Original post 1 April 2020
This very curious thing in #QueensParade turns out to be a #substation for the tram network, built in 1955 when the #MelbourneandMetropolitanTramwaysBoard built what is now the #TramRoute86 (it was the last #cabletram line, closed in 1940, replaced by buses, which weren’t doing the job properly). It’s a funny building, with those bug eyes, and ancient timber doors. And there’s an exactly matching one in Thornbury behind the ex cable tram depot.Update : the eyes are fans, because the then new large steel-tank ‘mercury arc rectifiers’ generated more heat than the previous tech. 
The Thornbury one in Martin Street off High Street , from
Streetview. 
Storey of Melbourne 