What became of Melbourne’s Federation arches?

ARCHES once towered over every major street in Melbourne’s CBD, built to celebrate our nationhood. What happened to them?

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IT may be hard to imagine now, but Melbourne was, very briefly, a city of arches.

Towering over every prominent CBD street, the 1901 Federation arches once provided a touch of elegance, grandeur and spectacle to a city fresh in the rapture of federation.

Constructed in both Melbourne and Sydney, the arches were part of Australia’s celebration of nationhood.

A welcome banner hung on a majestic Chinese Arch on Swanston St while King Edward VII had his own arch, cornering Swanston St and Flinders Lane. The Duke’s Arch sat on Bourke St and the German Citizens’ Arch stood mighty on Collins St.

Illuminating at night, the displays cut an impressive figure in historical photographs.

Then the arches disappeared.

Designed as temporary installations, the structures looked marvellous on the outside but were made of flimsy wood on the inside.

Consequently, a long life span was never on the cards for the striking arches and they were quickly lost to history, becoming vestiges of the past.

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The Chinese Arch in Swanston St, constructed as a part of federation celebrations in 1901.

King's Arch at the corner of Swanston St and Flinders Ln.

The Duke's Arch in Bourke St.

The German Citizens' Arch in Collins Street Melbourne

It took one hundred years for the arches to be revitalised — re-emerging in a far different form.

As a part of the country’s centenary celebration, the Federation arch was reimagined in 2001 by architect Peter Sandow as a colourful, abstract installation.

Bold, bright and divisive, detractors coined the nickname ‘pick up sticks’ after the multicoloured pipes poked through and around the arch.

The audacious visual became a landmark for years on St Kilda Rd before coming down in 2003.

Donated to the Hume council, the arch disappeared from public view for half a decade until pictures emerged of its languid state in 2008.

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Then-Hume City Councillor Gary Jungwirth pictured with the Federation arch in St Kilda Rd in 2003.

Discarded sections of the Federation arch rusting at the Sunbury Council Depot in 2008.

Rusting away at the Sunbury Council Depot, the ‘pick up sticks’ lay unwrapped and scattered.

Hume councillor Jack Ogilvie told the Herald Sun in 2008 that the council had no plans for the arch.

“They want a great big tarp to go over it, to grow grass and just have it disappear,” he said at the time.

“There is more hope of being kicked to death by ducks than there is of somebody giving over $250,000 to get this erected.”

Nearly ten years on, the arches have yet to reappear and public attention has moved on. Melbourne may not be a city of arches again until next centenary — only 84 years to go.