4 November 2024

Collecting as many photos of public buildings by Chief Architect Percy Everett as I can find, and realised he didn’t always create a masterpiece.

For instance, Werribee Police Station (late 30s ? demolished) is really a collection of elements rather than dynamic massing (but fun); Montague Police Station (c1940, demolished) is a stolid brick box with titchy wings attached; Mildura High (1939) is a slightly decorated gabled box, neither Moderne nor domestic; his Georgian was a bit thin, as in the Port Melbourne Sargent’s Residence (1938, dem) and the Gresswell house (for the MO, no idea what that is or the date, but think dem).

His late works from the early 50s seemed to be just render, with very thin details, like the Geelong Junior Technical College Machine Shop (Moorabool Street, dem), a box with a thin flat roof and strip windows where the horizontality is cancelled out by the rectangular surround, and Prahran Girls Tech, Hornby Street, Windsor, (1955, dem), which was still a bit like his earlier work with a vertical section contrasting the main horizontal body but rather confused in this case.

Lastly, a house in Bairnsdale for the CRB Engineer (no date), which is an odd combo of Domestic, Rustic and Moderne, though I rather like it (let me know if it still exists). There’s no way to know, but perhaps some of these were by others in his office, but apparently he liked to say they were all ‘genuine Everett’s’.

Photos from the endless resources at the @vic_archives.

Update : I’m told that the Montague Police Station was used as the Yarra Police Station in the Division 4 tv show. It was 95 Montague Street, now a dull 80s office block.

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