Melbourne’s Flinders St Station is noted as the busiest railway station in the Southern Hemisphere, with over 1,500 trains and 110,000 commuters passing through each day and growing. At over 100 years of age, the station’s Administration Building was in urgent need of restoration works to ensure its structural stability, in addition to waterproofing and repair of the ageing facade. Conservation of heritage elements was a prime focus, including stabilising and restoring the clock tower and the revered ballroom.

Restoring one of Melbourne’s most iconic buildings for generations to come was a ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ opportunity, with NDY contributing to future proofing the station via upgrades to building services and acting as a technical resource to assist with problem solving. Our work included upgrading non-conformances in the heritage listed building to improve fire safety (in collaboration with the Metropolitan Fire Brigade).

Considering the stations position next to two of Melbourne’s busiest intersections, maintaining continued operations within and around the building was a challenge. With contamination a key issue, NDY delivered temporary services whilst rectification works were underway to ensure limited impact on Metro Trains Melbourne operations.

NDY is proud to have worked on this iconic building, a hub for the Melbourne community through cultural events such as White Night or simply using the station’s front steps as a meeting point.

You can watch Development Victoria’s ‘Restoring Flinders St Station’ documentary here.

Images by Martin Leitch Photography

Project Details

Client: Bonacci Group

Architect: Lovell Chen

Contractor: Built

Value: Part of the $100m Flinders Street Station Upgrade project

Completion: 2018