One of Newcastles most beautiful buildings which has been left to be graffitied on and squatters living in it in recent years. Its a shame nothing has been done to the place which would be great for a number of uses. Carrington Pump House is another of Newcastles great buildings that is quietly awaiting its rebirth. A very handsome building with beautiful details in its sandstone facade, the elegance of the building contrasts with its heavy industrial past. Newcastle City Councils heritage strategist, Sarah Cameron, said, This is a real treasure for Newcastle and the nation. Its a powerful space and thats what it was about. It was about lifting coal on to the coal ships. Can you imagine working in here, the noise! Its one of our major heritage icons and really does exemplify what Newcastle was all about in the 19th century. It became Australias most significant coal export port and the hydraulic powerstation was built in order to facilitate and allow for expansion of that coal export trade. It was built in 1877 to a design by the ports engineer, Edward Moriarty, He, in fact, did a whole lot of other ports up and down the east coast of Australia. He designed the port facilities so that within this basin it would allow for reclamation of the mud flats, Carrington wasnt developed residentially and it was still inundated by high tides - it was basically an oyster bank with mud flats. Moriartys design allowed for the filling of the area and the construction of the dyke. This western basin here would over time allow for a much deeper estuary depth so you could bring much larger ships in here, In order industrialise the export of coal and to increase the capacity to load coal on to ships, they needed a really significant source of power so the hydraulic pump house was built in order to provide the power for the hydraulic cranes on the dyke. Between 1870 and 1930 Newcastle was exporting 70% of Australias coal production. Thats a huge amount and thats why we still have a legacy today of being the biggest coal port in the southern hemisphere, we cant resile from that at this point in time and that legacy was born out of this particular facility. At the time, in the mid 19th century, the NSW government realised how important Newcastle was and it had to invest significantly in its infrastructure in order to provide that expansion of the coal port. It is a majestic building that at the time would have housed a really powerful and significant piece of engineering. Paradoxically, yes, its architecture is quite grand and classical, its designed in that manner externally, but inside its a very different story, its a totally utilitarian structure that fits the purpose for which is was built. This very large scale was because there was very large equipment in here with the accumulator and the boilers to create the steam which then powered the steam cranes on the dyke. It has a beautiful facade yet internally its very industrial. The architect for the building was the government architect, Barnet, said Sarah, Thats why its so classical and its a bit of a folly. Hes played with things like the windows and doors. Theyre actually double height so by playing with the scale the building appears so much stronger and more powerful, it plays on the idea that were harnessing and creating a really powerful economy. The workers and craftsmen working on the pump house were working at the same time on Newcastles Customs House. If you think of Newcastle as an outdoor museum, this building is an icon. Its part of the citys rich collection of historic buildings. You think of Christ Church Cathedral, Nobbys Lighthouse, Customs House, and this building in particular. This building is so good at telling a story about the coal industry and government investment in that industry in order to create a really strong economy in the 19th century. This building really exemplifies that, linked to Customs House, of course, because when you had a large port you needed a customs facility. This building fits into that whole story of the the expansion of the port. This building was also state-of-the-art. Sarah adds, There was nothing else like this in the whole of Australia. Newcastle was the place where the government invested huge amounts of money, quite deliberately because they knew exactly what coal export meant for our economy. The building is currently owned by Newcastle Port Corporation and managed by the NSW Department of Crown Lands. It was last used in 1988 when it housed maritime services workshops but the pump house was last used to power the steam cranes in the 1960s. Investigations into potential future use are underway and Sarah says it has a lot of potential, It does allow some lateral thinking in how the space might be used. It could be a mezzanine space and loft independent of the walls and therefore removable in the future. But it also has a large floor space, in fact three separate large spaces with wonderful light and wonderful volume. The building has a relatively new timber and slate roof after a fire about 15 years ago. The Newcastle Port Corporation imported Penrhyn slate from Wales after the fire to restore the roof and replaced the slate. I think what they did was quite visionary because even though building has been vacant for about 30 years, its really watertight. Theres no sign of leaking and that allows it to have a fairly stable microclimate inside. Apart from the rising damp, which is a different issue, theres no damage from ingress of water.
Posted on: Mon, 12 Jan 2015 22:48:13 +0000