GTV9 Becomes Heritage Listed…
The iconic studios of Channel Nine in Melbourne (GTV) are now officially heritage listed as announced on tonight’s National Nine News, with the site already having a heritage overlay which related to the complex being a piano factory before becoming a Heinz factory.
The listing came as a result of the Nine Network wanting to sell the complex off to developers and re-locate to a state of the art facility, however with the recent economic troubles this was later stopped due to the prospective buyers (Charter & Hall) exposure to the United States sub prime crisis, with the organisation offering a lower price for the property along with the Sydney (TCN) studios.
Last year Yarra City council moved swiftly to plan for the 3 hectare sites future with the speculation that it was to be sold off, proposing that one of the roads Jago Street which has been sealed off and taken over by GTV would be re-opened if any redevelopment was to take place.
The site has had three main uses in its history which when compared with each other are from very different industries. The site was opened in 1908 as a piano factory by Hugo Wertheim at a cost of £75,000 with the intention to produce 2000 pianos a year and was the first factory to produce pianos in Victoria.
In 1935 the piano factory closed down after producing 18,000 pianos and was taken over by H.J. Heinz Co Australia Ltd and was turned into a food processing plant. In 1951 Heinz bought a 70 acre property in the south-eastern Melbourne suburb of Dandenong to build a larger factory, the area at the time was just paddocks.
In 1955 the complex was bought as the site for GTV Channel 9.
1957 the programme In Melbourne Tonight started with host Graham Kennedy broadcasting live five nights a week.
1960 Sir Frank Packer bought GTV to form Australian’s first television network with an alliance with TCN (Channel 9 Sydney).
1971 Hey Hey It’s Saturday starts off as a morning kids show with Daryl Somers and Ossie Ostrich played by Ernie Carroll.
1996 In Melbourne Tonight returns with Frankie J. Holden as host with Denise Drysdale.
1999 Rove moves from community television to start his show titled the same name.
2008 GTV Channel 9 continues to broadcast from the same complex after 52 years.
With today’s heritage listing it will ensure that Melbourne television history has some security with most of the Nine Network stations around Australia still residing in the very same location they began in when they started, the same cannot be said for the other networks.
Addition Sources: Yarra City Council, Yarra Heritage Assessment Report
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