We have already highlighted what an important resource timber was in the maintenance and construction of rolling stock at Newport. Huge quantities of high-grade timber were constantly arriving, being sawn down into useable sizes, then had to go through a careful process of seasoning.
By the early 1880’s this work had outgrown the Williamstown workshops. Three huge temporary buildings 170m x 28m were purchased from the city following the 1880 Melbourne Exhibition. One was erected at the Williamstown workshops which added to their hodge podge group of buildings. The other two were erected on the north side of the Williamstown railway near Melbourne road in c1883. They are described as an open-sided shed, which is essentially a gable roof on posts. The centre section of the roof framing, including the gable ridge, consists of timber triangular trusses of 14-metre span supported on two rows of timber posts, with a 7-metre skillion extension on each side.
The two buildings were relocated to the north-east corner of east block in 1913 and have been known as the Timber Store or Stacking Shed as they have been used for timber seasoning for their entire life. Many of the timber rafters are original and still exhibit painted numbers used to identify their position for correct re-assembly.
Considering that these two buildings predate the main 1888 constructed workshops by five years, why the boundary of the H1000 heritage site in 1994 was placed right between these two sheds is an unbelievable mystery. The result has been that Downer have demolished the east building, which is within their lease and have built a car park on that land. The remaining building which is within the heritage lease is two-thirds filled with Downer’s containers. Why do their containers need to be stored under cover? just 100 metres away there are numerous one-off examples of heritage rolling stock rusting and rotting away in east block yard! The other third is filled with life-expired semaphore signal equipment which could be restored in a future museum or distributed to heritage regional railways. Victoria is not doing well in looking after its rail heritage!
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