We are completing essential conservation works to restore the Museum's Battery Room.

Positioned behind the main Cable Station, the Battery Building was originally built to house the battery back-up power supply for the original Cable Station. Over the last 100 years, the Battery Building has been modified to accommodate a range of uses. Today, the building needs restoration to ensure it is structurally sound, watertight and that the fabric of the building is safe for visitors.

This project has been proudly made possible by the NSW State Government through a caring for State Heritage Grant.

Battery Room History.

In 1854 Australia’s first telegraph line was installed between Melbourne and Williamtown, a distance of 17km. The network quickly expanded with overland lines between Melbourne and Adelaide and Melbourne and Sydney completed in 1858. Brisbane joined the network in 1861, Launceston in 1869 (via King Island) and Perth in 1877. A connection between Australia and England via India was envisaged as early as 1854 but the challenges of laying submarine cables over long distances meant that it was not until 1872 that it was realised with completion of a submarine cable between Java in Indonesia and Port Darwin. This line joined into an overland connection, also completed in 1872, extending from Port Darwin to Port Augusta and then to the existing lines connecting Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Launceston and Brisbane.

The laying of a submarine cable between Frenchman’s beach on the La Perouse Headland and the New Zealand town of Wakapuaka was completed in 1876, thereby ensuring that all of England’s colonies in the Southern Hemisphere were linked by telegraph to London. The cable was laid, owned and operated by the Eastern Extension Australasia and China Telegraph Company Ltd up until its closure in 1918.

The first ‘Cable Telegraph Station’, including the battery room, was accommodated in a collection of timber-framed buildings located on the Headland but close to the sands of Frenchman’s Beach. These ‘temporary’ buildings were progressively demolished as the facilities were relocated into the main building of the permanent Station when it was completed in 1882.

On 16 October 1879 the Superintendent requested construction of permanent buildings, which included a ‘battery room and store’ 20ft x 16ft (6m x 4.8m) in dimension. This suggests that the original intention was to construct a separate building to house both the back-up batteries and a store. The building, however, was not included in the original tender, possibly due to concerns about costs—the approved drawings only showed plans for the ‘right wing and operating room’ and a proposed future extension. These works were completed in 1882.

Requests for a ‘Battery and Store’ persisted. By August 1883, the dimensions for the requested building had grown to 36ft x 20ft (11m x 6m), presumably as a result of the need for additional batteries and storage. On 21 July 1884, the Colonial Architect submitted plans for a ‘Battery and Store Room’ with an estimated cost of 350 pounds. Tenders were called on 29 August 1884 for the ‘erection of a Battery and Store Room’. Fresh tenders were called for on 7 October 1884 and on this occasion the successful contactors were McLeod and Noble. On 17 August 1885 the Acting Colonial Architect reported completion of the ‘Battery Room and Store Room’ for a cost of 429 pounds, 3 shillings and 11 pence. The reference to separate buildings, the need for a fresh tender and the increased costs suggests that a decision had been made to separate the uses into two different buildings.

Analysis of the existing building confirms that the original brick masonry building consisted of a single room with an entry door on the north elevation and two double-hung sash windows on the east and west elevations. The building also retains its original hipped corrugated iron roof, supported by king post roof trusses that were originally exposed to view internally. The use of sand-lime bricks, which are relatively soft in composition, and the garden bond detail, suggests that the building was constructed with a view to minimising costs. The interior of the building was not rendered but featured a paint finish.

Plans to relocate the cable station were drawn up in 1901 and by 1903 the telegraphic services, including battery store, were transferred to Yarra Bay House and its vicinity. At this time the former Cable Station complex was adapted to staff accommodation, a use that it retained until 1915 when the former Cable Station building complex and land was transferred back to the State Government. In 1917 the company relocated the entire cable landing site from Yarra Bay to Bondi Beach thereby ceasing operations altogether from the la Perouse Headland.

A 1918 site plan designates the former Battery Room a store room. This is likely to have been its use since relocation of the battery store to Yarra Bay in 1903. In 1920 the former Cable Station building complex was adapted for living accommodation for nurses working at the Coast Hospital (Prince Henry Hospital) at Little Bay. It appears that the former Battery Room remained in use as a store right up until the building complex was handed over to the Department of Defence in 1939 to accommodate newly enlisted soldiers and mobilising forces, including Company B of the 2nd Garrison Battalion.

The former Battery Room was adapted in 1939 or 1940 to accommodate a bathroom block and laundry. This work included installation of a partition wall and ceiling linings, introduction of an additional door opening, relocation of some windows, the infilling of others and introduction of new windows. A chimney stack was also constructed to facilitate heating of a boiler in the laundry. The boiler was later relocated to the nearby store room.

The bathroom block and laundry remained in operation throughout the army’s occupation of the site (1939-1944) and its subsequent use as the La Perouse Women’s and Children’s Home, which was operated by the Salvation Army up until 1987. From 1944 to 1987 very little change to the building occurred other than to address ongoing maintenance issues.

History written by Tanner Kibble Denton Architects.