FORMER ROYAL AUSTRALIAN CORPS OF SIGNALS DRILL HALL

The site of the Drill Hall was used for military purposes from around 1885, and originally contained two Orderly Rooms, which were damaged by fire in 1933 and demolished. From 1935 to 1939 there was a dramatic increase in defence spending in response to the perceived threat of another war. As the Defence Act did not allow for the existence of a regular army, all the major expenditure on accommodation in Victoria was on the construction of a series of new, imposing, red brick drill halls to train the citizen army. The existing Drill Hall complex was constructed between 1935 and 1936 and opened in 1936, for the Australian Corps of Signals. The complex was designed by Commonwealth Architect George H. Hallandal, overseen by Chief Architect Horace J. Mackennal and constructed by J. C. Corbett. The Drill Hall complex was occupied by various units of the Royal Australian Corps of Signals until 1975. After this date, the buildings continued to be occupied by various units of the Army until the mid-1990s. The Drill Hall complex has been extended twice with the addition in 1960 of classrooms (since removed) to the garage buildings and minor internal alterations in 1992-93 to the Drill Hall for the Australian Army Band. A plaque on the Administration Building was presented in August 1995 by the Royal Australian Signals Association (Victoria). It states that Australian Corps of Signals emblems of the interwar era remain in the building, to honour the many Signal units of the Militia, 2nd AIF (Australian Imperial Force), ARA (Australian Regular Army), CMF (Citizens Military Forces) and Army Reserve which used the site continuously until 1975. 'The badges [emblems] also commemorate the thousands of signal men and woman who served here, some of whom did not return from active service.' The complex comprises the only remaining military buildings dating from the Army occupation of Albert Park during World War II.

The Former Royal Australian Corps of Signals Drill Hall is made up of five discrete buildings - the Administration Building and two flanking residences fronting Albert Road Drive South, the Drill Hall to the rear (south) of the Administration Building, and the workshop/garages along the western boundary. The Administration Building and residences have been constructed in polychromatic brick in the Stripped Classical style. The Drill Hall has also been constructed in the Stripped Classical style but utilises plain red brick. The workshop/garages is a long, unadorned utilitarian structure. The frontage to Albert Road Drive South is highly symmetrical with the Administration Building and two residences linked by formal gardens, low walls and decorative steel fences. With the exception of the workshop/garages, all buildings feature Art Deco detailing in their highly intact interior spaces. The Administration Building and Drill Hall also retain built-in furniture and several Royal Australian Signals Corps emblems (depicting the winged Roman messenger god, Mercury) in relief. A mature memorial tree (Populus x canadensis 'Aurea') is located to the rear (south) of the Drill Hall.

This site is part of the traditional land of the Kulin Nation.