Sir John Monash’s malt tanks set for removal under Grocon’s heritage CUB site redevelopment plans

Fresh works are proposed for the former Carlton United Brewery site on Swanston Street, Melbourne.

Grocon has announced plans for works to the former malt store and also to the bluestone brewery buildings on Bouverie Street.

The initial works comprise restoration, reconstruction and adaptation of heritage buildings, which have remained vacant for about 25 years.

The proposal involves the redevelopment of the malt stores as restaurants and offices to an ARM Architecture design.

While it involves minor alterations to the exterior of the malt store building, it is also proposes to remove 18 of the 21 reinforced concrete malt tanks.

The tanks have technical importance as an innovation of their time. They were also constructed by Australia’s most famous engineer, John Monash.

Two of the three tanks are to be retained as meeting rooms within the office component of the development, and one will be retained in its original state.

It is proposed to modify the bluestone facades to Bouverie Street to allow vehicle access to the future apartment tower to be located in the middle of the site.

The permit application is currently with Heritage Victoria.

The project is to be delivered in two stages, the first over three years beginning in 2012, and will extend through to the completion of the main tower to be erected behind the malt store.

The second stage is expected to be delivered by 2020, but is dependent upon obtaining tenant commitment.

The works will form part of the unfinished Swanston Square project (pictured above), which Grocon is currently marketing, with one-bedroom units starting at $366,000 through Colliers.

It was in late 1987, production at the Carlton plant ceased as the company concentrated its operations at the Abbotsford site.

Various proposals for the redevelopment of the site were developed, including building new headquarters for Elders-IXL, triggering demolition of most of the buildings on the site.

In 2011 the site on the corner of Victoria and Swanston Street previously occupied by the two-level extension to the malt house was redeveloped for the eight-level RMIT Centre for Innovation.

The five-level Pixel Building (pictured above) was also constructed in 2011 on the corner of Queensbury Street and Swanston Street.

The use of the site as a brewery dates back to 1858, when Rosenberg and Co. established the North Melbourne Brewery at 24 Bouverie Street, according to the Lovell Chen heritage report prepared for the Grocon submission.

This brewery closed within a year but was reopened in 1864 by a new owner, John Bellman, who used Rosenberg’s buildings and plant but renamed the venture the Carlton Brewery.

Bellman substantially expanded the complex, constructing additional buildings facing Bouverie Street.

Despite his considerable outlay, however, Bellman’s company also failed and the brewery was sold by sheriff’s auction in 1865.

The new owners, Edward Latham and GM Milne, who engaged well-known brewer Alfred Terry to set up their plant, had more success with the business, which was renamed EG Latham & Co and over the next 20 years both plant and buildings on the site were expanded as the company’s output increased. Additions to the complex, for example, included brick stables north of Ballarat Street and a large bluestone cellaring and warehouse building onto Victoria Street (1870). In 1872, the old Rosenberg plant and timber building were demolished, and Latham erected a new brick brew tower in this location.

The building on the corner of Ballarat Street and Bouverie Street was constructed as a malt store in 1883.

In 1882, the Melbourne Brewing and Malting Company was formed, with Latham as its managing director.

The company subsequently amalgamated with Alfred Terry’s West End Brewery in 1889, to form the Carlton and West End Breweries Limited.

The company underwent considerable expansion in 1890, with the purchase in 1890 of 5,500 square feet (511 square metres) of land on the corner of Bouverie Street and Victoria Street.

New bluestone offices were constructed south of the existing Bouverie Street buildings.

The design in 1904-05 of Carlton Brewing Company’s new malt store and its layout and plant was said to have been ‘suggested’ by the company’s head brewer, Lieut.-Col. Ballinger.

The architects were Messers HV and A Champion, and the builders were Messers Baxter and Boyne.

The internal silos were erected by John Monash of the Monier Concrete Company, and the elevators were erected and installed by Robert Bodington, the well-known firm of flour milling and malting engineers.

The application is available for public view through the Heritage Victoria website, and public submissions on the proposed works can be made until May 23.