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AGM FACTORY COMPLEX, FORMER (HO46)
Location1 (PART) HUDSONS ROAD + 1 (PART), 8 AND 21 (PART) SIMCOCK AVENUE SPOTSWOOD, HOBSONS BAY CITY LevelIncluded in Heritage Overlay |
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Statement of Significance
What is significant?
The AGM Factory Complex (Former) across four sites in Spotswood is significant. This vast, densely developed industrial site emerged east of Booker Street during the late Victorian period and expanded west, southwest and north during the early 20th century as a principal site of production for the nationally important company Australian Glass Manufacturers Co Ltd (AGM) (1915-39) and descendent Australian Consolidated Industries (ACI) (1939-98). Due to recent redevelopment, much of the historic built fabric has been lost or compromised; however, some significant elements survive.
The significant components are:
The significant components are:
- Basalt Wall (1897) - west side of Douglas Parade,
- AGM Company Headquarters (1916); Tennis Clubhouse, excluding the south skillion (circa 1916); and WWII air raid shelter/bunker - north side of Simcock Avenue,
- Moulded Plastics Factory, east bay (that is, excluding west bay) - west side of Booker Street
- Gabled Workshop (brick section only); Glassmaking Plant – two and single storey sections (circa 1934); Office Building and Street Wall (early 1950s) - north side of Hudsons Road.
The extent of the significant fabric of the various buildings differs. In some instances, the building was erected at one point in time and the three-dimensional form remains. In other cases, the extant brick façade was added to the front of a pre-existing shed (such as to some of the buildings on the north side of Hudson Road).
How is it significant?
The AGM Factory Complex (Former) is of local historical, rarity, representative, and aesthetic significance to the City of Hobsons Bay.
Why is it significant?
The AGM Factory Complex (Former) is of historical significance as a long-standing, continuously operating industrial complex, possibly the oldest in metropolitan Melbourne. The present industrial fabric is illustrative of the various phases of the development that characterised its growth from the late 19th century. Charting its progressive expansion from its original holding east to the west of Booker Street and beyond during the interwar year and marked consolidation during postwar years as the place evolved into a colossal, tightly packed quarter of technically advanced factories, administrative buildings, staff amenities, warehouses, and furnaces. The presence and character of which came to define the locale, underlying Spotswood’s reputation as a notable industrial suburb in Melbourne. Generations of local men and women have laboured at the complex, which was a major employer for much of its history. The associations of the place with the glassmaking industry and the various iterations of its nationally noteworthy parent company – Felton, Grimwade & Co/Melbourne Glass Bottle Works, Australian Glass Manufacturers Co Ltd, and Australian Consolidated Industries, and its many subsidiaries – is also of note.
(Criterion A)As a complex, it consists of an unusually varied range of industrial buildings and staff facilities, for which there is no ready comparison in the municipality and few in Melbourne. Of these, the rare surviving elements are the Basalt Wall, Tennis Club, and parabolic WWII Bunker
(Criterion B)The AGM Factory Complex (Former) is of representative significance as an extensive industrial complex with intact building fabric from its key phases of development being the Victorian, Federation, Interwar and Postwar periods. The near-continuous street wall of masonry buildings/facades along Hudsons Road forms a highly evocative industrial streetscape of fabric mainly dating to the Interwar (red brick) and Postwar (cream brick) periods, reflecting the scale of facilities required at the place
(Criterion D)The elements of particular aesthetic significance are:
- the Basalt Wall (1897, Victorian period), a long and finely made wall with landmark qualities,
- AGM Company Headquarters (1916, Federation period), a good and intact example of the Free Style in red brick with a terracotta tiled roof and a symmetrical façade design with an original entrance canopy, and
- Glassmaking Plant (circa 1934, Interwar Period), an unusually restrained façade design – articulated with minimal masonry and with large, openable steel-framed windows reflecting the manufacturing function of the building (and the need for good lighting and ventilation).
Group
Manufacturing and Processing
Category
Factory/ Plant