A grand outlook

THE lookout at Ceres is something of a forgotten landmark, receiving far fewer visitors than it did in its heyday.

A crowd of some 200 people turned up when the current structure was opened on May 10, 1959.

The lookout structure had been donated by a former editor of the Geelong Advertiser, Walter Randolph Brownhill.

Brownhill had become a well-respected figure in historical circles when he published his History of Geelong and Corio Bay earlier that decade.

In fact Brownhill was following closely in his father’s footsteps when he donated the lookout structure. His father, John Cochrane Brownhill, had been largely responsible for es- tablishing an earlier wooden lookout on the site.

The wooden lookout had been built in 1908 at what was then known as Panorama Height through the efforts of the Geelong Progress Association, of which John C Brown- hill was president and Walter L Carr was secretary.

The younger Brownhill recorded the establishment of the lookout in his grand history of Geelong, referring to a report to the progress association in August, 1908.

“One of the most important matters dealt with by the committee during the year was a suggestion that a site should be secured on the highest point of Ceres (off the main road) for the purpose of affording visitors a splendid panoramic view of the town and its environs,’’ the report said.

The land was secured and a substantial rotunda was built complete with a viewing platform.

Before the year was out, Victorian Governor Sir Thom- as Gibson-Carmichael had visited the lookout and been photographed looking through the telescope on the viewing platform.

Other distinguished guests also visited the lookout, including sailors from the Royal Navy who visited Geelong in 1924.

The old wooden structure had disappeared by the 1950s, prompting Walter Brownhill to donate the current concrete structure.

The Brownhills, including another brother, George Harrington Brownhill, who was also an editor of the Geelong Advertiser, have been remembered in the naming of Brownhill Drive in the new Wandana estate. Contact: peterjohnbegg@gmail.com

Victorian Governor Sir Thomas Gibson-Carmichael looks through a telescope at the recently opened Ceres Lookout in 1908.

The present lookout at Ceres, which was opened in 1959.

Royal Navy sailors at the Ceres Lookout in 1924.