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Pacific Carpets
35-65 Paramount Rd. cnr Indwe St. TOTTENHAM, Maribyrnong City

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Maribyrnong City
HO152 - Paramount Rd 35-65 Carpet fact 2432.JPG
HO152 - Paramount Rd 35-65 Carpet fact 2432.JPG
HO152 - Paramount Rd 35-65 Carpet fact 2432.JPG
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Statement of Significance

Pacific Carpets is of regional historical and architectural significance for its important historical role in the development of the carpet textile industry in Melbourne and for its distinctive and unusual architectural form.

Felt & Textiles pioneered the Carpet industry in Australia by manufacturing plain and stippled Wilton Body Carpet in 1937 at Footscray. After an interruption caused by World War II the company was instrumental in developing the manufacture of Spool Axminster carpets in Australia. (Criterion D2) To accommodate this major undertaking a new factory was built in Tottenham in a modern and functional design. The factory design expresses the changed nature of an industry which not many years before had been a craft unknown to Australia and in the course of a few years had been introduced as a major manufacturing enterprise, completely bypassing the phase of craft workshop manufacture which had preceded industrialisation of carpet making in England.

The unique use of corrugated cladding in this up-to-date Modern composition gives the building a special position in the evolution of industrial architecture in the region and with the prominent tower, is a local landmark. (Criterion F1)

Australian Heritage Commission (AHC) criteria

The Australian Heritage Commission criteria consist of a set of eight criteria which cover social, aesthetic, scientific, and historic values. Each criterion has sub-criteria written specifically for cultural or natural values. The relevant criteria are:

D.2 good example of type

F.1 design or technological achievement

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    • Physical Description 1

      Pacific Carpets - Physical Description 1

      As envisaged in the original design, the factory was to have three blocks stepping down to a glazed entrance with round windows incorporated in a two storey office block with a tower attached. The scheme as built replaced much of the proposed brick facade and was completed in corrugated cement sheeting. The three storey office was reduced in scale but the tower (incorporating water tanks) was completed in one corner of a vast site otherwise covered in saw tooth roof. Galvanised corrugated iron and cement sheeting has been used to unusual effect with vertical and horizontal panels alternating in the bands between the continuous steel hopper sash window strips and vertical panels on the tower. Behind this facade are steel-framed gable truss roofs. The brick scheme was partly realised with the Paramount Street facade, and later less stylish buildings in the north east corner.

      The horizontal steel framed window strips of the office block are followed through in a continuous band along the Paramount Road front. A side entrance features streamlined pilasters with horizontal rendered bands. The former island gatehouse was on Indwe Street, possibly adapted into a new structure.

      Physical Conditions

      Pacific Carpets - Physical Conditions

      in good condition

      Integrity

      Pacific Carpets - Integrity

      The early components are generally intact, only partly obscured by later additions.

      Physical Description 2

      Pacific Carpets - Physical Description 2

      Adjacent to the small early subdivision at Tottenham, but otherwise among other large scale low profile factories.

      Historical Australian Themes

      Pacific Carpets - Historical Australian Themes

      Thematic context
      Australian Principal Theme Manufacturing and Processing
      PAHT Subtheme: Manufacturing and Processing
      Local Theme Industry Pushing Outwards:

      Physical Description 3

      Pacific Carpets - Physical Description 3

      Creation date(s): 1944
      Heritage Significance regional
      Map (Melway) 41 D5
      Boundary description extent of the current allotment
      Local Government Area: City of Maribyrnong
      Ownership Type Private

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Heritage Study and Grading

      Maribyrnong - Maribyrnong Heritage Review

      Author: Jill Barnard, Graeme Butler, Francine Gilfedder & Gary Vines
      Year: 2000
      Grading:

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