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New Street Railway Gates

Location New Street,, BRIGHTON VIC 3186 - Property No B7315 File Number B7315 Level State

[1/3] B7315 New St Railway Gates [2/3] B7315 New St Railway Gates [3/3] B7315 New St Railway Gates

Statement of Significance

What is significant? The New Street Railway Gates, established in 1883 but probably altered at the time of the line duplication in 1902, comprise double hand-operated timber gates, a weatherboard gatekeeper's cabin, a lever hut to operate the pedestrian gates, a weatherboard outhouse attached to the cabin (probably added later), picket fences, and two electronic signals operated from the cabin. Inside the cabin is a telegraph communications and signal operating mechanism.
How is it significant? The New Street Railway Gates are significant for aesthetic/architectural, historic, social, and scientific/ technical reasons at a State level.
Why is it significant? The New Street hand-operated railway gates, gatekeepers cabin and ancillary structures are of state level scientific/technical significance on the following grounds. They are the only example of hand-gates remaining in operation; these were the earliest type of railway gate, and once very common in Victoria. They are also the most intact remaining example of hand-gates, which were the earliest type of railway gate, and once common, in Melbourne and throughout Victoria. They are the last remaining operational example of early railway safe-working technology, dating from late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; they thus demonstrate the historical importance and development of railway safeworking systems in Victoria.
Thegates areof state level historical significance on the grounds that they are able to demonstrate a way of life, working environment, and functions that were once common in Victoria, but now superseded. They are also significant for their association with the 1887 Sandringham railway line, which (together with the Essendon line) was the first line electrified in Victoria.
The place is of local level aesthetic/architectural significance as the only example of this distinctive type of gatekeepers cabin remaining in Melbourne's southern or eastern suburbs.
The place is of local level social significance as a focus of local community historical interest and sentiment, and a campaign to preserve them.
Classified: 29/01/2007

File Note: Gates no longer in operation 2009