sketcher and architect, arrived at Naracoorte (then called Kincraig), South Australia, in about 1856 to work as a carpenter, probably in conjunction with the builders Smith and Agar who arrived at about the same time. In the late 1850s, while (briefly) publican of the Merino Inn, Gore began to take on architectural commissions, the first for a local Presbyterian Church. In the 1860s he was working exclusively as an architect and, from 1865, as a licensed surveyor also. He was a skilled artist as is evident from his formal presentation watercolour of Binnim Binnim homestead and his more picturesque sketch of the original hut (1860s, LT: ills front and back cover of Community History April 1998).
By the late 1860s Gore was known as 'the King of Naracoorte’ and was making £600 a year. References in the Border Watch from 1861 to 1870 (Klenke, p.4) reveal him as an active member of the local community: Secretary of the Pastoral Association, the Coursing Club and Highland Games, life member of the Robe Institute Library and a member of the Mount Gambier Amateur Dramatic Society where he helped get up 'the mechanical arrangements’ for a performance. Above all, as Ebenezer Ward wrote in 1867, Gore was responsible for the appearance of many buildings in Mount Gambier and surrounding districts:
Many well-looking structures are already erected, and their tasteful fronts and satisfactory proportions speak volumes – as indeed do many buildings in other parts of the South-East – of the skill of Mr. Gore, who may be considered as the District Architect [quote Klenke, p.4].
He designed 'Struan’ for the pastoralist John Robertson (1873), 'Gringegalgona’ for Duncan Robertson (1868), 'Moy Hall’ for William Robertson (completed 1865), 'Crower’ for J.W. and M. McInnes (1866) and 'Hynam’ for Adam Smith (1866). Yet perhaps his most notable designs are a number of large T-shaped stone woolsheds with dramatically timbered interiors: 'Katnook’ for John Riddoch (1862: altered), 'Glencoe’ (erected 1863), 'Wrattenbullie’ for John Robertson (1866: demolished) and 'Glen Roy’ for Ronald McDonald (1868). His commercial work included Alexander Mitchell’s hotel (1861) and N.A. Lord’s warehouse in Mount Gambier (1864: demolished); the banking chamber of the Mt Gambier National Bank (1866-67: demolished) and the National Bank at Penola (1867); Fidler and Webb’s Naracoorte store (1867: demolished); and the Mail Gate Hotel, Struan (1868: demolished). His identified educational buildings are Port MacDonnell schoolhouse (1862), Mt Gambier Institute (1867), Robe Institute (1868) and Penola Institute (1868). His ecclesiastical work includes the first Presbyterian church at Kincraig (1858), St Andrew’s, Naracoorte (1874) and the Presbyterian manse (1862: demolished) as well as the Church of England parsonage (1863) at Naracoorte; Christ Church, Mount Gambier (1864) and the Penola Presbyterian Church (1870).
At the end of 1868 Gore sold up and moved his family to Melbourne to do government work (apparently mainly surveying – unclear). He had a home in Toorak and an office in Temple Court. He designed houses and factories, as well as being 'engineer’ of a large sheep wash in the Riverina. From Melbourne, he designed St Andrew’s church and 'Struan’ for Naracoorte. Work slowed in the 1870s and by 1879 Gore was practising in Adelaide. Then he disappears from the records.
