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Watson's warehouse, later Broadcasting Company of Australia studios, 3LO, 3AW and Kelvin Club, Melbourne Place, Melbourne

Butler, Graeme1985
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Title:
Watson's warehouse, later Broadcasting Company of Australia studios, 3LO, 3AW and Kelvin Club, Melbourne Place, Melbourne
Date of work:
1985
Reference number:
BIF-CITY 106505
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Item from Collection: Heritage Collection (HC)
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Graphic materialsTextual material
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RESEARCH ADDED BY GRAEME BUTLER 2022:__________________________________________________DATE: 1873-1874, 1926-;ASSOCIATIONS: Watson, J B;DESIGNER: Watts, Thomas?; RM King 1926; Clive J Tyers 1957;BUILDER: Delbridge, EdwardPeriod: Early Victorian.GRAEME BUTLER & ASSOCIATES 2011, CENTRAL CITY (HODDLE GRID) HERITAGE REVIEWStatement of SignificanceWhat is significant?The former warehouse was constructed in 1871 for John Boyd (JB) Watson (1828-1889), a nationally prominent mining magnate and investor, by builder, Edward Delbridge. The designer is thought to be Thomas Watts. When this building was constructed Watson had become one of the Colony's richest men from his gold enterprises in Bendigo, investing in property across Victoria and New South Wales. His son, JB Watson, owned Labassa in Caulfield from 1904, as one of Melbourne's most lavishly decorated nineteenth century mansions.The first occupants of the two-storey premises in Melbourne Place were Stanford & Co, printers, followed by others in the trade, such as H.W. Mills & Co. and F.T. Wimble & Co., The Worker newspaper; also N.S. Morrey Pty. Ltd., blouse & costume manufacturers, were there in the early 1920s.In the late 1920s the building was occupied by the Broadcasting Company of Australia, (owned by Farmer and Co., J. and N. Tait, Buckley and Nunn Limited and the Herald and Weekly Times Limited) as Australia's first networked `A-class' radio station 3LO (operating from 1924).The upstairs floor was the studios of radio 3LO, originally designed in 1926 and built in 1927 for the days when music was broadcast live to an audience. The designer was RM King who became known for his Moderne style designs. The rendered south wing was his concept, designed o have a giant radio dial around the upper level window. The upper level of the interior was fitted with a stage and recording studios, with a small one at the north end and a 60 seater at the south end. Offices and lounge areas were on ground level.In 1928, the company was acquired by the Sydney-based Australian Broadcasting Company and, after an Act of Parliament, by the Australian Government. The Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) continued there from July 1932 as radio stations 3LO and 3AR until Broadcast House was erected in Lonsdale Street, 1941.Programmes broadcast from there included The Children's Session, with its Argonauts Club, which ran in Melbourne from 1933-1934. The ABC launched the first of its 'Australian Composers' competitions there to encourage local composers and, in 1934, Professor Bernard Heinze was appointed part-time musical adviser to the Commission which already had instrumental ensembles in Sydney and Melbourne. Robert Menzies used these studios to declare war against Germany in 1939. Images of the upper level interior in its broadcast studio days show exposed roof trusses and wall panelling.By the mid 1940s, the upper level had become the 3AW Broadcasting Company’s Radio Theatre or Studio One, described as `off Russell St' (in Melbourne Place). Radio 3AW had gone there soon after the ABC vacated to Lonsdale Street, conducting many popular programmes in the days when radio played a major role in entertainment. Architect Charles N Hollinshed acted for 3AW Broadcasting Company Pty Ltd. planned alterations which probably included acoustic treatment to walls and ceilings.From 1946 the Kelvin Club rented the ground floor of 3AW and commissioned changes designed by Bernard (later Sir Bernard) Evans. This club is thought to have a history dating back to 1865 as a luncheon club with origins in Melbourne's prevailing scientific societies but the present club was formed in 1927 as a private member's club with membership drawn from the academic, corporate, legal, and medical, arts, public service and private business communities. The Kelvin Club was named in honour of Lord Kelvin, the Scottish physicist.Around 1950, the Club purchased the building freehold for £25,000, continuing in the ground floor with 3AW as its tenant upstairs. In 1956, 3AW moved out, and after extensive alterations, designed by Clive Tyers, the Kelvin Club occupied the whole building. The changes included removal of many of the old radio fittings such as the stage and acoustic linings and the installation of a central bar and grand stair in place of the contained stair once at the south end.This is a two storey face brick row of warehouses or workshops, with a deep cemented cornice, terminated by bracketed blocks, and a brick string course at the first floor level. Window openings are segmentally arched on both levels with deep voussoirs and keystones and doorways have flat arch heads, all with stop-chamfered reveals achieved with squint bricks. Quarry faced bluestone with tooled margins is used for the wall plinths.The southernmost façade bay has been clad in 1927 with smooth, deeply rusticated render, with a deep ogee-profile cornice at the first floor level, and an impost mould that rests on stylised near flat modillions or banners on each side of the double entry doors. This created a grander entry in a Modern Georgian style typical of the 1920s, and the new radio station use.Some windows at ground floor level have been enlarged and the façade painted, presumably over coloured brickwork.The building is uncommon in the Capital City Zone because of the use of face brick (see more typically rendered and stone finished warehouses of the early Victorian-era), the length of the building and the back lane siting.How is it significant?Watson's warehouse is significant historically, socially and aesthetically to the Melbourne Capital City Zone.Why is it significant?Watson's warehouse is of aesthetic significance as a representative and relatively early example of a brick warehouse building (probably dichrome) which is also distinguished today by its façade length and uncommon (but appropriate for workshops) back lane siting.The building is historically significant for its association with the millionaire investor JB Watson, and later the beginnings of both public and commercial radio in Australia which is exhibited on the façade as a single bay of the Modern Georgian style. The former warehouse is also of interest as an inner city `gentlemen's club', the Kelvin Club, since the 1940s..RAWORTH, B 2002. REVIEW OF HERITAGE OVERLAY LISTINGS IN THE CBDfor the City of MelbourneHistory and DescriptionThe former warehouse presently known as the Kelvin Club, was constructed in 1871 for JB Watson [Butler]. The designer and builder are not known. The first occupants of the two-storey premises were Stanford & Co, printers. From 1928-30 the building was occupied by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, before becoming the headquarters of the Kelvin Club. It is a representative example of a large but somewhat altered city warehouse.As constructed, the building was a modest two storey design in face brick. The façade of the building is almost without decorative detail other than an understated string course and a cornice finished in render. A number of alterations have been undertaken since the time of its construction. The southern section of the building has been decorated with smooth rustication and an ornamental awning to create a grand entry,the windows at ground floor level have been enlarged and the entire facade of the building has been painted . As a consequence, much of the early character of the building has been lost. The building appears to be in need of some maintenance but generally in sound condition.Statement of SignificanceThe former warehouse presently known as the Kelvin Club is of some aesthetic and historic significance at a local level as a representative and relatively early example of a brick warehouse building with associations to the Australian Broadcasting Commission and the Kelvin Club.Footnotes:Butler, CAD Conservation Study, 1985, Kelvin Club..GRAEME BUTLER 1985 MELBOURNE CENTRAL ACTIVITIES DISTRICT CONSERVATION STUDYBUILDING IDENTIFICATION FORM cites Lewis, Nigel 1976 Historic and Architectural Survey of the Central City of Melbourne Bourke Street, east, Area 8 of the survey commissioned by the Historic Buildings Preservation Council. Page 27, 85: cites directories and rate book RB1871- owner is Stanford, occ Hordern `brick and stone store 2 floors… JB Watson owner from c1874 when larger site size recorded and NAV occ Stanford & Co Not Recommended for Historic Buildings Register__________________________________________________CITY OF MELBOURNE BUILDING PERMIT APPLICATIONS1873, 5345 for Watson:VPRO:23/12/1926, 9239 additions, altered for broadcasting station: Broadcasting Company of Australia A=RM King5/4/1957 31049 stair, partitions for Kelvin Club ₤20,000__________________________________________________Mahlstedt Fire Insurance Plan Series:Mahlstedt & Gee 1888: Plan 5: 3 large compartments, one small at north end; Royce & Kemp lithographers and printers. 2 storeyMahlstedt 1910-1923: Plan 5: FT Wimble printers supplies, 3 large compartments, one small at north end; 2 storeys, each with a central door and 2 windows either side. west of the Eastern Arcade.__________________________________________________City of Melbourne i-Heritage:Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984 Building Identification Form (BIF): Notable features include early brick warehouse (CF. Others surviving in MCC i-Heritage: Central Activities District Conservation Study - Graeme Butler, 1984), symmetry compromised by end alteration. Interior recommended for inspection. Alterations / Recommendations: New stucco (sympathetic - reinstate original design), openings altered (sympathetic), bricks painted (inappropriate - remove by approved method), windows replaced and new doors (inappropriate - reinstate original design or sympathetic alternative). Other Comments Occupier: Stanford & Co (printers); Occupier: 1928 - 30) Australian Broadcasting Corporation; v1 p.166 shown in 1870 view: as is with loading doors (now gone).__________________________________________________Cusack, `Bendigo a history': 148(John Boyd) Watson and Latham mine owners wonder when they would become millionaires; 151- `enormously rich Kentish Mine from which its owner J B Watson, was credited with taking some 13 tons of gold, then worth ₤1,500,000'. Watson was becoming the richest man in Bendigo and perhaps the colony - success story of Bendigo gold, Scottish - came to Sydney, as a butcher's boy, went to California diggings, returned to Australia and Bendigo where he struck gold at White Hills, later quartz mining at Paddy's Gully, purchased Golden Fleece, Kent and central Garden Gully- amalgamated as the Kentish Mine - invested widely, real estate, Sydney & Melbourne- died June 1889, Victorian property alone at one million pounds.__________________________________________________AUSTRALIAN DICTIONARY OF BIOGRAPHYFrank Cusack, 'Watson, John Boyd (1828 - 1889)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University Press, 1976, pp 363-364.__________________________________________________Macbeth, Pioneer Index;John Boyd Watson has son JB Watson at Bendigo in 1862, wife is Mary Ann Covell who he had married in 1861 (d. 1911).__________________________________________________eMelbourne website (Encyclopedia for Melbourne):Melbourne Place is a U-shaped lane located off Russell Street. The first date of commercial occupation in the place is 1839. In 1892, H.W. Mills & Co. ran their printing and lithographing business from Melbourne Place. In 1910, the Worker Newspaper Trustees were located in the place, as were in the 1920s the radio stations 3LO and 3AR. By 1961, the Kelvin Club was also listed in the place.Patricia McMullanReferencesSands & McDougall’s commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1892.Sands & McDougall's commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1910.Sands & McDougall's commercial and general Melbourne directory, Sands & McDougall, Melbourne, 1961. Details'Melbourne Place (HI Number: H7822-1660)', in Victorian Heritage Register On-Line, 2000, http://www.doi.vic.gov.au/doi/hvolr.nsf. DetailsBate, Weston, Essential but unplanned: The story of Melbourne's lanes, State Library of Victoria and the City of Melbourne, Melbourne, 1994.Also cites:Correspondence file between William Hordern and City of Melbourne, re Melbourne Place'asking permission to call a lane on his property in Russell St Melbourne Place'16 September 1872Archival SourceUnit 472, 1872/1398; VPRS 3181/P000, City of Melbourne Town Clerk's Files Series 1; Public Record Office Victoria, Victorian Archives Centre.__________________________________________________NEWSPAPERS (TROVE)`The Argus':Thursday 1 June 1854, Friday 28 July 1854, Thursday 5 October 1854 JB Watson, manager of Melbourne and Hobson's Bay Railway, running and opening of line… (1852, the Melbourne and Hobson’s Bay Railway Company had been formed to construct a linefrom Melbourne to Sandridge [Port Melbourne])Saturday 21 July 1855 advertises freehold mortgages one or two thousand pounds advanced - JB Watson of 81 Elizabeth StThursday 25 June 1857 JBW moved to elect board chair as Thomas A'Beckett of newly formed THE ST. KILDA AND BRIGHTON RAILWAY COMPANY. Capital, £125,000,….Monday 15 March 1858, JB Watson of 81 Elizabeth St (advertises as agent - garden on Merri Creek, 6 miles from Melbourne).17/2/1872:At Rosalie Farm, Darebin Creek, South Preston.BELLIN and WILKINSON have received Instructions from J B. Watson, Esq , to SELL by AUCTION (through J. Bellin, auctioneer), on the premises, Rosalie Farm, Darebin Creek, South Preston, on Monday, 26th …(with) 22 superior milch cows, 1 shorthorn bull, 20 head young stock, 1 brood sow, 6 porkers, 12 couplegeese. ..Dairy Utensils.2 Robinson's patent cheese presses I1 patent duplex action churn, 1 American churn,milk dishes, choose vats, tubs, SeFarming Implements1 dray, 1 truck for carrying stones; 1 plough,barrows, and roller ; 1 set cart harness, 1 setswingle trees, wine press, casks, and a lot ofsundries…N.B -Intending purchasers from Heidelberg district will take the Pentridge road, and these resident in the Plenty district will take the road leading by Watson and Paterson's.The farm, about 60 acres, with brick cottage and outhouses, will be let, if eligible tenders are sent in before 10th March._'.Thursday 27 February 1873Property: `Another Large City Property for Sale. Running from Lonsdale-street North to Little Bourkestreet, Opposite M'Farland and Blyth's Stores, and Situate Nearly Opposite the Hordern Property,Purchased by J. B. Watson, Esq..Friday 21 June 1872JB Watson Freehold tribute Company (gold mine) calls on shareholders …/ WM Barker, manager Sandhurst (Bendigo)1/8/1872 Watson in provisional board of directors,see `PROSPECTUS Of the BENDIGO BANKING COMPANY'.Thursday 30 January 1873tenders called by Thos Watts, repairs to various properties held by JBW..Monday 11 February 1924BROADCASTING COMPANY.Sir G. Tallis to be Chairman....Thursday 9 October 19243LO broadcast from Braybrook transmitterAT BRAYBROOK YESTERDAY.Mr. W. CONDER, Mr. J. TAIT, Managing Director; Director of the Broadcasting Company of Australia Limited, which will commence services from Braybrook on Monday night by broadcasting the Grand Opera at His Majesty's Theatre on the occasion of Dame Melba's final appearance' Connected by land line to Collins st studio..Thursday 9 October 1924BRAYBROOK WIRELESS.INSPECTION OF STATION.'Rehearsal' Transmissions Arranged…most powerful in the world..An interesting feature of the service to be provided will be the manner in which the various sections of the community will be provided for, and talks and concerts will be broadcast from halls in all parts of the metropolis. In addition, a telephone line has been provided to Carlyon's dancing hall at St. Kilda, and dance music will be broadcast every Thursday evening. Transmissions will commence each afternoon at quarter past one o'clock and the station will also transmit at half-past 3 o'clock, half-past 1 o'clock, half-past 6 o'clock, and a quarter past 7 o'clock, …..Tuesday 14 October 1924BROADCASTING BEGINS.GRAND OPERA BY WIRELESS.THOUSANDS OF LISTENERS. Prime Minister's Message…..Monday 15 November 1926MR. PERCY GRAINGER.Broadcasting Recitals.Air Percy Grainger list night gave a pianoforte recital from the studio of 3L0 Melbourne 3 LO Broadcasting Company of Australia has recently taken over a huge new studio in Collins street which enables it to give performances which wore impossible in the former premises.Tuesday 20 September 1927WIRELESS BR0ADCASTING.RELAY STATIONS.Government or Companies? Postmaster general consider relay stations in Victoria….Friday 18 May 1928FIRE IN THE CITY.MANTLE FACTORY BURNT. SPECTACLE ATTRACTS CROWD.Brigade Chief Broadcasts..Broadcasting InterruptedRussell House is situated close to the studios of 3LO, and when the fire was first noticed the broadcasting of a programme of dance music was interrupted and a description of the fire was broadcast Later the general manager of the Broadcasting Company of Australia (Mr W Conder) introduced the chief fire officer (Mr Wilkins), who also broadcast a message Mr Wilkins said that last night's fire was a vivid illustration of the safety of the fire resisting concrete building….'].12/4/1945 QUIZMASTERof . . . .Beat the Champit's the CHAMPION of Quiz shows, with Fred Tupper as referee. £15 is the prize money, in weekly four round contests for listeners and contestants alike. Be at the 3AW Radio Theatre, or tune to 3ÁW-3CV every Tuesday night at 9.30 p.m.Saturday 9 March 1946ON THE AIR TODAYPeters Pals' Party is the special hour's broadcast at 10.30 a.m. from 3AW Radio Theatre. Children are invited to the theatre, in Russell street..21/4/1945Musicians Union.-The Quarterly General meeting of the district will be held at 3AW Radio Theatre, Melbourne place, off 120 Russell St., Melbourne, on Sunday. April 22, at 2.30p.m. sharp. General business, W. H. S. Lamble, secretary,'__________________________________________________LEWIS, M- AUSTRALIAN ARCHITECTURE INDEX:Thos Watts and SonsIllustration of shops, offices &c, cnr. Elizabeth and Little Bourke Sts., Melb., for executors of late J.B.Watson - occupied by Cozens and Harvey, ironmongers.Contractor: Charles Butler & Son PerspectiveAustralasian Builder and Contractor's News 25.7.1891 pp 78-79Thos. Watts.Tenders required for converting late Prothonotary's Office, Lonsdale Street, into shops for J.B. Watson, Esq. Argus 14.6.1878, p 2Thos. Watts & Sons.Tenders wanted for warehouses, Arcade Lane, off Lt. Bourke St., for J. B. Watson, Esq.Argus 9.9.1884, p 3Thos. Watts & Sons.Tenders wanted for store, Latrobe Street, for J. B. Watson.Argus 1.6.1883, p 2Thos. Watts will received tendersfor erecting 3 stores in Little Bourke St. for J.B. Watson Esq.Argus, 15.9.74, p 3Godfrey & Spowers, architects, for newly completed radio station 3AW new record. North West Cnr Queen & Latrobe Sts. Article.Age 19.2.1935 in RVIA Press Cuttings, 1934-5 (cited as 382 Latrobe St but not on a corner, corner cited is public offices- 396-400 Latrobe?)__________________________________________________Kelvin Club web siteThe Kelvin Club, with a history dating back to 1865, is a private member's club located in the heart of Melbourne. Membership is drawn from the academic, corporate, legal, medical, arts, public service and private business communities. The Club is inclusive, with both men and women forming a stimulating and diverse community. ..`In 1947 the Kelvin Club moved to today’s home, renting the ground floor of radio 3AW’s building in Melbourne Place. The dining room was in the present billiard room, and the billiard table was in the bar. This downstairs space had much earlier been a plumber’s workshop with a dirt floor.Three years after we moved here, the Club was able to buy the building for £25,000 (that’s pounds) on five-year terms, continuing in the ground floor with 3AW as its tenant upstairs. Then in 1957 3AW moved out, and after extensive alterations, the Kelvin Club emerged much as we enjoy it today.The Building in Melbourne PlaceThe upstairs floor had a long history in radio broadcasting, being the studios of radio 3LO when it was an investor-owned company before the formation of the ABC. The studios were originally designed in 1927, for the days when music was broadcast live, and gramophone records were used only in the direst of straits when problems arose with live broadcasts.The Kelvin Club to this day enjoys the benefits of this radio heritage. The dining room is a fine live music venue.'__________________________________________________VICTORIA HERITAGE DATABASE32-38 Bourke St:1880 - single storey building and two-storey building. 1888 - two groups of shops, one- and two-storey. 1891-2 - trustees of JB Watson's estate had five three-storey shops/residences built (for tenants see CAD Conservation Study Citations). 1905 -five three-storey shops.__________________________________________________Kent, `Out of the Bakelite Box': 3-Once the government started granting radio licences in 1923, stations sprang up like mushrooms. In 1924, the government established two categories: A-class stations financed by listeners' licence fees (though they were allowed a little advertising) and B-class stations that depended on selling advertising time. The licensees were one-off entrepreneurs at first. There was no networking until 1929, when the government granted the Australian Broadcasting Company (a group consisting of Greater Union Theatres, Fullers' Theatres and J. Albert and Sons, music publishers) a three-year contract to take over the A-class stations and to produce programmes on a national basis. The Company soon faced great problems: it could not extend facilities to the country areas fast enough to keep up with listener demand (in 1929 310,000 listeners had radio sets) and it made a small loss in some states and rural areas.When the Company's contract expired in 1932, the government did not renew it. Instead, Parliament passed the Australian Broadcasting Commission Act, enabling a new body, the Australian Broadcasting Commission, to acquire four stations in capital cities and eight regionals and to take over their service. The Commission was given power to publish journals, collect news and to take over the staff and assets of the Company. Thus on 1 July 1932 the ABC came into existence.The ABC established most of its major programming departments before World War II (the Rural Department did not come into being until 1946; Parliamentary broadcasting began the following year). The ABC Weekly was first mooted in 1939; between 1945 and 1950, fully professional symphony orchestras were set up on a organisation should stick to entertaining people, not take over the newspapers' role in presenting news. But the ABC won out and was able to set up its own news department in 1936. Partly because of World War II, when the commercial stations did little to increase their own news-gathering capacity, the ABC news service developed greatly. Many now consider it the most authoritative radio news source in Australia…'__________________________________________________STOREY, ROHAN 2019. HODDLE GRID INTERIORS THEMATIC STUDY (DRAFT): MAY 2019Kelvin Club14‐30 Melbourne Place, 1950sOccupying an 1871 warehouse from 1946, the Kelvin Club, an association of engineers, commissioned extensive changes in 1956. The interiors probably largely date from this period, but there have likely been alterations as well. The interior is appropriately club‐like, with extensive use of varnished timber paneling, timber floors, a timber bar, a brick fireplace, artworks and leather furniture, while the ceilings are largely acoustic tiles, an indication that the décor is 1950s, not interwar. While it is a private club, a type of place particular to the Hoddle Grid, the interiors have little architectural elaboration or richness, especially compared to the other clubs included in this study...The interiors of the Kelvin Club date from 1956, using attractive club‐style wood paneling but without any architectural elaboration..DIRECTORIES OF VICTORIA, MELBOURNE-SANDS AND KENNY, SANDS & MCDOUGALL1960 Kelvin Club1955 3AW Radio Theatre, Kelvin Club(off Russell St at 120)1944/45 Vacant1935-1944-45… ABC radio 3LO & 3AR1928-1930 Broadcasting Co of Australia Ltd.1927 8-16 Morrey, N.S. P/L. Blouse & Costume Manufacturers1925 do. do.1920 Prison Association of Vic.Children's Welfare Assoc.8-16 Holmes Jno P/L Blouses & Costumes1910 8-16 Wimble F.T. & Co. Printer, Detmold, Dudley, Manager1902 do. Printers, Furnishers1891 Mills H.W. & Co. Printers & Lithographers1890 (called Dodd place) Sporting Wire Newspaper Co — Morris, A.P.Green & Pettit JewellersMills W. & Co. Printers & Publishers, Litho & ManufacturingStationers1888 Not found in Sands & McDougall Directory of Melbourne & Suburbs of 1904.Municipal rate books [RB]Lewis, Nigel 1976 Historic and Architectural Survey of the Central City of Melbourne Bourke Street, east, Area 8 of the survey commissioned by the Historic Buildings Preservation Council. Page 27, 85: cites:.RATE BOOKS1892 Executors J.B. Watson H.W. mills & Co. Brick warehouse 3501890 Executors J.B. Watson do.1889 J.B. Watson Centennial Publishing Brick warehouse 153 x 33 ₤3501888 J.B. Watson .Kemp & Boyce Brick warehouse 147 x 33 ₤3501886 J.B. Watson do.1882 J.B. Watson Singer Machine Co. do.1877 J.B. Watson Stanford & Co. do.1874 J.B. Watson Stanford & Co. Brick warehouse 147 x 33, 2 floors1873 Michael Dawson Stanford Brick store, 2 floors, 21 x 301872 Hordern do. do.1871 Hordern Stanford Brick & stone store, 2 floors, 21 x 30 ₤601870 do. do. Wooden store & shed
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1259921
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