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Background
to Living Museum activity in Pipemakers Park
A
Brief History of Pipemakers Park
Pipemakers
Park CHRONOLOGY
A
Detailed History of Pipemakers Park
From
the document- 'Pipemakers Park Conservation Analysis and Plan',
Melbourne's Living Museum of the West, 1996
- Geographic context
- Aboriginal History
- European discovery and settlement
- Joseph Raleigh
- Boiling down c. 1848-1852
- Robertson, Martin & Smith and the ‘Victoria Iron Works’
- Transition 1858-1868
- Melbourne Meat Preserving Company 1868-1873
- Fire and a re-built factory 1873-1886
- Productivity and impact 1868-1886
- Australian Frozen Meat Export Company
- Totara Estate
- Interlude 1886-1910
- Hume Bros. Cement Iron Company 1910-1920
- Hume Pipe Company (Australia) Limited 1920-1939
- Hume Pipe Company to Humes Limited 1940-80
- Humes expansion and takeover
- A Park for the People
Melbourne's
Meat Preserving Company, Australia's leading meat cannery, 1868-80s.
(Illustrated Australian News, 5 October 1868. Courtesy State Library
of Victoria) Some of the buildings remain in Pipemakers Park, Van Ness
Ave., Maribyrnong.
Background
to Living Museum activity in Pipemakers Park
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Melbourne’s
Living Museum of the West was formed in 1984 to involve the community
in the research, recording, and presentation of the history, culture
and environment of Melbourne’s Western Region.
From its
formation the Museum was involved in proposals by the MMBW (Melbourne
Metropolitan Board of Works), the land managment of that time, for the
development of the Hume site into Pipemakers Park.
The Living Museum contributed to community discussions regarding the
creation of parkland with a heritage focus, and fostering an awareness
and appreciation of the historical significance of the site, and the
surviving structures.
Museum staff and Committee of Management members were involved in discussions
with the MMBW in 1987-8 in connection with the $2,000,000 Bicentenary
grant for developing the park, on two fronts -
1) input to the planning and design of the park landscaping, building
restoration and interpretation and clean up of the site, and
2) proposals for the Living Museum to occupy the historic buildings
and provide an interpretive program.
Founders of the Museum assisted in organising and carrying out the first
community plantings in the park with members of the Maribyrnong Valley
Conservation Group.
Under the Bicentenary Grant, the Museum was commissioned to prepare
self guided trail brochures and other interpretive material for the
park. Under successive park managers and through several restructures
the Museum has continued to provide a visitor and interpretation service
in the park, undertake a range of programs and attract funding for a
variety of infrastructure developments in the park.
The Museum has also provided on-going advice and expertise regarding
site maintenance and development (for example identifying the original
cast iron window frames when they were about to be removed and replaced
with new windows, and helping find a way to reinstate and restore them).
There have always been strong links to a wider community.
Links to regional groups.
Links to historical societies
Links to local government in the region
Links to organisations such as the Friends of the Maribyrnong Valley
Links to local industry.
Links to members of Parliament
Links to individuals and interested members of communities in the area
All of these links illustrate the strong ties and input by a number
of regional sources. The whole is made up of many parts. Those involved
include a broad range of skilled, interested, and gifted people who
believe strongly in the ideals of this very special museum and parkland.
The focus of what the museum is about and has been is a museum that
displays a special strength in heritage interpretation. What has also
been demonstrated is the fundamental and pivotal role of the Museum
in the heritage complex of Pipemakers Park.
Melbourne's
Meat Preserving Company, Australia's leading meat cannery, 1868-80s.
(Illustrated Australian News, 5 October 1868. Courtesy State Library
of Victoria) Some of the buildings remain in Pipemakers Park, Van Ness
Ave., Maribyrnong.
Brief
History of Pipemakers Park
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Introduction
The site
that today comprises ‘Pipemakers Park’ is of very considerable
significance in the industrial history of Australia, from its use as
a large boiling-down works in Victoria’s early pastoral days, to
its association with the makers of Australia’s first steam locomotive,
its contribution to the world’s export meat trade as Australia’s
leading meat cannery for a decade and as Australia’s first frozen
meat export works, and its role as the principal Australian factory
of the Hume firm which pioneered, and exported, the invention of centrifugally-spun
steel-reinforced concrete pipes.
The Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works purchased the site in
1978 from Humes Ltd. for use as parkland at the request of the Sunshine
City Council and subsequently carried out stabilisation and preservation
works, as well as cleaning up the site, landscaping and providing visitor
amenities as part of a $2 million Bicentennial development grant. As
part of the development, one of the buildings was refurbished and leased
to Melbourne’s Living Museum of the West for use as their offices
and visitor centre.
Location
The site, now known
as Pipemakers Park, is located off Van Ness Avenue, Maribyrnong, (Melways
Reference Map 28 B10). The park comprises approximately eight hectares,
bounded on the west by Thompson Reserve, on the north by Van Ness Avenue,
on the east by the Maribyrnong River and on the south by the former
Commonwealth Defence Department land, now the Edgewater Housing Estate.
The site is now owned and managed by Parks Victoria. Pipemakers Park
is in the City of Maribyrnong and the suburb of Maribyrnong (formerly
part of the City of Sunshine). Thompson Reserve is a council-owned park
adjacent to Pipemakers Park, and along with other Council and Commonwealth-owned
land adjoining the Parks Victoria land on the south side of the park,
is managed in co-operation with Parks Victoria.
Melbourne's Living Museum of the West occupies the historic bluestone
buildings for its office, resource centre and exhibition space. These
buildings are leased from Parks Victoria.
The site is located on the flood plain and escarpment edge of the Maribyrnong
River Valley, with some buildings coming within a few metres of the
river bank. Several of the buildings have floor levels below the one
in a hundred flood levels.
Entrance to the site is from Van Ness Avenue, at the junction with Gordon
Street and Warr’s Road. This is also one of the entrances to Highpoint
City Shopping centre, which is built in the former bluestone quarries
at the top of the escarpment to the west of the park.
This site was the location of several significant historical industrial
enterprises including an early boiling down works, railway engineering
foundry, one of Australia's earliest and largest meat canneries, the
first meat freezing works in Australia, and one of the first reinforced
concrete pipe works in Australia. Evidence of each of these stages can
be found in documentary records, surviving structures and archaeological
evidence.
Melbourne's
Meat Preserving Company, Australia's leading meat cannery, 1868-80s.
(Australasian Sketcher, 19 April 1873. Courtesy State Library of Victoria)
Some of the buildings remain in Pipemakers Park, Van Ness Ave., Maribyrnong.
CHRONOLOGY
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50,000-
onwards
BP Aboriginal occupation of the study area. People of the Woiwurung
language
group
1803 Charles Grimes and James Fleming explore Maribyrnong River and
pass study area
1835 John Batman explores Maribyrnong river valley, draws map, records
observations.
1836 First permanent white settlement on Maribyrnong River
1839 Subdivision of lands around Melbourne into parishes and numbered
sections
1840 First detailed map of river ‘ Mariburnong’ and valley,
including study area
1843 Joseph Raleigh, English merchant, arrives in Melbourne with his
family
1845 James Johnston obtains annual occupation licence at auction for
Section 21 (including study area)
1846 Joseph Raleigh operating salted meat works and boiling-down works
at Yarraville.
Raleigh living at ‘Mona Vale, Moonee Ponds’
1847 Joseph Raleigh purchases 409 acres in Maribyrnong, including study
area.
1848 Construction of Raleigh’s boiling down works on his land at
Maribyrnong
1849-52 Growth in tallow exports from Port Phillip (re-named ‘Victoria’
in 1851)
1851 Onset of Victorian gold rushes
1852 Death of Joseph Raleigh
1853 Rachel and Sarah Raleigh, sisters of Joseph Raleigh, buy additional
Maribyrnong land
1854 Establishment of Robertson, Martin & Smith’s Victoria
Iron Works in study area
c1855 Water colour drawing of study area by Greeves, including large
building by the river
1857-8 Sub-division of Portions 4, 5, 6 and 7, section 21, including
study area
1858 Portions 6 and 7 bought by Henry William Dauglish, and mortgaged
1866-7 William Cameron leasing farm on Saltwater River, from ‘Raleigh’s
trustees’
1867 Formation of Melbourne Meat Preserving Company, 30 December 1867
1868 Melbourne Meat Preserving Company leasing 174 acres of land and
‘premises’ from George Petty, adapting buildings, constructing
new buildings
1870 Melbourne Meat Preserving Company purchases site from George Petty.
Also leasing 2,919 acres of land in what is now West Sunshine (for grazing
of stock)
1872 Extensions to works - new tinsmiths’ shop and machinery room
1873 Fire destroyed kitchen, preserving room and cooling room, 7 December
1873
1874 Repair and re-building of central portion of factory. Building
enlarged
1876 Factory renovated. New boiler, additional preserving pans and tallow
vats added
1877 Increase in productivity (262,532 sheep slaughtered October ‘76-April
‘77)
1878 Rise in price of sheep, overseas competition, decrease in demand
Introduction of square tins. Company won gold medal at Paris exhibition
Manager, S.S. Ritchie, invents new tin-filling process
1879 Death of S.S. Ritchie, company manager
1880 Commencement of operations on site by Australian Frozen Meat Export
Company
1881 Melbourne Meat Preserving Company works almost idle April-October
1882 Freezing works transferred to Newport
Meat preserving operations suspended April- October
1885 Factory running at a loss
1886 Closure of works. Factory and company’s land put up for sale
1888 Thomas Warr, merchant, purchases study area. Maribyrnong quarry
in operation
1896 Slaughterhouse operating in study area
-1901
1906 Presbyterian Church of Victoria purchases 170 acres, including
study area
1908 Sub-division plan of land, including study area, showing ‘old
stone buildings’
1910 Walter Hume’s invention of the centrifugally spun re-inforced
concrete pipe, in S.A.
1912 Walter Hume and his brother begin operations in Maribyrnong, leasing
study area from Presbyterian Church and using existing bluestone buildings
1913 Walter Hume on a world trip
1914 Melbourne Directory lists ‘Hume Bros. Cement Iron Works’
in Maribyrnong
1915 Hume Bros. purchase 34 acres (including study area) from Presbyterian
Church
1916 Hume family living at Maribyrnong
1920 Formation of new company - Hume Pipe (Australia) Company Ltd.
1921 Two moulding machines in operation at Maribyrnong
1922 Machinery operated by electric motor, one and a half to eight horse
power
1923 Factory producing concrete slabs. Influenced importance of other
concrete products
1923 Walter Hume manufacturing arc-welded steel pipes at Footscray Hume
Steel Ltd.
1920s Construction of building which later became known as the ‘Bottom
Factory’
c1925 Construction of sub-station
1926 ‘Works’ owned by Hume Pipe Co. Ltd. listed in rate book
as having NAV of £432
1920s
Use of electrically-operated moving overhead lifting apparatus
1929 Hume Pipe Co. leases five acres of land from the Commonwealth for
pipe storage
1940s
Construction of ‘Top Factory’
1943 Death of W.R. Hume and also of his eldest son, Walter
1950 Hume Pipe Co re-named Humes Ltd.
1951 Humes firm‘ largest manufacturers of steel re-inforced concrete
pipes in Australia’
1960 Humes Ltd. buys out W.R. Hume Pty. Ltd - rival firm established
by Hume family
1974 Humes’ application for planning permit to develop plant refused
1974 Severe flood on Maribyrnong, halts production at Hume Pipes - 15
May
1976 Re-zoning of land from ‘General Industrial’ to ‘Proposed
Public Open Space’
1977 Humes Ltd. purchases five acres of land from the Commonwealth for
pipe storage
1978 Purchase of study area by Board of Works
1979 Transfer of operations to Laverton. Closure of factory at Maribyrnong
1980 Dispute between Board of Works and City of Sunshine about purchase
of study area
1981 Proposed amendment 157 to Metropolitan Planning Scheme
1983 Demolition of Amenities Building
1984 Brief prepared for stabilisation work
1984-6 Demolition of various sheds including bottom factory
1985 Community consultation re future of study area
1986 Stabilisation and excavation works around bluestone buildings
1987
Bicentennial grant of $2 million for development of ‘Historic Parklands’,
later Pipemakers Park
1988 Opening of Pipemakers Park
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