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Royal Arcade,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Arcade was designed by Melbourne architect Charles Webb who won a design competition in1868. Construction on the arcade began in June of 1869 and was completed by May, 1870. The arcade runs between Little Collins Street and the Bourke Street Mall with a 1902 annexe to Elizabeth Street. The arcade originally consisted of 29 shops of various trades including Turkish Baths. In 1892 the automata figures of Gog and Magog were installed at the southern end of the main walkway of the Arcade, flanking Gaunt's Clock.

The Royal Arcade is on the Victorian Heritage Register (nº H0023) and is deemed to be of national significance as it is Australia's oldest surviving arcade and one of of approximately eighteen surviving pre-1870 arcades world-wide.

Image taken with a WIdelux F6B .—camera hand-held —Shot on Kodak Gold 200 stock. The film was commercially developed in a lab in Albury (NSW) and later scanned with an Epson Perfection V700, using Silverfast Negafix software. Conversion to B&W in CS3 with SilverEfex.

© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved

Royal Arcade,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

A slow turning lens turret sometimes brings up unexpected results...I had hoped the shot came out was as intended..alas not as planned...but it works somehow..

 
The Arcade was designed by Melbourne architect Charles Webb who won a design competition in1868. Construction on the arcade began in June of 1869 and was completed by May, 1870. The arcade runs between Little Collins Street and the Bourke Street Mall with a 1902 annexe to Elizabeth Street. The arcade originally consisted of 29 shops of various trades including Turkish Baths. In 1892 the automata figures of Gog and Magog were installed at the southern end of the main walkway of the Arcade, flanking Gaunt's Clock.

The Royal Arcade is on the Victorian Heritage Register (nº H0023) and is deemed to be of national significance as it is Australia's oldest surviving arcade and one of of approximately eighteen surviving pre-1870 arcades world-wide.

Image taken with a WIdelux F6B .—camera hand-held —Shot on Kodak Gold 200 stock. The film was commercially developed in a lab in Albury (NSW) and later scanned with an Epson Perfection V700, using Silverfast Negafix software. Conversion to B&W in CS3 with SilverEfex.

© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved

Royal Arcade,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

One can wait and wait to line up shot as much as one likes, there is always someone...as the clock in the background shows it was just 12 noon and all sensible visitors to the arcade, the tourists at any rate, were staring at the automata Gog and Magog going through their motions...and I was planning on have a people free shot, nicely down the barrel...drawing on the black and white checker board floor...alas...

The Arcade was designed by Melbourne architect Charles Webb who won a design competition in1868. Construction on the arcade began in June of 1869 and was completed by May, 1870. The arcade runs between Little Collins Street and the Bourke Street Mall with a 1902 annexe to Elizabeth Street. The arcade originally consisted of 29 shops of various trades including Turkish Baths. In 1892 the automata figures of Gog and Magog were installed at the southern end of the main walkway of the Arcade, flanking Gaunt's Clock.

The Royal Arcade is on the Victorian Heritage Register (nº H0023) and is deemed to be of national significance as it is Australia's oldest surviving arcade and one of of approximately eighteen surviving pre-1870 arcades world-wide.

Image taken with a WIdelux F6B .—camera hand-held —Shot on Kodak Gold 200 stock. The film was commercially developed in a lab in Albury (NSW) and later scanned with an Epson Perfection V700, using Silverfast Negafix software. Conversion to B&W in CS3 with SilverEfex.

© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved

Royal Arcade,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

The Arcade was designed by Melbourne architect Charles Webb who won a design competition in1868. Construction on the arcade began in June of 1869 and was completed by May, 1870. The arcade runs between Little Collins Street and the Bourke Street Mall with a 1902 annexe to Elizabeth Street. The arcade originally consisted of 29 shops of various trades including Turkish Baths. In 1892 the automata figures of Gog and Magog were installed at the southern end of the main walkway of the Arcade, flanking Gaunt's Clock.

The Royal Arcade is on the Victorian Heritage Register (nº H0023) and is deemed to be of national significance as it is Australia's oldest surviving arcade and one of of approximately eighteen surviving pre-1870 arcades world-wide.

Image taken with a WIdelux F6B .—camera hand-held —Shot on Kodak Gold 200 stock. The film was commercially developed in a lab in Albury (NSW) and later scanned with an Epson Perfection V700, using Silverfast Negafix software. Conversion to B&W in CS3 with SilverEfex.

© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved

Bungambrawatha Creek Bridge,
Smollet Street, Albury, NSW, Australia

The Smollet Street Bridge is only one of two three-pin steel arc bridges in New South Wales (the Sydney Harbour Bridge being the later and larger one).

The Smollet Street bridge is tied in with the development of the railways in Albury and the formalisation of the major communications networks in the Southern Riverina. When the Albury Railway Station was erected in 1884, the town of Albury had no say its placement, as the railway was a then colonial government matter. Rather than being placed at the end of Albury's Main Street ( 'Dean Street'), as had been expected by the citizens of Albury, the station was placed one block further south, at the eastern end of Smollet Street. From the perspective of major transportation networks, which were the prerogative of the colonial government, this made much sense. All heavy goods traffic, in particular the waggons laden with wheat and wool from the Southern Riverina, skirted the foot of what is now Monument Hill (then called Western Hill or Hospital Hill) to the south as they could not manage the incline over the pass at Pemberton Street. The railway station was destined to become a major transport hub for rural produce to Sydney (and also to Melbourne). For a direct connection with that access, Smollet Street was extended to the west, cutting through the Botanical Reserve (and now forming the southern boundary of the Albury Botanic Gardens). Bungambrawatha Creek had been recently canalised (in 1880) and routed along the western margin of the Botanical Reserve. This had to be bridged allowing for the passage very heavy wool wagons. A standard truss design, however, was unsuitable for an urban setting.

The Smollet Street Bridge was designed in 1886 by J A MacDonald (Department of Main Roads Engineer for bridges) who designed many bridges in New South Wales (including the MacDonald timber truss bridges built from 1884-1894). The three-pin design allowed for prefabrication and later assembly on site. Thus thus ironwork was manufactured D. and W. Robertson in Sydney. The iron arches were pre-assembled at Robertson’s grounds in Blackwattle Bay; then dismantled for transport by rail to Albury; and finally re-assebled on site in 1887.

The bridge has a buckle plate deck supported on five three-pinned arches. It has a span of 13.7m with brick stuccoed abutments ruled off to resemble ashlar. Designed for heavy wool waggons, the heavily cross-braced structure. It is still in heavy use and rated for 40-ton trucks.

The Bridge is on the New South Wales Heritage Database (as part of the Albury LEP).

From the Archives. Image taken in November 2009.

© Dirk HR Spennemann 2012, All Rights Reserved