Opening Hours
Monday |
9.30am - 5.00pm |
Tuesday |
9.30am - 5.00pm |
Wednesday |
Closed |
Thursday |
9.30am - 5.00pm |
Friday |
9.30am - 5.00pm |
Saturday |
9.30am - 12.30pm |
Closed
Sundays
and all Public Holidays |
The Berwick Mechanics
Institute and Free Library is one of only six Mechanics Institutes which still operate
as libraries in Victoria today. The others are at Prahran,
Ballarat, Maldon, Footscray and the Melbourne Athenaeum.
Mechanics Institutes had their origins in 19th century Britain and were established for the purpose of assisting in the education of "mechanics", as tradespeople were then known. Until 1872, there was no free education in Britain and the skills and crafts were taught to tradespeople at their place of employment. The founders of the Mechanics movement decided that their workers would improve if they understood the nature and properties of the tools that they used.
Following the discovery of gold in the !850s in Victoria, the rapid increase in population led to the establishment of over 1000 Institutes in towns and cities. Berwick was gazetted as a town in 1861, and in 1864 a request was made to the Chief Secretary that a newly formed Institute there be sent a copy of the Government Gazette. In the same year, the Government reserved a block of land at the corner of Peel Street and Irby Road (now Rutland Road) for a Mechanics Institute.
It is probable that the first meetings of the Institute
were held at Robert Bain's "Border Hotel" (now the Berwick
Inn), as the first mention of a building owned by the
Institute was in 1868, when the Government records show
that the Berwick Institute had spent 75 pounds sterling on
its building. The Berwick Mechanics Institute, like most
Institutes in Australia, focussed largely on the provision
of further learning through lectures and debates, and
contained a range of books and journal material for loan
by subscription.
In
1877, permission was requested from the Ministry of Lands
Melbourne Registry for the building to be moved to a site
in the main street near the Post Office "to a position
which was easy of access". In 1878, Robert Bain, the owner
of the Border Hotel from 1857 until 1887, gave the
Institute a block of his land, this gift taking the form
of a lease for a period of 500 years on condition that the
land was used for a Mechanics Institute and Public
Library. The rental was set at one shilling a year on
demand.
The present Institute still stands on that
land. In 1979, a further site of similar size was
purchased by the City of Berwick for extensions. This
purchase came as a consequence of a donation of $50,000 by
Lady Casey to the City Council in 1979 for a new library
building. It was agreed that this donation would be
matched by the City Council, with an amount to be raised
by the Library Committee for furniture, fittings and
bookstock. To satisfy local building regulations, the
lease from Robert Bain to the Institute was surrendered to
the then City of Berwick. A copy of this historic lease
document hands on the east wall of the new building, on
the site of the original leasehold.
The new building was opened in 1982 by Lady
Murray, the wife of the Govenor of Victoria. It retains
the features of the old building, including hand-made
bricks, baltic pine lining boards and the design of the
original facade.
For further information about our history, we
recommend: Berwick
Mechanics Institute and Free Library: a History,
by Richard Myers (1999, ISBN 0646374982). Copies of this
book are available for loan or purchase in the Library.