Going digging

Hawthorn station certainly looks old enough.

And the roof over platform 2 and 3 is quite ornate.

But this PROV image shows that the platform hasn’t always had a roof.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P000 H 4668

And the claims as to the provenance of the structure are a little loose – for instance, this web page straight out of the 1990s.

The station buildings are weatherboard and are part of the original buildings used at Flinders Street.

The Wikipedia page on the station isn’t much better:

In 1890, an island platform was provided to accommodate the newly opened branch line to Kew, using a canopy from the original Flinders Street station.

But I finally got somewhere when I opened the ‘Hawthorn Railway Station Complex’ entry on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Hawthorn Railway Station first opened on 13 April 1861. The central portion of the timber building on Platform 1 dates from the early 1880s, and additions have been constructed at both ends of this building.

After the railway line from Hawthorn was extended to Camberwell in 1882 a second platform was built at Hawthorn to accommodate the duplicated track. A two-station single track branch line linking Hawthorn to Kew opened in 1887, and following this the present-day island Platform 2 and 3 was constructed in 1890.

The large canopy on this island platform, originally located at Flinders Street Station over the St Kilda and Port Melbourne platforms, was dismantled and then rebuilt at Hawthorn on its Platform 2 and 3 in 1901.

Paydirt.

And over to Trove

I then headed over to newspaper archives at Trove, and the story became clearer.

From The Age 16 February 1901 spelled out the what.

The following tenders have been accepted by the Railway department:

Taking down iron verandah at Port Melbourne platform, Flinders Street station, and reerecting portion at Hawthorn station,
A. Challingsworth,
£599 12/0

And The Argus explained the why:

Some months ago the Commissioner of Railways promised to provide proper shelter accommodation at the Hawthorn railway station and yesterday he accepted the tender of Mr A Challingsworth for taking down the iron verandah over the present Port Melbourne platform at the Princes Bridge station and re-erecting portion of it at the Hawthorn station.

The dismantling of the Port Melbourne platform is the first step towards re-modelling the Flinders Street Station in accordance with the scheme for the new central railway station. Passengers on the Port Melbourne line may shortly be transferred to another platform while the proposed alterations are being effected.

The material to be employed to cover in the Hawthorn station will, Mr Mathieson states, last for many years to come, and the new verandah will extend well down the platform beyond the overhead footbridge, which will also be enclosed.

By June 18 work on the island platform had been completed.

The time which has elapsed since the railway authorities began to cover the island platform at the Hawthorn station with a shelter shed and the fact, that no steps have been taken to elect a similar roof over the southern platform, has led to the belief that the necessity for it has been overlooked . The deputy Commissioner states, however, that the footbridge connecting the Kew and Camberwell lines and the up platform will also be covered in before Christmas.

With the rest done by July.

The shelter over the “up” platform and Kew side of the Hawthorn railway station is now almost completed. The work was started about three months ago, but was considerably delayed
owing to a difficulty in getting the proper lengths of roofing iron. The structure affords an excellent shelter from the rain and will undoubtedly prove a great boon to the travelling public in wet weather.

But where at Flinders Street did it come from?

Today there is no “St Kilda and Port Melbourne platforms” at Flinders Street Station – back in the 1980s both railways were converted to light rail, and are now tram routes 96 and 109.

But the platforms still exist, immortalised in painted tiles at the entrance to platform 10 and 11.

But the station we’re interested in is the “old” Flinders Street Station.

SLV image ID 1742413

This photo from 1888 shows platform shelters, but they don’t match the ones found at Hawthorn.

SLV image ID 3250858

But this aerial view of the station from the north-west is much more useful.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2825

The roof over what is now platform 8 and 9 looks a lot like the one now at Hawthorn.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2825

And this lower angle view from the Swanston Street bridge confirms it.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2770

The fine ironwork detail and mansard roof line clearly visible.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P0001 H 2770

So that factoid was true after all.

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The contract for Clunes station was dated 25 September 1874 and the polychrome brickwork station building was completed by J. Short, with a cast iron verandah supplied by Robinson Brothers.

Photo from the Clunes Museum collection

By the 1980s the water tower, crane and van goods shed had been demolished, with the lamp room and men’s toilet at the north end of the station demolished in 1980. The last passenger train to pass through the station ran in 1993, when The Vinelander to Mildura was withdrawn. The station was then boarded up, the only passing trains carrying freight.

In December 2008 the State Government announced passenger rail services to Maryborough would resume, but Clunes was left out of the project, V/Line trains rolling past the abandoned station from July 2010.

But in June 2010 it was announced that Clunes would also be re-opened, so restoration works started – including the complete rebuilding of the platform. However the finished station was missing one major feature – the veranda.

Photo by Daniel Ruben du Prie, via Wikimedia Commons

The Courier has the full story.

Clunes Train Station historic verandah removal sparks anger
30 November 2011
Brendan Gullifer

The State Government will proudly unveil the newly refurbished Clunes train station this weekend — but with one glaring omission.

Contractors working on the $7 million project ripped down the station’s ornate iron verandah and sent parts of it to a scrap merchant.

Local residents are appalled and are still waiting for answers to how the mishap will be fixed.

Hepburn councillor Don Henderson called it a travesty.

“It’s just a piece of our heritage that is gone and will never be returned,” he said yesterday.

“It’s irreplaceable and in a town like Clunes, where heritage is so important, it’s a very big loss.”

Transport at Clunes president John Sayers, one of a small band who have helped negotiate the return of rail services, said he was horrified when he learnt about the mistake.

“It’s an appalling situation to have arisen,” he said.

Mr Sayers said the verandah superstructure, which held up the corrugated iron roofing, was chopped up and sent to a metal dealer while the solid iron posts were saved.

These had been removed to Creswick station for safe keeping, he said.

“We’re hoping some sort of verandah will eventually be built which will hopefully include the old posts.”

Cr Henderson said the verandah was an exact copy of one carefully preserved at the restored Creswick rail station.

“People will still be able to see what existed on this particular railway link,” he said.

But while many local rail enthusiasts were in mourning, those involved officially with the station’s renewal were reluctant to talk.

Building contractors Abigroup referred The Courier to the Department of Transport. A departmental media spokesperson said she would look into it, as did a spokesperson for Transport Minister Terry Mulder.

Neither responded to questions by press time.

Acting Hepburn chief executive officer Peter Reeve said there was an ongoing investigation into the missing verandah.

He said the planning permit included verandah removal to allow platform works and its restoration.

By July 2012 a replacement verandah had been erected at the station.

Commercial Systems Australia photo

But none of the original cast iron posts were used in the new structure – just modern steel beams and poles.

As for the boarded up station building.

Google Street View 2010

In 2015 it was restored for community use.

Google Street View 2017

As part of VicTrack’s Community Use of Vacant Rail Buildings Program.

All aboard Creative Clunes’ new cultural hub
20 November 2015

The historic Clunes Railway Station has been reinvented as a cultural hub, becoming the new home for Creative Clunes and the Clunes Booktown Festival.

State Member for Buninyong, Geoff Howard said Creative Clunes has taken on the head lease of the revamped station building, following the completion of works funded from the Victorian Government’s Community Use of Vacant Rail Buildings Program.

“This much loved, 140 year old station building has been given a new lease of life as the new home to Creative Clunes,” Mr Howard said.

“This project has successfully adapted this historic station building into a vibrant cultural hub, offering the local community an impressive new arts venue with its form and function.

“People will be able to come to explore their artistic side, utilising the hub’s creative and meeting spaces.

“It also provides permanent offices and volunteer facilities for the popular annual Clunes Booktown Festival – which attracts visitors from across Australia and the world to celebrate both historic and modern literary works.”

VicTrack and V/Line carried out restoration work to the exterior of the station building, with Ballarat Civic Construction completing extensive internal renovations.

These works included installing new foundations and floorboards, connecting services, restoring the plasterwork, and reinstating the doors to the platform.

The building now also has a kitchenette, accessible toilets, shower and a new access ramp.

Further reading

Talbot and Clunes Conservation Study, Richard Aitkens (page 339)

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Down in Docklands

We start down in the windswept streets of Docklands.

Where I had a look over the last remaining part of Melbourne Yard – the heritage listed No. 2 Goods Shed completed in 1889.

And looked across to 67 Spencer Street – the former Victorian Railways head office.

Then walked home past the ‘Wailing Wall‘.

None of these views are possible today – the Melbourne Quarter development covers the block bounded by Wurundjeri Way and Collins Street, the retained wall partially demolished to provided vehicle access.

Taking off

October 2010 saw me pay a visit to Essendon Airport.

Where the terminal looked much the same as when it served as Melbourne’s international gateway.

But the scene is different today – a $4 million renovation completed in 2019 has converted the main arrival hall into office space.

An even more dramatic transformation was at RAAF Williams in Laverton.

Once empty paddocks between the Princes Freeway.

A decade later the airfield is gone, turned into the suburb of Williams Landing.

Big road spending

Work on the $371 million West Gate Bridge Strengthening project was well underway, with scaffolding covering the bridge while work was completed to add a fifth traffic lane in each direction.

Another road project was the $48.5 million Kororoit Creek Road duplication, which removed a level crossing on the Werribee line.

And Laverton station received yet another car park extension, taking it all the way to the Princes Freeway overpass.

At the rate the car park is being extended, it will soon join up with Aircraft station!

New trains

Delivery of more X’Trapolis trains was starting to ramp up during 2010, the imported body shells waiting outside the Alstom plant in Ballarat awaiting final fitout.

And a new stabling yard had just opened at Newport to park all of these extra trains.

A decade later the new HCMT fleet is being built at Newport, the Alstom Ballarat plant mothballed due to with no work, the workers redeployed to the V/Line maintenance workshops down the road.

Forgotten heritage

I made my way up to the Seymour Railway Heritage Centre.

Where I found a tine capsule from the 1980s.

Buffet carriage ‘Tanjil’.

The carriage remains in storage today, awaiting a future restoration to service.

Meanwhile in Melbourne’s northern suburbs, the Preston Workshops was a dumping ground for retired W class trams.

But the scene today is different – in 2014 the old trams were moved out and given away to new homes, making way for the ‘New Preston Depot‘ that opened in 2016 for the fleet of brand new E class trams.

Meanwhile Flinders Street Station was a dank and crumbing place.

The only upside being a dance party happening in the Campbell Arcade subway.

A decade later the tiles have finally been fixed, part of the $100 million Flinders Street Station upgrade project, but for the Campbell Arcade the future is not as rosy – half the shops are due to be bulldozed by the Metro Tunnel project to provided a connection to the new Town Hall station.

And things that never change

Promotional crap blocking access to Melbourne Central Station.

It just keeps on happening.

Footnote

Here you can find the rest of my ‘photos from ten years ago‘ series.

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Let’s take a tour

The concrete houses on Leith Avenue are included on Heritage Overlay number HO020, and include twelve properties – eight houses at 1 to 15 Leith Avenue, and four houses at 51 – 57 Hampshire Road.

They are a short distance from the Sunshine grain silos.

A central reserve divides Leith Avenue.

The houses built to a common design.

Distinctive chimneys atop each one.

But each slightly different.

Four houses also front Hampshire Road.

Less notable than those on Leith Avenue.

But made of concrete all the same.

Six different house designs were used on the estate, with three of them surviving today.

Type 1 is block-fronted with a simple hipped roof. It has overhanging eaves at the centre of the facade, creating a window hood above the windows, resting on triangular timber brackets. Windows are paired six-over-one sashes in boxed (projecting) frames. These houses have decorative timber porches on the side elevation. Another distinctive feature of these houses is the narrow faceted cast-concrete chimneys.

Type 2 has a wide hipped-roof bay at the front with a recessed porch beneath it. The porch is lit by a windowlike opening on the facade. The windows of this type of house are set into moulded render surrounds.

There is one surviving house with a California Bungalow form (Type 3), on Hampshire Road. Its most distinctive feature is a half-timbered gable-roofed porch at the front. The porch is supported on three pairs of timber posts, which in turn rest on low rendered piers.

History of the estate

During the 1880s land boom, speculators carved up the land around the township then called ‘Braybrook Junction’.

From History of School 3113 Sunshine

But boom turned to bust, and the estate lay empty except for a handful of houses.

Enter industrialist H. V. McKay, and his Sunshine Harvester Works which moved to Braybrook Junction in 1906. Driven by either generosity or paternalism, McKay developed housing estates across Sunshine for his workers, the largest of which is now the suburb of Albion.

SLV photo H2016.33/103

But a smaller estate of twenty-six homes was built on Leith Avenue – nine either side of the central park, and two groups of four facing Hampshire Road.

Plan of subdivision vol 5042 fol 203

Set on a court constructed with concrete road, kerb and channel around an oblong central grassed median, construction commenced in 1924, financed by the State Savings Bank of Victoria, and designed by their chief architect Burridge Leith.

Concrete Cottages
Two Dozen for Sunshine

A scheme has recently been approved of by the State Savings Bank in regard to the building of concrete dwelling houses by a system of organisation, which will make the cost very little in excess of wood. The first of the cottages built in the State by this new system was erected in Brighton, and has proved a success, and arrangements have been made to erect about 26 such residences in Hampshire Road, Sunshine, for employees of the Harvester Works. The building of the houses is being financed by the State Savings Bank. The cost of the buildings will vary from about £650 to £800, and the bank accepts a 10 per cent deposit of the capital cost of land and building, the remainder, of course, being payable in weekly contributions over a term of years.

The use of concrete sped up the construction process.

House Built in a Day
Moulded Concrete Employed

Twenty-five houses are being built of “poured” concrete at Sunshine (Vic.) Some have been erected, the last establishing what is claimed as a world record for speedy construction; all the moulds were set and all the walls, interior and exterior “poured” and reinforced with steel in 28 hours.

This extremely rapid work, of course, means an immense saving in labour, costs, as the weekly bill for wages almost disappears. That a building produced in such an infinitesimal space of time can be practically everlasting seems to upset all previous notions of the value of slow and careful workmanship.

But in this case swift work means good work, as the rapid pouring of the concrete means that the whole of the walls will set together in one monolithic mass. This could not be achieved if the house were built up slowly in layers, causing joins in the walls and liability to cracking.

During the latter part of the winter a plant was constructed at Sunshine to conform to the new plans of the Monolyte houses designed by the chief architect of tho State Savings Bank and a start was made with the work, in connection with an extensive building contract on behalf of and under the supervision of the State Savings Bank. Houses are now being rapidly “poured” one after the other. The
usual time occupied by this system for the purpose of erecting the forms and work incidental thereto, including reinforcing, etc., is roughly five to six days, according to the size of the house to be built, while the pouring of the walls takes another six hours, thus making tho house ready for roofing within seven days.

On Monday of one week a start was made with a house of the series, and so well did tho team perform its work that tho whole of the forms were set up and the special steel reinforcing placed in position by Wednesday, thus occupying barely three days for this preliminary work. Pouring operations under the supervision of the inventor, Mr, S. B. Merchant, were commenced afterwards, and completed within four hours and ten minutes altogether, a most remarkably speedy and effective performance.

Thus with only 28 hours work (three and a half days) the whole walls, fireplaces and chimneys of a perfectly-constructed and reinforced house were completed, and the carpenters are soon busily proceeding with the erection of the roof. The moulds were again removed and re-erected ready for refilling with an other house, thus taking five days to strip from one job and rebuild another site requiring five hours or less to complete the second house within six days, and without any addition to the constant team employed on the works.

And was cheaper than timber.

Quick Concrete Houses

Sunshine is to be the scene of further pioneer work with poured concrete houses. A contract has been let by the Sunshine Harvester Company for the erection of a number of these structures in the harvester city.

Already one poured concrete house erected at Brighton has proved its stability as a liveable dwelling. The walls and roof were constructed in a week, and the Melbourne Savings Bank Commissioners, who viewed the work in progress were very favourably impressed by the achievement.

The houses now to be constructed at Sunshine will also he watched by the Savings Bank officials, who see in the system a possible means of rapid construction of artisans’ homes of a more durable quality than the timber houses now in favour. It is hoped that by rapid construction concrete houses can be turned out in large quantities at very little more than the present cost of wood construction and considerably cheaper than brick.

A concrete building completed within a fortnight is a distinctly advantageous asset over brick or timber dwelling that takes three to five months to construct. Every week gain means money in the owner’s pocket, as it saves interest and rent. The concrete dwelling also saves money every year in the matter of maintenance, as it does not require painting or structural repairs. This point appeals strongly to the Savings Bank Commissioners, who are mindful of the fact that they carry mortgages over many thousands of timber houses for periods of twenty-one years, and that those are all to some extent “wasting assets”.

At Sunshine cement and sand are available for concrete construction, but in the past the houses there were built of timber. Once the value of the concrete house is proved it is likely that Sunshine will gradually develop into a concrete city.

With the estate completed by 1926.

The Daily Mail Brisbane, 3 January 1926

A decade later in 1935, the estate was considered a stand out in the area.

Provision by the shire council of concrete footpaths in most of the streets of Sunshine should be an incentive for householders to keep in proper condition the narrow strip of space between the concrete and the kerb. Appeals have from time to time been made by council officers in the columns of the “Advocate,” but these have only been partially heeded.

A journey through the locality past the school fails to create much enthusiasm. One thoroughfare – Leith Avenue – presents a row of neat dwellings and footpaths well tended,:but further down Hampshire Road things are not so good except for one or two isolated places which show up to distinct advantage.

But a decade later it was looking a little worse for wear.

A sub-committee of the Braybrook Council is to consider if anything can be done to place the reserves in Leith Avenue, Sunshine, in order. Cr. Drayton, the mover of the motion, said that the condition of these reserves had been a bone of contention for years.

But where did the other half go?

As originally built, there were houses on both sides of Leith Avenue.

1945 Department of Lands and Survey photo map

Visible in the 1966 edition 1 Melway.

Map 40, Melway Edition 1

But today the entire north side is part of the neighbouring Sunshine Primary School and Sunshine Secondary College.

Google Earth 2020

Some of the blocks still exist on their own land title.

VicPlan data

And on the ground, the remains of driveways can be seen along Leith Avenue.

The reason? A Public Acquisition Overlay covers the land – PAO6 on the Brimbank Planning Scheme – favouring the Department of Education, for an ‘education centre’.

Brimbank Planning Scheme – map 12PAO

The adjoining Sunshine School 3113 was established in 1891, with the current brick building officially opened in 1931.

In 1913 the Sunshine Technical School opened next door, followed in 1938 by the Sunshine Girls Technical School, and expanded in 1941.

And the houses on the north side of Leith Avenue?

Charles Daniel Photograph, SLV H2016.33/102

They were progressively acquired by the State Government, including:

• 10 Leith Avenue in March 1975 for $9,750,
• 6 Leith Avenue in July 1976 for $28,000, and
• 59 Hampshire Road in August 1981 for $40,000.

And a Graham Street footnote

Remember Graham Street South? Turns out the block bounded by Graham Street and Derby Road was once covered by houses, but a Public Acquisition Overlay has seen it replaced by empty land.

Charles Daniel Photograph, SLV H2016.33/102

Properties acquired include:

• 137 Derby Road in July 1975 for $22,500,
• 139 Derby Road in February 1976 for $25,000,
• 141 Derby Road in March 1976 for $27,000,
• 143 Derby Road in September 1976 for $27,000,
• 63 Graham Street in August 1984 for $35,000, and
• 67 Graham Street in September 1976 for $29,000.

But this empty land will never see a school built on it – plans to build a new school were launched in 2006 but it was shelved in 2010. Finally in 2015 it was announced that Sunshine College would be upgraded at a cost of $10 million, but consolidated onto the West and North campuses, with the Ardeer and Senior campuses closed.

Sources

• Brimbank Heritage Design Guidelines: HO20 – Concrete Housing Estate, Sunshine
• Victorian Heritage Database: Concrete Housing Estate Precinct

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The detail of the windows is best viewed from inside the station, looking back out.

I first took a close look at the windows in August 2009, and noticed that four five of the original leadlight panels had been replaced with plain glass.

But by April 2010 they had been repaired.

Which is easier to see in this photo from April 2012.

Photo by Maksym Kozlenko, via Wikimedia Commons

But by June 2017 another pane of plain glass had reappeared.

Scaffolding then covered the station.

With the plain glass disappearing along with the scaffolding a few months later.

Leaving the leadlight windows looking the best they ever have.

So how many times have the windows been broken in the past, and is any of the glass original?

Footnote

In July 2009 Neos Kosmos talked to Arthur Andronas, director of Andronas Conservation Architecture, who has been involved in earlier restoration works at Flinders Street Station.

Over the past 25 years, we have had the opportunity to conserve a great number of historic buildings, including The Block Arcade, ANZAC House, Newman College at Melbourne University designed by Walter Burley Griffin (the man who designed Canberra) and the stained glass at Flinders Street Station (above the clocks).

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Rennie Ellis 1983, SLV image H2011.150/2517

The dreary Spencer Street Station building that we all remember dated back to the 1960s.

Photo by Graeme Butler, part of the 1985 Melbourne Central Activities District (CAD) Conservation Study

But the Cavalcade of Transport mural wasn’t added until a decade later – the Victorian Heritage Database listing gives some background.

The 36.6 metre long and 7.32 metre high History of Transport mural featured across the main concourse of the Spencer Street railway station, depicting the first century of transport in Victoria (1835-1935), was commissioned by the State Government in 1973.

Painted by State Artist, Harold Freedman (1915-99), and two assistants, the work was completed in January 1978. The mural, a realist oil painting on canvas mounted on plywood, was painted in five main sections at the East Camberwell railway substation, and erected in stages above the Spencer Street station concourse

Putting the mural into place at Spencer Street Station was quite the task.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P1, item H 4218, dated 18-6-1974

An entire wall of scaffolding was required to give access to the wall where the mural was hung.

PROV image VPRS 12800/P1, item H 4219, dated 18-6-1974

Once in place, the mural could be viewed from the maun station concourse.

Rennie Ellis 1983, SLV image H2011.150/2537

Or from the mezzanine level cafe.

Rennie Ellis 1983, SLV image H2011.150/2517

Rennie Ellis 1983, SLV image H2011.150/2518

The mural stayed untouched until 2000, when the right hand end of the mural to be repositioned perpendicular to its original location, to allow the construction of the Bourke Street Bridge at the north end of the station building.

Further changes came in 2004, when the redevelopment of Spencer Street Station saw the mural put into storage while the new Southern Cross Station was built.

There it stayed until being re-erected in April 2007. Finding the mural was quite the ordeal – the new location was the north wall of the new Direct Factory Outlet shopping centre that formed part of the new station.

But unfortunately this wasn’t the end of this undignified story – in 2014 the shopping centre was redeveloped and the former viewing platform being demolished, leaving the mural hidden from view at the back of a discount shop, behind a forest of light fittings and air conditioning ducts.

A sad end to something at used to take pride of place at Spencer Street Station.

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Where trams trundle past on their loop of the city.

You might look at it from the south-east corner, where Little Collins and Spring Streets meet.

Or from the steps of Parliament House, where numerous skyscrapers loom large overhead.

However the side people don’t normally see is the brick wall along the back laneway.

Come November 2014 everything seen above will be history, demolished as part of the $325 million redevelopment of the Hotel Windsor that will see a new 27-storey tower erected behind the heritage listed facade.

Footnote

My photo showing the rear of the Hotel Windsor was taken from the top floor of the multistory car park located at the corner of Little Collins Street and McIlwraith Place. Originally known as ‘Kings Parkade’, Wolfgang Sievers photographed the car park when it opened way back in 1966.

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I found one at the corner of Abbotsford Street and Flemington Road in North Melbourne recently, attracted by the ‘Wheelwright’ and ‘Shoeing Forge’ signs on the facade.

However I didn’t notice the massive crack in the brickwork, until a Twitter follower sent me a link to a Google Street View image showing how bad it really was.

As it happens, it was luck that I took my photos when I did, because by the first week of April, the entire building had been reduced to a pile of rubble.

So how long had that crack in the wall been there? When I looked into the history of the site, I found this was yet another case of an abandoned building being neglected by property developers, and becoming a risk to public safety.

History of the site

Located on the corner of Abbotsford Street at 243-251 Flemington Road, North Melbourne, the building has been abandoned for a number of years. A search of the City of Melbourne planning register bring up the first relevant result in 2004:

Permit Number:
TP-2004-1184
Date Received:
23/11/2004
Proposed Use or Development:
Construct building for use as a medical centre,child care centre, function hall and dwellings
Objections Received:
82
Decision:
Refusal – 22/12/2005

With concerns about the intensity of the land use, and a massive number of objections, the City of Melbourne refused to issue a planning permit. As a result the developer appealed the decision at Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) in 2006, which upheld the decision, but two years later the developer revised the design, and tried again to gain approval:

Permit Number:
TP-2007-387
Date Received:
7/05/2007
Proposed Use or Development:
Demolition of existing buildings and development of a three storey building to be used for a child care centre, child play centre (indoor recreation facility), and five dwellings
Objections Received:
18
Decision:
Refusal – 11/12/2007
Permit – 18/08/2008

The City of Melbourne refused this proposal at a council meeting on 4 December 2007, but VCAT overturned the decision, and a planning permit being issued. From the date the building fell into limbo, and with the developer not commencing construction, the planning permit expired two years later. For this reason, in 2011 the development again went before council:

Permit Number:
TP-2011-652
Date Received:
16/08/2011
Proposed Use or Development:
The use of the building for a childcare centre, medical centre and food and drink premises, reduction in the provision of car parking, the construction of a building and the construction or carrying out of works, waiving the requirement for loading and unloading facilities
Objections Received:
11
Decision:
Refusal – 17/02/2012
Permit – 28/02/2012

With a new planning permit granted in 2012, the developer set the ball rolling for construction, requesting a demolition permit for the building:

Permit Number:
TP-2012-1026
Date Received:
24/12/2012
Proposed Use or Development:
Demolition of the building
Objections Received:
0
Decision:
Permit – 24/12/2012

So was the building ever heritage listed?

While the site is affected by the Heritage Overlay (North and West Melbourne precinct), the structure was never listed – it was just an ungraded building in the Heritage Places Inventory. So why wasn’t this building listed when everything else in the area was added the register – no one seems to know.

Further reading

• Google Street View image of the cracked building
• Planning application: TP-2007-387
• Planning application: TP-2011-652
• More discussion about shoeing forges in North Melbourne

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One of around 1,200 panels that clad the building, thankfully no one was injured when it fell to earth around 11am, with the plaza being relatively empty at this time of the morning. This photo below (by Andy Park of The Age) shows the resulting rubble that covered a large area of the plaza, the panel having been propelled away from the wall on impact with the balustrade on the level below.

Photo by Andy Park of The Age, January 31 2012

In the aftermath of the fall the City of Melbourne issued an Emergency Order requiring the surrounding pedestrian areas to be cordoned off.

Within a few days temporary fencing had been erected along the footpaths surrounding the entire building – occupying the city block bounded by Collins Street, William Street, Flinders Lane, and Market Street.

With the main entrance on Collins Street closed, all tenants of 447 Collins Street have had to access the building via the Market Street carpark driveway.

The Emergency Order also required a structural engineer to inspect the building to determine what remedial works may be needed. From February 1st abseilers were inspecting the side of the building, checking up on each of the facade panels to see if any more were loose.

Along the Flinders Lane frontage much more intensive work has been undertaken, with all of the exterior windows being covered with plywood sheets.

With the windows here being flush with the marble panels, the workers have been gaining access to the facade with scissor lifts, bolting ‘top hat’ steel channel running between the vertical window mullions, which provides a base for the plywood.

I’m not sure what purpose the plywood is intending to achieve, but a number of marble panels on the Flinders Lane frontage have been removed. Perhaps they don’t want the abseilers bashing their feet on the windows all day?

By February 10 some remedial work has also commenced on the upper levels of the building, with scaffolding being bolted over a selection of facade panels, presumably to hold them in place after the inspection works found they were loose.

Access to the panels on the upper levels is achieved in two ways: workers walking along the exterior balconies, and abseilers handing down from the roof.

Two weeks after the panel fell, I am now wondering how long the rectification works will take, and whether more permanent gantries will be erected over the surrounding footpaths to restore a bit of normality to the area.

Further reading

• Tenants yet to get compensation guidance after emergency closure of Collins Street office building, an article from ‘Property Observer’ by Alistair Walsh.

June 2012 update!

The 22 June 2012 edition of The Age had an article titled ‘Sky-high cost for falling marble facade. It now appears that the rectification works have been completed, with about 40 per cent of the facade now clamped to the building to avoid further marble panels falling. In addition tenants have been slowly moving out of the building, with the last to leave by mid-2013, allowing the owner ‘Industry Super Property Trust’ to carry out permanent repair works without disruption.

May 2013 update!

It appears that the permanent repair works are the installation of steel mesh sheets to each of the marble panels, in order to contain any future loose debris. Work has started on the north-west corner of the building.

February 2014 update!

Two years on, and it looks like demolition awaits the building:

The owners of the former Suncorp office building on Collins Street have applied for a permit to destroy the 27-storey tower, which has sat empty since 2012 when slab of the building smashed to the ground of the forecourt.

A council report to be tabled next week has called for the permit to be approved, despite the fact they have previously recommended the site for heritage protection. That advice was rejected by Planning Minister Matthew Guy last year, subject to further review.

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First off is a photo from December 1947, showing both office and operational staff heading out of the main gate at knock off time. In the background is the original power station at Yallourn, with an array of short chimneys belching coal dust into the air, in the days when filtration devices were extremely primitive.

Fast forward 60 years, we are at the same location but the scene is very different. The power station was decommissioned in 1989 and was listed on the Victorian Heritage Register in 1994, but due to the amount of asbestos inside it was demolished between 1997 and 1999. All that remains on the site today is the concrete foundations, a gatehouse to nowhere, and the former administration building.

This 1961 photo shows the extent of the original complex at its peak (you can find the full sized version here), with the main gate being to the middle right: before demolition the power station had consisted of five separate units: ‘C’, ‘B’, ‘A’, ‘D’ and ‘E’.

Photo via Yallourn Association

As for the administration building, it was built in 1922 in the inter-war Academic Classical style, the two storey “Yallourn Production Centre” building features a portico with giant order Ionic columns, and was designed by the SECV architectural department under the direction of chief architect AR La Gersch. With privatisation of the power station the building was sold in 1996 and is now used as a pub, with the building being listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Further reading

• Former Yallourn Power Station Adminstrative Building: entry H1054 on the Victorian Heritage Register.
• Virtual Yallourn: more photos of the old Yallourn power station.

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