Jack’s Magazine: the History Behind Maribyrnong’s Heritage Landmark

Jack’s Magazine became a Maribyrnong landmark because it is the largest gunpowder magazine complex ever built in Victoria and a rare surviving record of how explosives were stored. Built beside the Maribyrnong River in the 1870s, it combined huge bluestone stores with blast mounds, tunnels, tramways and a canal. The depot later became part of the district’s defence industry. Its popular name honours Wally Jack, who served as depot foreman and keeper from World War I until 1943.

The site survives at Magazine Way in Maribyrnong, Victoria, on Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Land. It can look like a group of heavy old buildings behind walls. Read as one system, though, it shows how colonial officials tried to move, inspect and store a dangerous product close to Melbourne without placing it in a crowded area.

Why did Victoria need a new powder depot?

Gunpowder drove mining, firearms and construction during Victoria’s rapid growth. It could break rock, support major building work and supply weapons. It was also an explosive that needed controlled handling away from homes, shops and busy wharves.

Melbourne already had a powder store near Footscray, but settlement and industry kept spreading. That older location was no longer isolated enough. The Customs Department therefore developed a larger depot farther upstream between 1875 and 1878. Its core buildings date from 1875–76, while the complex opened in 1878.

The new facility was first called the Saltwater River Powder Magazine. Europeans then knew the Maribyrnong River as the Saltwater River. On opening, the depot became the Colony of Victoria’s main store for imported powder.

This purpose explains why Jack’s Magazine differs from a factory. Workers did not build the original depot to manufacture powder. They built it to receive, check, repair the containers for and safely hold imported material. Later industrial growth changed its role, but storage shaped the first design.

Why was the Maribyrnong River site chosen?

The river solved two problems. It gave vessels a route into the depot while placing large stores of powder beyond the dense parts of Melbourne. The location remained close enough for the material to reach the businesses and public works that needed it.

Imported gunpowder came from England, Germany and the United States. Large ships brought it into Port Phillip Bay. It was then transferred to smaller vessels that could travel up the Maribyrnong River. Those vessels entered a depot canal, where cargo could be unloaded away from ordinary road traffic.

The choice was practical, but the safe distance did not last. Melbourne’s Inner West continued to grow around its industries. Homes and workplaces moved closer, reviving concern about an explosives reserve near Footscray. This pattern helps explain why the main reserve moved again in 1901.

Historical sources may place Jack’s Magazine at Gordon Street, Footscray or Maidstone. These descriptions reflect older boundaries and access points. The current place description is Magazine Way, Maribyrnong.

How did powder move through the complex?

The canal, loading shed, tramways and tunnels formed one transport chain. A canal of roughly 400 metres linked the river to the loading area. From there, small tramways carried the cargo through tunnels and into the secure magazines.

This layout reduced handling in open public space. It also kept loaded vehicles away from streets and confined the movement of powder to a planned route. Workers could receive a shipment, inspect its containers and move it into storage without taking it through the surrounding settlement.

The examining room and cooperage had a direct role in this process. Barrels could be checked, and their wooden parts could be repaired before storage. Guard and clothes rooms helped control people entering the working area. Together with the two main stores, these buildings formed the original depot.

Many old industrial places retain a single building after their working systems disappear. Jack’s Magazine is different. Its canal, tramway traces, tunnels, magazines and earthworks can still be read together, although not every part remains operational. That connected fabric gives the place much of its historical value.

How much gunpowder could the magazines hold?

Each principal gunpowder magazine was designed to hold 200 tonnes. Their combined design capacity was 400 tonnes. That number shows the planned scale, but it does not prove that all 400 tonnes were stored there at once.

The main stores used thick bluestone walls and carefully separated spaces. Around them, large earth mounds helped contain and direct the force of a blast. The perimeter wall contains about 25,000 stone blocks, while the mounds contain about 140,000 cubic metres of soil and small rock. Both figures are approximate, but they show the amount of material devoted to safety.

A lightning rod also makes sense within the wider story of powder storage because lightning was an obvious ignition risk. Yet the landmark’s safety cannot be reduced to one fitting. Its protection came from the whole layout: isolated buildings, controlled transport routes, thick construction, earth barriers and strict separation between tasks.

According to Working Heritage, no explosion was ever recorded at Jack’s Magazine. That claim refers to the surviving historical record and cannot rule out every minor safety incident. Even so, it is a striking result for a depot designed to hold hundreds of tonnes of dangerous material.

Who designed and built such a large complex?

The design work took place under the supervision of William Wardell, who was Inspector-General of Victoria’s Public Works Department. This means Wardell held a leading supervisory role. It does not mean that every wall, drain or building detail came from him alone.

Working Heritage reports that about 200 men and 20 horses completed the complex in under three years. Those figures are estimates supplied by the site custodian. The workforce had no modern earthmoving equipment, yet it shaped vast blast mounds, laid thousands of stone blocks and cut a canal into the riverbank.

The human effort becomes clearer when the features are viewed as linked parts. Workers had to build secure magazines, create drainage, form protective banks and lay tracks capable of moving heavy cargo. They also had to make the river connection work. A fault in one part could weaken the entire safety plan.

The size of that task is one reason the surviving bluestone has such force. It records skilled stonework, but it also marks an era when public works used mass and distance to manage danger.

What changed after the depot opened?

Jack’s Magazine did not remain frozen in its 1878 form. Explosives technology changed, and the district around it became a major centre for ammunition work. Black powder gave way to propellants such as cordite, which Working Heritage describes as a smokeless, slow-burning explosive propellant.

The complex gained buildings suited to its changing work. A fuse room dates from 1909. A small-arms ammunition store followed in 1916. Three cordite-store magazines were added in 1921. Their brick construction makes them easy to distinguish from the older stone stores.

In 1901, the Truganina Explosives Reserve at Altona replaced Jack’s Magazine as Victoria’s principal explosives reserve. That change did not close the Maribyrnong site. It continued to store materials and support the surrounding ammunition industry.

During both world wars, Jack’s Magazine formed part of the wider Maribyrnong and Footscray defence network known as the Arsenal of Australia. The name belongs to the whole district of factories and defence facilities, not to Jack’s Magazine alone. The depot’s value came from its place within that network as storage needs shifted.

Who was the “Jack” in Jack’s Magazine?

The landmark was named for Wally Jack, its depot foreman and keeper from World War I until 1943. The name began as popular usage and outlasted the formal Saltwater River Powder Magazine title.

Wally Jack should not be confused with football figure John ' Jack ' Dyer. Dyer became famous as a Richmond player and coach, but he did not give the magazine its name. The mix-up is understandable because both men are linked to Melbourne history and the same nickname. The documented connection belongs to Wally Jack.

The informal name also reveals something that official plans cannot. Workers and local people often made industrial sites easier to identify by tying them to the person who managed them. In this case, that everyday name became the lasting public identity of a large government depot.

Why is the whole site protected?

Heritage Victoria identifies Jack’s Magazine as the largest gunpowder magazine ever constructed in Victoria. Its value rests on more than size. It preserves an unusually complete storage system from a technology that later became obsolete.

Jack’s Magazine is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register as place H1154 and is recognised as being of state significance. The protected fabric includes the main bluestone magazines, early twentieth-century brick stores, canal, tramway lines, blast mounds and perimeter walls.

This broad listing matters. Protecting only the main buildings would preserve impressive shells while stripping away the evidence of how the depot worked. The canal explains arrival. The tracks and tunnels show internal movement. The mounds reveal the response to blast risk. The smaller rooms show inspection, repair and staff control.

The Victorian Heritage Database report records this integrated significance. It also helps identify the exact place despite older records using different locality names.

How has the site been conserved for new use?

Old powder stores face ordinary building threats once their industrial work ends. Water entering through roofs, drains or failed joinery can damage timber and weaken the structure. Conservation must stop that decline without erasing the materials and layout that carry the history.

A $163,000 Victorian Living Heritage grant in the 2021–22 program funded repairs to the two powder magazines and examining room. The work covered joinery, roofing and drainage to address water entry and protect structural stability. The figure applies to that defined project, not all spending on the complex.

Heritage Victoria also issued permit P36265 on 16 August 2022 for conservation and adaptive reuse of three original buildings as an events venue. Approved works included access and amenity changes. The permit set conditions and did not remove the site’s heritage protection.

This approach gives the buildings a working role while keeping their key fabric legible. It also creates a reason to maintain roofs, drains and interiors. Reuse succeeds here when visitors can still understand that these rooms were part of a controlled explosives depot rather than a generic stone venue.

Can you visit Jack’s Magazine today?

Working Heritage describes Jack’s Magazine as serving commercial and community uses. From 2026, selected open days and pre-booked group tours provide public access. It is not an unrestricted site, and dates are advertised separately.

A planned visit is the best way to read the site. Look first at the distance between structures. Then trace how a shipment could move from the river canal to the loading area, along the tramway and through a tunnel. Compare the original bluestone stores with the later brick buildings. Finish at the earth mounds and perimeter wall, where the scale of the safety design becomes clear.

Check the current program on the Working Heritage site, then book an open day or group tour so you can see Jack’s Magazine as one connected storage system.