Northbank Heritage Trail
STOP 7
Customs House
Location: North-west corner of Queens Bridge
After you cross over the busy Queens Bridge, turn away from the river to view the grand former customs house on Flinders Street, just visible under the railway viaduct.
In 1841 the enterprising George Ward Cole built Cole’s Wharf (later re-named Queen’s Wharf), near the corner of Elizabeth and Flinders Streets. The wharf included a dock, a wharf, a platform for landing goods safely and a nine-foot-high fence all around, required by law, with a bond store behind, in Flinders Street. Cole’s Wharf was the first to receive, store and despatch the thousands of tonnes of goods and people that were creating this almost instant city. Captain George Cole was significant to the development of Melbourne’s river port as he privately funded the first commercial wharf on the river, and became very wealthy in the process.
By the 1850s imports and exports flowed up and down the Yarra River and in and out of Hobsons Bay by the millions and wharves lined the river banks. They were crammed with goods sheds, loading yards, and port operational equipment such as lifting pulleys, cranes, trolleys on rails, loading yards and wharf labourers. Set back from the wharves to serve and sustain maritime trade, a plethora of commercial industrial businesses were established – engineers, makers and repairers of nets, boxes, and other related equipment.
Due to all the commercial trade at this major river port, government established customs control to ensure the state derived revenue from this major economic driver. As Melbourne’s maritime trade expanded, the potential to extract revenue for government also grew, so keeping an eye on all this activity from the other side of Flinders Street was Melbourne’s customs house, which began as a tent, then a cabin, then a two-story bluestone building was built in 1841 before the building we see today (now the Immigration Museum) was designed by Peter Kerr and completed in 1876.
As the port of Melbourne continued to expand and colonial Melbourne continued to prosper, the Melbourne Harbour Trust (MHT) was formed to represent the commercial interests of maritime trade which was so crucial to the economy of Victoria. As the critical importance of the maritime port infrastructure along banks of the Birrarung/Yarra diminished in the late nineteenth century, the port shifted downstream away from the CBD.
The immense investment through Melbourne Harbour Trust delivered a massive expansion of port infrastructure into Victoria Harbour and Central Pier. These pressures, together with investment in new but generally very low bridges upstream designed primarily to align with rail tracks or roadways, resulted in maritime trade along the upper reaches of the river gradually diminishing and the functions of Melbourne’s grand customs house, and the Port of Melbourne Authority building behind it, were moved to new locations. By this time, railway infrastructure and Banana Alley had obscured the view of the river from the customs house.
FURTHER READING
IMAGE CREDITS
1. Detail from Robert Russell, Melbourne From the Falls,1844, showing first customs house
2. The river at Queensbridge 1910. Demolition of The Falls allowed shipping movements and use of turning basin. Note integration of shipping with rail transport. Public Record Office Victoria