Ringwood Clocktower stops chiming and displaying correct times

Ringwood’s most famous landmark is having some glitches. The clocktower recently stopped chiming and is displaying the wrong time.

Ringwood’s famous clocktower has been displaying the wrong time.

Ringwood’s most famous landmark is having some glitches.

The Ringwood Clocktower stopped chiming every hour on the hour last month.

The Clocktower was unveiled as a monument for Ringwood’s fallen war soldiers in August 1928, with a bell and striker added in 1934.

It has been located on the corner of Maroondah Highway and Wantirna Rd since 1967.

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When Maroondah Leader visited last Monday, the tower did not chime at 2pm, and one of the clocks facing Wantirna Rd displayed the wrong time.

This morning the tower bell rang at 9am, but the clock was still incorrect.

The Ringwood Clock Tower has stopped chiming. Picture: Stuart Milligan

Ringwood RSL sub-branch president David Jamison said a few people had mentioned the clocktower’s issues to him.

“We have to accept sometimes things break down and rely on the council to be quick in fixing it for us,” he said.

“But so far they have been really good looking after that park and keeping it (the tower) working.”

Maroondah Mayor Rob Steane said the council was undertaking maintenance on the tower’s clock mechanisms, which would be completed by March 16.

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“When any maintenance work is undertaken on the clock mechanism, the chime function is

turned off, and the time on the four clock faces will not always be correct,” he said.

The council did not say when repairs began or how much they would cost ratepayers.

ICON REPRESENTS RESPECT

Russ Haines, president of the Ringwood and District Historical Society, shares the history of the Ringwood Clocktower.

World War I wrenched the soul out of the Ringwood district community.

Some volunteers met with bloodshed at Gallipoli or in France. Others joined through the ensuing years, leaving their orchards, farms and shops, and their loved ones to fend and grieve for themselves.

Out of the 284 volunteers from the district of Ringwood, some didn’t return, but most tried to assimilate back into the community.

War injuries, diseases still ravaging in bodies and the mental anguishes, yet to have medical names let alone be recognised as diseases, made the survivors worthy of acknowledgment as much as those who died on the battlefields.

The Ringwood Clocktower was dedicated in August 1928 at the corner of Warrandyte and Whitehorse roads — built from money raised by parents, siblings and friends.

The Ringwood Clocktower has been on the corner of Maroondah Highway and Wantirna Rd since 1967. Picture: Ringwood and District Historical Society.

Mayor Mackinlay, a Ringwood North orchardist, officiated at its opening, knowing that his son appeared on the supreme sacrifice list.

Harry “Henry” Mackinlay served with the 24th Battalion in Gallipoli, then as a runner in France, before being cut down while delivering a message in the course of his duty.

Since 1928, locals have come to pay their respects to our volunteers.

The fallen, whose graves lie thousands of kilometres away in a foreign country, have only a name on a small plaque on the clocktower.

Flowers left during a Remembrance Day service at the Ringwood Clocktower Park.

The clock was later knocked down in the 60s, due to Eastland’s encroaching traffic and rebuilt in the area of the old Coolstore’s dam at the Wantirna Rd corner.

“Let’s put a bus lane through the Memorial Clocktower park”, said the transport planners.

Cr Ann Fraser was there, as were hundreds of other citizens, and the fight was eventually won. That showed the wave of sentiment towards the clocktower and the respect and memories it represented.

The clock’s bell recently stopped and everyone knew. Such is the impact of this icon on Ringwood’s community, and for those celebrating the lives of individuals who have fallen, or even served, so that we can enjoy our current existence and way of life.

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