Northbank Heritage Trail

STOP 19
North Wharf

Location: Corner Tom Thumb Lane

From Australian Wharf, take the small ramp to Collins Landing at the beginning of North Wharf. North Wharf, originally known as Australian Wharf, was the heart and soul of the port for decades but has itself undergone several changes. Although it is historically accurate to use the term ‘North Wharf’, real estate developers, seeking to extend the cachet of a Collins Street address, also refer to the eastern section of the North Wharf as Collins Wharf. The river widens here and it is possible to appreciate the vast number of ships and vessels which have passed through these waters over the centuries.

To cope with the huge demand for wharf space along the river, the wharf was constructed in 1855 along the north bank from Spencer Street to near the present Charles Grimes Bridge. As port works progressed and the river was widened, the wharf was moved further along to railway land in 1882 and by 1910 was extended to the mouth of Victoria Dock.

With unmet demand for berth space for ever larger ships, and the construction of multiple, low-gradient bridges, it became necessary to build an entirely new harbour. In 1873 a plan was conceived to construct canals, docks, wharves, roads, and tramways to recover the lowlands adjacent to the City of Melbourne. This would be a massive engineering feat to transform the river from Spencer Street to the bay. Such was the importance of port operations to the prosperity of the city that the government established the Melbourne Harbour Trust in 1876 through which to both improve operations and invest in new port infrastructure to sustain the continuous boom in maritime trade. In an aspirational move, the fledgling Melbourne Harbour Trust engaged British engineer Sir John Coode to transform the river.

The excavations related to construction of the Coode Canal and Victoria Harbour radically altered the north bank. The north bank ’land’ which separates the Birrarung/Yarra and Victoria Harbour was man-made due to the immensely ambitious and world-renowned Coode Scheme undertaken by the Melbourne Harbour Trust in the late nineteenth century to straighten and widen the river. (See detail of these works in the Victoria Harbour Narrative Trail)

From this point, the north bank is currently impassable for pedestrians along the river. A series of high-rise residential towers are being built and will stretch along the river bank. Construction works on these towers currently render this long riverside section of North Wharf inaccessible to the public. The approved development plans feature a new pedestrian public wharf constructed along the north bank, together with a small public park at the end of this immense levee which we know as North Wharf. Currently public access to the tip of North Wharf is possible via the North Wharf Road which is roughly mid-way between the Birrarung/Yarra and Victoria Harbour in the middle of North Wharf.

FURTHER READING

IMAGE CREDIT
Melbourne Harbour Trust General Plan, 1879, State Library Victoria