Where to now for Sydney’s warehouse past?


The City of Sydney is proposing to heritage list more than 60 industrial warehouses, which were once home to factories and manufacturing plants that helped transform Sydney into one of the largest industrialised cities in the South Pacific.

From chewing gum manufacturers to gramophone companies, confectioners, fabric mills and jam factories, the list of buildings and structures reflect the diversity of Sydney’s rich industrial past, and also helps to define its character.

A team of heritage, history, architecture, archaeology and planning experts spent 12 months surveying more than 450 industrial places across Sydney to identify the structures of greatest integrity and historical value.

The City will now consult with the community on whether the most significant 62 buildings, structures, complexes and two industrial precincts should be heritage listed as a reminder of Sydney’s industrial history and identity, and to provide certainty for developers.

Lord Mayor Clover Moore said Sydney has the largest concentration of historic industrial and warehouse buildings in NSW.

“The two centres of industry in Sydney and Melbourne had far-reaching impacts on the country’s development, urbanisation, self-sufficiency, technology and social changes,” the Lord Mayor said.

“Sydney’s remaining industrial buildings and structures provide evidence of a major change in the history of Australia – industrialisation – when manufacturing first surpassed farming and mining as the main employer in the 1940s.

“These factories and industrial buildings also provide a unique and important opportunity to protect the character of our villages.”

For more information visit City of Sydney