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POLICE GARAGE
357-375 RUSSELL STREET MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY
POLICE GARAGE
357-375 RUSSELL STREET MELBOURNE, MELBOURNE CITY
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The former Police Garage in Russell Street was developed on the site of the Old Melbourne Gaol hospital from 1925. Temporary structures were erected on the area to the south of the surviving cell block and to the north of City Watch House. In 1937 all structures, excluding the existing bluestone gaol walls but including the surviving hospital, were demolished and a new structure was erected to designs signed off by Public Works Department chief architect Percy Everett. The garage was formed by the south wall of the surviving 1857 gaol block, the north wall of the 1908 City Watch House and by the bluestone walls, circa 1864, formerly surrounding the hospital to the east and west. A concrete slab floor carries steel columns supporting a sawtooth roof of corrugated cement sheets and tiles. Parapets added in 1937 hide the roof from street level. The area of the old gaol hospital was the one of the sites for the burial of executed prisoners. Several bodies were dug up during the 1937 building work and were transferred to Pentridge Prison.
How is it significant?
The former Police Garage is of historical, architectural and archaeological significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
The former Police Garage is historically significant as evidence of the important role the police played in the continuing development of the area as a legal precinct. The juxtaposition of the garage to the former Russell Street Police Headquarters and the City Watch House provides a historical continuum of the development of the police force in Victoria. The garage is additionally significant for demonstrating the modernisation and motorisation of the police force in Victoria.
The former Police Garage is architecturally significant for its integration into the surviving fabric of the Old Melbourne Gaol complex. The walls are evidence of three different periods of the complex's construction. The architecture is significant for the integration of a modern 1930s lightweight sawtooth roof into the existing historic bluestone fabric.
The former Police Garage is archaeologically significant as a site that has the potential to reveal evidence of the original gaol hospital built in the early 1860s. It has additional archaeological significance as the burial site of prisoners executed at the gaol.
The former Police Garage in Russell Street was developed on the site of the Old Melbourne Gaol hospital from 1925. Temporary structures were erected on the area to the south of the surviving cell block and to the north of City Watch House. In 1937 all structures, excluding the existing bluestone gaol walls but including the surviving hospital, were demolished and a new structure was erected to designs signed off by Public Works Department chief architect Percy Everett. The garage was formed by the south wall of the surviving 1857 gaol block, the north wall of the 1908 City Watch House and by the bluestone walls, circa 1864, formerly surrounding the hospital to the east and west. A concrete slab floor carries steel columns supporting a sawtooth roof of corrugated cement sheets and tiles. Parapets added in 1937 hide the roof from street level. The area of the old gaol hospital was the one of the sites for the burial of executed prisoners. Several bodies were dug up during the 1937 building work and were transferred to Pentridge Prison.
How is it significant?
The former Police Garage is of historical, architectural and archaeological significance to the State of Victoria.
Why is it significant?
The former Police Garage is historically significant as evidence of the important role the police played in the continuing development of the area as a legal precinct. The juxtaposition of the garage to the former Russell Street Police Headquarters and the City Watch House provides a historical continuum of the development of the police force in Victoria. The garage is additionally significant for demonstrating the modernisation and motorisation of the police force in Victoria.
The former Police Garage is architecturally significant for its integration into the surviving fabric of the Old Melbourne Gaol complex. The walls are evidence of three different periods of the complex's construction. The architecture is significant for the integration of a modern 1930s lightweight sawtooth roof into the existing historic bluestone fabric.
The former Police Garage is archaeologically significant as a site that has the potential to reveal evidence of the original gaol hospital built in the early 1860s. It has additional archaeological significance as the burial site of prisoners executed at the gaol.
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POLICE GARAGE - History
History of Place:
In 1912 the Police Department constructed an extensive stables complex at the South Melbourne Police Depot in St Kilda Road. This was the twilight era of mounted policing as the automobile was about to replace the horse. The formation of the Police motor patrol unit in the early twentieth century brought significant changes to the nature of policing in Victoria, with new requirements and demands o n the department. Thus only thirteen years after the stables were built , the Department took possession of the site formerly used by the Hospital of the Melbourne Gaol in Russell Street. A number of timber and corrugated iron structures were built in 1925 but the hospital itself survived, albeit with alterations including the removal of the verandah. The hospital was converted to offices. All works were to plans drawn up by Public Works Department architect A J Wood. In 1937 the remaining hospital structures were demolished and a free standing steel structure was built within the surviving bluestone walls on the site. The architect is tentatively given as Percy Everett, but he was in the habit of personally signing off all PWD drawings anyway. The area provided workshops and storage for motorcycles, cars and bicycles. In 1955 ten windows with precast reinforced concrete lintols were inserted into the Russell Street facade. Two similar windows were inserted in the west facade and four in the north facade next to a new doorway. The building use as a garage in 1995.
(from Former Police Garage, RMIT Historic Legal Precinct, by Heritage Assets Branch BSA 1998)POLICE GARAGE - Permit Exemptions
General Exemptions:General exemptions apply to all places and objects included in the Victorian Heritage Register (VHR). General exemptions have been designed to allow everyday activities, maintenance and changes to your property, which don’t harm its cultural heritage significance, to proceed without the need to obtain approvals under the Heritage Act 2017.Places of worship: In some circumstances, you can alter a place of worship to accommodate religious practices without a permit, but you must notify the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria before you start the works or activities at least 20 business days before the works or activities are to commence.Subdivision/consolidation: Permit exemptions exist for some subdivisions and consolidations. If the subdivision or consolidation is in accordance with a planning permit granted under Part 4 of the Planning and Environment Act 1987 and the application for the planning permit was referred to the Executive Director of Heritage Victoria as a determining referral authority, a permit is not required.Specific exemptions may also apply to your registered place or object. If applicable, these are listed below. Specific exemptions are tailored to the conservation and management needs of an individual registered place or object and set out works and activities that are exempt from the requirements of a permit. Specific exemptions prevail if they conflict with general exemptions. Find out more about heritage permit exemptions here.
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