Richmond Power Station, Victoria
Encyclopedia
Victorian era
The Victorian era of British history was the period of Queen Victoria's reign from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. It was a long period of peace, prosperity, refined sensibilities and national self-confidence...
coal
Coal
Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...
fired power station
Power station
A power station is an industrial facility for the generation of electric energy....
which operated on the banks of the Yarra River
Yarra River
The Yarra River, originally Birrarung, is a river in east-central Victoria, Australia. The lower stretches of the river is where the city of Melbourne was established in 1835 and today Greater Melbourne dominates and influences the landscape of its lower reaches...
in Richmond
Richmond, Victoria
Richmond is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
, Victoria
Victoria (Australia)
Victoria is the second most populous state in Australia. Geographically the smallest mainland state, Victoria is bordered by New South Wales, South Australia, and Tasmania on Boundary Islet to the north, west and south respectively....
, Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
from its construction in 1891 until its closure in 1976. It was one of the first alternating current
Alternating current
In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....
(AC) electricity generation plants in the state. It has since been converted into office space and is the headquarters of international fashion brand Country Road
Country Road
Country Road is an upscale store located in Australia and New Zealand clothing retailer, with 68 free standing stores and 77 department store concessions. It is traded on the Australian Stock Exchange, with South African company Woolworths Holdings Limited owning 88%...
and advertising agency Clemenger Harvie. The area in which it is located is now called Cremorne
Cremorne, Victoria
Cremorne is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Yarra...
.
The power station is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...
.
History
The Richmond Power Station was completed in 1891 by the New Australian Lighting and Traction Company. It was one of the first alternating current (AC) electricity generation plants in the state. The building was designed by Charles D'EbroCharles D'Ebro
Charles Abraham D'Ebro was a London-born architect who designed many important buildings in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia during the late Victorian and early Edwardian periods...
, one of Melbourne's premier architects of the time. Initially the station provided power to Melbourne and the suburbs of Richmond, Prahran
Prahran, Victoria
Prahran , also known colloquially as "Pran", is a suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 5 km south-east from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area is the City of Stonnington. At the 2006 Census, Prahran had a population of 10,651. It is a part of Melbourne with...
and South Melbourne
South Melbourne, Victoria
South Melbourne is an inner city suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 2 km south from Melbourne's central business district. Its Local Government Area are the Cities of Port Phillip and Melbourne...
. The main competitor was A U Alcock's Electric Light and Motive Power Company. In 1899 these two companies were taken over and were combined to form the Electric Lighting and Traction Company of Australia.
As demand increased the plant went through a series of upgrades, the first being an expansion to the engine house. In 1913 the engine room was extended to the east and a new chimney stack was built, in 1919 a second chimney stack was erected, and in 1922 a second floor was added to the office block.
In 1930 ownership of the station passed to the State Electricity Commission of Victoria
State Electricity Commission of Victoria
The State Electricity Commission of Victoria was a monopoly electricity generation, transmission and supply utility located in Victoria, Australia...
, who upgraded the station with new oil-fired equipment in 1951. Although obsolete, the station continued to operate very reliably as a peak generation plant until 1976 when its inefficiency and pollution
Pollution
Pollution is the introduction of contaminants into a natural environment that causes instability, disorder, harm or discomfort to the ecosystem i.e. physical systems or living organisms. Pollution can take the form of chemical substances or energy, such as noise, heat or light...
forced its closure.
Redevelopment
The building lay derelict in a large pocket of SEC owned land for many years. Its chimney stacks were demolished soon after closure due to structural faults. It was a popular location for film and television makers during this time. Some scenes for Bangkok HiltonBangkok Hilton
Bangkok Hilton is a three-part Australian mini-series, made in 1989 by Kennedy Miller Productions and directed by Ken Cameron. The title of the mini-series is, in the story, the nickname of a fictional Bangkok prison in which the protagonist is imprisoned.-Plot:Bangkok Hilton begins as Hal Stanton...
were shot there, some of which incongruously showed the Bryant and May Factory
Bryant and May Factory, Melbourne
The Bryant and May Factory is located in the suburb of Cremorne in Melbourne, Australia. It was constructed in 1909 as the Empire Works to a design by prolific Melbourne architect William Pitt...
in the background, as were scenes for the police drama Phoenix
Phoenix (TV series)
Phoenix is an Australian police drama television series. Phoenix screened as two thirteen-part series on Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1992 and 1993....
.
In the early 1990s, Victoria's electricity industry was privatised by the Kennett
Jeff Kennett
Jeffrey Gibb Kennett AC , a former Australian politician, was the Premier of Victoria between 1992 and 1999. He is currently the President of Hawthorn Football Club. He is the founding Chairman of beyondblue, a national depression initiative.- Early life :Kennett was born in Melbourne on 2 March...
Liberal State Government. This saw this the sale of much of the SEC's surplus assets. The station and surrounding buildings were sold for development as an office park. All surrounding buildings, most of which dated from the 1930s and 1940s were demolished.
Under architects Metier 3 the original station building and turbine
Turbine
A turbine is a rotary engine that extracts energy from a fluid flow and converts it into useful work.The simplest turbines have one moving part, a rotor assembly, which is a shaft or drum with blades attached. Moving fluid acts on the blades, or the blades react to the flow, so that they move and...
hall, which is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register
Victorian Heritage Register
The Victorian Heritage Register lists places of cultural heritage significance to the State of Victoria, Australia. It has statutory weight under the Heritage Act 1995 which establishes Heritage Victoria as the permit authority...
was restored with a modern extension added to the section which formerly housed the chimney stacks. The building, designed for Country Road, won a merit award from the Royal Australian Institute of Architects
Royal Australian Institute of Architects
The Australian Institute of Architects is a professional body for architects in Australia. Until August 2008, the Institute traded as the "Royal Australian Institute of Architects", which remains its official name....
in 1997. The area around the station has also been fully developed.