PRESTIGE HOSIERY MILL COMPLEX (FORMER)

How is it significant?
The former Prestige Limited textile mill complex 159-165 Donald Street, Brunswick East, is of local historical, representative and aesthetic significance to the City of Moreland.

Why is it significant?
It is historically significant as one of the first, and certainly one of the largest textile mills in the City of Moreland, where hosiery and clothing manufacturing was a major land use during the interwar period. Brunswick and Coburg were the centre of the Australian hosiery industry with Prestige and Holeproof providing the largest component of this for over thirty years. With the aid of Government incentives, Prestige expanded operation, opening a further three factories in Victorian country towns. Prestige Limited was known as a major employer (especially for women) through the Depression years, and for the high quality of their products, their export trade and enterprising approach up until their takeover by Dunlop Australia in 1968 and the discontinuation of the brand in 1978. This complex provides a tangible reminder of Prestige Limted and the important role it played in the textile industry in the City of Moreland. (Criterion A)
Prestige and Johnston Bros. Pty. Ltd, hosiery and silk hosiery manufacturers combined operations at the Donald Street mill between 1922 and 1925 and are historically significant as a major employer (especially of women) through the Depression years. ,It is a representative example of a large interwar industrial complex, built in stages, that still retains large areas of the factory under saw tooth roofs with characteristic side elevations showing the roof and wall profiles to achieve clerestory glazing. (Criterion D)
It is aesthetically significant for its consistent rendered facade with simple austere interwar classicism detailing across the three buildings andfor the views down two driveways of the vast expanse of sawtooth roofed building form bordered by masonry walls, either in their original unpainted state or painted. (Criterion E)

Group

Manufacturing and Processing

Category

Factory/ Plant