Museum Estate, Lara

museum estate

Lara’s boutique eight-lot heritage-style subdivision, Museum Estate, sits adjacent to the Lara Museum and Historical Centre.

Completed in 2014, the Museum Estate is at the corner of Forest Road South and Canterbury Road West, near the southern entrance to the township of Lara.

The history of the Museum Estate is closely linked to the Lara Museum and Historical Centre which was opened in 2013, in the former Lake Bank Hotel.

One of Lara’s oldest buildings and the town’s only surviving 19th century hotel, the Lake Bank Hotel dates back to 1860.

Located on the corner of Forest Road and Canterbury Road West it was built for Scottish immigrant James Henderson and operated as a licensed hotel until 1908. The distinctive limestone buildings were home to five generations of Mr Henderson’s family.

In 2011, the historic hotel buildings  were bought by Bisinella Developments’ Managing Director Lino Bisinella who restored and refurbished them at a cost of nearly half a million dollars. The buildings were then leased for a peppercorn rent to the community group formed to establish and operate the museum, Lara Heritage and Historical Inc.

The Lara Museum and Historical Centre, is now a magnificent showplace for Lara’s heritage. Since it opened, memorabilia and items of historic interest have continued to be loaned or donated to the museum, bringing local history to life in the ideal setting of the old limestone buildings.

Mr Bisinella renovated the historic building and developed the remaining land into eight lots around a quiet court, Museum Place.

Homes in the Museum Estate were designed in a heritage style, following guidelines to ensure they paid tribute to the historic museum buildings of the Lara Museum and Heritage Centre. 

The distinctive limestone wall along Forest Road – a feature of the entrance to Lara for more than 150 years – was preserved for its heritage significance and provides a unique backdrop to four of the lots in the Museum Estate.