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CRANWELL PARK INDUSTRIAL SITE
56-82 CRANWELL STREET BRAYBROOK, MARIBYRNONG CITY
CRANWELL PARK INDUSTRIAL SITE
56-82 CRANWELL STREET BRAYBROOK, MARIBYRNONG CITY
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Victorian Heritage Inventory
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The site is located within Cranwell Park reserve, a vacant lot situated on the top of the escarpment leading down to Maribyrnong River to the north. The site currently contains an open grassed park.
The township of Braybrook was established along the Saltwater River in 1854. Due to the shifted focus of settlement to the west and the access to a waterway the riverside allotments become the location of noxious industries, including a guncotton works and various piggeries, knackeries and other noxious trades which operated on the site from the 1890s to 1960s. The Silicate & Dolomite Co. dominated the site from the 1950s.
The guncotton works, operated by Mark Gardener, was established in the Cranwell St, Braybrook area, near the Maribyrnong River in 1873-1876. In the 1890s William Blair, the Ewers Brothers and H Hiyam were listed as slaughtermen on the north side of the site. Subsequent twentieth century occupants included Charles Dodd’s Piggery, and knackery. In the 1930s and ‘40s, Gilbert expanded and was joined by the Ficken, Halliday and McClelland Pty Ltd boiling down works. A Harris tallow manufacturer. Ficken, Halliday and McClelland were established in the 1920s and had their main works to the east in Cranwell Street. This building remains under the name Klipspringer.
Then in 1955 the Silicate & Dolomite Company took over part of the site, eventually expanding to most of the eastern part of the block, displacing Ficken, Halliday and McClelland. Silicate & Dolomite was registered in Sydney in 1938 (The Sun 18 October 1938: 16), and manufactured chemical products used in the glass and metal industries for about forty years before closing in 1981. By the 1970s, industrial use of the site appears to have ceased, and only residential occupants are listed as C Roswell and Mrs B Upwell.
Archaeological materials comprising brick, concrete and stone rubble, cemented rubble deposits, glass, ceramic, metal and other materials were found in all shovel test pits during a CHMP complex assessment. Once it was determined that the material was related to occupation of the site.
The site has potential to provide archaeological evidence relating to industrial processes including waste material and structural remains of manufacturing plant such as furnaces, chimneys and processing equipment foundations. There is also potential for archaeological evidence of a domestic nature related to the occupation of the residence on the site.
How is it significant?
This place is of local historical and regional archaeological significance.
Why is it significant?
The Cranwell Park industrial site is historically significant as it demonstrates the development of the area as an industrial complex based on the Saltwater River. it is of archaeological significance for its potential to reveal information about development along the Saltwater River.
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