ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SUBSTATIONS

The electrical distribution substation buildings at 190A Canterbury Road, Canterbury of 1911; 26A Myrtle Road (on Canterbury Road), Canterbury of c1911-13; and 6 Harp Road, Kew of c1916 are significant. They were all built by the Melbourne Electricity Supply Company as part of long-term contracts with the municipalities of Camberwell and Kew to supply power to allow the replacement of gas street lighting with electric.

How is it significant?

The electrical distribution substation buildings are of local historical and representative significance to the City of Boroondara.

Why is it significant?

The electrical substations are historically significant for illustrating the introduction of electricity into Boroondara's suburbs in the mid-1910s, where they were used to allow the electrification of street lighting, and the infrastructure required for this. They also illustrate the early structure of electricity providers, prior to the establishment of the State Electricity Commission in 1921. In these early decades, after the passing of the Electric Light and Power Act of 1896, local councils could generate their own power or purchase it from one of two major private companies: the Melbourne Electricity Supply Company (MES Co) or the Melbourne City Council Electricity Supply Department. The City of Hawthorn signed a 14-year contract with the MES Co in 1910, as did the City of Camberwell the following year. The City of Kew had electric street lighting since the late 1890s, and it was extended as far as Harp Road in 1916 under a contract with the MES Co. (Criterion A)

The substations, individually and as a group, illustrate the range of designs used by the MES Co for its substations in the 1910s. As distinct from the classicising, parapeted substations constructed in the 1920s by the SEC, these early substations take a picturesque form related to prevailing Federation-era domestic design, with projecting eaves and ventilation lanterns adorned with a ball finial. (Criterion D)

Group

Utilities - Electricity

Category

Electricity Transformer/Substation