On the downstream side is the original 1936 bridge, with art deco-styled decorative parapets, pillars, and light fittings.

And beside it a far more utilitarian concrete bridge completed in 1992.

In the beginning

Lynch’s Bridge was an early crossing place on the Maribyrnong River for those headed west of Melbourne, with owner of the neighbouring Pioneer Hotel, Michael Lynch, operating a punt on the site from 1849. A competing crossing was operated by Joseph Raleigh at Maribyrnong, which replaced his punt with a bridge in 1858.

SLV photo IAN20/12/66/4

And so in 1863 Michael Lynch petitioned the government for permission to replace his punt with a pontoon bridge, provided he was granted a half acre of land on the eastern bank of the river for the abutments and approaches.

Members of the Essendon and Flemington Council not in favour of private bridges, and the matter was debated, with one local resident questioning the motives of Lynch.

In September 1864 a motion was passed to prohibit Lynch from building a bridge, but it soon rescinded, with the new bridge in use for Melbourne Cup Day 1864.

‘Flemington Racecourse from the Footscray side of Salt Water River, Victoria ‘ by J Ryan

Local residents found the toll gate a nuisance, but Lynch talked up his bridge, telling Western District sheep and cattle owners they only needed to pay a single toll if headed to the sheep and cattle yards on the opposite bank.

As a result in 1866 the Essendon and Flemington Council proposed purchasing Mr Lynch’s bridge, as did the Footscray Council in 1867. However it took until in 1882 for the bridge to be brought under public ownership, the Footscray Council abolished the toll and requesting the Commissioner of Public Works pay the reminder of the loan.

A replacement bridge

However that was not the end of the saga – in October 1901 Lynch’s Bridge was closed by the Public Works Department due to it falling into disrepair, and a Mr J. Byers erected a pontoon bridge beside it to carry traffic to Flemington Racecourse, for a “small toll” of one penny. The debate as to who should fund the cost of a new bridge continued in the months that followed, with a tender finally awarded in December 1902 – eighteen months since the bridge was closed.

MMBW plan 781

The new bridge opened without ceremony in May 1903, after contractors finished their work and left it open for traffic, with members of the Flemington and Kensington Council holding an official opening a few days later, without the involvement of the Footscray Council who also funded it.

SLV photo H2151

The new bridge was built of timber, and had a lifting span in the middle, which sometimes caused delays to river traffic, and had high ongoing running costs.

Haven’t we been here before?

September 1929 was a familiar event – Lynch’s Bridge closed after being declared unsafe for traffic, reopening after temporary repairs were completed over a three week period.

The Footscray Council and the City of Melbourne then considered a number of options for a permanent crossing – a new five span reinforced concrete bridge for £38,750, a new three span steel bridge for £35,900, or extending the life for the existing bridge for five years for £2,250. The Footscray Council objected having to fund half the cost of a new bridge, delaying the start of construction, with an agreement finally reached in January 1936 for the Country Roads Board to pay half the cost of the project.

Opened in 1939, the new Lynch’s Bridge was built on a different angle to the timber bridge it replaced, allowing Ballarat Road to be realigned to meet Smithfield Road, eliminating a dangerous curve on the Footscray side. The Footscray Council suggested naming the new bridge ‘Gent’s Bridge’ after the Town Clerk of Footscray, but it came to nothing.

Traffic troubles

As Melbourne grew, the amount of traffic using Lynch’s Bridge grew – 43,000 vehicles per day using it in 1989, half the volume that used the West Gate Bridge. And the area became known as a blackspot for motor vehicle crashes, with the 1985-88 period seeing 79 separate incidents, including 16 head-on collisions, and nine deaths.

The Age, 23 November 1989

Leading in November 1989 to a coronial inquest being opened into a number of recent fatalities at the site.

Excessive speed was the main cause of car accidents on Lynch’s Bridge in Kensington, an inquest on three deaths on the bridge was told yesterday.

Sergeant Noel Osborne, of the accident Investigation section at Brunswick, said that despite measures to make the four-lane bridge safer, most vehicles approached it too fast. 

The deputy state coroner, Mr Graeme Johnstone, is holding joint inquests on Kevin John Lewis, 35, of Broadmeadows, and Emily Jane Stonehouse, 4, of Werribee, who were killed in an accident on 23 October 1988, and Matthew James Simmons, 25, of Box Hill, who died in an accident on 14 February this year.

Lynch’s Bridge crosses the Maribyrnong River near Flemington Racecourse. The approach from Footscray, on Ballarat Road, has three lanes that narrow to two before a sharp left-hand bend on to the bridge. The Smithfield Road approach, from Flemington, is two lanes.

Sergeant Osborne, asked by Mr Johnstone to suggest safety measures, said that even if the Ballarat Road approach was narrowed to one lane in an effort to slow traffic, he believed many drivers would still try to take the bend too fast. He said the answer was to duplicate the bridge.

“That in my mind is the answer. We certainly would not be having the head-ons as we are now. The number of people killed at this location has caused me great concern. It appears that not a great deal has been done.”

Mr John Connell, of the Roads Corporation, said speed cameras had shown that more than 70 per cent of vehicles approaching the bridge on Ballarat Road travelled faster than the 60 kmh speed limit. The fastest speed had been 139 kmh despite signs recommending 55 kmh.

Peter James McDonald, a truck driver from Maidstone who crosses Lynch’s Bridge regularly, said that at the time of the accident involving Mr Simmons, the camber of the road pulled vehicles to the right as they turned left on to the bridge from Ballarat Road. The inquiry is continuing

The inquest heard that duplication of the bridge had been proposed in 1975, with the cost in 1989 money estimated to be $3 million.

In his findings to the 1989 inquest, Coroner Graeme Johnstone noted that the 1938 bridge was not unsuitable for the volume and speed of traffic passing over it, recommending that the Ballarat Road approach to the bridge be restructured so that the three-to-two lane merge is further from the sharp bend onto the bridge, and that the VicRoads make duplication of the bridge a priority in their road improvement program.

As a result, a duplicate bridge on the upstream side of original bridge was completed in 1992, allowing the 1936 bridge to be dedicated to westbound traffic.

The duplication of Lynch’s Bridge and road approaches at Flemington was opened to traffic in April 1992 and has eliminated one of Melbourne’s worst accident blackspots. In accordance with a Coronial Inquiry recommendation to fast track the works, new technology for bridgeworks and roadworks construction was used. Road approaches over poor ground conditions utilised polystyrene as lightweight fill – a first for VicRoads and Australia. The method reduces road settlements to manageable levels and achieves cost savings over more conventional alternatives. The project was completed in June 1992 at a cost of $5.5million.

And finally – another upgrade

In August 2019 it was announced that Lynch’s Bridge would be upgraded as part of the Western Road Upgrade public–private partnership.

A National Trust-listed bridge which was once the main gateway to Melbourne’s west will be upgraded this week as part of the Victorian Government’s Suburban Roads Upgrade.

Member for Footscray Katie Hall today announced the start of important work to rehabilitate the Ballarat Road Bridge, under the $1.8 billion Western Roads Upgrade.

The crossings over the Maribyrnong River are steeped in history, with the outbound Lynch’s Bridge built in 1936 and heritage listed for its “historical and technical significance” by the National Trust in 2005. Millions of Victorians and visitors would have crossed this bridge in some form.

Lynch’s Bridge also holds technical engineering significance, as one of the first steel and concrete crossings designed so the reinforced concrete deck works together with the steel beams.

The historic five-span bridge sits alongside its more modern counterpart known as the Smithfield Bridge, which was built in 1990.

The 108-metre bridges will undergo work to strengthen them for the future for up to 45,000 vehicles which travel over them every day.

It is anticipated they’ll be used by up to 50,000 cars and trucks daily by 2031.

The art-deco style of Lynch’s Bridge will be preserved as safety barriers are upgraded on both bridges, and footpaths and drainage will also be improved.

There will be some lane closures in place as this work is underway to ensure road crews can work safely and quickly.

Work included.

– removed old barriers and replaced them with new safety barriers
– installed cathodic corrosion protection to protect the metal bridge supports from rust and deterioration
– resurfaced the road on the bridges and on approach to the bridges
– removed features no longer needed such as broken lights.

You had to look close to see the changes.

Major Roads Project Victoria photo

But the big new crash barriers are easy to see when driving past.

But one thing that is obvious is the focus on motor vehicles, not active transport.

The bridge has enough space for a grass median strip!

Yet pedestrians are forced into a narrow footpath.

And cyclists are given a narrow strip of asphalt, centimetres from passing vehicles.

Pretty crap upgrade, isn’t it?

Footnote: water under the bridge

When I visited Lynch’s Bridge in December 2020, I noticed these new looking steel additions to the piers of the 1992 bridge.

My initial thought was strengthening work linked to the Western Road Upgrade project, but turns out I was wrong – it’s actually linked to the West Gate “Tunnel” Project.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

A post on their Facebook page dated 11 November 2021 mentioning the work.

West Gate Tunnel Project crews have started working on modifications to streamline the piers on the Smithfield Road Bridge.
These works will help during high flows in Maribyrnong River and mitigate flooding once our new Maribyrnong River bridge is built. Gaps between the columns will be filled with concrete to create a wall type pier with rounding at both ends.

The works required to compensate for new piers in the Maribyrnong River at Footscray.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

Forming part of the elevated roadway between Footscray Road and the actual West Gate “Tunnel”.

West Gate Tunnel Project photo

And the work at Lynch’s Bridge seems to have flown under the radar – the only other mention of it I could find was a single line in the West Gate Tunnel Project “Final Report for Submission to the Minister for Planning” for March 2019 to August 2019.

Flood mitigation works completed at Smithfield Bridge

I wonder what difference these works made to the October 2022 Maribyrnong River flood?

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From ABC News on 18 June 2014:

Fire truck rolls on its way to Melbourne apartment blaze, causing traffic headaches on Racecourse Road
18 June 2014

A fire truck has rolled on its way to a blaze at an apartment block, causing traffic dramas at Flemington, in Melbourne’s north-west.

The truck flipped on tram tracks on Racecourse Road underneath CityLink about 5:00am, just 500 metres from the fire.

The road was closed for hours in both directions as crews cleaned up but one lane is now open each way.

Assistant chief fire officer Ken Brown said the four crew members in the truck managed to escape injury.

“The good news for our firefighting families and other firefighters is that all the crew are safe and well,” he said.

“[The crew’s] very shaken obviously and we’re investigating with police the cause of the truck rollover.”

But it turns out this was not the first such accident beneath this very bridge.

@yvettegray3AW this is the second emergency vehicle to hit these
Bollards in 12 months! These poor ambos were lucky!! pic.twitter.com/iHKWyFyhFe

— Eliza (@LizeBarmby) June 17, 2014

From the Herald Sun:

Paramedics escape harm in Kensington ambulance flip
Christopher Gillet
5 October 2012

Two paramedics escaped serious injury after their ambulance flipped over while on the way to a job in Melbourne’s northwest.

The ambulance was travelling along tram tracks in Kensington just before 8.30 last night.

The van flipped on Racecourse Rd when it hit a bollard. It is not yet known if the vehicle was travelling at high speeds.

A patient was not inside the vehicle at the time of the accident.

A police spokeswoman said two paramedics were taken to hospital for observation, but were not hurt.

A spokeswoman from Ambulance Victoria said another ambulance was immediately sent to cover the job.

Nine bollards were originally placed between the tram tracks on Racecourse Road to prevent vehicles turning right towards CityLink from cutting the corner.

It appears the first crash in 2012 took out the first five bollards, with only four left in this March 2014 view.

With the second crash taking out the last of them, leaving just a row holes in the concrete.

The bollards are still missing today – presumably deemed too dangerous to reinstate given the crash history.

Footnote

Another photo of the flipped fire truck

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SLV Accession: H2004.101/287

The freeway itself had two lanes in each direction, with Moonee Ponds Creek running along the western side in a concrete channel.

In the 1990s as part of the CityLink project the freeway was widened to four lanes in each direction and extended south to the West Gate Freeway – resulting in this current view from Google Earth.

In addition, the former Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital has since been covered with apartments as the Athletes Village for the 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Footnote

And now starts another expansion of the freeway – the CityLink Tulla Widening project.

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The Moonee Valley Leader ran an article on the proposal back on May 20th:

Part of Newmarket train station, the ‘Heart and soul’ of Flemington, set to be demolished
Linh Ly
May 20, 2014

Moonee Valley Council received an application on May 13 for demolition consent on the eastern side of station, which fronts Pin Oak Cres in Flemington.

Mayor Jan Chantry said the proposal did not seek to demolish the entire station but the portion of the building south of the existing archway and entrance.

Cr Chantry said it is the council’s understanding that the request was made due to structural issues.

“However, Metro Trains have noted that as part of the general works and upgrades to the station, specific bracing and structural measures will be included to the remaining portion of the building to help ensure the ongoing retention of the station,” Cr Chantry said.

Metro Trains spokeswoman Pauline O’Connor said movement of the building had been detected and they needed a long-term solution to address settlement issues.

Ms O’Connor said two design solutions were considered for the station – either demolishing it entirely or demolishing half of it and building a foundation to support and stabilise the remaining building.

“We recognise the significance of the building, and this is why we are retaining half of the building,” she said.

“During the demolition of half of the building, permanent support structures will be built to ensure the remaining building is stabilised long-term.”

A week later they ran a second article on the fight to preserve the building:

Moonee Valley Council will seek State Government support to protect Newmarket Train Station
Linh Ly
May 28, 2014

Moonee Valley Council will seek urgent heritage protection from the State Government for the Newmarket Train Station site.

Last night the council unanimously supported Cr Nicole Marshall’s motion to write to the State Government to seek an interim heritage overlay so that more investigations could be done to protect the station’s facade.

Proposed works by Metro Trains and Public Transport Victoria have raised fears that the historical and much-loved ‘heart and soul’ of Flemington could be lost.

Metro Trains and Public Transport Victoria want to demolish 50 per cent of the citybound platform building, facing Pin Oak Cres, and build a foundation to stabilise the remaining structure.

Cr Marshall said it was a very special building that meant a great deal to the community and demolishing it would be irreversible.

“We have to try and protect the station now and the best thing to do is through an interim heritage overlay,” Cr Marshall said.

“From the advice we have to date, it doesn’t appear to put the public at risk.”

Cr Cam Nation said there was no reason why the station could not be improved while maintaining its unique facade.

Cr Jim Cusack said Pin Oak Cres traders needed the station to maintain the way it looked because it fit in with the neighbourhood character.

“There are plenty of engineering alternatives rather than pulling down the station,” Cr Cusack said.

As part of the proposed $935,000 project, the canopy will also be upgraded to cover 60 per cent of the platform. It currently covers 20 per cent.

My two cents

So what do I think about the demolition proposals and the fight to save the building?

Unlike many local residents, I wouldn’t call Newmarket station a “very special building” – sure, it looks nice and is a distinctive part of the streetscape, but from a heritage perspective it isn’t significant at anything higher than a local level.

Built in 1924 as a replacement for the previous timber structure, the station building at Newmarket was one of many brick structures that the Victorian Railways constructed in the period following the electrification of the suburban network, in response to the growth in patronage.

In addition, I’m not one to immediately dismiss modern architecture – so I’m not overly concerned about a modern looking station building replacing the existing one. I’m a fan of Melbourne’s heritage listed glass skyscrapers as well as the clean lines of Southern Cross Station.

My main concern with Melbourne’s recent railway station projects is when form doesn’t follow function, leaving us with expensive show ponies such as the “Colander Bridge” at Footscray station which leaks every time it rains, or where concerns about vandalism trump aesthetics, leaving us with concrete monoliths like Coolaroo that look more like a prison than a railway station.

For me, what really pisses me off at Newmarket isn’t the demolition itself, but the reason we have ended up in this situation – infrastructure falling into disrepair due to a lack of maintenance, a rail operator wanting to take the cheap way out, and a local community having to fight to keep the facilities they already have.

All up Public Transport Victoria is spending $935,000 on the works to demolish half the building and reinforce the remaining part. They also plan to install a canopy that will cover 60 per cent of the platform – up from the 20 per cent covered by the existing veranda.

What PTV and Metro Trains seem to be missing in their spin is that the current upgrade is not an either/or proposition – years ago they could have extended the veranda in a sympathetic way to cover the entire platform, while at the same time completing works to ensure the building was structurally sound, avoiding the need for demolition of what is already there.

And an update – June 2014

Metro have been forced to give a stay of execution for the station building:

Metro Trains scraps plan to partly demolish Flemington’s Newmarket station after resident, Moonee Valley Council backlash
Linh Ly
June 12, 2014

Metro Trains has backed down from a plan to partly demolish Newmarket Station’s historic platform building as part of an upgrade project.

Metro Trains spokeswoman Larisa Tait said they decided, following a review conducted in partnership with Moonee Valley Council, to “investigate alternative design solutions to address the structural issues while retaining the entire station building”.

“Metro will present the design solutions as soon as they are developed to Public Transport Victoria for their consideration,” Ms Tait said.

August 2014 update

Another update via the Moonee Valley Leader – a heritage listing application has been rejected:

Moonee Valley Council will fight to save historic Newmarket station from development
Tamara Heath
August 7, 2014

An application to have Newmarket train station put on the state heritage register has been knocked back.

A Heritage Victoria report, released on July 25, found the station had “local but not state significance”, with executive director Tim Smith saying modifications since the 1960s to the 90-year-old station buildings had diminished their significance.

Mr Smith said stations on the Victorian Heritage Register, including Essendon, Caulfield, Footscray and Glenferrie, were better examples of Edwardian and federation rail architecture.

Moonee Valley Mayor Jan Chantry said while the council did not submit the Heritage Victoria application, it was “moving forward” with plans to apply a heritage overlay to the site after a council-commissioned study found the station had local historic and aesthetic significance.

Councillor Nicole Marshall said Planning Minister Matthew Guy authorised the council to apply a permanent heritage overlay to the site, which would give it control over the station.

A sensible outcome from my perspective – Newmarket is a nice station and requires some protection, but calling it significant at the state level is a long bow to draw.

November 2014 update

Works started on building ‘permanent’ passenger shelters at Newmarket station, with the timber veranda outside the station building replaced by a freestanding steel structure.

And an additional shelter was provided at the city end, stretching almost the full length of the platform.

November 2018 update

Metro Trains is now planning works to fix the station buildings themselves, but the local council isn’t happy about the impacts on the surrounding trees.

Moonee Valley City Council has been advised that Metro Trains Melbourne is planning urgent platform works at Newmarket Station, Flemington in the coming days or weeks which will include the removal of a number of heritage-listed trees, including a River Red Gum that is more than 100 years old.

Metro has met with Council officers and advised us of the planned works to repair structural issues with the platform. Metro advised that root systems of the significant trees are creating a number of risks and would need to be removed.

We are currently investigating if there are alternate solutions that don’t involve removing the trees and will be meeting with Metro staff onsite later this week to discuss options.

Further reading

Only a handful of railways stations in Melbourne are listed on the Victorian Heritage Register – the highest level of protection for buildings in Victoria. However a number of station buildings are listed on local government Heritage Overlays – specific examples near Newmarket are:

• Ascot Vale station
• Moonee Ponds station

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In the case Epsom Road in Ascot Vale, stop 30 on route 57 is taking quite a pounding, with cars crashing into the safety zone on a regular basis.

I first noticed damaged to the tram stop back in March 2012, when a damaged fence panel was replaced with plastic safety tape.

Repairs followed and I forgot about it until February 2013, when I found more damage – this time four of the fence panels were gone.

Again, repairs followed, until May 2013 when I found a ute impaled on five metres of the safety zone fence.

Once it was cleaned up, red plastic safety fence replaced the four damaged fence panels, along with a new safety zone sign to replaced that lost in the crash.

August 2013 found another driver ploughing through the safety zone fence, this time taking out five panels, the traffic light post, and a sign.

The end of August saw more repairs completed, but it only lasted a month – three fence panels were taken out by the next wayward motorist.

October 2013 rolled around, and I stumbled upon yet another car impaled on the fence.

One would not want to have been waiting for a tram when the car hit.

A few days later, the fence has been completely repaired.

Until January 2014 when a a record sized crash took out the tram stop – nine fence panels were taken out!

How long until someone manages to take out all 13 panels?

Why are motorists so clueless?

Unlike other tram stops, the one on Epsom Road has a unique feature – no massive concrete prowl to divert wayward cars. In addition, the approach to the tram stop for southbound traffic on Epsom Road is as follows

• Two lanes of traffic become one between Union Road and the Coles supermarket
• Single lane of traffic past tram stop 32
• Two lanes of traffic beneath the Flemington Racecourse railway bridge
• Another merge into one lane of traffic, due to kerbside parking
• Slew to the left, as the parking is replaced by a right turn lane for Flemington Drive
• Dodge the tram stop on the far side of the Flemington Drive intersection

All of the above requires a motorist to be paying attention and follow the road as it slews around the tram stop – but given the intelligence of the average Melbourne driver, no wonder so many fail to do so!

Sources

From “Towards a More Accessible Tram System in Melbourne – challenges for infrastructure design” by Andrea Macdonald and Selby Coxon:

4.1.2. Safety zone

The rest of the stops are safety zones comprising 1/3 network or nominally 400 stops. Waiting and boarding is in a separate fenced refuge in the centre of road adjoining the tram track. Widths vary and there may be a shelter and a timetable. Open railings have been replaced by fencing excluding informal access.

Footnote

Soon after publishing this post a journalist from Melbourne newspaper The Age dropped me a line, which resulted in an article appearing on their website on February 7, 2014. Yarra Trams had the following to say:

Yarra Trams spokesman Simon Murphy conceded that the number of repairs at this stop was “higher than average”.

There isn’t space to install a concrete “prow” to divert traffic, Mr Murphy said, because of the volumes of traffic going in and out of the racecourse.

“This stop is outside the entrance to Flemington Racecourse, presenting a challenge in terms of the space requirements available to install infrastructure,” he said.

Passengers generally wait at the other end of the stop, and Yarra Trams had no reports of passenger injuries.

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Newmarket Station: a fallen branch has cut the power supply to the station. No trains harmed, just the power supply. Trains continue to run.

— Metro Trains (@metrotrains) September 26, 2013

By sunset it was getting dark on the platforms.

The fault was localised to the area, as the signals were still functioning, as was the traction power for trains.

In order to keep the platforms lit up, contractors arrived with a few hired petrol generators, and temporary wired them into the station switchboard.

Unfortunately the generators didn’t seem to have enough grunt to run all of the station lighting, leaving parts of the platforms in the dark.

The reason for the power outage – a tree took out the power lines on the street outside!

Footnote

The power outage also took out all of the Myki equipment, meaning passengers couldn’t top up, touch on, or touch off.

Newmarket station is in zone 1, which means any passengers using myki money and finding the readers dead would cop the default two hour Zone 1 + 2 myki money fare, and have to apply for a refund.

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It appears the soundness of the structure was called into question in 2012, when four acrow props were placed beneath the veranda, with plastic safety fencing and timber pallets tied to them in a half-arsed attempt at stopping passengers walking into them.

I first photographed these ‘temporary’ supports back in March 2012, and they ended up staying in place for over a year! It took until April 2013 for proper repairs to be carried out, when the complete cantilevered verandah was demolished and replaced by a freestanding but utilitarian looking timber structure.

So if the platform verandah was causing issues, what else is wrong with Newmarket station? Heading to the street side exposes them straight away.

We have an angled acrow prop reinforcing the entire south-eastern corner of the building:

There are cracks between the eastern wall and the foundations below:

Three steel beams have been bolted to the eastern facade to reinforce the brickwork:

With two more acrow props needing to be installed to support the wall above:

A beam on the southern wall no longer sits atop the column it was designed to, with two acrow props and a steel beam taking up the load:

How was the remains of this beam ever supposed to support a load?

Concrete encasing a different beam on the southern wall has cracked, exposing the steelwork inside:

A steel girder entering the western wall only rests upon a single course of brickwork, due to a chunk of concrete going missing beneath.

The concrete of the citybound platform retaining wall is damaged, exposing the reinforcing bar:

And finally, I found three cracked concrete columns, all with the steel reinforcing bars showing.

So how long has the building been falling to bits? Jumping onto Google Street View I found this image dated November 2009, which still shows the original timber access ramp to the station, but doesn’t show the collection of acrow props that hold the rest of the station up.

So what is going to come first? Demolition, or proper repairs?

Footnote

A photo of Newmarket railway station circa 1911 can be found on the ‘Lost Melbourne’ Facebook group – from the Graham Griffiths collection. It also notes that the current brick buildings date from 1925.

May 2014 update

In May 2014 Metro applied to the City of Moonee Valley for a demolition permit for half of the building on the citybound platform. Melbourne newspaper The Age contacted me for comment:

In his blog Waking Up In Geelong, train enthusiast Marcus Wong, who lives near Newmarket, documented how a long steel prop is ”reinforcing the entire south-eastern corner of the building”.

He showed cracks in concrete pillars holding up the building, steel beams bolted on to reinforce brickwork on the eastern facade, and props and a steel beam supporting a deteriorating wall.

Work has since started on moving services out of the damaged part of the station building, in preparation for the commencement of demolition work.

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However a short distance to the north there was once another racecourse, which has been all but forgotten by Melburnians. Known as “Ascot Racecourse” and located across the road from the Melbourne Showgrounds, photos of the course are hard to come by, but these aerial photographs taken in 1945 for the Victorian Department of Lands and Survey show the two courses clearly: Flemington in Green and Ascot in Red. (the massive full sized image is here)

Named after the famous English racecourse, Melbourne’s namesake was built on a site covering 77 acres between Union Road and Ascot Vale Road, with a track seven furlongs round (1,408 metres) and with separate circuits laid out for flat racing, trotting and steeplechasing. The track was the brainchild of a single person, a Mr. Riley, who had previously operated the Oakleigh Park track on Melbourne’s south eastern outskirts.

The racecourse proposal was not popular with 122 Ascot Vale residents, who presented a petition of signatures to the Essendon Council in September 1893. They argued that because of the large number of existing racecourses in the area (Moonee Valley and Flemington) no more should be allowed to open, and believed that the new racecourse would encourage the attendance of undesirable characters and depreciate the value of property in the immediate vicinity, and the small size of the track would endanger the lives of riders.

Despite the petition the objections of locals appears to have come to nothing, with the first race meeting at Ascot Racecourse being held on Wednesday October 25, 1893 with around 3000 punters in attendance. £300 was distributed in prize money, with £100 and a handsome trophy going to the winner of the principal event: the Ascot Cup. During the early years at Ascot the fortunes for owner Mr. Riley did not turn out well: with Melbourne’s land boom having just turned to bust, the track closed for an unknown period of time, before reopening in September 1899 under new management.

The biggest difference between Ascot and the famous neighbour down the road was the operation of race meetings: instead of being run by a racing club that reinvested their profits in racing and their members facilities, Ascot was a “proprietary racecourse” that was run by the private owner as a profit making business. With race meetings significantly more downmarket than those held by the racing clubs, Melbourne’s collection of proprietary racecourses were popular with the working class in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, until they were closed by the State Government in 1931.

Back at Ascot, another chapter opened in 1906 when notorious entrepreneur John Wren purchased the track. Today known as being the basis of the character “John West” in the 1950 novel Power Without Glory, Wren made his fortune in the late 1890s with his business of totalisator betting system that challenged the traditional ontrack bookmakers, but drew the ire of the state governing body of racing, the Victoria Racing Club, who pressured the State Government into banning the practice in 1906. It was Wren’s purchase of the Ascot Racecourse, along with other proprietary tracks at Richmond and Fitzroy, that enabled him to run his own pony races targeted at working class gamblers, as opposed to the thoroughbreds racing at the elite clubs.

Over the next decade Wren’s enemies continued in their attempts to bring down his racing empire: in July 1915 he offered the his track to the Defence Department to assist the cause of World War I, when a few days later an unnamed deputation called for the Government to cancel the license of the Ascot Racecourse for good. The request was refused by Chief Secretary John Murray, who stated that the abolition of proprietary racecourses was a question to be answered after the war. Seeing the end of his business, Wren sold his Victorian interests in 1920 to the Victorian Racing and Trotting Association, allowing the Ascot Racecourse to remain open when the State Government closed the Sandown Park, Fitzroy, Aspendale and Richmond racecourses in 1931.

It took the intensification of World War II in 1942 to place further restrictions on race meetings throughout Australia. Ascot was not spared, with a short newspaper article in September 1942 advised that the racecourse was “required for other purposes” and not be available for race meetings during the war (code for defence related matters). During this period Flemington, Moonee Valley, and Mentone were the remaining racing venues in the metropolitan area, and by end of the war in 1945 Caulfield Racecourse was allowed to reopen, but for Ascot it was the end of the line as the remaining Victorian racing venues was consolidated.

On August 18, 1945 the State Premier Mr. Dunstan announced that the Government had decided against the resumption of racing at the Ascot Racecourse, with the Victorian Racing and Trotting Association to be relocated to a new venue at Sandown Park, and the land in Ascot Vale turned over for housing development. The Association objected to the move because they held a long term lease from John Wren for the track, and at the same time had to deny accusations of being a proprietary racing club, stating that that their profits went back to racing, along with charity and patriotic groups. The Housing Commission would be the developer, believing the value of the land was reasonable if it was used for flats, but would not be economical if individual houses were built instead.

Due to a breakdown in negotiations with Wren and his partners in regards to the purchase price, the State Government issued a notice of compulsory acquisition in March 1946 under the Slum Reclamation and Housing Act. Wren was unhappy with the Government offer of £117,000 in compensation, valuing the site at £174,000 and so lodging a claim at the County Court on September 17, 1946. The case was settled in October 15 when the State Cabinet agreed to acquire the site for £142,618 – a figure midway between the two competing claims.

Altogether homes for 2,600 people were built on the 77 acre site by the Housing Commission, made up of 400 flats, 100 villa pairs and 50 single villas, along with 5 acres of parkland and a network of streets named after Australian World War II personnel.

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The first residents moved in to the estate by Christmas 1947, but with rents to £2/5/ a week (in 1948) they were paying the most of all Housing Commission tenants in Victoria. Today the flats are managed by the successor of the Housing Commission, the Victorian Office of Housing, and remain as public housing in an increasingly gentrified suburb.

As for the other players at Ascot Racecourse…

• John Wren received an additional windfall in June 1947: the City of Essendon had attempted to charge him £5,591 in rates and interest, accrued during the World War II occupation of the racecourse. He took the fight to the High Court, who found 4 to 1 that municipalities could not legally collect rates for properties taken over by the Commonwealth for defence purposes.
• The Victorian Racing and Trotting Association merged with the Victoria Amateur Turf Club and the Williamstown Racing Club in 1963 to form the Melbourne Racing Club, which still operates today. As for their promised new racecourse at Sandown, it didn’t open until June 19, 1965.

Sources

• The Proposed New Racecourse. (1893, September 8). North Melbourne Advertiser (Vic. : 1873 – 1894), p. 2. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article66165450
• Ascot Races. (1893, October 27). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article8705476
• Protest Against Sainfoin. (1893, November 4). Australian Town and Country Journal (NSW : 1870 – 1907), p. 35. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article71191220
• Notes and Chat. (1899, September 25). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956), p. 7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article9031686
• Ascot Racecourse Unavailable. (1942, September 14). The Mercury (Hobart, Tas. : 1860 – 1954), p. 6. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article25888303
• Ascot Racecourse Removal Proposed. (1945, August 4). The Advertiser (Adelaide, SA : 1931 – 1954), p. 7. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article43505227
• Ascot Course to be Housing Area. (1946, February 19). Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 – 1954), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68963377
• Flats may be built on Ascot Racecourse. (1946, February 21). Advocate (Burnie, Tas. : 1890 – 1954), p. 3. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article68963712
• Housing Commission Value For Land Challenged. (1946, September 17). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 – 1954), p. 4. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article2695592
• Melbourne Ascot. (1946, October 16). The West Australian (Perth, WA : 1879 – 1954), p. 10. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46176932
• Defence Area Rates Claim: Councils’ Cannot Collect. (1947, June 3). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 – 1954), p. 16. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18028584
• Rents Higher for New Flats. (1948, March 9). The Argus (Melbourne, Vic. : 1848 – 1956), p. 5. http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22548833

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