City West Telephone Exchange, 434-436 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
Butler, Graeme1985
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City West Telephone Exchange, 434-436 Little Bourke Street, Melbourne
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Date of work:
1985
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BIF-CITY 105866
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
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Graphic materialsTextual material
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Series: Central City (BIF-CITY)
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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________IMAGE: https://flic.kr/p/2nrkgA6Period: Inter-WarDATE: 1929 design, 1935-7;ASSOCIATIONS: Post Master General Department;DESIGNER: Murdoch, JS Commonwealth Director-general of Works;BUILDER: Burne, W. C. & Sons, of Richmond.GRAEME BUTLER 1985-7 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYStatement of SignificanceHistoryByron Moore's Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company erected Melbourne's first Exchange (35-37 Wills Street) in the mid-1880s, after operating from Collins Street west in the early 1880s. It was taken over by the Colonial Government in 1887, after more exchanges had been established at Bendigo and Ballarat. Federation, in 1901, took postal, telegraphic and telephone services from the new States : all coming under the Post Master General. A trunk line link to Sydney followed in 1907 and Australia's first automatic exchange was opened at Geelong in 1912. Airmail was a further development, Australia's first overseas call reached London in 1930, and Victoria was linked to Tasmania, by submarine cable, in 1935.As the effects of the Depression waned, the Postmaster General's Department commenced an extensive building campaign, providing automatic exchanges at Caulfield (2000 lines), Brunswick (3600 lines) and City West (6000 lines). Caulfield was the first to be completed, in 1935, co-inciding with the start of this building.After a lull, during World War Two, some 84 million dollars was spent as a temporarily curtailed capital works programme for communications generally. In 1935, 92 telephones per 1000 population were connected, via 1650 Victorian exchanges. It took nearly 20 years for this figure to double.City West Telephone Exchange (`alterations and additions') was contract number 73, signed in March 1935, for a sum of 58,965 pounds. Victorian Works Director, H. J. MacKennel, countersigned the contract drawings, while Architect Grade I, Harry Hughes, appears to have created them.DescriptionThe `alterations and additions' appear to have been extensive, dwarfing the saw-tooth roof building abutting at the rear. Modern Georgian revival in character, the `addition' comprised six large reinforced concrete floors (held by a concrete encased steel frame), ground and basement. Parapeted and of face red brick, the historicism of the design was implied rather than replicated, with the major openings, the three bayed elevation and lofty `rusticated' ground level all blandly but boldly stated in a typical manner for the period.Details are suggested with recessed, brick-on-edge or brick-on-end bands or corbelled panels, and directly stated with carved stone architraves, masonry and string moulds at major façade openings, basement cladding and storey divisions. Window panes were metal framed and possessed borders. Ground-level, inside the building, hardly fulfilled the promise of the grand elevation. Occupied mainly by plant (battery, air-conditioning, filter, boiler and main-frame rooms included), the entrance was into an open stair well (with central lift) which ascended through three levels of switch rooms to the Trunk Exchange where a jarrah floor (built on the concrete slab) and sand-absorbing plaster ceiling and wall panels indicate some human activity. The floor above (sixth) was devoted to staff facilities (telephonists' and mechanics' lunchrooms, sick and rest bays, locker areas) and then there was the flat roof, close at hand for outdoor recreation.Despite the building's largely non-human occupation, it was elevated in the manner of a typical major public building of the period.External IntegrityGenerally original.StreetscapeAdjoins the similar elevation, former High Court, both recognizably Commonwealth public buildings of their period.SignificanceA large and distinctive design among similarly scaled private commercial equivalents, but a typical and a major example of the limited number of between-wars designs emanating from the Melbourne office under Works Director MacKennel also complementary to the former High Court..GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?W. J. Thomas of the Geelong Customs House had experimented in 1877 with home-made telephones and successfully linked houses in his locality. Telephone communication was introduced to Melbourne from 1878 when hardware importers McLean Bros. & Rigg linked their Elizabeth Street and Spencer Street stores. In February 1878, successful communication was made between Melbourne and Ballarat using telephones made by Challon of the Central Telegraph Office, Melbourne. Another private telephone service connecting the Melbourne and South Melbourne offices of Robinson Brothers was launched in 1879, among those of other business houses in the city.Australia's first public telephone exchange was opened in Melbourne August 1880 by the Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company, owned by W. H. Masters and T. T. Draper. The Manager of the company was H. Byron Moore. This was two years after the world's first exchange in the United StatesThe Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company erected Melbourne's first purpose built telephone exchange (35-37 Wills Street) in 1884, after operating from Collins Street in the old Stock Exchange building at 367 Collins Street. The Melbourne Telephone Exchange Company, among others, was taken over by the Colonial Government in 1887, after more exchanges had been established at Bendigo and Ballarat. Other colonial governments followed this example.Federation, in 1901, took postal, telegraphic and telephone services from the new States : all coming under the Commonwealth Post Master General. The Post Master General undertook a number of communication projects such as a trunk-line link to Sydney followed in 1907 and Australia's first automatic exchange was opened at Geelong in 1912. Airmail was developed, Australia's first overseas call reached London in 1930, and Victoria was linked to Tasmania, by submarine cable in 1935.By 1910, the demand for telephone services outgrew the Wills Street building a new exchange was built at 447 Lonsdale Street (since replaced by the Lonsdale Exchange), with an inspection of the new exchange by Alexander Graham Bell in 1910. The first automatic public exchange was opened at Geelong in Victoria two years later with 800 subscribers.In January 1923 Harry Percy Brown was appointed Director General of the Post Master General's department. Among the many innovations introduced to this country by Brown was the promotion of automated telephone exchanges, eliminating the need for an operator. Nationally, twenty-two such exchanges were constructed or designed between Brown's appointment and June 1925. The Melbourne City West Exchange was designed but not constructed as part of this spate of activity.As the effects of the Great Depression waned, the Postmaster General's Department commenced an extensive building campaign, providing automatic exchanges at Caulfield (2000 lines), Brunswick (3600 lines) and City West (6000 lines). Caulfield was the first to be completed, in 1935, coinciding with the start of the City West Telephone Exchange. In 1935, 92 telephones per 1000 head of population were connected, via 1650 Victorian exchanges. It took nearly 20 years for this figure to double after a lull during World War Two: some $84 million was spent on the curtailed capital works programme for communications generally.The City West Telephone Exchange (`alterations and additions' to the rear of the existing Lonsdale Street exchange) was contract number 73, signed in March 1935, for a sum of ₤58,965. Victorian Works Director, H. J. MacKennel, countersigned the contract drawings, while Architect Grade I, Harry Hughes, appears to have amended them. The highly notable Commonwealth Director-general of Works JS Murdoch had signed the initial drawings in 1929: the Victorian office had finalised the drawings to allow construction once the economic climate allowed. The `alterations and additions' were extensive, dwarfing the earlier saw-tooth roof exchange building abutting at the rear.The ground-level lobby hardly fulfilled the promise of the grand elevation but still retains valuable wall and floor finishes. Occupied mainly by plant (battery, air-conditioning, filter, boiler and main-frame rooms included), this entrance was into an open stair well (with central lift) which ascended through three levels of switch rooms to the Trunk Exchange where a jarrah floor (built on the concrete slab), sand-absorbing plaster ceiling and wall panels indicate some human activity. The floor above (sixth) was devoted to staff facilities (telephonists' and mechanics' lunchrooms, sick and rest bays, locker areas) and then there was the flat roof, close at hand for outdoor recreation. Despite the building's largely non-human occupation, it was designed externally in the manner of a typical major public building of the period.Modern Georgian revival in character and Commercial Palazzo in form, the `addition' comprised six large reinforced concrete floors (held by a concrete encased steel frame), ground and basement. Parapeted in form and clad with face red brick, the historicism of the design was implied rather than replicated, with the major openings, the three bayed elevation and lofty `rusticated' ground level all boldly stated in a typical manner for the period. The vertical tripartite division of the façade includes a heavy rusticated base and neutral intermediate floors surmounted by a prominent rusticated cornice. The building is further distinguished by two-storey arched windows and entry elements on the ground floor.Details are suggested, with recessed, brick-on-edge or brick-on-end bands or corbelled panels, and directly stated with carved stone architraves, masonry and string moulds at major façade openings, the basement cladding and storey divisions. Window panes were metal framed and possessed borders.City West Telephone Exchange is generally original externally and is near to the similarly styled elevation of the Murdoch designed former High Court (later Federal Court), both recognizably Commonwealth public buildings of their period.How is it significant?The City West Telephone Exchange is significant historically and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City ZoneWhy is it significant?City West Telephone Exchange is significant as a well preserved, large and a distinctive Commonwealth Government design, a typical and a major example of the limited number of government inter-war designs outside Canberra associated with the first Commonwealth Government Architect, John Smith Murdoch, and is therefore complementary to his similarly styled High Court building adjoining. It is a rare example of this unusual building type within Melbourne's Capital City Zone and is of note as one of the early major purpose-built automated exchanges to be built in Victoria..RAWORTH, B 2002. REVIEW OF HERITAGE OVERLAY LISTINGS IN THE CBDfor the City of MelbourneHistory and DescriptionTelephone communications were introduced to Melbourne from 1878 when the first Melbourne telephone exchange was opened [Lewis]. The Melbourne Telephone Company was a private enterprise established by Henry Byron Moore who established his facility on the roof of the Mail Exchange Building in Collins Street. All telephones on the system were connected to the exchange and calls to other users were routed manually by an operator. Over the next few years, a raft of competitors emerged with rival exchanges plunging the system into disarray. The Melbourne Telephone Company was one of a number of companies to be nationalised and incorporated into the existing telegraph network in 1887, eventually coming under the control of the Post Master General's Office.In January 1923 Harry Percy Brown was appointed Director General of the PMG. Among the many innovations introduced to this country by Brown was the adoption of automated telephone exchanges, eliminating the need for an operator. Nationally, twenty-two such exchanges were constructed between Brown's appointment and June 1925 and it appears that the Melbourne West Exchange was constructed as part of this spate of activity [Humphreys]. The building remains in use as a telephone exchange today.The Melbourne West telephone exchange on Little Bourke Street was constructed as a seven storey addition to the City's telecommunications infrastructure. It is likely that the design emanated from the Commonwealth Department of Works under John Smith Murdoch [Lewis]. Murdoch's office was responsible for a number of designs for telephone exchanges during this period. The building broadly adopts the relatively common form of an interwar ‘palazzo’ with the vertical tripartite division of the facade into a heavy rusticated base and neutral intermediate floors surmounted by a prominent rusticated cornice. The building is distinguished by two-storey window and entry elements on the ground floor. It is in good and very original condition.Statement of SignificanceThe Melbourne West Telephone Exchange is of aesthetic and historical significance at a local level as a rare example of this unusual building type within Melbourne's CBD.It is of note as one of the first automated exchanges to be built in Victoria and for its associations with the first Commonwealth Government Architect, John Smith Murdoch.Footnotes:Miles Lewis, Melbourne, The City's History and Development, pp.71,98..IMAGEShttps://drive.google.com/file/d/1L1BpJqxepfQaDRdj9WeHrIV73zNTOzMs/view?usp=sharing.GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM.Victorian Year Book`Victorian Year Book' (VYB) 1974: 260-`Victorian Year Book' (VYB) 1984: 515-.Graeme Butler & AssociatesContract drawingscopy held by Graeme Butler dated March 1935 `City West Telephone Exchange Melbourne, Alterations and additions' subtitled `Works Director Victoria Amended by Harry Hughes' and signed Horace MacKennel and JS Murdoch Director General of Works 1929.History of Telephone Exchanges in Australia(http://www.retro-rotary-phones.com/ccp0-display/history-of-the-telephone-exchange-in-australia.html)cites:Victorian Post Office report 1878`Town and Country Journal', 10 September 1887, Byron Moore on takeover`The Australasian Sketcher', January 1881 on new Melbourne Telephone Exchange.CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS - none.NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)`The West Australian' (Perth, WA : 1879-1954) Monday 4 June 1951:Contract: A £336,000 contract to build an eight-storey extension to the Melbourne city west telephone exchange has been let to Keith G. Hooker and Co., of South Melbourne.`The Argus':Thursday 14 February 1935Tenders:` DEPARTMENT OI THE INTERIORTENDERS accompanied by the necessary deposit and on the prescribed form «re invited for EREC- TION of NEW BUILDING for Automatic Telephone Exchange City West MelbourneTenders close 11 a.m. on 35th February 1936 with the Works Director Victoria 315 Post office place Melbourne where plans specifications and quantities are available £5/6/ must be deposited for each set of quantities and this amount will be returned on receipt of a bona fide tender for the complete contract. Envelope to be endorsed Tender for City west Telephone Exchange 'Friday 22 March 1935Melbourne Telephones (Canberra).— Alterations and additions to the City West telephone exchange, Melbourne, at a cost of £58,945 are authorised in the Commonwealth 'Gazette.' The tender of W. C. Burne & Sons, of Richmond, has been accepted for the workFriday 26 November 1937NEW TELEPHONEEXCHANGEOpen To-morrowThe new City West telephone exchange in Little Bourke street will be opened to-morrow, and 5,000 lines will be transferred to the automatic service.The prefix MU will be used before all numbers attached to the exchange. The 'cut-over' will take place at 2 p.m.The opening of the City West exchange has made it necessary to alter the prefix to numbers 1,000 to 4,999 attached to the South Melbourne exchange from M to MX.Conversion of the Brunswick exchange service from the manual to the automatic system has been completed. The 2,000 lines attached to the exchange will have numbers prefixed by Factory/warehouse.'Dial tone,' a low-pitched humming, heard as soon as the receiver is lifted, which indicates that the line is in order, it has been introduced on the Brunswick, ' South Melbourne, and City West exchanges.Friday 10 June 1949£197,300'phoneextensionsCANBERRA, Thurs: Parliament today approved extensions, estimated to cost £197,300, to the Melbourne City West telephone exchange.Mr Lemmon, Minister for Works and Housing, who moved that the work be done, said the extensions had been recommended by the Parliamentary Public Works Committee.Mr White (Lib, V) said that while many thousands of people were waiting for telephones, many more thousands were waiting for homes. Mr Calwell, Minister for Information, said new telephone exchanges must be developed. The Government's building programme would become disproportionate if there was singular concentration on home building.'Friday 23 January 1953Saucer faces eastTHE P.M.G.'s Department also is experimenting with a micro- wave link between Sydney and the south coast town of Wollongong, and it has nearly completed a Sydney Canberra service.It will eventually tackle the 500 miles between Melbourne and Sydney.On top. of the city west telephone exchange, in Little Bourke st., you soon will be able to see a big metal saucer, standing on edge and facing east.The saucer has a small stem in the centre, and it faintly resembles an old style radiator.Called a parabolic reflector, the saucer transmits micro-waves in the same way as radiators reflect heatwaves.The micro-waves, unlike broadcasting waves which can surge around corners, travel as straight as a searchlight towards Warragul.Unlike ordinary short waves, which bounce from horizon to sky and . back again, micro-waves 'hit' the Dandenong Ranges and shoot straight off into space.That is the reason for the 'relay' station at Ferny Creek.This station harnesses the waves and re-transmits them to Warragul, where a similar saucer receives and passes them on to robot interpreters for converting back into speech.One reason for the Department's interest in micro- waves is the world shortage of copper for telephone wires, and a shortage of wood and steel for poles.Experts hope to extend the system beyond . its present restricted range.On the proposed Melbourne-Sydney service signals will be relayed along a string of stations on hills 30 to 40 miles apart.'DEPARTMENT officials believe that, after the initial expense of experimenting and install- ling, micro-wave could cut the telephone system's running costs. You'll hear a lot about micro-wave in the next few years. -Bernard Barrett'The Age 28/02/1987: 13see https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bEpt8Q8KI7glCpLlr0fWJulekZ10Am9W/view?usp=sharing.AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHYD. I. McDonald, 'Murdoch, John Smith (1862 - 1945)',Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 10, Melbourne University Press, 1986, pp 621-622.`MURDOCH, JOHN SMITH (1862-1945), architect and public servant, was born on 29 September 1862 at Cassieford, Elgin County, Scotland, son of John Murdoch, farmer, and his wife Bathia, née Smith. Educated at Rafford School and Forres Academy he trained as an architect in Edinburgh and worked at Inverness, Glasgow, and with the Scottish railways before migrating to Victoria about 1884. He was a draughtsman in Queensland's Department of Mines and Works in 1885-87 then worked privately. Rejoining the public service, in March 1894 he became a draughtsman in the Department of Public Works, rising to district architect in 1902.In July 1904 he transferred to the Commonwealth as senior clerk, public works branch, Department of Home Affairs. Senior assistant to the director-general Percy T. Owen from 1909, Murdoch was a member of the reviewing board for the national capital design competition, won by Walter Burley Griffin in May 1912. While overseas that year in connexion with plans for Australia House, London, he negotiated with the Royal Institute of British Architects on a proposed international competition for a parliament house and in Chicago, United States of America, called on Griffin. The two later fell out, partly over Griffin's belief that Murdoch was one of the departmental officers who was hostile to his capital design and partly over differences about conditions for the parliament house competition, which in any case was finally abandoned.Promoted architect in 1914, and chief architect, Department of Works and Railways, in 1919-29, Murdoch was responsible for the design and construction of many early Canberra buildings, such as the provisional parliament house, the power-house and the Hotel Canberra. With (Sir) John Sulman and K. A. Henderson he assessed residential-area plans for Canberra in 1923. In 1926 he was an adjudicator of competitions for design of the Australian war memorials in Canberra and Villers-Bretonneux, France. As Commonwealth architect he was responsible for the design of the General Post Office, Perth (1923), Spencer Street Post Office and the High Court of Australia (1925, now Federal Court), Melbourne. He laid out Forrest Place, Perth, and Anzac Square, Brisbane.Director-general of works from 1927, Murdoch transferred with the department to Canberra in 1929. He retired in September and was appointed to the Federal Capital Commission, serving until its abolition in April 1930. C. S. Daley, a close colleague greatly influenced by Murdoch, remembered him as a man of 'wide cultural and human studies', generous in his 'quiet and constant benefactions to charity, and assistance to public servants in misfortune'. He had been interested in Scouting and the Canberra Relief Society. A fellow (1914) and councillor (1925-30) of the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects, he was a fellow (1926) of the Royal Institute of British Architects and foundation member of the Royal Australian Institute of Architects. In 1927 he was appointed C.M.G.Murdoch, a bachelor, died on 21 May 1945 at Brighton, Melbourne, and was cremated. A dour Scot, Murdoch had been mindful of the need to conserve public funds. Although in 1916 he had 'no particular enthusiasm' for the Canberra project, describing it as 'a sort of mythical thing' on which expenditure could not at the time be justified, during the period of inter-war development he made a positive contribution to its architecture and was responsible for significant Commonwealth buildings throughout Australia.Select BibliographyD. I. McDonald, ‘Architect J. S. Murdoch and the provisional parliament house’, Canberra Historical Journal, Mar 1985, p 18, and for bibliography.'.DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1915 Post office stores1920, 1924, 1930-1935 436 Telephone Exchange (back entrance)1939, 1944 not listed (but Exchange Sandwich Shop is)1950, 19555 City West Telephone Exchange
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| Type | Reference No. | Extent | Status/Desc |
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| Original | 105866 | 1 JPEG : 427 KB ; A4 | Single Item (May not be issued, may not be reproduced) |