Royal Edward Victualling Yard

Indigenous history The Royal Edward Victualling Yard is located on land originally inhabited by the Cadigal people. Their land south of Port Jackson stretched from South Head to Petersham. The coastal Aborigines around Sydney became known to Europeans as the "Eora people". The word Eora means "here" or "from this place". Local Aboriginal people used the word to describe to the British where they came from and so the word was then used to define the Aboriginal people themselves. The people used the harbour for food using fishing line made from the inner bark of the kurrajong and hibiscus trees and multi-pronged spears tipped with bone. The many varieties of fish and shellfish – oysters, mussels, and cockles – were supplemented with vegetables, grubs, birds, possums, wombats and kangaroos. With fish available all year round, there was no need to leave the coast for food. Although the population decreased significantly due to smallpox, the expansion of settlement and several other factors, there is evidence of Aborigines continuing to frequent Pyrmont with its fresh springs up to the 1870s, and even later there are references to ceremonial gatherings at Ultimo. Colonial history The Royal Edward Victualling Yard (REVY) is located on Darling Island, formerly known as Cockle Island. It was originally a rocky knoll attached to the mainland by tidal mud flats. Development started in the Darling Harbour area in the 1810s when Governor Macquarie moved the colony's produce markets to the corner of George and Market Streets, Sydney. This brought with it the need to develop wharves nearby for transportation of goods. As a result, the growth of maritime trade in the area was extensive and included warehouses, stores and other trade buildings. By 1839 Edward Macarthur owned the entire Pyrmont area and subdivided a large portion of it along the waterfront. While many cottages developed there, industrialisation also occurred quickly, including iron works, flour mills and tin smelters. Among these were the Pyrmont works on Darling Island of the Hunter River Steam Navigation Company (HRSN). It was in this same period (1856) that Garden Island was first suggested as a naval base. In 1865 the Colonial Naval Defence Act empowered the states to provide, maintain and operate warships. The following year Garden Island was dedicated as a naval base. During the 1870s larger ships and cargoes caused the development of longer wharves in the north east of Darling Harbour and at Walsh Bay, prompting the ASN Company to establish a new works at Circular Quay in 1879. By 1884 the Darling Harbour works covered 6.5 acres with a deep water frontage of almost half a mile. The site included a retaining wall on the west, north and south sides of the island which extended from the offices and stores to the foot of the patent slip. 1900 to 1909 The Sydney Harbour Trust was created in 1901 and subsequently took over construction of the concrete wharf. By this time the eastern side of the wharf was being used as a wheat trading area. A long single storey shed running the length of berths 12 to 14 was completed in 1902. In the same year the concrete wharf was completed and the eastern and western sides connected by a timber wharf to the north A shed was built in 1903–04 on the western side of the wharf and another in 1906–07 at the northern end. It was during this period that the existing victualling yards at Garden Island were deemed inadequate for the recently formed Commonwealth Naval Forces. The yards at Garden Island had originally been developed to replace the nineteenth century use of store ships. The final Royal Australian Navy occupants relocated from REVY A and B during 2002, leaving the buildings vacant. In 2003 the REVY site was sold by the Commonwealth as freehold land, although the Commonwealth continued to occupy REVY C until 2005. REVY A and B underwent works in 2003–04 to be adaptively reused as television station offices. == Description ==

The former Royal Edward Victualling Yard is located in an historic waterfront location on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour at Pyrmont. The height of the buildings and their unusual spatial arrangement result in a dramatic landmark amongst a mixture of historic and recent residential and commercial developments, many of which are on a large scale themselves. A community park opposite the site creates a visual corridor through to the harbour east of the site. The verticality and dramatic waterfront location invests REVY A, B and C with landmark qualities and aesthetic significance. REVY C, the tallest building at Darling Island and on the eastern foreshore of Pyrmont, it is a prominent landmark visible from surrounding vantage points at Sydney Harbour and contrasts with the lower and elongated wharf structures such as Jones Bay Wharf. Revy A and B are a pair of large warehouses, consisting of a five-storey block and a six-storey block linked by a square central tower topped by a water reservoir tower of Romanesque design. The blocks and tower are of polychromatic brick with terracotta-tiled, gable hipped roof and exposed rafters at the eaves. Internally, the buildings are constructed with massive timber columns and beams supporting timber floors. Windows in the blocks are rectangular and multi-paned except for the upper floor where Diocletian arched, multi-pane windows are used. The two blocks are sited at an acute angle to one another, joining at the tower, with interconnections between each floor set through the tower section. The face brickwork and large massing of the buildings, together with the arches, indicate aspects of Federation Warehouse styling, although the roof is not characteristic of the style. Items of goods handling and lifting equipment remain in the buildings, including the wall-mounted jib cranes and facade doors. Revy C is an eight-storey, concrete encased steel framed brick building, rectangular in plan. It features Flemish style gabled parapets and a rusticated ashlar bluestone ground floor. There are Diocletian arched window openings to the upper floor (rectangular windows to the other floors), all with multiple panes. Four prominent lift towers are visible above the roofline, located symmetrically. On the lower level, attached to the western facade, is a riveted truss jib crane installed shortly after the completion of the building. The mass, rectangularity and arched upper windows hint at Federation Warehouse styling, while the rounded gables are a suggestion of Federation Anglo Dutch influence. External steel fire stairs are visually prominent. The combined seawall and wharf which surrounds Darling Island is made from concrete blocks laid on bedrock about 8 m below mean tide. The seawall was built to a height of 650 mm above low water and finished to wharf level with massed concrete which is visible today both on the horizontal and vertical edges of the wharf. The edge of the wharf was capped with a squared timber curb. The curb was made from broad-axed lengths of hardwood bolted to the wharf edge to form an almost continual low barrier. Six massive cast iron or cast steel bollards are bolted to concrete platforms behind the curb at about 15 metre intervals. Opposite the western facade of REVY C are two small double-post bollards. These are placed in gaps in the curb to allow access for mooring lines. The wharf has no piles to which head stocks could be attached, so vertical posts were bolted to the concrete wall at about 4.8 m centres and two hardwood whalers run the length of the wharf, attached to the posts. A number of relics associated with the victualling function are extant within the yard, including hoists, lifts, cloth inspection equipment and a crane. (Design 5, GML, Cox) Condition As at 24 February 2011, the buildings are in good condition. Modifications and dates • 1925 – lifting gear added to REVY C • 1981 – REVY C refurbished for DSTO • 1994 – REVY A and B converted to office accommodation • 2000+ – REVY A and B converted for commercial use; REVY C vacated and some of the more recent fitout removed • 2015 – REVY C refurbished as luxury apartments "The REVY". == Heritage listing ==

As at 22 November 2010, the Royal Edward Victualling Yard (REVY) has state significance as the first Royal Yard in the southern hemisphere. It is a reminder of the importance given to the presence of the Commonwealth Naval Forces in the southern hemisphere, and the subsequent growth and development of the Commonwealth Forces and the Royal Australian Navy in the region. The presence of equipment associated with the victualling functions extant within the yard and buildings including hoists, lifts, cloth manufacturing machines and a crane are also strong reminders of the sites functions. The stores operated during both World Wars and played an instrumental role in the provision of supplies during World War Two. The narrow, vertical Federation Warehouse buildings designed by Walter Liberty Vernon are a fine example of a style of building, design features and commercial activity now rare on and around the waterways of central Sydney. They are also fine examples of largely intact Federation warehousing. Royal Edward Victualling Yard was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 22 March 2011 having satisfied the following criteria. The place is important in demonstrating the course, or pattern, of cultural or natural history in New South Wales. The REVY site has state historical significance as some of the earliest major public works commissioned by the Commonwealth Government in its first decade of administration. The buildings have important historic links to the early growth of the Royal Australian Navy and as its major provisioning facility for two world wars. It was the first naval yard in the southern hemisphere to be granted the title "Royal" and was intimately associated with the formative years and growth of the Royal Australian Navy. The complex has local historical significance as one of the first Sydney warehouse facilities to be electrified (1906) and are an example of the reliance on water transport and the importance of the Darling Harbour Area to industry and transport in the late nineteenth century and the first 60–70 years of the twentieth century before containerisation drastically altered the way shipping was handled. REVY C - demonstrates the expansion of the complex over time. For some time after construction it was one of the tallest buildings on the southern central Sydney waterfront . '''The place has a strong or special association with a person, or group of persons, of importance of cultural or natural history of New South Wales's history.''' The REVY buildings are state significant for their association with their architect, Walter Liberty Vernon, Government Architect 1890-1911 and the activities of the newly formed Commonwealth government in the early years of the twentieth century. The site also has state associational significance with the Royal Australian Navy and its Commonwealth Forces predecessor for its continuous association with naval and defence purposes for a century from 1903 to 2003. The stores represent the size and complexity of naval victualling supply functions and the growth of this activity over time and have associations with the growth of the Post Master General's Department and the expansion of communications. The place is important in demonstrating aesthetic characteristics and/or a high degree of creative or technical achievement in New South Wales. The REVY complex has aesthetic and technical significance at a state level. Their occupation of an historic waterfront location and the height of the buildings and their unusual spatial arrangement results in a dramatic landmark composition on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour. The large, richly coloured, finely modelled, brick masonry stores buildings are fine examples of the Federation Warehouse style designed by Walter Liberty Vernon. The tallest building at Darling Island and on the eastern foreshore of Pyrmont, REVY C in particular is a prominent landmark visible from surrounding vantage points at Sydney Harbour and contrasts with the lower and elongated wharf structures such as Jones Bay Wharf. REVY includes elements such as a wall crane, hoists, loading bays, platforms and lift works which demonstrate the process of moving goods in and out of the building. Early gantry rails and underground cable water tanks also demonstrate the purpose of the building and emphasising the changes taking place in building technology in the early twentieth century. It also exhibits the rare external fire escapes which are design features at each end of the west facade. Likewise, some surviving fabric manufacturing equipment demonstrates the purpose of Revy A and B and the evolution in these technologies. Together, the three buildings demonstrate vertical store handing prior to containerisation in their external configuration. The place has a strong or special association with a particular community or cultural group in New South Wales for social, cultural or spiritual reasons. Low staff turnover and long periods of service mean the site has state social significance for the many naval personnel across the state who have worked at the site or had a long association with the Victualling Branch of the Royal Australian Navy up to the 1970s. The place has potential to yield information that will contribute to an understanding of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The narrow vertical warehouse style of the buildings is now rare in Sydney, has the ability to demonstrate vertical store handling. In REVY A and B the electric goods hoists are among the first to be installed in Sydney and are possibly the only set of such hoists to survive. They provide opportunities to study remnants of technologies once common throughout Sydney as do other technologies such as the goods lift at the northern end of REVY A, was one of the oldest functioning lifts in Sydney until the late twentieth century. It is indicative of the type installed in Sydney in the early 20th century. The goods aprons are also prominent archaeological features which indicate the way in which the building operated. The hydraulics system, including a hydraulic press is one of the few examples of an essentially 19th century technology. The place possesses uncommon, rare or endangered aspects of the cultural or natural history of New South Wales. The REVY buildings remain rare examples of multistorey dockside warehouses. A waterfront warehouse building of the height of Revy C is now rare in Sydney. The Revy C building fire stairs are not only evidence of an early solution to fire safety, but are also a rare solution in Sydney. It also exhibits the rare external fire escapes which are design features at each end of the west facade. It also exhibits fine brick masonry modelling and is an excellent example of the warehouse design work of the government architect of the period, Walter Liberty Vernon. The buildings are a rare surviving example of a waterside naval store. The application of containerism has removed the need for waterside facilities such as warehouses and of those that remain, the REVY buildings are rare masonry structures which maintain their association with the waterfront. They are one of the few warehouses designed by Vernon. The place is important in demonstrating the principal characteristics of a class of cultural or natural places/environments in New South Wales. REVY A, B and C are excellent representative examples of narrow, vertical Federation style warehouses and are typical of buildings constructed between and with their load bearing masonry external walls, reinforced concrete floors and reinforced flat concrete roof. The buildings are representative of waterfront warehousing technology employed in the early part of the 20th century as are the various remnant technologies still present. == See also ==