Railway Institute, Northam

Statement of Significance

Architectural I technical accomplishment
The building is pleasantly proportioned and simple in style, with additions blending with original hall. Local skills and materials were utilised in the building.

Demonstration of a way of life
The building is evidence of the vitality of community's social and educational ideals for the workers housed in West Northam and mainly employed in the railway yards and flour mill and their desire for self­ improvement through education and for a place for sober social gatherings, entertainment and recreation. Their ambitious plans were realised through their own efforts and enjoyed by the town as a whole. It also provided a place to go for railway and mill workers and their families stationed in Northam .

Historical Significance
It was the first Railway Institute building constructed in Western Australia. Personalities associated with its building were J.T. Reilly, who chaired the Committee, and George Throssell, whose wife headed the fundraising and laid the foundation stone. Both men were elected to Parliament by the town's people. Throssell was Premier of the State for a short period in 1901.

Environmental importance I unity of setting
ft is situated to the east of the railway yards at the old Northam Railway Station. A footbridge was built in 1908 from Morrell Street over the yards, so that railway workers and users living in West Northam passed by it to their homes. [Footbridge now demolished - yards empty.] With other buildings in West Northam it preserves something of that locality as it flourished during the transition of Nortbam as a railway centre, into a prosperous town. The Old Railway Station, the Poole Street Footbridge, the Magistrates Residence in Hapgood Street, and shops and hotels; the Colonial and its stables in Duke Street, and the Guard in Fitzgerald Street opposite the station; and St James Anglican Church (over the road from the Railway Institute) are evidence of West Northam as a flourishing society once in competition with the more prosperous East Northam, which won a battle for the business sector of the town.

Social Significance
Of cultural significance to the State in being the first Railway Institute built devoted to the advancement of social and educational skills in W.A. Its presence is a memorial of people who worked the railways and in associated industries at Northam. Some were stationed there temporarily, and many were migrants.

Scarcity value
The first railway institute in the state and the only railway institute building in the area.

Physical Description

The Railway Institute Building, West Northam, is located on a wedge shaped site on the corner of Wellington and Morrell Streets, West Northam. The site backs onto the former railway reserve, being the north-eastern end of an extensive railway shunting yard and the throughway. There is no sign of the former railway fabric visible from the site along Morrell Street. Several mature river red gums exist along the Morrell Street boundary behind the building.

The building comprises several disparate buildings joined together. The main, gabled roofed structure described in the original newspaper report faces Wellington Street with a formal facade in the Federation Free Classical style.

The second, a gambrel roofed structure, adjoins side-on to the main hall in Wellington Street, a doorway providing the junction. The second building displays few style characteristics other than flat arch-headed double hung windows subdivided with sash bars.

The third structure is a timber framed and jarrah weatherboard clad building with a fireplace, again with a gambrel roof. Each of the windows have interesting bracketed canopies over.

The fourth element comprises later red brick additions to the rear of the main structure.

The roof of each of the elements is clad with galvanised corrugated iron and each structure appears as an entity simply butted against the other with the result that difficulties may be experienced with rain water disposal. Otherwise, the total structure appears intact and authentic, and in quite good condition.

The major visual feature is the extraordinary Wellington Street front formed by the red brick gable end. This has been modelled into a pediment by the introduction of rendered, run elements comprising barges with a matching base, but without the usual entablature. The base of the pediment is 'supported' on rendered quoins in the form of fluted pilasters. The dado of the facade is rendered, the remainder including the return walls are in red brick with a lower, rendered plinth.

The timber framed, facade openings comprise a central doorway flanked by a window each side, each round­ arch headed, and formed from elaborate rendered, run mouldings, set on projecting sills.

The building is in fair to good condition externally, and contains sufficient original fabric to provide a sound base for a comprehensive conservation programme to be implemented successfully.

The bricks of the hall are said to be made in Northam. The floors are wooden on brick piers. The hall has stone foundations. Measurements of the original hall are given as:
Height 72 feet
Ceilings 18 feet
Walls 16 feet
Width 21 feet
Length 50 feet
Stage 10 feet

History

Assessment 1997
Construction 1897
Architect F. Mylton (honorary)
Builder S. Millington
The Avon Valley was an agriculturally rich area and from its settlement and development in the 1830s, it played an important role in the development of the newly founded Swan River colony.

For many years the district supported only a handful of scattered properties, but from the 1880s a small town was established . Northam is situated 1OOkm east of Perth in a central part of the valley of the Avon River. The opening of the railway line to Perth in the late 1880s made it the centre of agricultural trading and commerce. In the 1890s, with the goldrushes to the east, Northam was made the starting point for the railway to the goldfields, a decision which stimulated the town's major growth and saw it become the focal
centre for the district. I

With the connection of rail services to N01tham, yards were established at this important junction. A railway stop was established at West Northam in 1896, together with much associated commercial development most of which is no longer evident. Northam developed as two distinct nodes polarised at the east and west end of the town. Developments in the late 1890s included several housing estates for the workers in the nearby flour mill and the railways .

The opening of the Perth to Northam railway in 1886 attracted many dignitaries to the town. At the time, a shortage of funds prevented the construction of a railway station. East Northam was the first station built and became the main depot in the construction eastwards.

A committee of railway men were elected at a lunch-time meeting in the Northam yards in September of 1896, the committee was formed to advance the social and educational prospects of railway workers in Northam. Many of the members of the committee were associated with the Women's Christian Temperance Union in Northam. [Advertiser, 2/4/ 1898] As a result of the efforts of this committee, an approach was made to provide social facilities for the 318 men employed and their families at the Railway yards. The government agreed to assist with the land and a cash moiety of £125 toward cost of the building was a first for a Railway Institute in Western Australia. A building costing £460 was proposed.

Mr George Throssell, M.L.A., appointed the Commissioner for Crown lands in the Forrest Administration in February 1897, a pioneer of the Northam District and associated with the development of the district, agreed to donate £25, and his wife led the fund raising in the community. Throssell, a migrant from Ireland in 1850, had opened a business in Northam in 1862 at the age of 22, was elected to the Northam Roads Board and elected unopposed to the Legislative Assembly for Northam in 1890. He successfully fought for the line to the Yilgarn to be taken through Northam rather than York. The founding and ongoing interest in the Northam Mechan ics Institute is attributed to him. [Thiel p.38].He was the President of the Mechanics Institute in 1900. His wife was instrumental in organising much of the fund raising for the balance of the funds. (Note: Thiel refers to the building as "Mechanics Institute")

At the laying of the foundation stone on 28 July 1897, the deeds to the Crown Grant were handed to the trustees. The foundation stone was laid by Mrs G. Throssell, as it was largely due to her efforts that the
idea for the building progressed.2 The foundation stone recorded the names of the Committee chairman and members, the name of the architect, Mr F. Mytton and the builder, Mr S. Millington. The building was proposed to be 72' x 21'. Mr Throssell in a speech stated the idea for the formation of the Institute was brought to Northam by 'intelligent men who hailed from other colonies' where railway men were used to 'educational advantages better that inthe West'. [Advertiser 31/07/1897 , p.3)

The stone was then put in position and in the cavity beneath a bottle containing two copies of the Northam Ad vertiser and some coins were inserted, after which Mrs. Throssell, to the accompaniment of loud cheers,
declared the foundation stone of the Northam Railway Institute well and truly laid.

In his speech the Hon. George Throssell made special mention of the need for the Institute and the sort of services it could provide:

It must be apparent to all who looked around them that a Hall was required for the convenience of the large number of railway employees residing in Northam. There was no part of the colony in which an Institute was so desirable. Thanks to the Yilgarn railway and to the immense strides being made by agriculturalists in the Northam district, they had a very large number of men permanently stationed at Northam . ... The railway department in this colony was manned by many intelligent who hailed from the other colonies, where educational advantages were much better than the old West Australian people could boast of, and in the Hall they would find a place where they could retire to for purposes of mental culture and he sincerely trusted that the Hall woul d do all the good that it was anticipated that it would. While it may be used for dances and other innocent amusements, he hoped the employees would take still a higher stand and aim at
their won mental improvement.4

The Northam Railway Institute building was officially opened on 30 March 1898 by Mr Horan, district traffic superintendent, in the absence of the Hon. F.H. Piesse and the Hon. G. Throssell both who had been detained in Perth on business. In his opening address, Mr Horan noted, "The Northam people could claim to be the first in the colony to have a Railway Institute established. That alone was a credit to them. After
Northam had made a move in the matter both Perth and Fremantle had followed".5

Northam developed into a prosperous regional centre largely due to its railway services. Business thrived in the more prosperous east end of town while the community, dependent on the railway facilities in the west end, flourished. Built fabric comprising the railway facilities in the vicinity included the Railway Station [West Northam , 1900', the Yards and the Poole Street Footbridge [1908], a footbridge built over the Yards from Morrell Street to enable railway workers and the general public access past the Institut e on their way home. Other buildings included the flour mill, the magistrate's residence in Ilabgood Street, the Grand Hotel [1896], the Avon Bridge Hotel extended in 1897 [for a time called the Railway Hotel], and McCarthy 's Hotel and Stables [1907], in Duke Street [later the Club Hotel and now the Colonial Tavern].
An article by T E Bellas in the Northam Advertizer, 12 October 1946 notes
'This hall was used as a library as well as for social functions, when required for such; the book shelves were pushed to one end of the hall and screened off. This hall was also used for church services by the Church of England before St James was built. The Institute was carried on by Northam railway employees, but they were having difficulty in keeping it going and it was handed over to the Commissioner of Railways and through a central committee at Perth and local committees, the Railway Institutes are now run throughout the State.'
Bellas noted the membership in 1946 as 495, with a book stack of 3,000 volumes in the library. The
billiard room and library are noted as later additions to the hall, and the church use was essentially between 1900 and 1904.

The Railway Institute building was an important social and educational centre for the people of West Northam, predominantly railway and mill workers. The dance floor is reputed to have been one of the best in the town.

With the re-routing of the railway in 1966 to bypass the West Northam community, the town's station was re-sited and the yards were re-located along the Avon to the north west of the town. The Institute building has since been used by local groups.

In a brief history of railways at Northam , T.E. Bellas notes the reasons behind the construction of the Railway Institution building:

Though the men did not have much time for social activities, it was realised that all work and no play was not good, and to this end a committee of Northam railway men and their wives came together and through their efforts of running entertainments such as bazaars, minstrel troups and by donations etc., they erected the present hall.6

The total cost of the building was £485.

A library, billiard room and toilets were added in 1940. In November 1996 the building is vacant.

Uses

Historic Themes

Creation Date

Publish place record online (inHerit):

Last Update

Disclaimer

This information is provided voluntarily as a public service. The information provided is made available in good faith and is derived from sources believed to be reliable and accurate. However, the information is provided solely on the basis that readers will be responsible for making their own assessment of the matters discussed herein and are advised to verify all relevant representations, statements and information.