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LEADING LIGHTS

Location

BEACON VISTA AND HOBSONS BAY PORT MELBOURNE, PORT PHILLIP CITY

File Number

13/007487

Level

Registered

[1/4]
LEADING LIGHTS SOHE 2008
[2/4]
LEADING LIGHTS SOHE 2008
[3/4]
1 leading lights beach road
[4/4]
H0982 H0982 plan

Statement of Significance

The Port Melbourne Leading Lights are of architectural and historic significance as a rare building type in Victoria because of the materials and form adopted which represents a notable application of the Trinity lighthouse design to a navigational installation of this type.

Whilst not distinctive in function, the combination of form and placement of the Port Melbourne Leading Lights, one in the water which of timber construction is unusual when compared to other similar structures.

The significance of the Port Melbourne Leading Lights is enhanced by the fact that they are essentially intact and rare survivors from a range of navigational aids constructed around Port Phillip Bay before 1945.

The easement following the line of sight between the lights is essential to their significance, linking as it does the land based light to the water based light. The easement has also been a key historical factor in the layout of the neighbouring property boundaries, along with the railway approaches, and has resulted in a large expanse of land free of roads and without substantial development well into the twentieth century.

The Port Melbourne Leading Lights are historically significant as structures surviving from an important visual and functional link between Princes and Station Piers and along with these piers reflect the pattern of shipping activity during the 1920s and 1930s.

Group