Historic Flinders Street Station is to be repainted to its original colours from the 1900s as part of a $100 million upgrade.
The University of Melbourne discovered the original colours of the iconic station in Melbourne’s CBD, after taking samples of paint from the station. The upgrade will require around 5000 litres of paint.
The original colours will reflect the history of the station, Minister for Public Transport Jacinta Allan said in a statement.
“It’s part of our $100 million upgrade of the busy station, to return it to its former glory and make it safer, more accessible and more user-friendly for the millions of passengers who use it every year,” she said.
The City of Melbourne says that Flinders Street station is the busiest suburban railway station in the southern hemisphere. The building is also heritage listed because of the importance of railways to Melbourne when the station was built more than a century ago.
In a video posted to Twitter, Ms Allan said the station is an important part of Melbourne’s public transport network.
Hard hat, high-vis, waiting room music. This video ticks all the boxes.
But one thing is new: the colours of our Grand Old Dame. #springst pic.twitter.com/AIurVlJhFI
— Daniel Andrews (@DanielAndrewsMP) October 13, 2016
The Andrews state government announced in February last year that they would invest in saving the decaying station. At the time, Mr Andrews said: “Flinders Street Station used to be the pride of our state, but now it’s an embarrassment.
“I won’t sit by and watch this icon crumble,” he said in a statement.
The government said it expects the station upgrade to be completed by the end of 2018. Around 110,000 people travel through Flinders Street Station each day. – Matthew Male
Photo by Matthew Male
About the author
Matthew Male is a journalism student at Macleay College. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewMale
