ORNAMENTAL TRAMWAY OVERHEAD POLES

The Bendigo overhead electric tramway poles were installed as part of the expansion and electrification of the Bendigo tramway system in 1903. This expansion was financed by the British owned Electric Supply Co. Ltd. and the poles were installed by their construction company the British Insulated Wire Company of Prescot, England. The expansion of the Bendigo system was one of the earliest of such undertakings in Australia and the company also constructed the electricity supply station nearby. The Bendigo tramway is today the only remaining system in a provincial city, one of the very few tramways remaining in Australia and one of the few systems retaining its original central ornamental tram poles.

How is it significant?

The Bendigo Ornamental Tramway Poles are historically and scientifically important to the State of Victoria.

Why is it significant?

The Bendigo Ornamental Tramway Poles are historically and scientifically important as a unique and early survivor of the earliest period of electrification of public transport infrastructure in Victoria. Their uniqueness is compounded by their survival as a continuing part of a provincial city tramway service where all others have long been dismantled. Similar decorative tram-poles were installed much later in other parts of the State and only those in Melbourne now survive.

The present tramway system is historically associated with a once larger system which portrayed the size and industrial aspirations of Bendigo as one of the state's large provincial cities. The earlier tramway system originally used battery power then steam before the Electric Supply Company Ltd. set up its succesful electrification of the Bendigo lines in 1903.

Group

Transport - Tramways

Category

Equipment and Objects