EASTERN HILL FIRE STATION
446-476 ALBERT STREET AND 23-41 GISBORNE STREET AND 108-122 VICTORIA STREET EAST MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY
WORLD HERITAGE ENVIRONS AREA
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The Eastern Hill Fire Station is a two storey brick building with accompanying watch tower built on an elevated with a wide panorama of the City. Architectural firms Tayler & Fitts, and Smith & Johnston designed the fire station in collaboration as a merger of two competition winning designs. Thomas Cockram & Co. constructed the building at a cost of nearly £16,000. The fire station was opened in 1893 as the headquarters station for the newly established Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board. Residential and workshop extensions, made to the rear of the building in the 1920's were replaced by a new head station building in 1978, and in later years the west wing of the original building was demolished. The Eastern Hill Fire Station displays some traces of the Queen Anne revival style that was popular in Britain in the 1870s and 1880s. The contrasting materials of red brick and cement, the use of parapeted gables with flanking scrolls, the steeply pitched roof and tall chimneys all contribute to this style. The building remains essentially a composition in the classical style, combining arcuation and trabeation. The Eastern Hill Fire Station is composed of two two-storey arcades flanking a central pavilion. The ground floor arcade is raised on a bluestone plinth. The upper storey arcade has depressed arches. The tower, with a cast iron and glass lookout and a projecting lower balcony is 150 ft. high. It was served by a direct-current electrical lift. The tower's style, with arched openings and niches, is reminiscent of Italian Romanesque campaniles.
How is it significant?
The Eastern Hill Fire Station is of architectural and historical significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
The Eastern Hill Fire Station is architecturally significant for its distinctive massing enhanced by its unusual stylistic treatment. Stylistically it borrows elements from a number of sources, including the Queen Anne revival, but it is unified by classical principles. The Eastern Hill Fire Station is important as a late work of two prominent architectural practices, Tayler & Fitts and Smith & Johnston. The building is significant as a representative and essentially intact example of a building type. The ground floor boardroom and the watch room installed in the former hayloft in the 1920's are significant intact elements. The steel framed corrugated iron clad training structure attached to the south side of the watch tower recalls the use of the extraordinary "hook and ladder" technique which enabled firemen to gain external access to multi-storey buildings.
The Eastern Hill Fire Station is of historical significance as the first major project undertaken by the
Metropolitan Fire Brigades Board. It is a focal point in the historical development of organised fire fighting in Melbourne. The original building remained the Board's flagship for nearly ninety years and set the standard for the development of fire fighting installations throughout the metropolis. The tall watch tower, which dominated the city skyline for over half a century, became an important civic landmark.
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EASTERN HILL FIRE STATION - History
History of Place:
Eastern Hill was ideally suited as a site for the station for its capacity for views to suburbs as far away as Brighton, Coburg, Footscray and Williamstown. Communications remained poor and the primary means of notifiying fires to the brigade was by spotting from a tower. The tower was manned 24 hours a day.
The Illustrated Austalia News of 1 July 1892 observed that the combination of winning entries in the design competition "will prove very effective for the purposes required, and be decidedly picturesque. The Queen Anne style of architecture is adopted, and the elevation reveals a substantial and ornamental structure."
Associated People: Tayler & Fitts;EASTERN HILL FIRE STATION - Permit Exemptions
General Exemptions:General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions. Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.EASTERN HILL FIRE STATION - Permit Exemption Policy
The registered place is located within the declared World Heritage Environs Area for the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens. In accordance with the permit considerations set out in the Heritage Act 1995, proposed works to the registered place must consider:- the effect of the works on the World Heritage values of the Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens; and
- the approved "World Heritage Environs Area Strategy Plan: Royal Exhibition Building and Carlton Gardens" (Department of Planning and Community Development, 2009).
The Commonwealth's Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 and Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Regulations 2000, as they relate to actions that may impact on World Heritage values, must also be considered.
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