June 2023
In 2020 the Ringwood and District Historical Society (RDHS) alerted the RHSV to the proposed demolition by Maroondah City Council of a local landmark, the 1914 Blood Brothers Store, in order to build a multi-storey carpark. This building is the last remaining pre-First World War shop in Ringwood’s commercial hub and has close connection to two pioneer families. It has a highly unusual feature: a façade of rare majolica tiles with the shop name incorporated into the tiles. The building is covered by a Heritage Overlay ‘as a rare and relatively intact rural Edwardian corner shop’. Throughout 2020 and 2021 the RDHS fought to prevent the demolition of this local landmark, and the RHSV wrote several letters to the Maroondah City Council in support of their efforts.
Blood Brothers Store, 1921
RDHS’s efforts were rewarded in May 2022 when the Council’s Director of Strategy and Community announced that the store will not be demolished. The statement gave no further details about the future of the building or its relationship to the proposed multi-storey carpark, except to say that there are two planning options being prepared. In 2023 the Maroondah City Council announced on its website that: ‘The remaining portion of the original Blood Brothers storefront will be retained and relocated to a prominent position on the site, retaining the corner store significance of the original building’. What this means is not clear, but seems to indicate that only the front walls of the building will be retained, and that they will be moved to another location on the site. This is at best a partial victory. The RHSV is concerned that the building be dealt with in a manner that respects its heritage value, and is protected from building works.
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