34 BOURKE STREET - Electricity and Explosives

OLD POWDER MAGAZINE SITE AND ELECTRICITY DISTRIBUTION STATION

There are two ways of going about this blog. One is the sensible way, which is to find out a great deal of existing interesting information about a building and then take a picture of it, and the other way, which is to wander past and, think “Oh this looks interesting,” take a picture and then try to find out what it is and how it came to be. As you have probably gathered by now, my posts generally fall into the latter category.

This week's building is a case in point. We were walking down Margaret Street, and decided to wander up Canning Street. Just around the corner in Bourke Street was an unusual brick building set in a long empty block. I guessed “church”, but I was wrong. The QVMAG's indispensable paper on Launceston's Industrial Heritage tells us that it was, in fact an electricity distribution station, designed by C. St John David, and built by J&T Gunn in 1894. It also mentions that it once had a tower which has since been removed.A newspaper report from 1940 talks of the construction of a new sub-station in Bourke Street but doesn't give any more details so I'm not sure what relationship (if any) it has to this building. It is now on the Heritage Register as “a house” so presumably some redevelopment has been undertaken.

The building is described in the Heritage Council Annual Report of 2009-10 as “Powder Magazine Site and Former Electricity Distributing Station.” was one of 58 additions to the permanent Heritage Register in that year. Gunpowder and other explosives were usually stored in government-owned facilities away from houses for obvious reasons. Presumably the expanding town necessitated the move. Even in the 1850s, there were issues with the location of the magazine. The Examiner of 12 March 1858 referred to “that dangerous old magazine on Cateract Hill.” The newspapers of the time were full of reports of powder magazines exploding at various locations within Australia and elsewhere, so obviously no one was keen to have one on their doorstep.

The original powder magazine was closed in the 1870s, and moved to a location in Henry Street. (More information about the new storage site can be found at

http://www.environment.gov.au/cgi-bin/ahdb/search.pl?mode=place_detail;place_id=101047

I'm aware that this is a bit disjointed and am very conscious that there is more to be told – once again I can either not post this because I'm not happy with it or go with it in the hope that someone who can fill in more information about this building's history might like to comment. I'm also having a bit of trouble finding the newer powder magazine site....I suspect I've seen it but not recognised it for what it is.....any suggestions?