Timber Store

FFF 28 3rd February 2023

Timber store

There is another building behind EB that has raised a lot of questions over many years. It is called the timber store (Not the timber store which is the big 170m long shed covered in FFF 19) This is a separate 24m x 30m corrugated iron building behind the transport office. This is the building where all the timber bending & drying used in carriage building was done.

All the early VR timber carriages including the bog box and Tait sliding door suburban carriages had bent timber frame and panel construction in their roofs. This was a skilled art to cut, then steam and bend the timer to a former, then dry it while under bent pressure.

Various dates are given for the construction of this building, but that may be because one source gives the construction date as 1898 and a number of additions/alterations were done in 1907, 1912 and 1913. The main curiosity is the two early-looking lanterns in the clerestory roof construction which is a feature of visual and aesthetic interest. Were they part of the timber store buildings that came from the ‘Melbourne exhibition’ after the exhibition in c1880? There is still much archaeological study to be done about the history of many of these buildings around east block. These are all within the H1000 heritage-listed site which needs full protection.