Port/mechanicalworkshops.html
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Mechanical workshops
Jack Kent, 1991:
EXISTING BUILDINGS ON VICTORIA QUAY
BUILDING NUMBER 6
MECHANICAL WORKSHOPS
HISTORY
Plans for the concrete foundations and drainage layout for the mechanical workshops were drawn in November, 1951. The Fremantle Harbour Trust report for the year ending 30 June, 1952 mentions that construction had commenced that year. The reason for its construction was to cope with the 'large amounts of mechanical equipment acquired for the quicker turnover of shipping and avoidance of congestion of cargo on the wharves' .
The next report for the year ending 30 June, 1953 confirms that the workshops were completed and that the building was 'outstanding in its design and layout' . The site of the mechanical workshops occupies part of the location of the Elder Smith Steel Works that was constructed after 1916 and before 1920 (PWD plans 17630 and 17630 revision August, 1920).
CONSTRUCTION
The building consists of four simple bays, each with a gable roof, with external walls clad in corrugated metal sheeting and the roof covered in corrugated asbestos-cement sheets. The workshop has a concrete floor and the window frames and doors are predominantly mild steel.
ASSESSMENT OF CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE
The building form and construction is industrial in character and is consistent with other wharf buildings. Its aesthetic value is increased when considering the building in its context and how it contributes positively to the streetscape of Slip Street, (and to a lesser extent Fleet Street), thus creating a narrow street rich in wharf related activities. The building fabric is principally intact and as such, is physical evidence of particular wharf activities, and is also representational of post-war wharf architecture on Victoria Quay.
Historically, the building is physical evidence of the ongoing change in port operations when modernisation of the port progressed from relying on predominantly manual labour to the increase in mechanical equipment, its maintenance and repair.
References and Links
Hutchison, David, Jack Kent, Agnieshka Kiera, Russell Kingdom, Larraine Stevens, Tanya Suba, 1991, Victoria Quay and its Architecture its History and Assessment of Cultural Significance, City of Fremantle; Part II: Jack Kent: 'Architectural evaluation of existing buldings and assessment of their cultural significance', 54 pp.
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 19 November, 2022 and hosted at freotopia.org/port/mechanicalworkshops.html (it was last updated on 27 April, 2024). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.