Regional Rail Link Project Victoria August 2010 Heritage Impact Report Revision 0 20.8.10 [BR] RRL-0000-EEE-REP-001 bryce raworth • conservation urban design 19 Victoria Street St Kilda Vic 3182 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report Regional Rail Link Project VICTORIA Heritage Impact Report August 2010 bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 1 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report Contents 1.0 Introduction 4 2.0 Methodology 4 3.0 Sources of Information 5 4.0 Historical Context 6 5.0 Sunshine Signal Box 7 5.1 Location 7 5.2 Description 7 5.3 History 9 5.4 Listing and Controls 11 5.5 Statement of Significance 11 5.6 Heritage Policies 12 5.7 Proposal 12 5.8 Discussion Analysis 12 6.0 Black Arch Rail Bridge, Stony Creek 14 6.1 Location 14 6.2 Description 14 6.3 History 15 6.4 Listing and Controls 16 6.5 Statements of Significance 17 6.6 Heritage Policies 18 6.7 Proposal 19 6.8 Discussion Analysis 19 7.0 Row Houses, Footscray 20 7.1 Location 20 7.2 Description 20 7.3 History 21 7.4 Listing and Controls 24 7.5 Statements of Significance 24 7.6 Heritage Policies 25 7.7 Proposal 25 7.8 Discussion Analysis 25 8.0 Moreton Bay Fig Tree, Footscray 27 8.1 Location 27 8.2 Description 27 8.3 History 28 8.4 Listing and Controls 28 8.5 Statement of Significance 29 8.6 Heritage Policies 29 8.7 Proposal 30 8.8 Discussion Analysis 30 Conclusion 31 bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 2 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report Appendix A City of Brimbank Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay Schedule Citaition Sunshine Signal Box 32 Appendix B City of Brimank Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay Schedule Citation Black Arch Rail Bridge 33 Appendix C City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay Schedule Citation Black Arch Rail Bridge 34 Appendix D City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay Schedule Citation Row Houses 35 Appendix E City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Heritage Overlay Schedule Citation Moreton Bay Fig Tree 36 Appendix F City of Brimbank Planning Scheme Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay 37 Appendix G City of Brimbank Planning Scheme Clause 65 Decision Guidelines 41 Appendix H City of Brimbank Planning Scheme Clause 22.07 Brimbank Heritage Policy 43 Appendix I City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay 48 Appendix J City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Clause 65 Decision Guidelines 52 Appendix K City of Maribyrnong Planning Scheme Clause 22.07 Cultural Heritage Policy 54 bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 3 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report 1.0 Introduction KBR Arup has commissioned this report into the impacts on heritage elements resulting from development of the Regional Rail Link Section One. The Regional Railway Link is a new railway line from West Werribee, via Deer Park, along an existing rail corridor through Sunshine and Footscray to Southern Cross Railway Station. This railway will separate country trains from suburban trains, giving Geelong, Bendigo and Ballarat rail services their own dedicated tracks through the metropolitan railway system to Southern Cross Railway Station. The project is to include up to 22 kilometres of new railway track and the construction of a number of new railway bridges. The proposed alignment of the Regional Rail Link will affect a number of heritage elements of local significance along the proposed railway line in the City of Brimbank and the City of Maribyrnong. This Heritage Impact Report will assess the effects these works will have on the following heritage elements in these municipalities: • Sunshine Signal Box (City of Brimbank); • Black Arch Railway Bridge (City of Brimbank/City of Maribyrnong); • Row Houses, 102-106 Victoria Street, Footscray (City of Maribyrnong); • Moreton Bay Fig Tree, adjacent to the Footscray Hotel, at 48 Hopkins Street, Footscray (City of Maribyrnong). Other heritage elements along the Regional Rail Link of state significance that are entered on the Victorian Heritage Register are to be assessed in site-specific heritage impact statements, which are not part of this document. 2.0 Methodology This heritage impact statement has been prepared with regard to the Burra Charter and its guidelines, as amended in 1999, and in general accordance with Heritage Victoria’s guidelines for heritage impact statements. It seeks to respond to four key questions: • What physical and/or visual impacts will result from the proposed works? • If there are detrimental impacts, provide reasons why the proposal should be permitted • Has the design been influenced by, or had to address any Local Planning Scheme provisions? • What measures are proposed to mitigate the detrimental impacts? The section of the Regional Rail Link relevant to this report is a portion that extends through the City of Brimbank and the City of Maribyrnong, along the existing railway corridor from the Maribyrnong River to northwest of Sunshine Station. This section of track will be referred to generically as the Sydenham Railway Line, which includes all lines suburban (electric) and country (non-electric traction). An exception to this is in historical discussion, which may refer to earlier names of lines eg Bendigo Railway Line. bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 4 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report In addition to a visual description of the location of each element, its location from Southern Cross Station has been cited, as is consistent with railway infrastructure practice. 3.0 Sources of Information The analysis in this report draws upon a site visit and external inspection of each of the four heritage elements, along with a review of the heritage overlay provisions in the City of Brimbank and the City of Maribyrnong planning schemes. The relevant clauses in the City of Brimbank Planning Scheme are Clause 22.07 Brimbank Heritage Policy, Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay, and Clause 65 Decision Guidelines. In the City of Maribyrnong planning scheme the relevant clauses are Clause 22.11 Cultural Heritage Policy, Clause 43.01 Heritage Overlay, and Clause 65 Decision Guidelines. Other documents referenced include the Brimbank City Council Post-contact Cultural Heritage Study and the ‘Heritage Place Report’ of each of the three sites in the City of Maribyrnong. It is intended that this report be read in conjunction with the engineering drawings prepared by KBR Arup for the Regional Rail Link Project. bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 5 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report 4.0 Historical Context The Melbourne and Murray River Railway Line was built in stages from the 1850s, with the first section of the line, between Melbourne (Spencer Street) and Sunbury, opened on 13 January 1859.1 Originally the line was to be built and operated by a private enterprise, called the Melbourne, Mount Alexander and Murray River Railway Company; but the railway was constructed by the recently formed Victorian Railways Department of the Victorian Government. By 1862 the line extended from Melbourne to Bendigo.2 In 1921, as part of the electrification of Melbourne’s suburban railway system, the metropolitan lines between Footscray and St Albans were converted to electric traction.3 In 1929 the Albion to Jacana line opened connecting Sunshine with the North East Railway Line (Melbourne to Albury). The purpose of this line was to redirect freight trains away from the North Melbourne to Broadmeadows line, which had steeper grades and were busier because of suburban railway traffic. It is of interest to note that the combination of busy suburban railway traffic and country passenger and freight trains has, eighty years later, created the need for the proposed Regional Rail Link Project on this line to reduce congestion. The opening of the Albion to Jacana line coincided with the introduction of three position signalling between West Footscray and St Albans. The standard gauge railway line was built in the early 1960s along the Sydenham Railway Line between Albion and Footscray, allowing direct rail services to operate between New South Wales and Victoria. The iconic Southern Aurora and Spirit of Progress Melbourne to Sydney passenger trains used this line. As part of those works a fourth platform was added to Sunshine Railway Station to enable passengers to transfer between Sydney and Adelaide trains. 1 Robert Lee, The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004, p 43. 2 The line was later extended beyond Bendigo to other centres in Northern Victorian and Southern New South Wales. 3 Robert Lee, The Railways of Victoria 1854-2004, p 178. bryce raworth pty ltd conservation•urban design 6 Regional Rail Link Project Heritage Impact Report 5.0 Sunshine Signal Box 5.1 Location Figure 1 Map showing the location of the Sunshine Signal Box (Reproduced from Melway) A timber signal box situated to the north west of Sunshine Railway Station, between the Hampshire Road overpass, and the junction of the Ballarat and Sydenham Railway Lines. The signal box is approximately 12.4 kilometres along the Sydenham Railway Line. 5.2 Description A two-storey timber signal box with a hipped roof clad in corrugated galvanised steel sheeting, built north west of Sunshine Railway Station and the up side of the junction between the Sydenham and Ballarat railway lines, of a standard Victorian Railways design (E1 Design).4 Similar boxes are extant at Ringwood and Frankston.5 The signal box is elevated on exposed timber posts that have timber cross-bracing. The upper portion of the signal box has walls clad in weatherboards on both levels, and a strip of windows that extend along its east elevation and return along its north and south elevations.