Newport Railway Workshop Clocktower

The Newport Railway Clocktower artwork by Kerrie Gottliebsen is dedicated to the heritage listed building located on the grounds of the Newport Railway Workshops on Champion Road Williamstown North.

The Clocktower was built in 1888 and closed 1988, when the operations of the Newport Railway Workshops were privatised. Over recent years, a restoration project lead by by Ralph Coghill Coordinator, Hobsons Bay Men’s Shed Restoration Group, has seen the Clocktower reclaim its former glory.

The project included restoring the heritage garden in front of the Clocktower, where the now-international sport of Trugo was invented and first played.

Newport Clocktower Restoration Group

The Heritage Victoria permit let the Restoration Group restore it to its internal appearance in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. This meant researching paint colours layer-by-layer to get the correct scheme, removing 1970s plywood wall panelling, removing fixed furnishings from later periods, opening up blocked fireplaces and removing redundant electric and communications cables.

A few surprises were discovered. For example, many of the fireplaces have bluestone keystones in the brick arches, with the ‘VR’ logo carved into the stone. Also, when panelling under the main staircase was removed, it revealed painted decorative trim in Oregon and Australian Red Cedar.

This has been restored back to bare timber and is now a feature of the Main Hall, which also originally had an impressive colour scheme.

In the garden the Restoration Group used historic photos and a comprehensive plant list from a 1924 article in the Australasian newspaper to restore and replant old garden beds. They are also restoring scoria paths and edges and there are plans to get the goldfish pond functional once more.

The garden was a showpiece in the early 20th century, when the Victorian Railways employed a team of gardeners and the head gardener even held classes in gardening for employees, during their lunch breaks!

A team of Men’s Shed volunteers, all retired tradespeople, worked on the restoration project which is an important part of Victoria’s history.

The Newport Railway Workshops West artwork can be ordered in A4, A3, A2, A1 and the super enormous A0.

Thank you to the Westsider’s article written by Ralph Coghill Coordinator, Hobsons Bay Men’s Shed Restoration Group

For more information about the history of the Newport Railway Workshops visit here.