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01 ATL BuildingMeadowbank2015
ISO 1006sf/8.024mm
Series · 14 prints
Map · Mapbox · OpenStreetMap
The ATL Building was the factory and offices of Automatic Totalisators Limited on Nancarrow Avenue at Meadowbank in Sydney, built in 1947 on land fronting the Parramatta River. The company made totalisator equipment for racecourse betting there, and the building served as its factory from 1947 until the 1970s. Ryde Local Environmental Plan No 105 listed it as a local heritage item in 2003, and the Sydney East Joint Regional Planning Panel approved its demolition in December 2015.
Automatic Totalisators Limited manufactured, installed and operated the totalisators designed by Sir George Julius, and by 1970, with few exceptions, every major racing centre, in 29 countries, used them. By May 1945 the company had bought about 8½ acres of drained swamp fronting the river at Meadowbank from Ryde Council for a modern factory for precision engineering. Julius died in June 1946 and did not see the ATL Building completed.
Construction was under way by April 1947, when the company told the Brick Inquiry it had a permit to build with second-hand bricks and had made good a shortfall with bricks from Streets Ice Cream. By August 1947 the workforce was at Meadowbank, and in August 1948 the Sydney Morning Herald expected orders from all states and overseas to keep the new factory occupied.
Ryde Local Environmental Plan No 105 listed the factory as a local heritage item in January 2003, and Ryde LEP 2014 carried it as item 80. A flood strategy Ryde Council endorsed in August 2007 required the building's demolition, and the 2013 concept approval for Shepherds Bay gave in-principle support to it. The Sydney East Joint Regional Planning Panel approved the demolition on 15 December 2015. The ATL Building left the heritage schedule of Ryde LEP 2014 from 21 April 2023.
Joint Regional Planning Panel report (2015), The Sydney Morning Herald (14 May 1945) and The Sun (10 April 1947)
Hand-signed and numbered, printed from the original RAW file. Open editions in the two smallest sizes; limited editions of 100, 50 and 25 in the three larger, never reissued once they sell through.
Made to order by Brett in Sydney, from the original RAW file. Each print is hand-signed and numbered before it ships.
Paper
Ilford Galerie cotton rag, 310 gsm. Acrylic on metallic gloss, 260 gsm.
Lead time
Unframed: 5 to 10 business days. Framed and acrylic: 10 to 20.
On 18 July 1950 a union official came to the factory to call a meeting to protest against the anti-Red bill. About 400 men went to the meeting hall at noon to hear him, and the meeting lasted about two minutes once they found out why it had been called. They threatened to throw him 'into the river' and, shouting 'We can think for ourselves', followed him to the gate of the factory.
