City of Kingston Heritage Study Place Identification Form (2001)
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City of Kingston Heritage Study B r y c e R a w o r t h P t y L t d Place Identification Form (2001) 1 9 V i c t o r i a S t r e e t , S t K i l d a 3 1 8 2 , A u s t r a l i a Address/Location of Place Type of Place Courthouse Reserve, The Strand, Chelsea Memorial Name of Place Alternate Name(s) of Place George Gilding Memorial Listings and Controls Victorian Heritage Register Yes No g Register of the National Estate Yes No g Register of the National Trust (Victoria) Yes No g Construction Date 1945 Source Site inspection History and Description First constable George Gilding is remembered by way of a small memorial constructed in the grounds of the Chelsea Court House after his death in 1945. The modest memorial incorporates a number of stone elements arranged in an informal manner around a simple marble plaque. The plaque is inscribed "To the memory of 1st Constable Geo R Gilding May 5th 1945. The memorial was funded through public donation 1 Barnard & Sheehan, City of Kingston Heritage review, part 1. "To the m Condition Excellent g Good Fair Poor Ruins Integrity Substantially Intact g Altered Sympathetically Altered Unsympathetically Damaged/Disturbed Comparable examples within the City of Kingston The George Gilding memorial compares to a number of others within the Municipality including the memorial to an early head teacher at Clayton South Primary School; Memorial clock towers on the Nepean Highway in Mordialloc and Chelsea; the memorial plaque fixed to an early horse trough and dedicated to equestrians, Violet and Bill Murrell, in Station Reserve in Mentone and many others. City of Kingston Heritage Place No 35 Statement of Significance Constructed in 1945 the George Gilding memorial in the garden of the former Chelsea Courthouse is of social, and architectural significance at a local level. The memorial is socially significant as an expression of gratitude by the local community for the work of Constable George Gilding. It is architecturally significant in its own right as a simple and understated design and for the contribution that it makes to an understanding of the former courthouse building Recommendations A heritage overlay is recommended for the structure. City of Kingston Planning Scheme Recommended for inclusion in a heritage overlay to the Planning Scheme Yes g No Should external paint controls apply? Yes g No Should internal alteration controls apply? Yes No g Should tree controls apply? Yes No g Other Listings and Controls Recommended for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register? Yes No g Recommended for inclusion on the Register of the National Estate? Yes No g Recommended for inclusion on the National Trust (Victoria) Register? Yes No g City of Kingston Heritage Place No 35 City of Kingston Heritage Study B r y c e R a w o r t h P t y L t d Place Identification Form (2001) 1 9 V i c t o r i a S t r e e t , S t K i l d a 3 1 8 2 , A u s t r a l i a Address/Location of Place Type of Precinct 1132-1142 Nepean Highway, Highett. Former Industrial Complex. Now a Business Park. Name of Place Alternate Name(s) of Place Highett Gasworks Precinct. Highett Gas Technology Business Centre. Listings and Controls Victorian Heritage Register Yes c No g Register of the National Estate Yes c No g Register of the National Trust (Victoria) Yes c No g Construction Date From 1939 Source Refer History History and Description Supporters of the Central Brighton and Moorabbin Gas Company first convened in March 1886.1 They quickly resolved to establish a gas company to provide competition to the existing Brighton Gas Co. By February the following year, Coates & Co had begun construction of a new gas manufacturing plant at the intersection of Well & Burrow Streets. It opened in August 1887. The new company offered gas at considerably cheaper rates than its rival, which promptly reduced its charges to match. With its stated aim of cheaper charges achieved, the Central Brighton and Moorabbin Gas Company began to examine the possibility of a merger. By September the two companies had agreed to an amalgamation. The Central Brighton plant was dismantled and local gas requirements were served by a plant, located in New Street, Brighton, for the next half century. In 1939 the Brighton Gas Company commissioned a substantial new plant on the Nepean Highway at Highett. This was the only completely new black coal gas plant built in Victoria in the twentieth century. Aerial photographs of the site dating from the period shortly after its construction show a group of lightweight production spaces in the western sections of the site.2 Two large gasometers were located a little to the south and a number of administration areas had been constructed along the Nepean Highway frontage. The greater part of the site to the south remained undeveloped with little building evident in the southern sections of the site near Bay Road. The Brighton Gas Company and the Metropolitan Gas Company amalgamated with the State Government in 1952 to form the Gas & Fuel Corporation of Victoria. The union heralded a period of extensive change within the local gas industry.3 From the mid 1950s gas from brown coal deposits at Morwell became available as did refinery gas formed as a byproduct of the oil refining process. As a consequence, the Highett facility was used increasingly to blend gases from other sources. These technological developments brought about marked changes in the appearance of the site in the 1950s and 1960s.The last gas was made at the Highett plant in 1969 when the Gas & Fuel Corporation converted the entire Victorian system to natural gas from undersea deposits.4 The Highett plant was decommissioned shortly afterwards. City of Kingston Heritage Precinct No P22 History and Description (continued) Aerial photographs from 1970 show two additional gasometers and marked expansion of the gas production/blending facilities at the north of the site.5 By this time, virtually all of the early administration areas had been demolished. A section of this land along the highway frontage had been sold to Mason Firth & McCutcheon c.19556 who constructed a group of factory and office buildings on the site. This group was later purchased and expanded on by printers, Leigh Mardon. The undeveloped southern section of the site was sold off by the Gas & Fuel corporation to help finance Metropolitan Melbourne's conversion to natural gas. It now forms the Sir William Fry reserve. Over the last thirty years, the site has been extensively altered. The Gas & Fuel Corporation retained the considerably reduced site and redeveloped it as a gas sales, information and administration centre, known most recently as the Highett Gas Technology Business Centre. A number of large new buildings were constructed through the 1970s and 1980s to the extent that the site today presents as a business park rather than a production facility. Virtually all of the infrastructure associated with the production of gas, most notably the gasometers and production areas, has been demolished in the past three decades. The only built element to survive from the original construction is a single remnant chimney from an early production building. A pair of simple red brick buildings adjacent to the chimney which present as interwar structures do not appear on the 1945 aerial photograph7 and are likely to date from c.1950. A weighbridge located near the Nepean Highway entry to the site also dates from the post-war period.8 1 Unless noted otherwise, this extract is drawn from Proudley, Circle of Influence, pp.342-4. 2 Aerial photograph, Melbourne and Metropolitan Project, Run 7, Photograph No 57309. 3 Proudley, op cit, pp.227-9. 4 Proudley, op cit, pp.269-70. 5 Aerial photograph, Melbourne 1970 Project, October 1970, Run 47E, Photograph No 171. 6 Conversation with, Maxine Styles, secretary to the CEO, Leigh Mardon, 24 January 2002. 7 Aerial photograph, Melbourne and Metropolitan Project, December 1945, Run 7, Photograph No 57309. 8 Ibid. The original principal entry was located to the south of the current location. No weighbridge is evident at that location in the 1945 aerial photograph. Integrity Substantially Intact c Altered Sympathetically c Altered Unsympathetically c Damaged/Disturbed g Comparative Examples within the City of Kingston No comparable examples exist within the City of Kingston. Statement of Significance Constructed from 1939 until c.1990, the Highett Gasworks Precinct is of local social significance for its role in the development of services in neighbouring communities and as a large local employer. With the exception of a single remnant chimney, none of the infrastructure relating to the significant period of the site appears to have survived. Left: Remnant Chimney (1939) and Right: Red brick outbuilding (c.1950) City of Kingston Heritage Precinct No P22 Recommendations A heritage overlay is recommended for the remnant chimney and a small curtilage around the chimney only. It may be appropriate to make some provision for interpretation of the early site incorporating this early structure and documentary material. City of Kingston Planning Scheme Recommended for inclusion in a heritage overlay to the Planning Scheme Yes g No c Should external paint controls apply? Yes g No c Should internal alteration controls apply? Yes c No g Should tree controls apply? Yes c No g Other Listings and Controls Recommended for inclusion on the Victorian Heritage Register? Yes c No g Recommended for inclusion on the Register of the National Estate? Yes c No g Recommended for inclusion on the National Trust (Victoria) Register? Yes c No g City of Kingston Heritage Precinct No P22 Aerial Photograph of Gasworks.