells in their core exhibition On the Land: Our Story Retold and one that will be approached again.
Bluestone also explores forgotten stories - Have you ever felt Ganley’s ghost inside the woolstore? In 1895 Arthur Ganley was decapitated by the bale lift while working in the building. But there are other equally evocative stories such as young female employees training for their basketball competitions on the top floor of the building. And there are stories we are still excavating just like the tunnels that used to run under Brougham Street.
The Museum tells the stories of this land by looking at the unique geology of the region and its deep past. It tells Wadawurrung stories and explores the many faces of our past.
The Museum commissioned Wadawurrung emerging elder Dr Deanne Gilson to create an exhibition that compliments the telling of the Bluestone story. Wadawurrung Dja: Awakening Country was on display until 15 November 2022.
Colac Herald Tuesday 29 October 1895
A shocking fatality
An employee at Messrs Dennys Lascelles Austing and Co’s grain store Geelong named Arthur Ganly 65 years of age got entangled in the machinery while working a lift with the result that his head was torn almost off. Death must have been instantaneous.